Luke Owen reviews the second episode of Jessica Jones…
Following on from the breath-taking end to the premiere episode, Jessica Jones now finds herself as the wrong half of a cat and mouse game against Killgrave. His actions have lead to poor old Hope killing her parents and she is now facing the criminal punishment for doing so, but can an investigation into Killgrave help save her?
This is exactly what we wanted from a Jessica Jones show, but I question if its come a little early. Perhaps its because the show is in the Netflix mould of thirteen episodes and therefore we don’t need the Monster of the Week gimmick, but I would have liked to have seen Jessica investigate criminals in Hell’s Kitchen and bring them to justice, particuarly as she doesn’t want to be a hero. But here are we are in episode two and she’s already going after the show’s main villain. It makes sense character-wise, of course, but the tried and tested Monster of the Week might have been fun.
What we do get in this episode, however, is more of Luke Cage. Not destined to be a cameo appearance to set up his own show for next year, this episode establishes that Power Man is here for a long time. His relationship with Jessica is furthered in this episode, and we’re also given the reveal of his powers. Apart from Terry Crews, Mike Colter is the pitch-perfect casting of Luke Cage and he not only looks the part, but acts it too. We learned in the last episode that Cage may in fact be married and is doing the dirty on his missus, but something smells a bit fishy around these parts.
We’re also given a bit more of Trish Walker, who as comic fans know could become Hellcat. Rachel Taylor was very preppy as the ‘best friend’ in the previous episode in a rather hap-hazardly written scene, but she’s much better here. There’s a nice subtle tease throughout the episode that Trish isn’t just your friendly radio personality, and its revealed at the end that she’s training for something bigger.
Keeping in line with the subtle build from the first episode, we’re once again given very little of Killgrave in this episode. That is until the closing moments where we see David Tennant in all of his despicable glory. We’ve never had a villain like this in the MCU – or any other comic book movie for that matter – and its a wonder why he’s kept on the sidelines prior to this point. Fans of his turn as Doctor Who will be thrilled to see this very different side to Tennant’s acting ability and he is wonderfully terrifying in the short amount of time we see him in this episode. Big things are coming from this man, and it’s going to be awesome seeing him and Jessica square off.
Speaking of which, we also get some more teases of the night Jessica escaped his clutches – but is there something more to this story than meets the eye?
A good follow up episode, but certainly not as strong as the opener. This one is more to build the story and less about creating shocks and reveals. Its the episode that Jessica Jones needed, but that doesn’t mean its a good one.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and a contributor on The Flickering Myth Movie Show. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
Originally published November 19, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
