Well…
Something to consider
We’ve never seen her use a gun, so it’s likely she had no training with one, let alone a long range shot (which I assume you’d angle for with him). How do you advertise you need a long range sniper to take someone out from really far away, no questions asked? I suppose Simpson was willing to do it, iirc, but I don’t think she ever trusted him (rightly so, of course). Now, if the Punisher were in the show… :P
I’m not even talking about that scenario.
[spoiler=]Trish had a handgun conspicuously given to her that easily could’ve been used by Jessica Jones at least three times after the restaurant scene without resorting to long-range sniper shots.
Just in that final scene Jessica could’ve done something other than let him get a villainous monologue. Why stride purposefully and dramatically towards him and push people out of the way? Why not super-leap at him and land on his neck? Why not sprint? Throw something sharp or heavy? Or… Pull out a pistol and pop him? Even if Jessica didn’t have Trish’s gun, are you really saying she couldn’t get hold of one in all of Hell’s Kitchen?
The whole reason most superheroes have a code against killing is to force them to use their nonlethal powers and set up interesting conflicts. Once you throw the code over, there’s no reason to not use a gun to make short work of the villain, especially if - as the dock scene showed - your hero is intent on ending the villain enough to let a few innocents die because she knows he’s using them to distract her.[/spoiler]
Part of why she marched up to him she explained - she wanted him to say STOP to make the people fighting each other stop fighting. She said something earlier about not being sure if his control ended if he died, since he had never died before (after all). But once she wasn’t under his control, instead of pretending she should have used the gun. However, I’m guessing Trish still had the gun anyway, did Jessica even know about it? She could have still gotten her own gun. I would really hope Trish didn’t have a gun on her - Kilgrave could have really used that against them, if she had.
Only your hero WASN’T willing to do that, so there goes your whole theory.
I disagree…
Reasons
[spoiler]The reason given (“I wanted you to say ‘STOP’”) is a cop out for the writers’ convenience. What would she have done if Kilgrave added one simple noun to the front of that command, instead of leaving it an open-ended yell? “Jessica, Stop!” She’d pretty much have had no choice but to run and kill him and let the chips fall where they may. She was, what, 20-30 feet from Kilgrave? Why bother with the subterfuge for an extra second of running? Just run up and punch his head off.
The fact that Jessica comes to terms with what she has to do is a positive in my book. I like that aspect of the story subverting the normal rules of comic heroes. The issue is that they just didn’t go all the way to the logical end. Once you say the hero is going to use lethal force, there’s no reason to stick to the hero’s normal melee powers. Shoot him.
tl;dr: I would be a terrible Batman because I would’ve killed The Joker long ago.[/spoiler]
Only vague spoilers, but just to be safe:
"
[spoiler]I buy all the reasons they’d hold off on attempting to kill Kilgrave until those circumstances change and they decide that’s what needs to happen. As a result, I basically buy why earplugs aren’t used or even brought up until that same point: all their plans at capture basically relied on the element of surprise anyway. In retrospect it would still be a lot safer to have those as a contingency for at least getting away safe if things go wrong, but I never felt like the plans themselves were dumber for not having incorporated them.
And as for guns, that totally didn’t occur to me, but I have no good argument to Telefrog’s point. Didn’t bug me, but yeah, why not guns?[/spoiler]
I have to wonder if perhaps
Jessica wasn’t dealing with a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. She’d been with Kilgrave long enough that she was doubting herself…at least subconsciously. That was even brought up by Kilgrave himself at one point during the story about the 10 minutes or so that she was not under in his control earlier in their lives. Perhaps Hope’s death was the final push she needed to clear that block and commit to killing him?
Just a wild theory, that’s all.
[QUOTE=Wholly Schmidt;3888389]Only vague spoilers, but just to be safe:
I have to wonder if perhaps
"
[spoiler]Jessica wasn’t dealing with a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. She’d been with Kilgrave long enough that she was doubting herself…at least subconsciously. That was even brought up by Kilgrave himself at one point during the story about the 10 minutes or so that she was not under in his control earlier in their lives. Perhaps Hope’s death was the final push she needed to clear that block and commit to killing him?
Just a wild theory, that’s all. [/spoiler]
I have to wonder if perhaps
"
[spoiler]Jessica wasn’t dealing with a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. She’d been with Kilgrave long enough that she was doubting herself…at least subconsciously. That was even brought up by Kilgrave himself at one point during the story about the 10 minutes or so that she was not under his control earlier in their lives. Perhaps Hope’s death was the final push she needed to clear that block and commit to killing him?
Just a wild theory, that’s all. [/spoiler]
"
Didn’t Jessica say something about being strongly against guns, or am I mixing it up with another series I’m watching? Personally I also justified it because after everything Kilgrave has done she’s out for revenge as much as getting him off the streets, and wanted to see him truly afraid so he knew how it felt before killing him.
To all the folks talking about mind-control, and how they don’t understand how people can disbelieve it – it’s an allegory for rape. Something which happens all the time, is in the news, and yet people all the time have a hard time understanding it or believing it when it happens.
Yeah, I’d daresay the overriding theme of the entire show was control–controlling, being controlled, losing control, etc. Killgrave’s obvious enough, and the junkie’s addiction wasn’t terribly subtle. Trinity’s–err, Hogarth’s–spiderweb of legal entanglements was in there, too, along with Robyn’s obsessive nurturing of Ruben. . . Trish’s mom, Simpson’s overprotectiveness, basically the whole thing’s just steeped in it. Remarkably dark in its views on the matter, too.
That’s totally what the showrunner said, but I think it’s a bit clumsy.
The show talks about the actual rapes as well. It’s a bit odd to have an allegory when the actual subject is part of the allegory. Plus, the disbelief of rape isn’t the same at all. When people don’t believe the victims of rape, they’re rarely dismissing the idea that rape happens. They’re usually dismissing that particular instance of rape. (A fine point, to be sure, and but it makes a big difference.) In Jessica Jones people acted like mind control was some far-fetched craziness. In the MCU people have come to grips with alien invasions, super powered beings, and ultra-tech like flying carriers. The idea of mind control shouldn’t be such a hard sell to average folks.
I will concede that proof of mind control - the kind of proof that would hold up in court - is probably a lot harder to establish.
The very overt control themes are why it really surprised me that
Ending
Jessica went along with Hogarth’s defense that she wasn’t in control when questioned at the police station. You could see the hesitation and I completely expected her to admit it was her doing. Even in death, Kilgrave still held some power over her.
This was pretty good. Better than Daredevil.
Whoa now, let’s not get crazy.
Yeah, I enjoyed it and applaud the uterus-to-the-wall risk-taking, but I liked Daredevil better. Of course, I adored Daredevil.
Shout out to another amazing intro/theme song, though. That probably tops Daredevil’s.
Oddly, I kind of didn’t like the theme tune so much - it felt like a generic “spy tune”, and not as good as DD’s elegaic melody (DD’s title graphics were also a bit better I thought). Not much in it though, it’s all good quality stuff.
But I thought the incidental music in JJ was great - sort of reminiscent of Silent Way/Bitches’ Brew period Miles Davis abstract jazzy noodlings. It really sets the nighttime city vibe in particular.
I enjoyed the first half, once Kilgrave appeared while Tennant was great in the role I found it became un-enjoyable. I liked JJ and especially Luke Cage I found the storyline regardling Kilgrave and Jones pretty weak and annoying.
Really? I was under the impression that that was the part most folks enjoyed the most.