Cue the present: The aftermath of last episode's events begins to emerge, (nearly) everyone Kilgrave manipulated into the restaurant is free of their noose. Robyn is freaking out, she is angry and panicked about what transpired. The group tries to agree on a story to tell the police.
Robyn: At least cults are real, one tried to recruit me once.
Jesssica watches carefully as Robyn gives her statement to the police which somehow keeps Robyn from spouting off about her actual opinion. She, quite obviously, isn't Jessica's biggest fan. Trish waits for Jessica in the car and they talk over the situation at hand. Jessica decides that the next step is to visit the morgue to try to track down Albert's body, assuming that Kilgrave would have taken care of him almost immediately. (I love Jessica's lack of concern at being covered in blood.)
Trish uses her connections with local restaurants to schmooze their way into the morgue. Although the Medical Examiner's definition of strange may not be Jessica's, this connection could prove useful.
Jessica moves on to various hospitals around the city, each coming up empty. Finally, she comes to an abandoned looking building that is clearly not a morgue. She sits down on the concrete, clearly exhausted. Hope's final pleas and moments wash over her. Suddenly, a familiar purple suit catches her eye. Jessica leaps to her feet; she is bent on taking some sort of action.She is promptly hit by a truck. The crowd that crops up around her is mystified at Jessica's ability to get up and walk.
Meanwhile, Trish interviews a flutist on her radio show but sees someone waiting for her: Simpson. He tries to explain his earlier behavior, blaming the red pills and apologizing, saying he's quit the program. Simpson also wants to apologize to Jessica, as well as re-kindle his relationship with Trish. (Judging from her past, I'm going to guess Trish isn't too keen on keeping anyone who lays hands on her around.)
Jessica decides to take advantage of Trish's apparent skills as a medic, refusing the help of an actual doctor. Their conversation breaks down into the relative worth of humaity based on the jerk that hit her with his truck.
Trish: What if he took someone you love would you let them, die?
Jessica: Lucky for me I don't have too many of those...I'm not keeping you around just for your pull with morgue attendants.
Trish: Still looking out for me, huh?
Jessica: I can protect the one or two people I care about.
.
Trish: Two? Someone I don't know about?
(LUKE CAGE, IT'S LUKE CAGE)
Jessica: One. Just one.
(Darn it, Jessica.)
Our heroine drifts off to sleep and dreams of she and Trish's teen years. Jessica is hiding in the bathroom, listening to (or trying not to listen to) Trish and Dorothy argue about Trish's career. It's about more than the wig, Dorothy is clearly trying to project her fanraties onto "Patsy." Jessica tugs at a hairbrush in frustration and breaks it in half. As the argument escalates, so does Jessica's anger at the situation; she brings down a fist on the marble sink and breaks it in half, and this has no effect on her hands. Jessica is just now realizing the extent of her strength. A freshly injured Trish enters the bathroom. She is more than perplexed at the fact that Jessica is holding a 150 pound block of marble over her head. The ensuing fight comes to a predictable close.
Trish: So it's a deal, I won 't tell and you don't save me.
A friendship of preservation is formed.
Present day Jessica receives a text message about a body matching her criteria that has come into the morgue. The fact that it came from the old CDC building immediately piques her interest. While talking on the phone with Trish, she realizes it's Clemons and comes to the conclusion that Kilgrave decided to cover his tracks. Trish is frustrated with Jessica running off still injured; she exits her apartment and finds Simpson waiting on the floor near her door.
Trish: I'm firing my doorman.
Simpson:Yeah, you should. He sleeps on the job.
Trish: So, you just let yourself up?
Simpson: I was hoping we could talk. You said I could come by later, so...
Trish: I said later, not eight hours later.
Simpson: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. So, that's why I didn't knock.
Trish: Simpson, go home before you fall asleep on the floor.
He wants her to give him another chance, saying that he feels like a middle-schooler again. Trish seems to at least be listening until Simpson brings up Jessica. That's definitely a red flag; every time Simpson brings up Jessica he goes on some sort of rant about how she's getting in his way and foiling his plans. (With Kilgrave and with Trish. Methinks the man might be just a bit jealous of Jess and Trish's friendship.)
The elevator door dings, instead of Jessica (I was still hoping for that), it's a group of Kozlov's goons. Apparently the good doctor is worried about Simpson's choice to abandon the program. Trish is all too eager to have them take Simpson away. He warns her to go inside and that he'll handle it. Goon #2 reiterates:
It's okay, no one wants to hurt Patsy.
Simpson decides to handle the situation in true Nuke fashion, he pops two red pills and downs all three Goons. The look he gives Trish is purely terrifying. (What a greaseball.)
The scene cuts to Jessica answering a phone call that turns out to be Simpson instead of Trish. He tells Jessica that Trish is on the way to meet her and that he knows where Kilgrave is. As the camera pans around the apartment, the full carnage of the situation becomes apparent. He is trying to clean up after the murders he's just committed. Most horrifying of all, Trish's panicked screams come from her training room. He's locked her in with full intention of doing whatever he's set out to do.
Simpson: I'll take care of things, Trish. It's what I do, it's what I do.
Trish begins attacking the door hinges with free weights with fierce determination to escape.
Jessica returns to her building where Malcolm waits, looking considerably more happy and alert than earlier in the series. He tells her that the Kilgrave support group needs an update and her support. (Malcolm, why are you such a sweetheart? Seriously, He is going to help people someday.) Jessica blows him off and enters her apartment.
The next scene shows a sweat covered Simpson poised to enter Jessica's apartment with a gun. He thinks better of it and puts the gun away before Jessica can answer the door.
Jessica: Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stranger.
Simpson: Stronger.
(Sorry Simpson, I'm just more intrigued by the fact that Jessica just quoted The Joker. Apparently
The Dark Knight franchise exists in this world?)
Simpson tries to build familiarity with Jessica with the idea that they're both out to protect Trish. He needs a guarantee that Kilgrave will die before he reveals the location.
Jessica: He sealed that deal when he killed Clemons.
(Except it wasn't him, it was the buttwipe in front of you.)
Simpson forces himself to compliment Clemons. Jessica asks a series of leading questions; she knows more than what she's letting on. She's trying to get him to admit killing Clemons and see if he is under Kilgrave's influence. Simpson goes into attack mode. (I stand by my original judgement that Jessica's apartment will be rubble by the end of the season.)
Simpson pops a pill, feeling the need to boost his strength.
Simpson: You're done protecting him.
Jessica: I'm trying to kill him.
Simpson truly believes that Jessica is protecting Kilgrave and realizes that he is at an advantage due to her rib injury. Trish bursts in to save the day! But Jessica's door has again been smashed. Realizing that there's no way out. Trish debates taking Simpson's red pills to give herself a fighting chance. The powers from the pills don't come without a price, he reveals that to survive the aftereffects of the red pills, one needs to use a blue pill to slow their adrenaline. Without the blue pills, Trish's body would be stuck in overdrive until she forgets how to breathe. In an attempt to stop her, Simpson pitches the blue pills out the window. Trish stabs him in response and takes a red pill.
Trish: Worth it.
This gives both girls a chance to fight back. They manage to knock Simpson out. He wasn't bluffing about the aftereffects of the red pills. Mid-celebration Trish forgets how to breathe and collapses.
Jessica flashes back to a scene from their youth. Dorothy is trying to force Trish to throw up because the camera adds ten pounds. Jessica can't take it any more and throws Dorothy against the wall.
Trish: Well, now she knows.
Jessica: Good.
Present day Trish is on the ambulance, and an EMT scrambles over her to try to figure out how to save her. Whatever he gives her works.
Malcolm and Robyn meet up on the street. She tells him no one else is coming and that he needs to stop texting his location to strangers.
Malcolm: That's not how Kilgrave works.
Robyn: Well, I'm sorry. Are you a professor of Kilgraveism?
Malcolm: Starting to think so.
Robyn: Well, it's going to get us all killed.
Malcolm argues with Robyn, explaining his whole ideology to her. He comes to the conclusion that the world is a lot harder of a place for people like him than he thought.
Robyn: You got duped, Mop-Top.
(This episode really seems to have a "people are poop" theme.)
Robyn's leaking cynicism leaves Malcolm feeling confused and disenfranchised. She tells him that if he wants to kill himself, there's a noose in a dumpster and no one to stop him this time. (What a selfish jerk, I understand she's hurting, but geez. You don't do that to people like Malcolm.)
Trish wakes up in a hospital bed and smiles at Jessica's sleeping form on the couch. (I love their friendship and how it juxtaposes all the crap Robyn just said. They are rays of sunshine.)
Meanwhile, Dr. Kozolov searches Jessica's apartment, and he and his people take Simpson away. Malcolm sees people going through her apartment and debates calling her; he deems going into his apartment to be a better choice.
Back at the hospital Jessica receives a string of menacing text messages from the one, the only, Kilgrave. He has Luke. Jessica rushes off to Luke's bar. They make eye contact and he shuts the window; this triggers a bomb and sets the place on fire. He calmly walks out of the building, (well, as calmly as a person on fire can) and lays down in the street so Jessica can help put him out. The pair embrace and credits roll.
What did you think of "AKA I've Got the Blues"? Do you think Malcolm's more cynical worldview will last? What do you think happened to Simpson? Do you think Jessica and Luke will reunite?
