written by Kiara Williams
When one person leaves the Morally Grey Pit, another must enter.
SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT
So of course Trish doesn’t kill Salinger, because we still have more episodes until the finale. Jessica was able to tackle her to the wall in order to stop her. Trish’s mask was off when she attacked Salinger, and therefore he can now identify her. Trish steps forward to finish the job, but Jess stops her again. “If you kill him, you’re the bad guy,” Jessica says, and even then only a sucker punch stops Trish. They escape before the NYPD comes in. There’s still the opportunity for Salinger to go down the proper and lawful way, and the evidence on Nathan Silva’s body is their way to do that.
Right?
Trish and Jessica shack up in a hotel to hide, and Jess cleans up Trish as Trish begins to properly grieve now that she has a quiet moment to do so. Jess tells her that she’s going to need to get out of the city because Salinger will ID her once he wakes up, but Trish refuses. Detective Costa calls to check on Trish after he learns that she was the one to discover Dorothy’s body. He also wants Jess to bring Trish down to the precinct for safekeeping, but he doesn’t know that is the absolute worst place she could be right now, especially after Salinger wakes up. He also mentions that whoever the masked vigilante is clawed off half of Salinger’s face. Wow, she must have attacked him like she was an animal. Like a cat from hell. Almost like some kind of hellca—OH MY GOD!
Jessica asks if there would be immunity if she could theoretically bring the masked vigilante in, because she totally doesn’t know her, definitely not. Costa is highly doubtful because now Jeri is on the warpath due to this incident. Jeri is on the news calling the masked vigilante a “monstrous powered creature.” I cringed at the dehumanizing language, but Trish did make Salinger look like a reject Bond villain due to her superpowers, so there’s that. Now Jeri is offering $250,000 to anyone who can identify the vigilante, not that she has any intent to pay it.
Soon after, Salinger sends a pic to Jessica from one of the cameras in his apartment, and Jess begs Trish to fucking sit still while she gets answers. Jess breaks into the hospital to see Salinger, and Salinger makes his elevator pitch on why Jess is going to help him by destroying the evidence on Nathan Saliva that can be traced back to him. Jess immediately says no, but Salinger points out that Trish is all she has left and she’s going to want to protect her. She has no choice but to trust Salinger will hold up his end of the deal.
Back at Alias Investigations, Gillian is trying to pack up her things and leave, expressing her dislike of Jess’ apparent connection to the masked vigilante who went all Wolverine on Salinger’s ass. Jess convinces her to stay just in time for Gillian to accidentally call Erik an asshole. Erik the Douche Detector is back! Yay! He apologizes for not putting Salinger away sooner, and I’ve seen other comments being angry at him for apologizing now, but he was in an “I will literally die if I go to prison”-type situation, and I can’t entirely blame him. It’s a huge decision to make, giving up your life to save others. Not everyone automatically has that bit of heroism in them, and Erik is really just trying to survive, for better or worse. I’m not saying he’s perfect as is or anything, but I get it. Erik and Jess talk, and Erik volunteers to help in any way he can.
Later, Jeri is visited by Kith’s son Laurent. He actually is asking for Hogarth’s help. One of the donors of the foundation Peter Lyonne embezzled from won’t back off from Kith and won’t take a settlement for the donors’ lawsuit. “Sounds like she needs a new lawyer,” Jeri says. Always the opportunist. “Don’t hurt her more,” Laurent replies before leaving, and I can only imagine what he’s feeling from even visiting that place.
Uuuuugh…Jeri, Jeri, Jeri. Jeri goes to Kith and confesses her love, and Kith rightfully calls her out for being selfish and manipulative. Jeri digs up all the old scars between them by confessing all the dirty details of her cheating in college. Is that supposed to help? “The truth is overrated,” Kith says. Jeri tries to tell Kith that she’s her soulmate and that she found Kith too early, and I roll my eyes. As I mentioned before, Hogarth is trying for one last chance at love before ALS deteriorates her. I have a chronic illness myself, and I have no sympathy for the woman for tearing up Kith’s life. Saying “I love you” doesn’t fix that, and if they end up together at the end, I’m gonna fling my TV through a window, I swear.
Before Jessica breaks into the crime lab (thanks to a dirty cop they made a deal with earlier), she and Erik have a chat about the one time Erik did good and what it cost him. And this is so, so clumsy, and I hate it. Erik gained his Douche Radar powers at a young age, and soon realized that his own dad was surrounded by “the darkness” (cue up the Kingdom Hearts music). I know what he probably meant, but I was hoping that it would just be the intent to murder or something. Nope – his father was molesting his sister Brianna, and Erik confronted him about it. Brianna got angry at him because it wasn’t his story to tell, and she’s right. Did he even try to talk to his sister first before doing this? He went full Trish, and you never go full Trish. Also, why is Erik the one telling this story at all? Brianna’s molestation is playing the role of Erik’s tragic backstory. Usually the show is way better and more thoughtful about this, so watching this scene was a bummer. A gross bummer. A grummer.
Anyway, Jessica breaks into the lab and breaks the sewer line in order to get the rest of the staff out of the building, and with a huff and a puff, she blows Salinger’s hairs away before setting up a fan to make it look like an accident. She calls Salinger to let him know that “It’s done.” And I hate his smug reaction oooh I wanna fight him so bad. Jess and Erik go back to Trish’s hotel room, and Trish sucker-punches Erik’s forehead. “You have no idea what he did for you tonight,” Jess says, and she tells her about the deal she made with Salinger. Trish is heartbroken and furious at her only chance for revenge being blown away in an instant.
Jess goes back to Alias while Trish visits Dorothy’s apartment to “see her as she was.” Meanwhile, Malcolm hands over the unedited camera footage of him talking to Trish and he quits. (And then Jeri fires him, but Malcolm said he quit first so he wins!) Good job climbing out of that pit. But then Trish gets outed by a combination of a reflection on a computer screen and the “zoom and enhance” cliché. Dang.
Jessica is lamenting that she let a murderer go free. She gets visited by Costa, who’s been placed on leave thanks to the loss of evidence in the lab. At least he’s kind of thankful for the down time. He is getting a daughter soon, after all. The next morning, Jess wakes up to police at her door. The dirty cop is dead and the last person on his body cam was…Jessica.
Jessica Jones Seasons 1-3 are available now on Netflix. Kiara can be reached on Twitter @DJPrincessK.