Let’s just jump right into the review of episodes 10-12 of ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 3, titled ‘AKA Hero Pants,’ ‘AKA Hellcat,’ and ‘AKA A Lot Of Worms,’ which covered a lot of ground, and set up Jessica and Trish for the final confrontation with the actual big bad of the season in the finale.
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Jessica is the number 1 suspect for Nussbaumer’s death, and the cops come to arrest her during Dorothy Walker’s funeral, because, in this world apparently, cops have no class and are able to completely disregard the years of heroism from Jessica and trample on her family’s grieving for a murder charge where their only evidence is a video of Jessica talking to the crooked cop. The fact that he was beaten to death by a powered person, apparently means in this world that Jessica is the ONLY powered person these cops can think of (nevermind the fact that Luke Cage, Daredevil, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing are also running around the streets of New York at this point in time).
After having spent time investigating Erik and his list of targets earlier in the episode, Jessica escapes the funeral right as she figures out that Trish is the most likely suspect, and when she tries to hunt down Trish, the cops show up to arrest her, leaving Trish to continue her dark deeds.
As for Trish, we learn that following Dorothy’s death and her beating of Salinger, Jessica tells her to stay put in the hotel while she figures it all out and. of course, Trish cannot do that. Eventually she meets up with Erik and he tells her about Nussbaumer, who Trish is all too happy to take her rage out on except that she accidentally kills the man while beating him, a fact that does not seem to frighten her as much as it should and leads to an awkward moment of Erik almost ecstatic when he learns killing bad people actually makes his head feel a lot better (could this be foreshadowing his own dark turn?).
When they find out the police are after Jessica for the murder of Nussbaumer, the two geniuses decide the best way to help Jess is to stage another attack on another bad guy named Jace (a real estate arsonist) while Jessica has an alibi. Which is where Trish is heading when Jessica is arrested, a situation which occurred thanks to a very conflicted Erik who called the cops specifically so Jessica would be in their custody while Trish attacked Jace, giving her that all-important alibi. Shocking to no one, Erik eventually finds Trish out of control and beating Jace to death. Trish leaves Nussbaumer’s badge with Jace’s body to let the cops know it was the same attacker. And while Erik gets minor relief from Jace’s death, Trish is now giving him migraines, meaning she has finally gone to the dark side.
Jessica is released when the police find Jace’s body and Nussbaumer’s badge, and she heads straight to Salinger to protect him, aware that he would be Trish’s next target. The two women go a few rounds while Jess gets Salinger out of the hospital and Trish arguing her killing Salinger would be no different than Jessica killing Kilgrave (which is nonsense as the man was a powered individual no jail could hold). Their fight ends when Jess tosses Trish across the street to another building so she and the serial killer can escape unmolested. Jessica takes Salinger (who is giddy at the prospect of Jessica having to protect him from Trish) to Hogarth’s, but Hogarth will not protect him either and is worried that Trish will come after her because of her own recent actions.
Jessica instead sets a trap for Trish, pretending to beat up Salinger in his apartment aware that Trish is watching from across the street and having Malcolm sneak up behind Trish with Erik and capturing her. Trish ends up being chained up in her own apartment with Malcolm watching over her while Jessica heads home.
Of course, Salinger is not yet done, and he drugs Jessica’s bourbon and she awakens to find herself somewhat paralyzed in her office, tied up and about to experience the Salinger photo shoot killing situation, with the man monologue-ing about how she is no hero. Once he speaks enough to incriminate himself and confess to his crimes, Jessica reveals that she was not actually drugged and has been recording Salinger the whole time.
She breaks free and finally brings the man in for justice, outwitting the man who thought he was so much smarter than Jessica. She then heads back to Trish’s apartment to inform her sister that it was over, not aware of Trish’s moral conversations with Malcolm about her abusive parents and why she has chosen this path. It almost seems like Trish is willing to let the whole thing go when she and Jessica share a hug at the end of the scene.
Sadly, it is not so. Salinger calls Jessica from prison later to say Trish would not change and Jessica does not want to believe it, even as she heads down to the courthouse for Salinger’s early trial proceedings. On his way to the courthouse from underground, Salinger boards an elevator where he is attacked by Trish, who finally gets her revenge, beating the man to a bloody and violent pulp, and leaving him dead for everyone to discover when the elevator reaches the courthouse. Hogarth is among the first to see the contents of the elevators, screaming out in horror, while Jessica arrives moments later and realizes what Trish has done. She becomes aware that she is going to have to deal with her own sister now.
Other story moments from the episodes worth mentioning, we get a lot of flashbacks to the childhood days of Trish/Patsy and the encouragement and tough love she got from Dorothy, helping explain Trish’s mindset during all of this, loving her mother for making her stronger and forcing her to live up to her potential, even while aware of Dorothy’s abusive nature. Malcolm continues to help Jessica and be paid for his work, and even takes in Erik’s sister when she comes back into town, claiming she is no longer a prostitute but just needs a place to stay and someone to give her a second chance. Malcolm gladly does for her and they continue their romantic entanglement, which is not all that cool with Erik who discovers their living situation during these episodes.
As for Hogarth, her plan on forcing Kith’s legal problem is not taken well by Kith, who does not live in the morally ambiguous world Hogarth does. But eventually Kith consents in order to help her family, and Hogarth, having recently figured out that Trish is the masked vigilante, knows exactly who to blackmail into helping her get evidence against Dmitri. Hogarth visits Trish and reveals what she knows, and points Trish in the direction of Dmitri, putting the man on Trish’s “To Do” (aka beat up and maybe kill) list for being a “bad guy.” Trish also threatens Hogarth as the woman has made some morally reprehensible decisions in her life.
All in life, a decent enough lead-up to the finale, and while Salinger was a fairly good villain for the season, I am excited to see more of Trish and Jessica going head to head (I always like powered battles), and seeing how Jessica can possibly manage to save her sister this time, or if Jessica is going to have to kill Trish for the greater good, the same choice Trish made at the end of Season 2 when she killed Jessica’s mother.
See you back here soon for my review of the finale!
