And at long last, we have reached the finale of ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 3, titled ‘AKA Everything,’ which is also the finale of the Marvel/ Netflix universe. When put in that perspective, this episode has a huge weight on its shoulders, and sadly, this was just not the best season to help carry that storytelling weight. Standing on its own though, not a bad finale, and some good character development.
The finale opens with Hogarth and Jessica reacting to Salinger’s murder, Hogarth begging Jessica to tell Trish that she would never expose her secret, worried that she would be next on Trish’s list. Jessica heads back to Alias and finds Luke Cage waiting for her (as another person pointed out to me, the LAST crossover of this universe), with some advice about how to deal with super-powered siblings and Luke’s own experience with sending his brother to the Raft prison.
Jessica insists she is not capable of making that choice but Luke, and by proxy we, the audience, clearly know better. So Jessica heads to Trish’s place to confront her sister, finding Trish still thinking she can lead her life and go to work, and Jessica having to explain to her that she crossed the line and has to turn herself in. As proof, Erik reveals his presence and as he gets closer to Trish, he starts bleeding out of his eyes, the best visual example they have for Trish that she is now on the side of evil. Trish escapes through the bathroom window after asking for a second to wash-up, and Jessica has to make a new plan.
So she heads to Hogarth’s where she wants to use the woman as bait, especially after Hogarth JUST reaffirmed to Trish to go after Dmitri, even knowing that Trish is now a murderer. Luckily Dmitri had a daughter which stopped Trish in her tracks, but she still managed to beat the man pretty severely, and Kith is thrilled that the lawsuit against her has finally gone away. Meanwhile, for Jessica’s plan, Hogarth goes on television and says she knows the identity of the masked vigilante and will reveal it soon, and then heads back to her apartment to be bait for Trish. Which works, except Kith decided to come by unannounced to thank Hogarth, and gets caught up in the situation, and though Jessica is there to capture Trish, Trish manages to grab Kith and hold her hostage. Hogarth makes a deal with Trish in exchange for Kith’s life, promising to get her out of the country, and then Hogarth shoots Jess in the leg to slow her down while Trish and her escape.
While Trish and Hogarth make their plans in an old Jace real estate building, Jessica activates her Plan B and goes on TV herself, announcing that Trish Walker is the masked vigilante and is extremely dangerous, making any escape from New York for Trish extremely difficult now that people know she is a murderer. So instead Hogarth makes other arrangements for her, and they go to an old airport outside the city where Trish can be shipped to Thailand in a coffin.
Meanwhile, Malcolm fully ends it with Zaya when she comes by for “closure” and discovers Brianna living with Malcolm, and Malcolm throws himself fully into helping Jessica. Working together, they manage to figure out where Hogarth was most likely to take Trish to get her out of the country, and Jessica heads to the old airport ready to stop her sister once and for all.
Hogarth meanwhile, waits for Trish to be sealed in the coffin then calls Jessica to let her know where they are, but she is too late as Jessica has already arrived, and quickly finds the coffin with Trish inside. They battle it out in the warehouse of the airport, with Trish managing to trap Jessica in a darkened hallway where her night-vision power gives her an advantage, right before Jessica knocks out the wall and brings them back into the full light of the main warehouse. Out of options, Trish pulls out a knife, ready to kill her sister and save herself (Trish turned dark really fast these past few episodes). She lunges at Jessica, but sadly for Trish, Jessica is a bona-fide Hero and will not be taken down by Trish’s amateur shenanigans. Jessica simply holds out her hand, lets the knife slice right into her outstretch limb where it lodges itself, now useless to Trish, and then Jessica uses her other hand to knock out her sister once and for all, ready to be taken to the police.
As for Hogarth, she returns home and it met there by Kith, who thanks her for saving her life, but reminds Hogarth the whole situation was because of Hogarth’s lies and manipulation in the first place, which is what has forced Kith to make the decision to leave Hogarth. As she leaves, she sadly tells Hogarth that the woman may not want to die alone, but that is exactly what is going to happen.
Later, Trish is informed by Costa that powered people do not exactly get the same rights and due process as the rest of us, and she is being shipped to the Raft, and somehow in THAT moment (not when she was murdering people, not when Erik’s eyes were bleeding, or when she tried to stab her sister) Trish finally realizes that she is the bad guy, and breaks down, weeping.
Erik visits Jessica with food and looks to want to rekindle their relationship, but Jessica turns him away, saying she does not trust him, and Erik leaves intent on becoming a better man that Jessica does trust. We later see him meeting up with Costa (arranged by Jessica) so the two can work together to bring in criminals.
Lastly, we see Jessica pack up her things and leave Alias, stopping briefly to give Malcolm the keys to her office and words of advice “Don’t screw it up” before heading to watch Trish be taken to the Raft, the sisters meeting each other’s gaze briefly as Trish is taken away, with Trish almost looking like she understood why Jessica made this decision. Her heart heavy, Jessica heads to the train station to buy a ticket to El Paso and away from the heroic life in New York, but suddenly we start seeing a lot of purple, including her train ticket, and Kilgrave’s voice can be heard, mocking Jessica and saying “You’re right to give up. It’s someone else’s job now.” Always defiant, Jessica turns around and heads back to New York, aware that it may be a shitty job, but she is the best choice to do it, reaffirming that she has always been a hero.
Again, not the worst of endings, though a bit anti-climactic for the end of the Marvel/Netflix era, then again, I don’t think the show ever thought this would be the grand finale of all of these series. It was nice seeing Luke, and even having him telling Jessica that he would need someone like her to bring him down if he ever “turned” which is what the end of the last season of ‘Luke Cage’ hinted might occur now that Luke has taken over as a crime boss in Harlem. And in all fairness, Trish’s darkness has been hinted about since Season 2, and Jessica turning her in without killing her proved Jessica’s point about how Jessica’s mother should have been handled, and that Trish had no right to execute Jessica’s mom last season: it was the first sign that Trish was never really a hero. And I did enjoy hearing David Tennant’s Kilgrave once last time before it was all over, as he was arguably the greatest villain of the Marvel/ Netflix shows, and Season 1 of ‘Jessica Jones’ with him was amazing, and really defined Jessica as a show and a hero.
What did you think of ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 3? Was it better than Season 2? Did it even come close to Season 1? Are you sad to see the last of the Marvel shows on Netflix? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below!
