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“AKA 99 Friends” plays up the film noir aspects to a T to make up for the last two episodes. Life must go on, and Jessica needs to get paid if she wants to continue drowning herself in Wild Turkey booze and pay those bills. Catching Kilgrave is very much on the menu still, but Jessica isn’t exactly the “paragon of mental health” these days.

In good old film noir fashion, our protagonist is met with a woman in need. Granted she isn’t a bombshell in distress, more like a high-maintenance Wasp trying to catch her cheating husband in the act. Jessica knew this broad was trouble right from the moment she walked into her office. Who can blame her, really? Kilgrave is playing one mean mind game. The last time someone referred Jessica’s services, they ended up shot to death in an elevator by their missing daughter still under Kilgrave’s control. And now she knows that he’s having someone stalk her and take pictures. But is Audrey Eastman under Kilgrave’s control too, or is Jessica flirting too much with paranoia?

Jessica was right to suspect Audrey. She and her husband’s divorce was an elaborate, albeit stupid ruse only squishy hoomans could cook up. Apparently some people are still supremely sore over the Avengers wrecking New York City. Audrey’s mother died in “The Incident” and she planned to trap the investigator and take out all of the anger out on our hero, who had nothing to do with any of that. The fact that people out there are willing to take their issues out on someone else just because they too are [insert status here] is insane and unfair, and Jessica knows that. So much so that she temporarily loses her mind with frustration and grief and completely wrecks the place. Like one does.

“You take your goddamn pain and you live with it, assholes!”

“You take your goddamn pain and you live with it, assholes!”

Continuing the trend of less is more where Kilgrave is concerned, the show further defines just how evil and diabolical David Tennant’s character is (even though he himself has yet to get a lot of screen time) through a support group Jessica started. He forces a father to leave his baby on the side of the road, he makes children pee themselves inside a closet, and he has no problem using an 8-and-a-half-year-old child to send Jessica a message. Doctor Who is a monster. And then we find out that he’s been using Jessica’s drug-addled neighbor Malcolm to keep tabs on her. That, my friends, can be considered as a crushing blow to one’s already fragile state of mind.

Trish similarly is dealing with her shattered sense of safety after nearly getting killed by the mind-controlled cop, Will Simpson (Wil Traval). I appreciate this show for not dumbing down its characters for the sake of building up more drama. Instead of letting him inside her apartment like dummy, Trish allows herself to get to know a truly repentant police officer through the safety of her reinforced door. It’s only until after Will gives her a pistol (illegally) and they have a heart-to-heart for a few hours that she lets him in. Hilariously, she still has her palm resting on the pistol.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

  • Jeri: “You’re coming off as distinctly paranoid.”
    Jessica: “Everyone keeps saying that. It’s like a conspiracy.”
  • Trish: “I might accidentally shoot you.”
    Will: “It’d be worth it.”
    Kilgrave trauma aside, I’m rooting for these two to become good friends, if not more.
  • Jessica pinning herself between two buildings several stories up triggered flashbacks of my own attempts climbing up a building. Literally sat the same way she did just to take a break. Three stories. Hadn’t exercised in two years before that. And it was at night, right under a cop’s nose. …How the hell am I still alive or not in jail?
  • Seriously, I appreciate that they’re using cutesy nicknames for Captain America and The Hulk, but is it really necessary? Why can’t anyone ever call them by name? Supergirl and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. suffer from the same problem.
  • I like how Sergeant Will is now willing to put Kilgrave down just as much as Jessica. This previously stand-up officer is now offering himself up to commit some illegal acts. Not overly illegal to where he could end up in prison for the rest of his life, but they would get him fired and maybe even blacklisted from every police department in the state. He means well.
  • Jessica informs Will of the first support group meeting, to which he looks at her incredulously. “Yeah, I’m not into that either,” Jessica replies.

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.