When you have an entire sister universe that’s able to operate on the more mature outskirts of an established franchise, it allows you certain freedoms that the main story can’t have. The third season of Jessica Jones is a perfect example of this because not only does “AKA It’s Called Whiskey” get to fully delve into the psycho stalker and abusive partner themes that the season is fuelled by, but it fully gets to examine the often voracious sexual habits of people who can punch holes in walls.
Obviously now, thanks to 2022’s She-Hulk, we’re well aware that Captain America fucked (not my phasing), but back in 2015, the only real indication we had that anyone in the MCU regularly got up to casual bedroom gymnastics was the Roger Moore-esque womanising of Tony Stark. However, with the continued union of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, we’re about to discover a whole lot more. Sweet Christmas…
Now armed with the knowledge that surgical grade anesthetic can nullify the powers of the mind controlling Kilgrave, Jessica sets out in an attempt to procure some in order to score some sort of advantage over her one-time abuser. However, before she does, she’s fully taking advantage of the fact that she’s discovered bar owner Luke Cage has similar powers to hers by boning his brains out while neither of them have to hold back. However, while they repeatedly test the structural integrity of their respective apartments, there’s a dark undertone that’s going on. We’ve already known that Jessica has been stalking Luke, but we find out that thanks to her time under the control of Kilgrave, it was she who was responsible for the death of Cage’s wife, Reva.
While we ponder the latest fucked-up ramifications of one of Jessica’s spur-of-the-moment urges, the private detective continues to try and clear the name of Kilgrave’s latest victim, Hope Shlottman, who was forced to gun down her own parents and now is facing life in jail. Hoping to stir up public sympathy, she hits upon the idea of using the radio talkshow of her friend Trish Walker to stage an interview with Hope through shark-like lawyer Jeri Hogarth. However, during the interview, Jessica is horrified when Trish goes off script and starts openly challenging Kilgrave on the air.
While there are many rules to follow in a world full of super powers, calling a mind controlling sadist impotent on your talk show should be pretty close to the top. Predictably offended, Kilgrave sends a helplessly obedient cop, Will Simpson, to take Trish out, but Jessica manages to manipulate the situation into a way to track down her obsessed nemesis.
She’s close and manages to saves lives, but in the aftermath of her attempt to bring Kilgrave in, she discovers just how obsessed he still is.
AKA It’s Called Whiskey has something of a sizable claim to being the quintessential Jessica Jones episode so far as it mamages to deftly string a lot of various threads together in order to move the entire series along. There’s plenty of cat and mouse stuff between both boozy protagonist and deranged antagonist and we finally get our first, clear look at David Tennant’s spiteful foe. There’s also a lot of side stuff that nimbly gives those in Jones’ orbit room to breathe and grow while drip feeding aspects of Jessica’s past back to us and finally, there’s the stuff that goes beyond your simple hero/villain stuff that adds more texture and reality to the world of the Avengers that the movies don’t have the time (or rating) to explore.
I’ve already covered super-humping, but it’s a really near concept that when two highly durable beings find each other, they’re naturally going to want to cut lose on some super human biology that can handle the extra pressure. While a similar scene once occurred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it’s still a lesser explored concept that really does play well in this modern era of super hero media.
Also getting more airplay is the friendship between the bedraggled, bitter, damaged Jessica and the tough, determined Barbie-doll on steroids attitude of Trish, who despite being a child star, certainly has her fair share of a dark past. Anyone familiar with “Patsy” Walker’s comic book past will know that she also was a child star who dallied with becoming the costumed crime fighter known as Hellcat and the way Jessica Jones has adapted her story proves to be every bit as fascinating and layered as Jessica’s is.
Still, the bond and rapport that both Krysten Ritter and Rachel Taylor have both manages to capably convey their complicated bond and it genuinely feeks like the two actually have been friends since childhood thanks to a familiar back and forth. In comparison, Luke Cage is being treated as something of a himbo right now, what with all the super sex that’s going on, but we get a hint that again, darker things are coming even if we do get to hear him utter his festive-themed catch phrase. Beyond that, a whole host of other manage to get their time in the sun – we find Jeri is moving to divorce her wife; we become more acquainted with Jessica’s drug addict neighbour, Malcolm; we get more creepy utterances from downstairs neighbour Rueben and Hope continues to plead her innocence – but the big news here is that we get ever closer to central do-badder, Kilgrave.
While David Tennant is still yet to fully take centre stage and prove that his hyperactive Doctor Who act is only but one string to his bow, we still get enough hints that he’s going to truly be a villain to be reckoned with. We’ve already had ample evidence about how damaging his influence can be even if you manage to survive the experience (a complete loss of control to someone else is a nightmare scenario that’s not easily brushed off), but the off-hand and frankly cunty way that Kilgrave talks to the people unable to resist him is genuinely upsetting. He constantly has an impatient tone to his voice that implies a truly frightening amount of entitlement, even when he’s casually suggesting that Officer Simpson step off the side of a building once he’s used up his usefulness. Watch Jessica frantically try to save people who now have all the self preservation skills of a panda proves to be incredibly thrilling, especially as she has to come up with ways on the fly to fool the controlled that they’ve actually succeeded in their task in order to break the urge. And yet once again, we can’t help but notice that in her own way, Jessica tends to use people just like Kilgrave, be it seducing Cage despite being the one who murdered his wife, or even setting up a strung out Malcolm to be an unwitting distraction for her to steal drugs.
Sex, violence, sex, thrills, backstory and sex, AKA It’s Called Whisky seems to have it all (especially sex). However, as it makes the grittier world of the Netflix corner of the MCU far more tangible, Jessica Jones takes great care in expanding all aspects of its world as the stakes start to climb.
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