It seemed that when we last left Jessica Jones, business looked like it was about to ramp up as our whisky-sodden reluctant hero got very close to her foe, the mind controlling Kilgrave. However, anyone thinking that the Netflix show was going to shift to a higher gear after the first proper reveal of David Tennant’s cold blooded antagonist might be in for a bit of disappointment as “AKA 99 Friends” takes the main plot off the boil almost completely in order to deliver a bunch of red herrings and a chance to get a more detailed look at the people stuck in the orbit of the two duelling supes.
Part season filler, part bottle episode and part continuation, it once again drops any overt superheroing in favour of yet more clandestine snooping. However, does this ebb and flow of tone work for the moodier stylings of the show, or should Jessica Jones simply pick a lane?
After Kilgrave’s remote attack on Trish placed him tantalisingly within Jessica’s grasp, we find that the misanthropic private eye is essentially back to square one after discovering that her one-time mind controlling abuser is still incredibly obsessed with her. However, while she tries to pick up the pieces, Kilgrave’s vast picture collection offers up a sizable clue – someone has been controlled into taking all those pictures of her over the past few days and if she can find some sort of link, she have another possible lead that can get her back within arm’s reach of her nemesis.
However, there’s still bills to pay, so while Jones tries to figure out the person (or persons) tailing her, she takes a case from jewelry designer Audrey Eastman who wants salacious photos snapped of her cheating husband for ammo in their upcoming divorce. But while Jessica tries to figure out whether Eastman is legit and not another trap set by Kilgrave, those also caught up in the psycho’s web try to make sense of their experiences. After the attempt on her life, Trish makes an on-air apology to Kilgrave in order to dodge his wrath, but finds that Sergeant Simpson returns to her apartment after he was controlled into trying to kill her. Believing that he’d actually taken a life, the former special forces finds himself bonding with the former child star after the awkwardness gets straightened out.
Elsewhere, in an attempt to get more evidence in the upcoming Hope case, Hogarth collects a bunch of Kilgrave survivors together in order to take notes. But when the Eastman case turns out to be a different kind of trap to the type that Jessica was expecting, she finds herself dealing with a bizarre form of fallout from the Chitauri invasion of New York. However, in something of a bright side (if anything relating to Kilgrave could be described as such), Jones ultimately discovers that the spy taking photos of her is someone uncomfortably close to home – literally in fact, as he’s living next door.
AKA 99 Friends proves to be something of a frustrating experiences as its an episode that comes fully loaded with intriguing concepts and solid character moments that all contain some truly fascinating ideas that help to cement a world trying to comprehend the day to day existence of superheroes. However, if a lot of these aforementioned ideas had popped up before the show was hinting that the supervillain plot was going to up the ante a notch, maybe the episode would have more traction than it actually does. The main problem is the bait and switch it performs on it’s central villain that snatches back the promise of seeing more of the villain in favour of a disposable plot point that doesn’t really have anything to do with anyone.
It’s the sort of trick that would’ve worked great as something of a mid-season break on a show with an episode count closer to the more classic, old school amount of 22, however, with only 13 episodes to play with, it feels strangely placed. Maybe it’s because the revelations and teases of the previous installmentbcame to some, but as a result it’s the fourth episode that has to pay the price as it settles back into Noir-mode as if nothing happened. To be honest, I much prefer Noir-mode to superhero-more when it comes to the self-loathing exploits of one of Marvel’s rawest characters, but I guess that there’s certain expectations when your show is preceeded by the iconic flapping pages of the studio that brought us The Avengers.
In fact, it’s the World’s Mightiest heroes casts something of a noticable shadow over 99 Friends, which is strange considering how much the Netflix arm of the MCU doesn’t overtly reference the cinematic side much at all. Coincidentally, we never heard the words “Hulk”, “Captain America”, or “Avengers” actually uttered, but the references are pretty clear – however, the fact that the whole Eastman case is a scam in order for Audrey and her husband to try and gather some measure of revenge for her mother who was killed during the alien invasion proves to be somewhat interesting as it pre-dates the anti-hero sentiment that gained momentum a year later in Captain America: Civil War. The problem is that it feels decidedly small fry compared to the notion of a mind controlling stalker and ends up having the effect of accidently signing onto a side mission in a video game while you’re in the midst of a main one. It’s actually a great idea, it just doesn’t come along at the right time and it ends up being something of a strange distraction that’s used to drag the preamble out further.
Other moments in the show that score big on the idea-o-meter is the notion of a Kilgrave help group, which no doubt would stoke the villain’s ego no end if he found out. Hearing other stories of lives he’s ruined proves to inspire horrible fascination the more you discover such as the random man picked out to be his chauffeur who was urged to dump his crying kid on the sidewalk and abandon him, or the woman forced to smile against her will. This thread is picked up even further with the bonding of victim Trish and her attacker Will Simpson, who pick apart their twisted bond in an attempt to make sense of it, but considering that the character has a comic alter ego of the crazed supersoldier known as Nuke, maybe a happy ending isn’t quite on the cards.
Also benefitting from the down time is Carrie-Anne Moss’ liquid nitrogen veined lawyer, Hogarth who is every bit as much a master of manipulation as Kilgrave, only without the powers, but watching her get others to dance to her turn also stirs up as many interesting comparisons as Jessica realising how shitty it is to have someone constantly lurking nearby, snapping photos of you most intimate moments.
A solid episode in all respects, AKA 99 Friends is rendered unfairly ungainly by the simple fact that the previous episode made a few promises that the show’s not yet ready to pay off. Or maybe it’s our fault, and we allowed ourself to be manipulated much in the same way a lot of the characters here have been led astray by various forces. Either way, there’s a lot of good ideas, but a sense that Jessica Jones is already playing for time.
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