1x04 AKA 99 Friends

6.8/10. So let's start with the positives. I really enjoyed the twist that Audrey was trying to lure Jessica in with her case so that she could shoot her for being a superhero. One of the elements that often distinguished Marvel comics from those of D.C. was the fact that in the Marvel universe, people with powers were treated with suspicion, and in the D.C. Universe, they were respected as heroes. We haven't had much of that suspicion in the MCU, outside of an evil senator or Hank Pym. I appreciated the frightened but angry performance of the actress who played Audrey, that accurately conveyed how a lot of people, rightly or wrongly, would feel after their city was destroyed by a superpowered rumble.

To the same end, I appreciated Jessica's frustration with that attitude, (even if it felt like a sort of cheap way to throw in the backstory that she lost her parents in an accident), and her attempt to make Audrey squirm by fibbing and telling her that there are powered people around every corner. The "I want a divorce" line was a bit too cute, but it was still the stand out scene of the episode.

The other scene I particularly liked was the final one, with Kristyn Ritter's subtle breakdown at the end of the episode. I've gone back and forth on Ritter's performance so far. It's never sunk anywhere below "fine", but I've had a hard time warming to her character. The standard quip machine action girl routine doesn't help, but something in her performance is kind of offputting. Then again, that may very well be a feature, not a bug. This is a woman who has pushed away all the people who were close to her in the wake of her trauma, who's demeanor is meant to prevent people from getting in, and if that includes the audience, then maybe it's just a sign of Ritter doing a good job at conveying that. She certainly has the dead-eyed, thousand yard stare down, and her quivering lip at the end really communicated her hurt at uncovering that Kilgrave had gotten to Malcom.

I also thought Carrie-Anne Moss put in a good performance here. The steely lawyer can be too much of a trope to work in a lot of settings, but she gives shading to the archetype in this episode, both in her interactions with her soon-to-be ex-wife, and with Jessica. Her little smile-half-smile as she looked back at the support group after Jessica's outburst was some great, measured acting.

But the outburst itself made me roll my eyes a bit. Don't get me wrong, it makes total sense that Jessica would blanche at the slightest hint of the idea that Kilgrave could help people after what she'd been through, but something about the performance, or maybe the writing, didn't work for me. It felt more like a scene that said, "Hey Everyone! We're conveying how toxic the very idea of Kilgrave is to Jessica! (And maybe sewing seeds to Hogarth cooperating with him, hint-hint.)" rather than something that felt like a genuine, angry reaction to that type of idea.

By the same token, I liked the idea of Trish warming up to the cop who attacked her more than I liked the execution of it. Again, all the character decisions make complete sense, and there's a lot of good material in the idea two people who are each victims, but in different ways, who are connected by their trauma, finding and comforting each other. But their conversations had such unsubtle, almost meetcute banter that I couldn't buy it.

And similarly, the BSG-esque idea that you don't know who you can trust, that you never know who's watching you or observing you or working with the bad guys, is an interesting and creepy one, but outside of the unnerving kid, I didn't really buy it here. Sure, finding out that it's Malcom who's doing the photographing makes the twist more personal at the end, but Jessica's been looking over her shoulder for the entire season so far. It's hard to feel a particularly heightened sense of the creepiness here given that the sense she's being watched has been the status quo the whole way.

But more than anything, outside of those two stand out scenes, I mostly felt myself feeling kind of bored during the episode, which is never a good sign. Even when the dialogue or performances have been uneven, there's usually a firm progression in the episodes as Jessica gradually uncovers some piece of the mystery. Despite the "find the photographer" story, which was more amorphous than direct, this episode meandered, and I find myself waiting for Jessica to get to the fireworks factory. As I've said before, this is still a show that plays around with a lot of ideas and themes that I find very compelling, but that I cannot get into in terms of how they do it.