Jessica struggles to get Brandt before Trish after losing her spleen, and Hogarth sends Malcolm on another dirty deed in her efforts with the Lyonnes.
We pick up with Jessica moments before Trish left, scared after her feelings of strength were stripped away, and discovering her spleen is gone.
As Trish throws out the stuff she brought, a doctor explains to Jessica that without her spleen fighting off germs, she'll have to be careful about infections. She bickers as he suggests an antibacterial regiment and wants to tell others at home how to help, then he tells her a normal person would've died from her injury. Against his orders, she tries to leave, saying she has to be invulnerable for this job, but he grabs and lays her back down as she starts blacking out. Malcolm's injuries cause him to pee blood, but when his girlfriend Zaya (Tiffany Mack) sees, he refuses to have it looked at or sue the one responsible. He claims he's acting weird because of Hogarth, but says he'll be able to start his own business in a year. Costa visits Jessica, having taken the case of whoever tried to kill her, but she keeps up her snarky attitude and refuses to tell him anything. He reminds her the guy will be out there until one of them stops him, and urges her not to make herself a target. Hogarth and Kith meet for a meal, with Kith ordering wine because of their rocky relationship and admitting she's not sure how to feel about Hogarth yet. We learn Hogarth cheated on her, and Hogarth admits she wanted to see if Kith was broken like Wendy after being cheated on. As it turns out, Kith has been happily married to Peter since a year after breaking up with Hogarth. She stopped playing after losing her daughter to cancer, and was never good enough to join an orchestra, becoming a teacher instead. Kith says a lot has changed since their youth, but Hogarth begins praising the girl she remembers and claims to still have a tape Kith composed for her. Claiming she has class soon and already ate, Kith rushes to go, but smiles and smugly claims Hogarth doesn't still have the tape.
The hospital releases Jessica, though she has to sign saying this is against their advice. She returns home, musing that a hero is invulnerable, strong, and has a spleen.
She discovers updated locks Gillian had installed on Costa's advice, and asks her to look into Brandt. Gillian actually clocks out to prepare for an art show, and says a misshapen mass on Jessica's desk is a "new spleen" from Vido. Before leaving, Gillian goes over Jessica's upcoming appointment and medicine routine, putting an alarm reminder on her phone. She watches disapprovingly as Jessica downs her current dose with booze. Discovering she was also supposed to take them with food, Jessica searches the fridge and finds a burger from the guy she had over. She looks into Brandt at the same time as Trish, then heads to bed. Noticing the lock, she decides strength is part of her and returns to work, tossing her hospital band. After falling asleep, she wakes to Malcolm knocking on her door to deliver the knife from the attack, which he swiped knowing she'd want to handle the case herself. He says it's clean of prints, and being such a common knife, is impossible to trace, so the guy must be smart. she refuses to say what she'll do when she finds the guy and doesn't want help, so Malcolm simply gives her a bill for his help. Later, Jessica searches Brandt's apartment. She finds he was printing a list of lots with upcoming auctions, and Trish enters, impressed she already got a lead. The two argue about who should bring Brandt in, with Trish wondering if he's even Jess' guy or if she should be out of bed. She believes Jess will want vengeance rather than turning him in to the police, saying justice is what heroes go for and while she's only been one for a short time, Jess has only been super since getting her powers, not a hero.
Hogarth thanks Zaya for some good work, and meets with Malcolm, warning him to be careful of dating someone he works with. He claims it's more than that, so she gives him a file on Peter Lyonne, telling him to find whatever dirt he can.
Jessica calls numerous lots about the statue, but is told this would be an illicit sale or she, claiming to be with Hogarth, is an intermediary they wouldn't work with. Meanwhile, Malcolm goes to Lyonne's school disguised as a student, and sets up surveillance on the man's office computer. Lyonne catches him leaving and offers to talk, believing him to be a student. Malcolm claims he's a masters biology student trying to get into his ethics course. He says he wonders if law is as absolutely righteous as a supposed religious background taught. Lyonne chats for a bit but has no room, and sends him away. Jess gets a text from the guy she hooked up with, who figured it would be better than knocking because of what happened before. To her surprise, he wanted to check up on her, and after wondering what the spleen even does, asks how she's going to handle the guy who attacked her. She ignores the question, so he again asks if she tried the burger, because he made a bet about it. She lies that she tossed it on doctor's orders, and he, realizing the guy she met at a bar doesn't fit either, says goodbye and hopes she finds a donor. Trish is back at mixing self-help with her cheesy show salesmanship, and though making impressive sales, it bothers her when her assistant says she was born for this. Gillian wakes Jessica to go on a lunch break while her boss deals with a woman. It turns out to be Hogarth, who brings up how she pretended to be her assistant and, after hearing about the attack, wanted to check on her. Jessica is naturally pessimistic about the two of them bonding over their situations, but Hogarth says that, even with all she has to deal with, she toughs it out each day. Jess brings up her previous request to off her, but Hogarth says she now plans to focus on the journey, not the end. Jessica brings up news of good trials in Israel, and Hogarth says she's also looked into it but wants to be confidential for now. Jess gives an "oh come on" look when Hogarth asks why she thinks she'd know about illegal art trades, and the lawyer says she'll make calls while her assistant sends a list of galleries to check out. The list comes through seconds later, so Jessica grabs her camera and pills and sets out, unaware what discoveries she's about to make, as Hogarth's moves on the Lyonnes don't go as planned.
Much like Danny Rand in Iron Fist season 2 or Matt Murdock in second season, Jessica is now in a terribly weakened position, with a permanent issue.
For Danny, even though he was able to recover and got the fist back, Davos was able to damage his knee, and of course Matt had a multitude of injuries and some permanent hearing loss despite bouncing back. These two lost their powers and a massive part of themselves in their seasons, and now Jessica's in the same boat without her spleen. Neither she nor her hookup, Erik, even know what the spleen is for, but lacking it means, like the doctor said, that she's more susceptible to dangers from infections. With someone like Jessica, who spends her time drinking, eating poorly, and just having a generally poor and risky lifestyle, this is incredibly dangerous. Beyond what would be considered risky for even a normal person, there's also Jessica's powers, as she at times exerts herself with enormous jumps or feats of strength. She's already stubborn enough that after being diagnosed, she immediately wants to leave, so there's no reason to think she'd willingly adjust her lifestyle. There's also a similarity to Luke Cage in this episode, as after being so powerful for so long, Jessica is now realizing the terrifying truth that she's not invincible. After being stabbed, at her own home, no less, Jess is plagued with nightmares of the attack that actually mean more than she initially thinks, but leave her feeling vulnerable to the point she relents and uses the lock on her door. Jess is also still dealing with the loss of her mom and trying to be alone, which causes problems in that no one is able to effectively help with her medical issue. The only person really trying is Gillian, and she seems the kind to help to an extent, then leave it up to Jessica to stop being stubborn. There were definitely good moments from Jessica here, like when she meets with Hogarth and shows she cares about Hogarth getting help for her ALS. However brief, the moment the two share after revealing they've both looked into treatments and Hogarth says "us invalids need to stick together" is quite touching. Jess also has a moment with Trish, after finding Brandt's auction list, where I was siding with Jess over Trish when it came to her goal in finding him. Trish acts stuck-up and claims Jessica just wants revenge, chastising her that it's not how a hero should act and blah blah blah. In modern comics, there is often a gray line with heroism, though of course there are people like Captain America and Superman, who should often be more straightforward, because they represent what we should strive for. Even forgetting this, Trish is just being a hypocrite at this point, considering she killed Jessica's mom at the end of last season. You can say she believed this was the only way to stop her from killing more people, but this was not "justice" like she's harping about now. One thing I do agree with Trish on, however, is how she almost suggested the two of them team up in the email she never sent. There's a scene in this episode where the two of them go about finding the statue and Brandt by extension, and if it were coordinated, it'd be perfect. The two of them have known each other for so long, and have their particular strengths in different areas, which would make teaming up incredible and efficient. Of course, they're both being too stubborn for this to work at the moment, as neither wants to budge on how they feel or even really talk or listen to the other. Then there's the situations with Hogarth and Malcolm, which are really driving the latter even further away as he struggles with his actions. Malcolm is in a doubly dangerous position now after hitting the snobby rich kid before, with the obvious being his physical injuries, but also the threat of being sued. If he had staged the accident right, he possibly could've made it seem like the kid hit him and made him take the fall, but his focus was on physically hurting him. With this and him fleeing the accident scene, even if the kid was drunk, it'd put danger on him if he got caught. Now there's a big chance that he could get caught, because his girlfriend has noticed his injuries and wants to do something about it, not believing his lies. I wonder if part of the reason he was willing to do this was because of how he hates his current position, as he hates his sleazy job, so maybe he doesn't care about risks. He's only having to do sleazier things as time goes on, with the current one being how he is spying on Lyonne looking for dirt to get him in trouble. This is all for Hogarth, of course, who is manipulating the Lyonnes but for something we're not yet aware of, considering how secretive she can be. It's possible that Hogarth just wants to win back Kith, considering the kind of relationship she describes them in having, especially since she knows she's dying. On the other hand, this doesn't seem like typical Hogarth, and I'd figure it more has to do with wanting to force their help with the ALS somehow. The fact that she's digging up dirt on Peter suggests she's going to blackmail him for something, or perhaps blackmail Kith instead. Whatever it is, things have just gotten a lot more complicated for everyone in the show, but Jessica has a lead on her quest to avenge her spleen.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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