With nothing to pin Salinger down, things get rough for Jess, so she and Trish go digging as Malcolm turns away from Hogarth.
Jess and Trish wait outside the police station, noticing tv station reporters arriving, obviously tipped off about Salinger.
To their horror, he steps out with Hogarth, who they think realize wants publicity. She declares Salinger innocent, and he adds the police were simply doing their jobs. He claims the fault is on Jessica, and says Trish was there helping, though he doesn't know her identity, and that they injured him. Jess hurries Trish away, and he, going on a tirade about powered people trying to "save" others, points out Jess and says she didn't save him. As the press hounds Jess, Hogarth asks Salinger why he didn't mention Trish, as clients undermining her causes failure and his statements were slanderous. He counters that his statements were true and he simply knew the cops wouldn't believe in another vigilante. Reminding her he has a law degree as well, he calls her arrogant and tells her to perform better, as she needs him more than he needs her. Hogarth returns to her firm, where Jessica is waiting to berate her for representing him after what Jess told her before, all for her firm. Hogarth retorts that the firm means something to her and even maniacs deserve due process, not just Jessica. Though Jess warns Hogarth not to be her adversary, the attorney doesn't care about her thoughts and tells her to let her do her business. Jess quips that Hogarth finally found someone to end her suffering, although Salinger will actually enjoy it. Meanwhile, Malcolm is reflecting on his actions with Berry, and disgusted with himself, calls Zaya. He asks to talk in person, and she says he knows where she'll be. Jess enters Alias, where Gillian is receiving call after call about Jess and the second vigilante, who Jess says wasn't there. Trish is disgusted to learn Erik is laying low outside town, but Jess says it's better for him and Berry since Salinger is after them. Looking at her board, Jess grabs a clipping about Donnie Salinger's death, and theorizes that maybe Gregory did it and made a mistake during his first kill. She has Gillian call for the accident report, but they learn it must be viewed at the station, so Jess and Trish prepare for a road trip.
Zaya brings a report to Hogarth that Reid, the man Trish got locked up for rape, is now claiming a masked woman attacked him, so Hogarth tells Zaya to talk with him.
Before leaving, Zaya reveals Hogarth accidentally texted a personal message to her instead of Kith. Hogarth brushes away the embarrassment and urges her to work. Jess and Trish head to Wappinger Falls, where the latter stays in the car to wait as Jess enters the station to look at the file on Donnie. Inside, officer Ronnie Velasco (Mary McCann) seems kind, but gives her own word to attest to the state of the accident, rather than showing the report. Jess realizes she doesn't want to show it, and the Velasco, seeing through her lie of being with a tractor company, shows the video of Jessica from earlier. Obviously not a fan of Jess, she plans to protect Salinger the way she couldn't when his dad abused him, and says Jess can't see the file without a court order. Jessica goes to the bathroom and texts Trish that they need a meltdown. Trish sets off her car alarm and pretends to be a whiny, helpless celebrity, so the cops exit to help her and Jess swipes the file. Malcolm heads to Hogarth's, where he is horrified to see she is meeting with Salinger, who goes on another rant about powered people. They tell him about Reid's claim and Hogarth warns him not to underestimate Jessica. He says they shouldn't do the opposite, either, and reveals how he dug into their pasts to determine she and Zaya both earned their positions. Malcolm barrels in, introducing himself and claiming his allegiance is with himself, not Jessica, and says his injury is because he's not afraid to fight for a cause. While Hogarth leads Salinger out, Malcolm protests to Zaya, who says it's her job and demands to knwo what his problem is. Malcolm says she's in league with a psycho killer, and though Hogarth and Zaya comment on his lack of objectiveness, he believes Salinger is a threat. They brush off how he looked into their pasts, but as risk management, Malcolm decides to dig in Salinger while Zaya investigates about the masked vigilante. Hogarth orders Malcolm to keep his issues to himself while working, and gets a call she hopes is from Kith, only to hear a telemarketing message.
Jess and Trish fail to find any clues while looking into Salinger, and learn tractor turnovers are an issue before bickering a bit.
Trish reveals her frustration at having only been able to play the dumb blonde so far, and says she laments how no one knows who she is. Jess counters Trish doesn't face everyone's hatred in a situation like theirs like she does. Bringing up the reveal of her being a drug addict to the public, Trish says her following meltdown at the scorn she felt ended up okay after being able to be herself. She wonders how it feels for Jess to be looked at with hope and respect, which she is sure the people will do after they nail Salinger. She wonders if he killed before Donnie. Zaya comes to Hogarth and says five people reported a masked woman getting them caught, and three of them were their clients. Hogarth realizes the vigilante has access to their files, and wants Zaya to figure it out, rather than Malcolm with his issues, so Zaya decides to check security cams. The next morning, Trish reveals a lead to Jessica: a boy who was on Salinger's wrestling team, Nathan Silva, disappeared when they were kids. Malcolm stops Gillian outside Alias to introduce himself and request their files on Salinger, which she firmly denies. He says Jess will be relieved after his work and tries to take pictures anyway, but Gillian reminds him he has scared her and entered their business, and therefore has given her no reason to let him do this just because he says it'll be good for Jess. While Jess reluctantly visits the Silvas, knowing this will hurt them, Trish answers a call from Gillian that turns out to be Malcolm. He surprises her by saying he can't stand with Hogarth on this and wants to keep tabs on Salinger, so she authorizes him to look at the files, saying she has Jess as proxy. Jessica talks with Nathan's father Manuel (Mateo Gomez), who is happy to talk about his son and says the only time he and Salinger had a falling out was when Nathan, who was naturally gifted at wrestling, got college offers. Nathan's mother, Ana (Leticia Castillo), is less pleased with Jessica's visit, and the two argue while Jessica finds a photo of Nathan in the yard. She finds "Nathan will always be with you" written on the back," and Manuel explains Salinger shot and sent the photo to them after Nathan disappeared. He points out their gazebo as the spot Nathan stood for it; the gazebo was built the day he disappeared. He gets emotional, and Ana venemously says people like Jess keep re-opening the wound, claiming to not care if she finds out what happened. While Jess gets what she needs on Salinger and returns to town, Trish gets tired of not having recognition and Zaya makes a discovery on the cameras.
I love the way this episode continues to look at legal issues for superheroes and gives us a good mystery in the middle of the main one.
Jess is constantly in tight spots due to the legal implications of her actions, and this case is especially true since she injured Salinger. Without evidence linking him to the bodies, there's no way to pin the murders on Salinger, especially with Hogarth as his counsel. At the same time, I wonder why no one seems to care about the charge they could've gotten, that of Erik's kidnapping. They can't get that because of Erik's refusal to testify, but it was still a situation people should've been asking about. Hogarth and Salinger make it seem at the press conference that the police got him solely on the belief that he was the murderer, but that's not so. Jess brought him in after finding him at a warehouse torturing Erik, and even if he refuses to testify, that's another thing for people to ask about. Something else is that Hogarth could've easily taken the opposite route if she wanted to get attention for the firm, and it would've been much better. We all know Jessica is going to catch Salinger, and where does that leave Hogarth? The lawyer who supposedly caused Peter Lyonne to commit suicide and defended a man who murdered people for a decade. Hogarth likely needs something fast, but if she had been willing to wait and be on Jessica's side, she could've eventually aided in getting him imprisoned. It's disgusting to see both her and Zaya talk about due process with Salinger knowing full-well what he's done. Sure, legally he gets a lawyer, but that doesn't mean they have to be the ones defending him; they're choosing to do so just for the money. In that way it makes their argument about due process pretty void, because despite evidence suggesting he's a killer, they're working to get him off scot-free. They're definitely going to be an issue going forward, but now more with Trish because of them realizing she had access to their files. Zaya is able to find something bad on one of their cameras at the end, but what I feel would be worse is if they got footage of when she actually took the files. Back then, I'm surprised the man she tripped didn't know what happened, but if they have the right camera angles, it'll be clear. They'll have evidence directly tying Trish to the vigilante, as they'll have caught her taking files for people the female vigilante took down. Speaking of Trish, good lord are they just trying to make me despise her even more as time goes on, because that's what's happening. The first moment for this episode was when she asks about Erik, and questions his courage for him going into hiding. She has been completely ridiculous about this whole thing, and still acts all high-and-mighty like she always does the perfect heroic thing. Yes, Erik could've gotten Salinger saddled with kidnapping at least, but he and Berry would've been even bigger targets then, and Salinger would've eventually been free. Testifying also would've, as he pointed out, required that he come clean about his blackmailing, and while he doesn't deserve to get away with his crimes, it would kill him to be locked up. Trish seems to see this as sacrificing one life to save everyone, but it's really sacrificing him to potentially save people. There's no guarantee that Salinger would stop after being released, while in the current situation, he's being watched and has to be careful. There's also her need to be praised for her actions and get the looks Jessica does, which culminates in a decision late in the episode. Trish definitely wants to stop bad guys, but she's really starting to focus on treating her mission more as a vanity project. She says her catatonic depression after being outed as a rehab failure was good because she was able to start being herself. Yet now, she's wanting back in the spotlight with what she's doing, and wants people to see her just as a hero rather than as the person she is without the mask. Most of the time, heroes who wear masks do it to protect themselves and people they care about, but Trish does it just to keep the law away, then still wants attention. On a more positive note, I like how, despite Salinger claims to never make mistakes, Jessica searches his past realizing he must've sometime, and he makes another now. Just like Hogarth warned, he underestimated Jessica, and it's now coming back to bite him right in the butt. He's so certain that he's just smarter than everyone around him, and it's his arrogance and anger that causes his own mistakes, like he thinks is Jessica's problem. He, like many others, believes Jess is just a brute who can't control herself, when really she's the exact opposite. Jess constantly fears what she could do to others with her powers, and rarely lets them slip in a way that she really hurts someone. People constantly jab at and goad her into doing something, but she responds most often with quips and crushing objects, rather than attacking people. On the other hand, you have Salinger, who can't handle the thought of anyone being better than him, believing they must've cheated if he can't be the best. Much like Trish, he has an ego issue, and loses it if things ever go out of his control, especially if his abilities are questioned. Salinger repeatedly spins a yarn about his distaste for people who got where they were based on natural ability and luck, rather than work. He despises Jessica for her heroic actions, he tortured Erik for his charm and powers, and now we learn he killed Nathan for being gifted at wrestling. I have a feeling this will lead to his downfall, and I'll be so happy when I see Jessica really take advantage of his insecurity.
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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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