Now knowing that "Leslie Hansen" is, in fact, her mother Alisa, Jessica straps in for a painful trip down memory lane.
Our opening scene shows us Alisa's view of the accident, groggily phasing to the IGH hospital, where a nurse waits on her. Confused as to her whereabouts and condition, Alisa stands and sees her gruesome reflection. Having taken worse damage than Jessica, Alisa's whole body has been burned beyond recognition; she is the meat-faced man from Jessica's dreams. Horrified at her appearance, the confused and scared Alisa shoves her nurse, who becomes frightened and sets off an alarm, causing Alisa to dash from the room, knocking over anyone in her path. Down the hall she unknowingly attacks Jessica, but Dr. Karl sedates her, and she later wakes up with her current appearance. At first confused, especially upon finding she is chained to the bed, Karl explains that she has been in a coma for five years and doesn't remember him due to memory loss. Though for much of the episode Karl seems trustworthy, a bit of suspicion is definitely necessary given this is a comic book series and he is doing some shady things. Asking if she knows him is a potential sign that she wasn't always asleep for the five years, and he is certainly dressed in a less-professional way than expected of a doctor. Karl calms down Alisa when she becomes upset about her kids, and explains that, because was certainly a goner after the accident, he put her through genetic modification that has healed her, though she now looks different. She becomes upset again when he says her husband and son died, then enraged wanting to see Jessica, and he assures her she will once they fix "complications" from her procedure. We cut to a club where Jessica listens to a bland pop song with essentially only one lyrical line that Trish has just released in a music video. The show quickly establishes they are still somewhere in the past, when Jessica was in college and Trish was spiraling downward due to drug addiction. The two argue about the path she's taking, and Jessica heads to the bar where she finds Trish's mom and is skeptical of the latter being around Trish. The interaction is another show of Dorothy Walker's poor treatment of her daughter in the past, but it's a bit awkward to watch due to the editing. Like I said in my review of the last episode of 13 Reasons season two, I don't know a whole lot about more technical aspects like good angles and lighting. However, editing is one area I've always been interested in and actually pretty good at, and honestly the scene was quite jarring for me. The two sit next to each other at the bar, with Jessica looking at Dorothy and Dorothy looking at a makeup compact. Therefore, it's easy to get a shot of just the two of them, but not as easy to get good, necessary angles on just one at a time for shot-reverse-shot cutting as they talk. For example, we could take a look at the interrogation scene from The Dark Knight. Now I am in no way a "DC fanboy," this is just what I found to be a good example. In this scene, we have several instances of the camera cutting between characters as they go at each other. We start with simple cutting from Gordon to Joker, then over-the-shoulder shots with Batman and Joker, occasional shots to Gordon, then other, different angles as Batman threatens Joker. We go back and forth to the correct person speaking, at times bridging the cuts by having one person start talking before we switch. There is plenty of cutting, but it is bridged well and cuts appropriately from one angle to another that is different enough to keep from feeling stunted. In the scene from Jessica Jones, the two characters are seated right next to each other at a bar. Obviously you can't do shot-reverse-shot with this, because Dorothy isn't looking at her compact. The scene almost works, at one point going from a shot focused on Jessica to one over her shoulder at Dorothy. However, for parts of it the cutting seems jerky and the sound cuts suddenly. We go from a shot of them both talking to a slightly closer and angled shot of Jessica, then jerkily cut to a slightly different shot as Dorothy responds, and finally to a better shot focused on Jessica and then the over-the-shoulder. The final two work as back and forth, but there are so many angles that are almost exactly the same, it feels odd to look at, especially as the actors expressions change a bit between cuts. The sound often seems to start right on a cut, making the conversation seem rushed, and sometimes one of the two will have seemingly still been ending a sentence and already be preparing for the other to speak. I feel I've harped on the editing enough, so I'll get back to the rest of the story now and focus on the story's progression. The bartender, Stirling, draws Jessica's attention, and he soon quits his job when the owner dogs him about how much alcohol he gives. Trish tries to dragon Jess to a party, but the latter wants to study and tells her sister the girls she's with are not her friends; they're simply using her. Angered, Trish fires back that Jessica is, too, noting that she pays for Jessica's schooling. Jess becomes enraged as well and steals money from an ATM, when she hears Stirling call to her. Back with Alisa after apparent years, we find she has grown tired of all the testing and wants to see Jessica, but Karl continues to say there are side effects to look at. He agrees to tell her more, but only if she'll strap into a chair, which she at first doesn't want to do, saying she can control the rage his experiments gave her. Once in, she is able to manage her pain upon learning that Jessica has been adopted, but flies into a fury upon learning she has been declared dead because of Karl's experiments being illegal. Cutting forward again, Jessica is happily living with Stirling, stealing whatever they want. He is trying to open a nightclub, which he plans to call "Alias," but she soon learns his parents don't support his decision. She jokes that he should pretend they died in a car accident, and when pressed about him wanting to meet Trish, agrees to meet his family and introduce him to hers. They go to the nightclub where Trish eagerly meets Stirling, but Jess hurries out when he talks to Trish about the nightclub as an investment, saying they don't need her help. We go back to Alisa, obviously at her escape as we see Luanne and Inez. As Inez goes about unlocking Alisa's restraints to care for her, Luanne discovers Alisa didn't take her medication. Too late for Luanne to warn Inez, Alisa leaps up, shoving Inez into a glass case and demanding to know where Jessica lives. Luanne tells her about the Walkers and tries to sound the alarm, but Alisa twists her head completely backward and escapes. Jess and Stirling, meanwhile, get a visit from a group of shady guys who invested in his club, demanding a return. They disregard Jess enough at first to mock her, but are surprised as she beats them all easily, and they rush out. In a surprisingly open moment, Jess hugs Stirling, explaining that he's the only family she has left, and she won't let anyone take him away. Alisa manages to track down Dorothy, controlling her anger at the latter's insults toward Jessica, and learns how she is living with Stirling and that she is strong. She manages to find her daughter, overjoyed especially after seeing her demonstrate her powers, and follows her to a bar. There, she has an interaction with the unaware Jessica in the bathroom, and goes out to prepare for a drink between them when she sees Stirling be led outside to an alley. Watching from around a corner, she learns they want to use Jessica as muscle, and Stirling agrees under the condition that he get a cut of what they earn. Enraged at what she sees as using Jessica, Alisa bashes his head against a wall, and Jessica finds him dead in the street, where she screams and cries for help. The episode comes to a close with Jessica going to Trish for both support and a last attempt at being support, Alisa goes back to IGH, and a return to the future. Aside from the odd editing that bothered possibly only me, I enjoyed the episode as a way of explaining Alisa's past as well as aspects of Jessica and Trish's life we hadn't seen before. In a way, this could be one of the biggest episodes to explain important show aspects, like why Jessica is so bitter and chose to name her business "Alias Investigations." Stirling was obviously incredibly important to Jessica, and finding him murdered must have been one of the things that pushed her over the edge into her drunken days. It's worth noting how positive Jessica seemed at this point, as she talks about working hard in college and was more in control than Trish at the time. This, combined with her relationship with Stirling, make me think this all happened prior to her suffering at the hands of Killgrave, as that was what we've seen as the biggest reason for her current condition. With Jessica now knowing what happened with her mother, one can only wonder what kind of pain she'll feel and the path she'll take moving forward.
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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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