Viewer Log: Jessica Jones ep 18

Oh no, Jessica is in jail. Again.

Last time on Jessica Jones, it was good news, bad new sort of day for Jessica and her crew. For good news, Jessica is able to get her Super to drop his vendetta against her, and they’re able to track down a former nurse that worked for IGH. For the bad, Pryce Cheng hired a guy to steal all her research in a hope to find dirt on her. And to make things worse, Not-Hansen attacked the thief, rips him to pieces, steals the research, and leaves the scene for Jessica to take the blame. So yeah, not a great situation.

We open to Jessica in lock up. She’s cooling her heels and trying to mentally prep herself on her next move. She reasons that Not-Hansen probably didn’t internally plan on killing someone and framing Jessica, it was just an unintentional benefit to the situation. While Jessica is musing, Not-Hansen burns the IGN files and her blood covered clothes. Back at the prison, Jeri is brought in to consult. At the moment their only real option is to play ball and let the cops know what they know. Why? Because if they find anything and that she’d kept it from them, she goes right to jail for 18 months. Parole is a pain, no? Jessica tries to pressure Jeri into getting her out of jail, but Jeri leaves in a huff.

Back with Trish, she’d gotten bailed out by her harpy. I mean her mother. Yes, mother. Anyway, she seems to be crashing after Simpson’s super strength inhaler starts wearing off. Dorothy Walker does her best to distract her daughter from worrying about her best friend by letting her know a network wants to interview her. Trish, who is uncharacteristically unsuspicious of her mother, goes along with it. Considering all Trish does for Jessica, I think we can let her indulge in some selfishness just once.

It's like watching that tigress with the piglets that replaced her cubs.
I don't THINK there will be an issue, but if one occurs there's
nothing you can do about it.

We’re shown a day at Not-Hansen’s house. She seems to have a rather nice house in suburbia, complete with a baby grand piano. She begins to play, but is interrupted by a neighbor stopping by. Said neighbor compliments her on her playing, and asks to sit and listen as it’s the only thing that’s been able to calm her infant son in days. Not-Hansen gets to hold the baby for a moment, which feels really tense, before trying to play again. Something about their presence causes Not-Hansen to start messing up, which causes the baby to start freaking out. The neighbor leaves, and in her fury Not-Hansen shatters her piano.

Jessica uses her phone call to call Malcolm and get the low down. All of their research is gone, but they still have Inez. So, it’s not all bad. She tells Malcolm to keep an eye on her until this gets sorted out. A short time later Jessica is interviewed by the cops. She decides to play ball and let the cops know all about what happened to her with IGH. She even gives them a picture of Not-Hansen and tells them that she also has powers.

Think they realize those handcuffs may as well be made of
rubber bands in terms of their effectiveness to slow her down?

Back with Malcolm, he starts quizzing Inez about what happened at IGH. He’d found a picture of the other nurse that Not-Hansen killed the night Inez’s back was nearly broken. Apparently, the other nurse, Luanne McClure, had her death covered up and pinned on a janitor, David Kawecki.

The cops come back in. After Jessica’s testimony, they found security cam footage of a woman landing hard in front of her building. The woman is clearly Not-Hansen, so they decide to let her go. While one of the cops is hesitant to believe Jessica, the other offers his support. The detective, Costa, gives her his card and offers his help. Apparently, he was at the station when Kilgrave came in last season and forced them all to put their guns to their heads to get Jessica out. Since she but Kilgrave down, he believes she’s on the up and up. Jessica leaves the station, and ask Jeri’s help in hiding Inez. Before they can get the details worked out, Pryce Cheng storms over and starts berating Jessica. Wait… so you believe that she murdered your buddy, and your plan is to scream at her to prove she’s a murder? I’m starting to think Pryce is dumb.

At Jessica’s apartment, she is filled in on what Malcolm found out about Luanne’s murder and the frame up. Apparently, David Kawecki is a simpleton. Literally, like he has the mental capacity of a ten-year-old. Kind of hard to believe he intentionally killed anyone. Jessica wants to interview him, but he’s being held in a maximum-security mental health prison. No one goes in without the proper security pass. Jessica is going to figure that out, and sends Malcolm to drop off Inez with Jeri. After stopping Inez from stealing his computer, by threatening to use her as bait for Not-Hansen if Inez runs, Malcolm gets her to Jeri’s.

Jessica goes to see Oscar. It’s a good thing that the two have worked out their issues, as Jessica needs a favor. Remember, the Super just got out of jail for forgery and he was Really good. He agrees to help, he just needs three hours and a photo. As she leaves her apartment complex, Jessica gets a call from Griffin, telling her to get to Trish ASAP as she’s in trouble. Oh no.

Trish and her mother make it to her interview just before Jessica. Thankfully, this isn’t a ‘someone is going to die’ emergency, it’s a ‘be here for a special moment’ emergency. Yeah, there is no interview, Griffin is just surprise proposing to Trish. Things are awkward between Jessica and Trish initially, but Jessica does congratulate her friend before leaving. A moment later, Trish pulls Griffin aside as they need to talk.

Jessica returns to Oscar’s place to get the ID. His son, Vido, and his mother try to convince Jessica to stay for dinner, but our intrepid PI is on a time crunch.

Not-Hansen burns the wreckage of her piano. Given the suburb she lives in, I’m shocked no one has asked about the bonfires she keeps having. Just saying. And, at the same time, Jeri and Inez have a conversation. The jaded form nurse refuses to believe that Jeri is doing this out of the kindness in her heart. Which is true. Jeri wants to know about IGH, specifically it’s experiments. Oh dear, it’s Kilgrave all over again.

Wow, she really just looks like a rando in a lab coat.
Oscar deserves an award for his forgeries.

 Jessica is able to break into the prison psych ward to see David. As soon as she sees him… hey, it’s the world’s heaviest man from The Greatest Showman. What? I like musicals and Hugh Jackman, so sue me. Anyway, David spends his days sitting in his cell drawing pictures. Jessica interviews him. It’s clear that his confession had been rehearsed. She starts poking holes in his story until he shuts down and tells her to leave. Jessica, noticing his drawing, asks about Octopuses, the subject of his drawings. The dude is a cephalo-fan, telling her all kinds of fun facts about the sea creatures. He learned all this stuff from Dr. Karl, who used to take him to the aquarium to watch the octopuses during his lunch break. How interesting.

Back with Trish, we learn that she broke it off with Griffin. Dorothy, being the lackluster parent that she is, starts berating Trish for calling off the engagement. Trish explains that she couldn’t marry Griffin as she was more interested in being Griffin, the world-famous reporter and globe trotter, then being with Griffin. Dorothy keeps yelling, claiming that she gave Max sexual favors to get her story. This causes Trish to snap, slapping her mother. Dorothy storms off in a huff. Good riddance. But then Trish takes another hit on the super-strength inhaler. Shoot.

Jessica, at the aquarium, calls Detective Costa and gives him the 411 on what she’d learned thus far. She spends the next two days staking out the aquarium looking for doctor Karl. She finds the good doctor, as he meets Not-Hansen. The two kiss and enjoy the attractions for a minute before seeing Jessica. Not-Hansen shatters the aquarium tank glass to help them escape. The episode ends as the glass shatters. Crap.

Well, that was a rough couple of days. Considering the two smooched, I think it’s safe to say that Karl and Not-Hansen are in cahoots. Curious if Karl is using her to hide his old project, or keep his current research hidden. I’m calling it right now, not having read any spoilers or summaries, Jeri is going to try to use IGH’s Gene editing research to cure her ALS. And, like using Kilgrave to try to get her ex-wife to finalize their divorce, this is going to blow up in her, and Jessica’s, face. I hope that Trish doesn’t start spiraling back into substance abuse. This season has established that she’d abused a lot of drugs in the past, and I think few could compare to a drug that makes you super strong. I’d be more concerned about her mother leaving, if Dorothy had a single good characteristic to her. Abusive parents are terrible, just terrible. I’m curious to see where this goes.  

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Jessica Jones ep 17

It's a hair-raising endeavor.

Last time on Jessica Jones, it seems like Miss Jones has come upon her greatest challenge yet. After searching for a lead on IGH for several days, Jessica found a Dr. Hansen, who might have answers. Or so she thought. Turns out that the woman she’d met was not Dr. Hansen, as a skull they’d found was identified as the good doctor. The mystery woman and Jessica throw down, with the woman proving stronger then Jessica but the mysterious woman ends up running.

We open to Jessica taking part in her court appointed anger management. She’s obviously testy, but isn’t allowed to leave until the fella in charge signs a form. When Jessica is forced to share, she verbally describes her rather messed up history up to this point, visibly getting angrier until she shatters the bouncy ball she was forced to use while sharing. She storms off after getting her formed signed.

Jessica returns to her apartment, berates Malcolm for letting Trish out of her apartment the previous day, and starts looking over the one good picture they got of Not-Hansen. Despite a rather… vocal argument she can hear from Super Oscar’s apartment, Jessica is able notice Not-Hansen is wearing a wig. She calls up Trish, who is putting out the fire that Jessica created when she claimed Trish and her boyfriend had broken up, and asks if she’d noticed. Trish hadn’t, which makes her believe it was made of natural human hair. Which is good, because there are only three shops in town that sell the stuff. She had to wear a human hair wig when she was basically Hana Montana, FYI, that’s why she knew. The pseudo-sisters agree to meet at the first store.

Apparently, all you need to do to get someone to stop hating you
is to save their kid. Who knew?

While that was going on, Oscar’s son Vido comes over. The kid clearly didn’t want to stick around while his parents screamed at each other. He does the little kid thing, quizzing Jessica about her powers and the like, you know, being annoying. Jessica goes to tell his parents where he is. While her back is turned, Vido climbs onto the window sill and jokes about Jessica saving him. He slips out, Jessica runs over and grabs him. The parents come in, misunderstand what happened, storm off in a huff, and Oscar rather angrily announces Jessica is out in 25 days. Oh fun.

Meanwhile, Jeri is interrupted in her search for alternative treatments to her ALS by Pryce Cheng. He’s angry that Jeri is trying to get him to drop his case against Jessica. Jeri tries to warn him that nothing good comes from messing with Jessica, but the jack hole isn’t listening. He tells her he’s hiring a new firm and storms out.

Jessica and Trish find the wig store, and actually found the store the Not-Hansen frequents on their first stop. Woo. After bribing the owner, they learn that the mystery woman pays in cash and the owner thinks its due to chemo. So… kind of a dead end. Or is it? The new train of thought is that if Not-Hansen has cancer, IGH was probably paying her medical bills. Jessica and Trish agree that they need her MetroGeneral file. Trish reveals the video Malcolm took of her and Max, and her plan to use the director’s pull at the hospital to get the file. The two women put the squeeze on Max, which involves Jessica literally punching through the hood of his car, and get the files.

While going through the files, Jessica gets a call from Jeri. She’s pressuring Jessica to find dirt on her partners, Chao and Benowitz, to get them to back off on forcing Jeri out. Unfortunately, anything remotely like dirt she can find can be explained away as client gifts. Jeri to tells her to keep digging. Jessica hangs up, but is interrupted in her searching by Oscar dropping in. The Super tells her that Vido explained what happened. Wanting to apologize for being a dick the last few days, he brought her some whiskey and tells her that he’d torn up her eviction notice.

Back at Trish’s, after having some intimate time with Griffin, Trish leaves to take a shower. Griffin gets a mystery call. He tells the caller “she doesn’t know anything. Let’s keep it that way.” Considering that this is coming after Trish claimed Griffin was the first not crappy guy she’d dated, that’s real dark.

How dare you ask a former Red Ranger to spy for you Pryce
Cheng? How dare you?!?

Oscar and Jessica boned over whiskey. He admits he doesn’t have issues with enhanced Humans, per say. In actuality, since he’d just gotten out of prison, he was just really skittish about being around anyone that might even have a chance at screwing up his post-prison life. The two outcasts start making out, damn Jessica works fast, but Oscar backs down and leaves. Apparently going from hating someone to sucking face was a bit too drastic of a turn for him.

The next day, Malcolm confronts Jessica as she leaves. He lets her know that Pryce Cheng had offered him a job in exchange for dirt on her. Jessica tries to blow him off, but Malcolm has had enough. He Get’s in Gear (Power Rangers Reference) and demands that Jessica start treating him like an actual assistant (think Watson to Holmes more then guy who gets coffee) and 25% of her case income. She agrees to 20% before leaving.

Jeri meanwhile attempts to force her doctor into getting her some… less then legal drugs for her ALS treatment. The doctor is hesitant, so Jeri storms off.  

At Trish’s, the sort-of sisters learn that IGH only payed for three people’s medical bills at MetroGeneral; hers, Whizzer’s, and Inez Green. Considering the fact Whizzer is dead and Jessica is Jessica, they assume Inez is Not-Hansen. They look her up, and discover that the woman is currently homeless and the general area she frequents. They head out, Trish bringing a high powered taser she nabbed from Will Simpson’s stuff to knock Not-Hansen out, and his super-power inhaler.

They find Inez’s hangout, but not Inez. They split up, with Jessica getting jumped when alone. Jessica knocks her down, discovering that Inez is in fact not Not-Hansen. Trish, who missed that part, takes a hit from Simpson’s inhaler, runs over and tasers the woman. Well, crap.

Back at Jessica’s apartment, somebody breaks in and nabs all over her info on her IGH case. Malcolm, who brought his latest Lady of the Evening over to look for booze, interrupt the thief but the dude slips out before Malcolm spots him.

Back with Jessica, they revive Inez and get her story. Turns out, the now homeless woman worked for IGH as a nurse. Not-Hansen, interestingly, is a former patient of that groups’ procedure. The mystery woman had a hell of a tempter and strength to match, as she really screwed up Inez’s back during an incident and murdered another nurse. Jessica and Trish agree to that they need to look after her, in case Not-Hansen wants her dead too.

On no, Jessica is getting arrested again. Who'd have believed that?

We learn that the thief is a friend of Pryce Cheng. Cheng had paid him to steal Jessica’s stuff in an attempt to find dirt on her. Not sure how stealing her active case files would result in anything other then Jessica screwing up his other shoulder, but hey, that’s just me. Unfortunately for Pryce’s buddy, Not-Hansen attacks him and all but rips him to pieces while Pryce listens impotently.  Jessica, Trish and Inez arrive a short time later. The police, finding a dead man outside a known super-human with anger issues’ address and I’m sure ‘testimony’ from Cheng, assume the worst and arrest Jessica. They arrest Trish too as she comes at them irate. Turns out superhero steroids can give ya anger issues. Who knew?

Hm… Is this the second or third murder Jessica is being falsely accused of? Third, I think. Shame that. I wonder if that was Not-Hansen’s intention, or if she’d simply killed Cheng’s friend because he had the IGH stuff and the frame up was a coincidence. Either way, Jessica’s situation just got more complicated. I glossed over it in this episode, but Malcolm is seen with several different women in this episode, presumably from dating apps he’s frequented. Not sure if he’s trying to make up for the time he’d lost while being Kilgrave’s coked up spy or if he’s replacing drugs with sex, but either way isn’t super good for Malcolm. Over doing any vice is dangerous. The bit with Griffin is interesting. Odds are he’s either connected to IGH or is cheating on Trish. Since this is a superhero show, it’s probably both. What? Writers like doubling up on betrayals. I’m interested to see how Jessica is going to square off against Not-Hansen, and what the mysterious woman’s deal is. Does she work for IGH, or is she killing people sniffing them out for her own ends? Hopefully I’ll find out more soon.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Comic Super Star: Stan Lee

On November 12^th, 2018, we lost a storyteller. When you get right down to it, that’s what Stan Lee was. A storyteller of grand and flamboyant proportions. I considered him to be one of my personal heroes, and his passing is saddening. Granted, the man was in his mid-90s and a widower to his wife of 70 years, so I had assumed this was coming, but it still hurts. An individual as vibrant, as charismatic, as timeless as Stan Lee… you just kind of assume he’ll keep going on forever. In order to process… no, celebrate his well lived life, I feel like I should gush a little about him. And the moment that changed how the world viewed superheroes.  

He finished his Cameo on Earth...

 In case you are curious, I’m using Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David and Colleen Doran as my source. I suggest checking it out if you have any interest in the life story of a comic book icon. My personal favorite anecdote in it being the stressful plane ride Stan took from New York to Reno. See, his soon-to-be wife, Joan, was in Reno to finalize her divorce from her first husband. Suffering from an irrational fear that someone might swoop in and take the love of his life the moment she became available, Stan booked a flight to Reno in order to marry her as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he asked for the fastest route to Reno, not the most direct. After several layovers, he arrived in Reno and got his girl. Considering they were together from 1947 until her death in 2017, I say he was right to rush to her.

 Also, while the names might not be accurate to the time period, I’m going to be referring DC and Marvel by their modern names. It’s easier on the noodle.

In the late fifties and early sixties, comic book superheroes were on the rise again. After nearly being shelved forever due to the complex and bizarre rules of the Comic Code Authority, new life had been breathed into the genre with the revival of The Flash, and the birth of the first iteration of the Justice League. Impressed by the dollar figures that DC comics was pulling in, Marvel Comics Founder Martin Goodman tasked Stan Lee with producing a Superhero team that could rake in the fans, and cash, like the Flash and other DC characters. But, and here’s the thing that made me do a double take the first time reading it, Stan Lee wasn’t sure he WANTED to do it.

According to his Memoirs, Stan had burnt out on what he felt were the simplistic stories and the completely unrelatable characters of superheroes. He was worried that if he went along with Goodman’s plan, he’d basically be churning out the same repetitive generic stories that he had been forced to do since the inception of the CCA. The story goes that he’d been complaining about this to his wife and expressed a desire to quit and try something new, when she offered a different solution. Basically, she told him to just write the kind of stories and characters that he wanted to. You think DC heroes are unrelatable? Then write some heroes with actual personal problems. You think the stories are too simplistic, and don’t deal with real world issues? Then write a few stories that do. Her argument was, if his new ideas sell well, great, keep doing it. And if they completely tank, then Stan might be fired but at least he tried to do something new rather then just giving up.

If I ever get access to a time machine, I’m going back to the 1960s and shake Joan Lee’s hand and thank her.

Spurred on by his wife and with the help of fellow Comic Legend, Jack Kirby, Stan created that first team. Using an old school Marvel Hero, The Human Torch, as a bit of scaffolding, Lee and Kirby created an entirely new Human Torch, and a team of very human heroes to work along side him. Boom, Fantastic Four. From there, Stan Lee spear headed the creation of the original Marvel Universe. And, unlike the larger then life heroes of DC, there were characters that were designed to be all too human. Even the one that’s literally a Norse God. Stan’s heroes not only saved the day, but also dealt with issues that plague most people in one form or another. They battled things like inner demons (Iron Man’s alcoholism, Bruce Banner’s inner monster), prejudice (The Thing, The X-Men), and all the hardships of just growing up (Spider-Man). And the rest, as they say, is history.

The only way Stan Lee could tell his story
right was as a comic.

I believe the first time I ever came across the name Stan Lee was during the series finale of Spider-Man (1994). In that final episode, after helping to save the multiverse from an insane Spider-Carnage hellbent on destroying all of creation, Spider-Man makes a few stops on his way back to his own reality. One stop is to the home dimension of a powerless Spider-Man, whom was just an actor picked up by accident while Spider-Man’s allies Madame Web and The Beyonder formed their original team of Web Warriors. Once there, Peter pops in on Stan’s office, and takes the silver fox web-swinging as thanks for creating a version of him. Considering I was only eight or nine at the time, you can forgive me for not completely understanding who it was Spider-Man was swinging around with. Not the most interesting discovery of one’s idol, but hey, what can you do? It’s from that early show, and with some encouragement from my Marvel fan of an older brother, that I came to love the characters of Marvel and DC.

I don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination to say that we, especially I, myself, do owe a great deal of to Stan Lee. Without him, and the incredibly talented but underrated artists and other writers of Marvel like Jack Kirby and Steven Ditko, Superheroes would probably have remained something only young children enjoy. Instead, we live in an age where many a superhero is a household name, with major films and tv shows backing them. While the stories remain fantastic and implausible, the men and women who live the adventures described are about as real as fictional characters can be, with virtues and faults like anyone else. All of which can be traced back to one writer deciding to do something different. I never had the pleasure of meeting Stan Lee. That’s something that I regret, but there’s no use crying over spilt milk. I can do my best to honor the late, great Stan Lee as best I can. To Stan, wherever you are, thank you for all of the stories. Thank you for all of the heroes. Thank you for all of the laughs and tears, the smiles and frowns, the highs and the lows. Thank you for living such an Amazing, Fantastic, and Incredible life.