1x12 AKA Take a Bloody Number

There were essentially four stories here, two of which I liked, and two of which made me roll my eyes. So let's mix and match!

My favorite element of the episode was the scenes between Trish and her mom. The mom was the scorpion from the fable of the scorpion and the frog. You can tell she legitimately wants to connect with her daughter, that she genuinely wants a relationship with her, that she's proud of Trish, but that she can't turn off that part of her that has to sell or self-justify or manipulate. Trish's disdain was palpable, and it was frankly one of her better performances, and the mom's presence and layered depiction of her character's emotions was stellar.

I would say this show's greatest strength is how it's able to show people as simultaneously bad and still sympathetic, or at least understandable. You see it with the mom; you see it with Kilgrave, and you see it with Hogarth. Each of these people do terrible things (with differences in degree, obviously), and yet the show is neither content to write their bad behavior off as an unfortunate indiscretion, nor willing to treat them as pure unadulterated evil. Each has their own, comprehensible motivations for they do and have done, and even if that doesn't condone their actions--which is important--it explains it, which helps to make these characters feel more real and nuanced.

The reverse of this situation is the Robyn-Malcom story. I believe this was an attempt to do the same thing, to show that whatever Robyn's craziness, there's a certain fractured love beneath it that makes her far from all bad, and deserving of consolation and friendship, The problem is that she's just such an annoying character. I don't necessarily put it on the actress, but the performance is so broad, the dialogue so corny, that it's hard to buy into that type of arc, even when it's being bounced off of Malcolm, who quickly became one of my favorite characters on the show, and whose goodness and devotion to helping others despite, or perhaps because of his trauma, makes him a beacon of light in an otherwise very dark show.

And then, there's Jessica and Luke. I've just never bought into their relationship, so the fact that it was the backbone of this episode, and the emotional undercurrent of it, meant that their scenes generally fell flat to me. Luke is just a bland hunk in my book, with action moive dialogue and delivery that feels borrowed from the parodic protagonist of Team America. The scenes that are supposed to be moving or emotionally charge left me rolling my eyes, or even laughing, and the odd cinematography of the episode, with peculiar shots focused on street signs or other odd angles didn't help communicate the tone.

But then I did like the twist that Kilgrave was setting the whole thing up. When Kilgrave mockingly said the "I forgive you and I'll say it every day" line, I cracked up, because I thought that line was painfully sappy when Luke said it originally, so the reveal was a pleasant one. I appreciate Kilgrave's misguided jiltedness as what's motivating him here, and how he's attempting to twist the knife via Luke. It's a believably despicable turn from him.

And I enjoyed the fight between Luke and Jessica. Again, it didn't have as much meaning to me given that I was fairly unmoved by their relationship, but it was well-choreographed and told a story about Jessica not wanting to hurt Luke. The final shotgun blast was an intriguing finish (though come on, we know he doesn't die), even if the "do what you have to do" came off like a dry cool action hero line. But the perfect capstone to it was Jessica crying over him. I've gone back and forth on Ritter's performance here, but she absolutely sold that moment like a pro, and even as I come around on her quips as the show makes me a laugh a little more, I still prefer scenes like these where she sells the moment in her expressions and demeanor.

All-in-all, this was a mixed bag, leaning toward the positive.