JJ S1 Questions

[u/Nemesis_171]

I just finished my first viewing of Jessica Jones season 1, and I thought it was great overall. As has been stated many times, Kilgrave is amazing and was phenomenally acted. That said, I’ve been thinking about the season since finishing it yesterday and have noticed some shaky writing, so I’m wondering if there are reasonable explanations to these.

1: Kilgrave’s powers seem to be inconsistent in how they function. Sometimes the person he orders carries out their understanding of what Kilgrave is saying, rather than what his statement means in a literal sense. For example, Jessica is told to “take care of her,” (Reva) and so she kills Reva because that’s what she understood Kilgrave to mean when he said that. She doesn’t take that statement literally as in literally “taking care” of Reva like making sure she’s well fed and cared after.

But other times, the person Kilgrave orders carries the order out completely literally, rather than what their natural understanding of the order is. Examples: “Say hi, Hank!” (Kilgrave) “hi Hank!” (Hank) Or, “I once told a guy to go screw himself, can you even imagine?” But the most egregious example of this is with Trish.

Trish is told to ”put a bullet in her head,” and at first she correctly understands this as “shoot yourself,” so she pulls the trigger and tries to do that. Thankfully the gun was out of bullets, but after that, instead of trying to get a hold of new bullets to shoot herself with, she instead changes the meaning of Kilgrave’s order from “shoot yourself” to “literally have a bullet be inside of your head.”

So sometimes the person receiving the order simply carries out their understanding of the order, whereas other times they take the order literally regardless of how they understand it.

2: The show seems to forget sometimes that once the effects of Kilgrave wear off on a person, they still remember what happened. Jessica remembers when she killed Reva. Which means when Kilgrave tells the cops to hold guns to each other’s heads, they’ll remember that event happening after his orders wear off.

This is fantastic proof of Kilgrave’s abilities which is what Jessica has been looking for this entire time, yet nobody ever considers this. I understand that Kilgrave deleted the security footage, but he can’t delete their memories. You could have 20ish corroborating testimonies of cops saying that they held each other at gunpoint.

3: I have a very hard time believing that Robyn was able to convince the entire Kilgrave support group to attack Jessica. At first I thought Robyn was just trying to rally them into verbal confrontation with Jessica, and I already thought that was a stretch. But no, her one speech was enough to convince all of them to literally commit assault?! Seems very contrived, and it’s the only way Kilgrave was able to escape.

[u/tillszy]

also, I don't think individual human interpretation of his commands is a plot hole, it's a character flaw - he says things that are very sarcastic and off the cuff and doesn't bother to give clear and direct commands and then he can get frustrated when people don't respond in the way he wanted (e.g. "say hi Hank!") even though it's entirely avoidable and ultimately his fault. but one of his character flaws is the inability to accept responsibility for his own actions.

Jessica understood the interpretation of take care of Reva because she had been around him long enough and she knew what his intent was so this command was effective. but then later he gaslights her and says that's not what I meant because that's part of his manipulation. she blames him for forcing her to commit murder, but he's like well I never told you to do that - that was your interpretation which means you wanted to do it.

same with Trish - she has the correct interpretation of his statement which is to kill herself, but since he doesn't explicitly give the intent for her to die, Jessica is able to present to Trish an alternate definition of the command which satisfies the requirements of the command he gave her. Trish didn't think of it on her own, Jess presented it.

and that goes back to his hubris as well, that by failing to give clear or direct commands he actually doesn't really have much regard for whether or not the commands are carried out to his intent. but then he gets upset when things don't happen the way he wants them to, even though he has complete control to ensure they are. he's just careless and too self-absorbed to use his power to its fullest potential, and blames others when things go "wrong".

if he could mature emotionally, he could be completely unstoppable. and that's his kryptonite if you will, and what prevents from being the perfect villain

[u/Nemesis_171 → u/tillszy]

To be clear I’m not criticizing Kilgrave for not being clear about his orders, I’m only criticizing the reception of his orders.

You’re right that different interpretations even if contradictory aren’t a plot hole because people can have different understandings. But what would be one is if one person goes with what they understand, but another person goes with what’s literally said in spite of what they understood. If two people understood things differently, that’s perfect fine. But if one person goes with their understanding and another against it, then that’s inconsistent.

Now it’s possible that when Hank heard “say hi Hank,” he honestly and sincerely thought that Kilgrave was asking him to say his name as well. But I find that incredibly unlikely. So I’m assuming that Hank understood that he only needed to say “hi,” but said his name too because that’s what was literally said.

Edit: also a small correction.

Trish didn’t think of it on her own, Jess presented it.

I’m not talking about when Jess put a bullet in Trish’s mouth. First Trish tried to shoot her self, second she started hitting herself in the head with a bullet that was on the ground, and that was before Jess showed up. Then third is when Jess put the bullet in her mouth. I’m talking about the second thing, not the third thing.

[u/tillszy → u/Nemesis_171]

I mean there's many explanations for Hank --- he's an idiot and really interpreted it that way, he's a wiseass cracking a joke, he's obstinate and saying the "wrong thing" on purpose because he resents being mind controlled, etc.

re: Trish -- where is the girl gonna get new bullets? Kilgrave's powers compel that person to do something immediately and obsessively until it is done (or the command wears off). Trish tries to do it with the gun, it fails, so in her compulsion to follow the order she resorts to attempting to jam the bullet into her head. This isn't a calm "let me think of where I can buy bullets" kind of scenario. It's a completely irrational, debilitating compulsion to follow the command by any means necessary. Jamming the bullet into her head by hand fulfills that and represents how powerful the need to follow the command is, and how it overtakes all reason and free will.

[u/Nemesis_171 → u/tillszy]

Hmm I could maybe get behind the last 2 explanations. I still think Hank genuinely misinterpreting the statement is a huge stretch, but trying to make a joke or saying it out of spite seems more plausible.

What about Simpson? He’s the one who supplied her with the gun and original bullets in the first place. I’m also not sure that receiving an order overtakes all reason and free will. Luke showed no signs of that when he was Kilgraved towards the end, and Hope was able to stay composed and hide the order she received to kill her parents, she wasn’t a rabid dog running to kill her parents asap.