Jessica Jones season 3, episode 7 review: A.K.A The Double Half-Wappinger

The human-weasel Gregory Salinger continues to find his way through the law and around Jessica Jones. A train yard of evidence wasn’t enough, so what will be?

Jessica can’t seem to catch a break per the usual. She had Gregory Salinger dead to rights only for him to wiggle his way out because there wasn’t enough evidence to hold him to the bodies in the train yard that she discovered in the previous episode.

He’s too careful and clever to get caught red-handed. Even when Jessica and Trish saved Erik from his torture, Salinger claimed he was being harassed.

Erik made himself very unavailable to help the investigation in any way and continues to be one of the most selfish characters in the MCU as a whole. So now, Jessica and Trish have to start off from square one in episode 7, “A.K.A The Double Half-Wappinger.”

We know that Erik will be of no help to them, so they have to move on to plan B.
This episode was probably one of the best of the season and really is kicking off the final act of the season and potentially the show.

This episode was heavy in development for Jessica and Greg Salinger, with both of them occupying both ends of the good and evil spectrum. That’s what makes this episode one of the more interesting of season three so far.

While it has its flaws, it really showed off the best elements of the show, which includes Jessica being an investigator more than a superhero.

Marvel’s Jessica Jones

Salinger’s Press Conference

Released from jail, Salinger enlists the help of Jeri Hogarth, who is trying to breathe some life back into her firm by taking on a major case. The two hold an impromptu press conference outside on the jail steps.

Salinger takes this moment to attempt to manipulate the press and the general public by using keywords that would be typical in stirring up controversy.  He calls out Jessica Jones directly and her abilities as a super but also goes as far as to accuse her of being a “feminist vindicator,” and harassing him because he is a “single white man.”

His new attorney Jeri Hogarth isn’t a big fan of this new tactic she was kept in the dark about.

Jeri knows exactly what kind of wrath that will bring on from leather-jacketed detective. She attempted to get that fact across to Salinger, but he is too fixated on Jessica’s super abilities and underestimates her intellect.

The fact that Jeri is worried about Jessica from a mental aspect with her abilities as an investigator is telling of what we already know. She did not want to add fuel to that fire.

This episode shows that Jessica’s investigative skills could probably rival Batman’s, especially when you consider she has vastly fewer resources at her disposal.

“Everybody screws up their first time out”

There’s really nothing like a good ol’ fashioned Jessica Jones case board stare down to further the plot and show off just how well Jessica can piece together another lead out of thin air. While it’s cliché, once again it’s great seeing Jessica’s abilities as an investigator.

The theory that Salinger was possibly more sloppy when he first started his career leads them back to his hometown and into some less than helpful locals, including the police.

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The Wappinger Falls Police Department work as a mini-antagonist for this episode and only a minor annoyance for Jessica, who finds her way to getting the information she needs. When all of the sleuthing is done and over, Jessica and Trish find themselves at a house divided between a husband and wife whose son has been missing and happened to be friends with Greg Salinger.

Jessica discovered a picture of Nathan beginning work on the Silva’s family gazebo and on the back, it read, “Nathan will always be with you.” Sent by Greg.

Normally, such a subtle clue wouldn’t lead you to vandalize a grieving family home, but Jessica has diagnosed Salinger’s personality and knows he would be the type of sick human being to leave a faint mock to the family of a boy he just killed.

This not only develops Jessica’s perception, but also Salinger’s degree of inhumanity.

The discovery of Nathan’s body beneath the gazebo now presents the possibility of new DNA evidence linking Salinger to a dead body.

One of the most chilling moments of the season so far came from Nathan’s father when Jessica pulls their son’s body up from the dirt and disbelief he says: “He was here?”

Class Dismissed

In the final act of the episode, Jessica is disgusted at the sight of Salinger teaching children how to wrestle and it leads her to be coaxed by him into taking him on in a wrestling match.

This is something very out of Jessica’s character. Yes, its completely like her to want to beat the ever loving crap out of the demon spawn that walks Hell’s Kitchen but, for her to be foolish enough to do this with cameras on her and with someone she has an ongoing investigation with was not in her nature

As expected, Jessica humiliates him, but not before giving away her trump card and taunting Salinger about discovering Nathan.

This is completely idiotic. It ws the one time all season that Jessica has had the advantage over this psychopath, and she blows it before they’ve even tested for DNA. Maybe she believed she had already won and there was no way he could escape this. We know this won’t be the case.

However, we know Salinger is far more cunning than that. Letting him know that she had discovered Nathan’s body has given him the opportunity to counter.

Overall, the episode was great in showing Jessica’s investigative abilities, especially in a season where the main villain is attempting to discredit supers as “cheaters” who haven’t ever had to work for anything.

Jessica is showing that she doesn’t need to use her abilities to fight crime but, ultimately, the entire progression of the episode and the impressiveness of her accomplishments are killed by her overconfidence.