Jessica Jones season 3, episode 8 review: A.K.A Camera Friendly

“My hero charade will end where it began, which is nowhere near Tribeca.” Minor spoilers for Jessica Jones season 3, episode 8 follow.

Gregory’s first victim has been found and will hopefully help put him away for good, but he continues to threaten others so that Jessica Jones slips up.

Meanwhile, Trish has been outed by the press, making her and Jessica’s lives much more difficult to navigate in their stressful situation.

The hunter and the hunted

The cat and mouse game between Jessica and Gregory continues in this episode with a few wrinkles thrown into the mix. Now that Gregory knows that Jessica has found the body of his first victim, he’s on the attack. Not attacking Jessica though, but rather attacking an innocent causing Jessica to begin to search for this potential victim, leading her away from actually stopping Gregory.

This really creates for an interesting set-up for this episode that isn’t used to its full potential. It’s a cat and mouse game that has a few extra layers thrown in for good measure, but it never really provides the tension needed to be incredibly interesting. That’s not to say that this portion of the episode is bad, but it could have been better if Jessica and Trish seemingly didn’t have 90% of what they needed handed to them.

The climax of the episode though, centering around a certain twist and another added wrinkle, is fantastic though and puts the rest of the episode into a different context. However, just because the climax is great, it doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of this portion of the episode didn’t live up to its full potential. It’s good, but it could’ve been great.

Hogarth v. Ducasse

As for the lawyer’s side of the story, things are getting tense for Jeri and Malcolm, and the trust between the two is starting to wear a bit thin. Jeri is consistently doing some really sketchy things, while also sometimes forcing Malcolm to participate in her wrongdoings, much to his chagrin. Obviously, this is a recipe for disaster between the two.

As for now though, things are beginning to slowly boil over, but it’s obvious that Malcolm is nearly finished with Jeri’s wrongdoings. Eka Darville and Carrie-Anne Moss both give excellent performances in this episode, even with their limited screen time. It’s also one of the first times this season that they have felt connected to Jessica’s story in a significant way, while also doing their own thing. Hopefully, the tension between the two continues to be a driving force moving forward because it’s handled well in this episode.

What determines a fraud?

One of the biggest recurring motifs of this has been Gregory’s use of the word “fraud.” He uses it abundantly, especially when referring to Jessica. But with this episode, the question comes to the play, “Who’s actually the fraud?”

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It’s pretty obvious that the show is using Gregory as an example of toxic masculinity (Jessica says as much in this episode) and the notion that certain people think that something is owed to them because they have “earned” it. It’s also obvious that someone like Gregory, the incredibly cowardly killer, isn’t able to make the judgement on who a “fraud” is. This episode tries to tear down that notion and the idea of what Gregory is aiming for with his mission and it does so, it just doesn’t dwell on it. There weren’t any real moments of reflection as to why this notion of “not earning” is a thing; it’s just played off as a psychopath’s irrational motivation, which it also is. But there could’ve been more done with Jessica questioning her own notions of what her powers mean, regardless of whether she’s “earned” them or not.

It is incredibly satisfying to see Jessica destroying everything that Gregory views as the things that give him worth though because it’s always entertaining to see a psychopath’s self-worth destroyed.

Despite not utilizing some ideas in this episode to their fullest extent, Jessica Jones is once again coming around to its best self.