#free_choice – English 1102: Television and Feminism

From the beginning of my journey into Jessica Jones’s world back in Season 1 to where I stand now, halfway through Season 2, an aspect that always interested me more than any other, while equally intriguing me, was the law system in the show, more specifically its corruption. Anomalies within the justice system was present in many episodes, such as in the very first, when a married male strip club owner caught having an affair with another woman by Jessica, and issued a subpoena to attend court, still leaves with a verdict of not guilty, to the episode I am on in Season 2 where Jessica and her step-sister Trish are released from prison after falsely being accused of a murder committed by, pretty much, a monster. This constant repetition of false trials and incorrect decisions, in addition to representing the inevitable inconsistencies in the justice system in the real world, especially in a populous city such as New York (the show’s setting), also demonstrate the fact that justice is simply a relative term that can easily be manipulated by people looking to take advantage of its inconsistencies.

Jessica Jones is presented as an ideal example of someone who not only endures a lack of justice provided in the first place given her minority status in the overall population around her (a female with super-powers), but also someone who constantly has to endure the consistently manipulated justice. From the reaction of passersby whenever Jessica reveals a snippet of her superhuman strength to the reaction of the jury whenever her super-powers came into picture in the court, which she has visited plenty of times due to falsely being accused of crimes, it is obvious that the society dislikes anyone with such abnormalities, even if they have them without their consent, as is the case for Jessica as she was experimented upon as a child. In addition, she has also witnessed several instances of people using this flimsy justice system to their advantage, a prime example being Kilgrave, who, as Jessica herself has recalled several times, has raped her, forced her to kill someone, and provided her with a strong case of PTSD because of those reasons and his mind-controlling abilities, all without suffering any consequences. Jessica, however, after successfully managing to kill him in the end of Season 1, is sent straight to prison for murdering someone who has tormented her and several other lives.

Finally, as it can be seen by the instances above, Jessica Jones has made many more visits to courts than any male character in the show, including her neighbor Malcolm, who has been present with her following many of the murders (although to help her most of the time) and still remained unquestioned by the police. This trend can therefore relate the justice system in the show to gender axes as well, making the law system in the show that much more corrupted but still interesting to discover more corruption of.

Image result for jessica jones justice gif

“One, keep denying it…”

Throughout the series so far Sense8 has been building up tension in various different plots. In episode seven, W. W. N. Double D? (What Would Nancy Drew Do?), many of these buildups reach an apparent climax by becoming entwined with one another, while also leaving room for further development. Here are two examples of this.

Joaquin, an enemy of Lito’s, has been stalking him for multiple episodes. Meanwhile Lito and his boyfriend Hernando are constantly worried that their romance will become public knowledge, potentially threatening Lito’s acting career as a straight sex-icon. In this episode Joaquin directly confronts Lito, steals his beard’s phone, and texts him a picture of him and Fernando engaging in intercourse. In this way two independent sources of tension collide and cause a climax.

Joaquin reveals a new extent of his evil while confronting Lito

This climax is not the end-all-be-all climax of these plotlines however, as Joaquin has not yet published the image. Lito voices one possible avenue for continued buildup of tension when he moans with dread: “He will blackmail me!”

Another pair of tension lines developed in this episode are Nomi’s quack almost-surgeon Dr. Metzger and the mysterious Dr. Matheson. In a prior episode Nomi is nearly lobotomized by Dr. Metzger, and in this episode she and her girlfriend Neets set out to figure out why. They break into his house and begin doing some snooping, and then end up confronting him directly when he returns home early.

Along the way, Nomi clones Metzger’s phone and makes a call to one “Dr. Matheson.” On the phone he knows who she is before she speaks and says they will meet soon. While Nomi is interrogating Dr. Metzger, it becomes clear that Metzger is terrified of Matheson, and then Jason (not one of the 8, instead an independent sensate) appears to Nomi to warn her to run before “Whispers” shows up.

His warning comes too late however, as one of Metzger’s past lobotomy patients, suddenly capable of motion again, shows up before Nomi can escape. He draws a gun and shoots first Metzger, and then himself. But not without the camera first panning to show his reflection is the man who drove the woman in the opening shot of episode one to kill herself.

The lobotomized-and-yet-walking sensate’s reflection is replaced by Matheson

The implications here (as far as I can tell) are:
A) Metzger was creating mindless sensates for this man to control

B) This man is Matheson (and Whispers)

C) Since he did not shoot Nomi (despite having the opportunity to at one point) he will be returning as an antagonist in a future episode

As such, the plotlines of Metzger and Matheson became entwined, leading to a climax in each. Additionally, despite the dramatic and violent climax, there is now a new avenue for the plot to continue to develop and tension to continue to grow as Nomi and Neets investigate Matheson’s identity.

English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology

Tag: #free_choice

Corrupted Justice in Jessica Jones

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