Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 4 is published by Serial Box, written by Lauren Beukes, Vita Ayala, Sam Beckbessinger, Zoe Quinn, and Elsa Sjunneson, and narrated by Fryda Wolff. With Jessica’s compulsion to discover the truth now going full throttle, she sets out to determine what really happened to Jamie Greene. But with few leads to follow at the moment, Jessica decides her best starting point will be the morgue. Maybe a friend there has some information she might find useful.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 4 continues to do an excellent job fleshing out the inner workings of Jessica Jones. While having the need to pick at the truth like a scab isn’t a new trait, pretty much every private eye ever written about has it, it is implemented with great skill here. Jessica’s obsession with getting to the bottom of things is great for her chosen profession, but also helps explain why she can come across as cold or off putting. She knows, once invested, she’s going to need to know everything. With those sorts of tendencies, it’s understandable that she is choosy about what she does or doesn’t get involved with.
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Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 4 opens with Jessica heading down to visit Dr. Aimee Clarkson. Dr. Clarkson is a forensic doctor working at the local morgue. She clearly has an extensive history with Jessica and they play off each other nicely. Clarkson’s willingness to leave the room with files lying around that Jessica shouldn’t see speaks volumes of her confidence in Jessica’s qualities as a person. Both with what she’ll use the information for and her discretion with how she got it.
With the coroner’s report bringing up more questions than answers, Jessica chooses to follow up on the only other lead she has. She returns to Jamie’s previous place of employment, The Hellfire Club. But alas, they are closed. And sure, there’s a second-story balcony open, but how could someone ever get up there. You’d have to like, be able to fly or something…
The biggest surprise to me when I read the first portion of Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 4 was the presence of the Hellfire Club. The club is run by a group called the Inner Circle. These individuals comprise some of the X-Men’s greatest enemies and are directly responsible for the events of the seminal classic storyline Dark Phoenix Saga. And their leader, Sebastian Shaw, is one of my all-time favorite baddies. And before you ask, this is not the travesty of a Shaw you were exposed to if you saw X-Men: First Class. This Shaw is a ruthless millionaire bent on controlling whatever he wants through manipulation, money, and his own personal power. And the writing job here nails every aspect of him in just a handful of lines of dialogue.
Jessica’s investigation into the Hellfire Club’s doings would be spoiling things, so I won’t go into detail. But I will say it went exactly how I would want it to. Jessica’s brilliance in detective work is only equaled by her ability to cause problems. It leaves the story on a great note, and I cannot wait to see what episode five will bring.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 4 is available June 4th from Serial Box.
Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire Episode 4
TL;DR
Jessica’s brilliance in detective work is only equaled by her ability to cause problems. It leaves the story on a great note, and I cannot wait to see what episode five will bring.
