Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 5 is published by Serial Box, written by Lauren Beukes, Vita Ayala, Sam Beckbessinger, Zoe Quinn, Elsa Sjunneson, and narrated by Fryda Wolff. Following a disastrous run-in with Sebastian Shaw at the Hellfire Club, Jessica Jones finds herself in a holding cell awaiting the arrival of two of Hell’s Kitchen’s most popular legal defenders, and old friends of her’s.
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With the last episode ending with Jessica finding herself on the wrong end of the human freight train that is Sebastian Shaw, that fight went as well as it possibly could’ve for her, Jessica finds herself in a holding cell at the local police precinct.
The writing in this opening moment is sublime. The description given by Jessica of the unpleasantness of this particular holding cell, along with the abomination of a cup of coffee she gets during questioning, is spectacular. They are the sort of descriptions that truly paint a picture in the mind’s eye. An unpleasant picture to be sure, especially with the coffee, but a vivid and real one none the less.
Luckily, Jessica’s Calvary soon arrives in the form of Nelson and Murdock. Feeling like Murdock owed her some help for the soft serve incident that started our story, Jessica had no qualms with calling in a favor. Regardless of whether or not he owed her, Matt comes into this scene looking to poke the bear. Not too hard mind you. He knows Jessica’s intents are always on the good side. It’s more like a gentle prodding about how, if she’s going to insist on breaking into rich, private establishments she really needs to not get caught. And I suppose, given Murdock’s own skills when it comes to stealth infiltration, he has the authority to be just a little condescending in this moment.
Friendly ribbing aside, Jessica soon finds herself back on the street, and in no way deterred from further pursuing her objective. But with the Hellfire Club outside of her reach, by order of the New York City Police Department, she must look to the few other leads she still has. So next stop, the location of one Sketchy Steve.
Jessica’s talk with Sketchy Steve is my personal highlight of Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 5. While Jessica often comes across as just angry and bitter she has many sides. Like angry and playful! Seriously though, her method of inducing Steve to give her as much as he can on what happened to Jamie Greene is unique. And you can tell she is getting no small amount of satisfaction from making him squirm. Which, given the abuse, she got at the hands of Shaw, and the sub-par accommodations in the NYPD holding cell, I’d say our lady has earned her smile.
The wrap up to this episode though shows where Jessica truly gets to shine. When she gets to help people. And while sure, she is potentially getting something as well, she isn’t going to kick honest people when they are down. The bit of kindness in this closing moment helps cement Jessica as someone who isn’t really mean, just someone who’s tolerance for the garbage people do has run out.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 5 is available exclusively at Serial Box June 11th.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire Episode 5
TL;DR
The wrap up to this episode though, shows where Jessica truly gets to shine. When she gets to help people. And while sure, she is potentially getting something as well, she isn’t going to kick honest people when they are down. The bit of kindness in this closing moment helps cement Jessica as someone who isn’t really mean, just someone who’s tolerance for the garbage people do has run out.
