Jessica vows to prove Hope's innocence, but that means finding the person she has spent so long running from.
Tropes:
- Accidental Adultery: Luke did not know the woman he was having an affair with was married untill Jessica told him.
- Bar Brawl: Luke gets into one with his fling's husband (which Jessica ends up joining), which serves to demonstrate both his mental toughness and his physical invincibility.
- Buffy Speak: On the phone with the company that made Denton's dialysis machine, Jessica claims that "it's not... dialysizing."
- Bullying a Dragon: Robyn discovers the hard way that entering arguments with Jessica is risky.
- Child Hater: Kilgrave. When he invites himself into a family's home for dinner, he takes quick a look at their two children, declares that kids should neither be seen nor heard, and forces them to lock themselves inside a closet for the night. For good measure, he also casually destroys the brother's toy car.
- Crazy Cat Lady: The interior of the second locker Jessica breaks into at the hospital is plastered with photos of at least twelve different cats (and one male acquaintance, likely a vet). Jessica reacts with only a very small "Eugh".
- Curbstomp Battle: Luke and Jessica's opponents in the Bar Brawl stand no chance.
- Death by Origin Story: We learn that the picture in Luke's medicine cabinet is of Reva, from before his escape from Seagate, and that Jessica has a photograph of him at her funeral, showing her stalking has been going on for a while.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first time we see Kilgrave in the present, he invades a family's home, completely overwhelming their lives, crushes a child's toy for no reason then locks both children in the closet, including telling the girl to pee in the closet.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Attempted against Luke Cage. Thanks to his unbreakable skin, it doesn't work.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Jack Denton, the man who was forced to give his kidneys to Kilgrave, is on dialysis, and has had a stroke which has made him unable to walk or talk, writes KILL ME on a notepad to Jessica. She doesn't.
- Kick the Dog: When he invades a family's home to take it over, Kilgrave stomps on a boy's purple toy car for no reason.
- Make Sure He's Dead: Hope blames her troubles on Jessica because she didn't confirm that Kilgrave died in the bus accident.
- Potty Failure: One of the kids made to go into the closet by Kilgrave pees herself since he ordered her to go in there.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Jessica does this twice, both trying to convince someone, first Jeri Hogarth ("Take. Hope's. case!") and then Trish ("I can't. Risk. you.").
- Shout-Out: When Jessica is interrogated by Oscar Clemons, she mentions she enjoys antiquing as an icebreaking gambit; much like Lester Freamon from The Wire, another character played by Clarke Peters, Clemons reveals he's got an eye for the finer things as well. In the same conversation, there's a different Actor Allusion: Jessica claims she was on her way to Pennsylvania, which is Krysten Ritter's home state (she hails from Bloomsburg in the northeast part).
- Social Engineering: Jessica is good at this. In this episode she disguises herself as a nurse to get the information she needs about the ambulance driver who helped Kilgrave survive and fake his death.
- Threw My Bike on the Roof: To hammer home the point that Kilgrave is an utterly vile person, even in smallest of ways, one of the first things the audience sees him do is casually breaking a child's toy just for the sake of it.
- Title Drop: Dr. Kurata says that one of Kilgrave's kidneys was destroyed in the accident and the other was starting to break down due to crush syndrome (destroyed muscle tissue releases protein and enzymes into the blood, which damages the kidneys).
- Trespassing to Talk: Luke waits in the dark of Jessica's office/home for her to return.
- Would Hurt a Child: Kilgrave doesn't care if the kids he ordered to lock themselves in a closet will starve.
