Jessica tries to help Luke with something while dealing with Hope's problems in prison, and Kilgrave works to buy a house.
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Malcolm assures Jessica that Kilgrave's powers can't be magical in nature, defending his comments with "The same way I know that elves don't exist." As Jessica Jones seems to take place some time after the "incident", it would make sense that Malcolm is unaware of the existence of Dark Elves and their attack on London in Thor: The Dark World and few if anyone seems to know about the magical abilities taught at Kamar-Taj besides the sorcerers themselves yet.
- Bait the Dog:
- It seems like Kilgrave may have done something semi-decent when he gives a sizable amount of his "winnings" at poker (that he was blatantly cheating at using his powers) to the blonde dealer, but then he follows it up immediately by ordering an annoying player who's been pestering him the whole game to bash his head through a thick wooden column.
- Later, Kilgrave buys a house without the use of his powers. It turns out to be Jessica's childhood home, which he's buying legally as part of his attempt to get Jessica to fall for him (plus avoiding the original owner coming back the next day after the compulsion wears off).
- Big "SHUT UP!": Kilgrave barks "Everybody QUIET!!!!" to a crowded restaurant.
- Black Comedy: Kilgrave using his powers to cheat at poker
- Blunt "Yes": In a non-verbal sense. Jessica gets Hogarth to arrange for Hope to get an abortion pill. Jessica hands Hope the pill and asks Hope if she is absolutely sure about what she is about to do, clearly preparing to make a long speech about how the procedure could affect her, but Hope immediately swallows it.
- Chekhov's Gun: Surprisingly enough, Hope's aborted fetus becomes this later in the season. Jeri keeps it to try and study Kilgrave's powers, and when he learns of this, he forces his father to use its stem cells in an attempt to increase his powers.
- Continuity Nod: The marijuana farm is located in the same factory where Madame Gao ran her heroin manufacturing plant in season 1 of Daredevil (2015). You can even see the scorch marks in the wall left over from when that lab got torched.
- Dark and Troubled Past: We learn about how Reva died in this episode and how Luke reacted to it. We already knew that Kilgrave forced Jessica to do it, now we get more information about the setting.
- Eye Scream: One of the poker players lights a cigar.Kilgrave: If you light that thing, I'll make you put it out in your eye.Harvey: I'd like to see you try.Kilgrave: Arseholes try. I just do. Put that out. [Harvey puts the cigar down in his whiskey glass]
- Foreshadowing: While fighting off the dogs, Jessica expresses concern. Luke assures her that "sharp teeth are his specialty", which subtly foreshadows Cottonmouth's appearance in Luke's own show. It might also be a reference to the fact that the loan shark they are facing, who in the comics had shark like features.
- "I will get those divorce papers if I have to dangle her off a ledge, is that what you want to hear?" "Yes."
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. Hope pays another inmate to beat her once she realizes she's pregnant with Kilgrave's baby. Jessica never tries to talk her out of it. Her only complaint is about Hope's method, having an inmate savagely beat her, not her goal.
- Head Desk: Kilgrave makes an annoying poker player bash his head repeatedly against a thick wooden column.
- Internal Reveal: Luke learns that Jessica killed Reva. He's not happy about this.
- Loophole Abuse: Ain't no rule that says you can't jedi all of the other poker players into going all-in then folding.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Several well-dressed men being dealt a high-stakes poker game with Kilgrave in a dark corner somewhere, and they're only surprised when he gets really blatant with his powers during the game — if they are gangsters, then his fleecing them would make them an odd case of an Asshole Victims out of Kilgrave's many "regular" victims. Kilgrave telling one of them to put his head through a post over a matter of continued opposition is still disturbing.
- Mythology Gag:
- Kilgrave orders an entire restaurant to shut up: this is a toned down version of one of his comic counterpart's most infamous crimes, where he ordered an entire restaurant to stop breathing so he could enjoy his eggs in peace.
- Jessica tries to redirect Luke to another PI by the name of Angela Del Toro, better known in the comics as the fourth White Tiger.
- Out of Focus: This is the only episode in the series where Trish is completely absent.
- Product Placement: Sort of. Jessica explicitly mentions Xbox One as a prize in her fake phone message. Plus, the bus Luke takes later on in the episode has the number 117, the code number of the Master Chief. Mike Colter's character in the games was sent to hunt him down.
- "Psycho" Strings: As the camera pulls back from the house Kilgrave just bought to the street signs that form part of Jessica's Madness Mantra, we get a collection of harsh strings.
- Shout-Out:
- The guard dogs are named Meyers and Krueger.
- Kilgrave peels back the wallpaper in Jessica's childhood house to uncover earlier writing. With all the references made to David Tennant's Doctor Who tenure, it's interesting to notice a potential reference to "Blink".
- Title Drop: Jessica drops the title when she lures the person with the phone of the kid they're trying to find with a fake message declaring that he's won a prize that he entered a contest for.
- Wham Line: "I'm pregnant... ... ... Still."
- What the Hell, Hero?: Luke calls Jessica out for concealing the truth about what happened to Reva.
- Working with the Ex: Luke hires Jessica to track down a kid brother of a friend of his. Awkward all over.
