There isn't as much forward plot progression, at least not initially. However, the episodes makes up for it with more emotional moments. Jessica is still devastated by her mom being locked away and becomes determined to do everything in her power to keep her from being sent to "the raft". Life in prison is a given, but at least Jessica would be able to see her. Unfortunately, the presented deal means turning in Karl, and Alisa just won't do that.
At first, I figured Jessica's best course of action would be to turn Karl in. Interestingly enough, she knows that this is a bad idea and instead arranges to have him moved to another country, thus making Alisa's confession useless insofar as the government wouldn't be able to get to him. For his part, while Karl is initially skeptical of the idea (he doesn't want to leave Alisa), Jessica is able to convince him to go with it. While it's been talked about, I think this episode has done the best job showing how committed these two are to each other. These are some of the most extenuating circumstances imaginable and these two just refuse to give up on each other. It's oddly, nice.
Speaking of nice, Hogarth's sudden cure has given her a new lease on life. She's more optimistic and wants to do more good for the sake of good. Not only does this give her earlier depictions a much better payoff, as it was setting up her growth here, but it also makes the later plot twist that much more heartbreaking.
Karl reveals that he never experimented on anyone named Shane or ever gave anyone healing powers. My first thought was that maybe he was an inhuman. It would've been a cool way to integrate the extended MCU (much like how one episode of "Agents of Shield" had a character use a Judas bullet). Even putting that aside, it isn't like IGH is the only source of metas in the MCU. Alas, it turns out the whole thing was a con.
The sequence of Jeri coming home to an empty apartment was indeed breathtakingly heartwrenching, I'm not so sure about the twist itself, though. I know placebos are a thing, but I have a hard time buying that nothing happened or that there weren't earlier signs that something was amiss. In any event, it'll be interesting to see Hogarth unleash her focus and fury on the pair. What once was her greatest weakness in earlier episodes could become something to look forward to in episodes to come.
While we're on the topic of focus and fury, Alisa's stay in prison doesn't go so well. One of the guards turns out to be a little extra-sadistic. At first it seemed like he was just dishing out payback for Alisa raging out and spooking him, but we later learn that staging prisoner suicides is his thing.
The discovery comes courtesy of Jessica, who finds his trophies while investigating his house. This scene was a little telegraphed. With the voiceover spelling it out, you knew that he was going to pop out and confront her. Sure enough, he does.
The element of surprise turns out to be a game changer as he manages to subdue Jessica rather easily. She really hasn't fared well in skirmishes as of late. She barely held her own against the Hand, she lost every encounter with her mother, she got beaten pretty badly here; poor girl needs a win.
She does manage to land a single blow in the end. It's bittersweet, however, as it was a fatal one. You can see Jessica's horror and sadness plain as day on her face. Killing a person is harrowing enough, but it's also clearly bringing back memories of the Kilgrave confrontation. It makes for a strong ending. It isn't really a cliffhanger in the traditional sense, but it does leave you wanting to see what happens next.
I'm a little iffy on the Mal/Trish subplot. Mal cutting ties and saying that the two were no longer friends was actually a heavy moment. It's sadly undercut by the fact that the two hookup again later. It's nice that the two have more than just a friends with benefits thing, but I think they could've held the tension on that one a bit longer and shown some emotional turmoil over the severing connection.
While I rather enjoyed the tense confrontation between Trish and Alisa, I did find myself struggling to remember how these two even have such animosity for one another. The scene works well, McTeer is especially strong; and if you think about it for a few minutes, little details will come back to you, but it still seems like a plot aspect that went undeveloped. Maybe that's something that you gain from binge watching as opposed to watching sporadically as I have been doing.
It does look like Trish is attempting to get superpowers for herself. Some have called this out of left field, but I always remember Trish wanting them. She encouraged Jessica to take a crack at superherodom back in the day and it was also one of the reasons she started using Simpson's drug. I'm not sure where her plot will go from here, but we'll have to see.
This episode wasn't quite as strong as the ones that came before it. There are problems here and there, but there's some good stuff to be seen as well. A lot of it comes from the character moments, but I also think the episode did a good job of setting up future plot points for the remaining episodes to explore. I wasn't sure what else could be done before, but now there's enough fodder where I can see what the next couple of episodes can explore and examine.
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