‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire’ – Episodes 10-11 Recap and Review

Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire is a serialized novel released in a new episode/chapter every week on Serial Box. Today I’m recapping and reviewing episodes ten and eleven, so beware of mild spoilers for all episodes so far.

In episode ten—“Newton’s Third Law”—we find Jessica on her way to meet Diane, the suspiciously nice owner and operator of the Nova Naledi commune for young Flares. Diane is surprised (and not entirely pleasantly) by Jessica’s unexpected appearance on her very nice doorstep in her very nice neighborhood, but appears welcoming enough on the surface. In fact, she is so welcoming, and friendly, and generally nice, that Jessica finds herself uncharacteristically overcome. Perhaps she is wrong after all? Perhaps Diane genuinely has nothing to do with Jamie’s death?

Jessica is still thinking that way when another surprise visitor at Diane’s house puts all such considerations far out of her mind. Here is all the proof that Jessica needs that Jamie’s death was far from the accidental overdose it appeared to be, now all she has to do is survive it…

Episode eleven—“Sleight of Mind”—is perhaps the most twisted of the season so far. As Jessica awakens, she discovers just how much trouble she’s in and begins to regret her habit of pushing people away. When nobody is likely to call you, they’re equally unlikely to notice you’re missing and being held against your will in someone’s basement. Now understanding Nova Naledi’s role in Jamie’s death thanks to a classic villain monologue, Jessica believes she is headed the same way and begins to give up hope, her PTSD violently triggered by the situation which reminds her strongly of her time under the influence of Killgrave. But when she discovers one of the Flares has been captured alongside her, her urge to resist is reignited.

Although largely slow-paced, one impressively violent fight notwithstanding, these two episodes are filled with answers to many of the questions that have been building throughout the story so far. Jessica has discovered how both Nova Naledi and Diane factor into Jamie’s death and she also has an increasingly good idea of what happened to the kid whose murder she was hired to investigate, but, of course, there are still some questions left to resolve. Most crucially for Jessica is how she is going to escape her current predicament, but a question mark still remains over the role of the Hellfire Club.

Now that we finally have some answers, I’m excited to see where Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire is headed for its final five chapters, and even more curious to know just how Jessica will free herself from her latest predicament. Until then, check out my recap and review of the finale of Black Widow: Bad Blood which posed its final episode this week and come back on August 6th for more from Jessica Jones.

GeekMom received a copy of this book for review purposes.

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