Episode eleven highlights everything that’s wrong with the Netflix/Marvel shows. If we had to describe what is the biggest problem with these shows, nearly everyone’s answer would be pacing. That is, far, far too many episodes a season. Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, The Punisher and even the best among these, Daredevil, suffered from the need to tell a single, coherent story in about 13 hours of television.

A.K.A. Hellcat doesn’t solve the cliffhanger left by the previous episode, and instead decides to go back and tell us another point of view from the last few happenings. That is not a problem in itself, as the season had already done this earlier on and it worked, but this time it feels like merely a way to waste some time ’till we get to what really matters.

When it happened earlier on, the Trish-flashback episode felt important and added a lot to the character and the story as a whole. This time, apart from one scene or another, nearly all points made were either obvious or repetitive, and the episode fails to explain the only thing that truly had to be explained: Why Erik is helping Trish without even talking to Jessica.

We got a lot of scenes with Trish and Erik, and the only thing that needed to be explained was his reason to help her. However, after the episode, it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why would he help Trish, who’s clearly unstable after seeing her mother murdered, behind Jessica’s back and against all common sense? He literally had just helped Jessica destroy evidence that could put Salinger in jail, and all of that because of Trish’s recklessness after Dorothy’s death. He should’ve known better.

Meanwhile, the flashbacks to Trish’s childhood as a rising star added nothing to the show at all, since we’ve known for a while that it was tough on her, that Dorothy was an awful, obnoxious human being, and that Trish was a mere tool that her mother used to get the money and fame she wanted. Aside from a nice scene at the end where Trish repeats what her mother used to say to her, these served no purpose at all. Redundant.

As for Hellcat herself, we knew Trish had been looking for bad guys to beat up for a while. The end of episode ten made clear that it was she who killed Nussbaumer and showed her attacking Jace Montero, so why did we get an entire episode of her doing exactly that? Why waste so many of our precious minutes with it? Not only were these scenes repetitive, but they were also obvious and didn’t need to be there.

There were, however, important moments. First, we find out that Trish met Salinger at the hospital, and he seemed really on top of things. Despite being tied to a hospital bed and with half his face clawed off, he looked amazingly calm and in control while talking to the person responsible for said clawing. Slowly, he’s proving to be an amazing villain, one of the best of the Netflix MCU.

Also, there’s Hogarth. In another of the few scenes that didn’t feel unnecessary in this episode, she visits Trish and asks her a favor in exchange for the destruction of the footage that proved she is the masked vigilante. It’s a very Hogarth thing to do, and it’s been amazing watching her arc this season. Even better, the script is not trying to redeem her but is instead showing that even her attempts at finding someone to be at her side when she dies are completely selfish and regardless of the feelings of others. What a character.

VERDICT

2 stolen badges out of 5

Redundant, repetitive, obvious and unnecessary. Those are just four of the many words that could be used to describe this episode, and one can only hope that it was the break the show needed to deliver a great finale. A.K.A. Hellcat shows exactly what is wrong with the Marvel/Netflix partnership and why most people have simply given up on it. It was, however, one of the few mistakes in an overall pretty good season. Let’s see how they’ll wrap things up.

ONE-SHOTS

  • It’s good that the episode showed Dorothy in the abusive, selfish light the previous seasons treated her. Some scenes of this season seemed to try to redeem her, when, frankly, she didn’t deserve it. Like Hogarth, she did nothing without putting her own needs and aspirations first and would hurt and traumatize her own daughter to get what she wanted. She was abusive, and many of the issues faced by Trish today are because of her being such a bad parent.
  • Why have the fight scenes been so dark? Between the lack of light and the fast cuts, you can hardly see a thing when people start going at it.
  • Erik and Jessica are a truly perfect fit, like Trish herself notices. Too bad we probably won’t get much more of these two together, as the show is about to end. Their relationship feels a lot more natural than Jessica and Oscar’s, for instance.