Jessica Jones quotes

Jeri

[tracing a tattoo on Inez's back] What does this mean?

Inez

Um "Good luck" in Japanese. Yeah, one of many mistakes by an 18-year-old me.

Jeri

Have you ever been to Tokyo?

Inez

Between nursing school and being homeless? Mmm... haven't really had the chance.

Jeri

Maybe after this we could, um go on a trip. It's a great city.

Inez

I know what you're doing, Jeri.

Jeri

What? I can't ruminate about the future?

Inez

Like how fast you'll kick me out the second Shane heals you?

Jeri

[scoffs] Cynical.

Inez

You're a user. Takes one to know one, right?

Jeri

You expect me to let this go so quickly?

Inez

I don't expect anything, okay?

Jessica

That thing about having your cake and eating it, too? Whoever said that probably didn't have cake that killed people.

Alisa

Look, what I'm trying to say is... [sighs] is that if I had been driving, we would all still be alive. So it's my fault, too. That's a great role model for your daughter, right? "Shut up and sit shotgun."

Jessica

You've set worse examples.

Alisa

Never once did it cross my mind that any of this is your fault.

Jessica

Funny, 'cause it crossed mine about a million times. [Alisa flushes the "ashes" down the toilet] What are you doing?

Alisa

Closure.

Jessica

Is that supposed to make me feel better?

Alisa

Feel how you feel. You have nothing to forgive yourself for.

Trish

You clearly care about gluten very deeply. But here's the thing: it doesn't matter. Diets, hair volume, space-saving packing tips. None of it matters, when there's war, sex trafficking, elusive companies conducting illegal human research on kids, no less! I could go on.... no, no, no, I will go on. Racism, global warming, child pornography, murder, poverty, true human suffering that too many people refuse to look at. Denial is a warm bed that no one wants to get out of, and Trish Talk is the comforter on that bed. I keep you complacent, I keep your eyes down. But you know what? This show is bullshit. I've been spouting bullshit. Wake up, people! Face the truth. Bad shit happens every day, and every single goddamn person has the power to do something about it. So do something! I'm going to. Starting with throwing off the covers and getting the hell off this shitty show. I quit!

He's my son! You think he's better off with you?

Jessica

No, I think he's better off with a mother who isn't in prison.

I got nothing left, except for him.

Jessica

You're his mother. Nothing's gonna change that.

Alisa

I almost put your face through the floor. Where's your sense of self-preservation?

Jessica

You're still my mother.

Alisa

No, I just have her voice. Karl is all I've got.

Jessica

Then you're a goddamn idiot.

Jessica

The moral of my shitty story is, if your dead parent comes back to life, stick 'em back in the ground. [sighs]

Malcolm

So that woman was your mother?

Jessica

Is.

Malcolm

And you kept her here for two days and didn't tell anyone?

Trish

It can't be easy for Jess, she lost her whole family.

Jessica

You don't have to defend me.

Malcolm

No, you know what else isn't easy? Giving a crap about you when you consistently lie to me.

Jessica

I wanted to keep you out of it.

Malcolm

I work here, okay? I pretty much live here. What do I have to do to prove to you that I can handle shit?

Trish

Mal, calm down.

Jessica

"Mal"?

Malcolm

[to Trish] And you? I mean, why don't you get honest with her and tell her about that shit you've been taking? I'm so sick of being the only one who's for real around here. [leaves room, slamming the door]

Oscar

You know, the time I spent inside it wasn't easy, I'm not gonna lie. But the first Saturday of every month, I got to see Vido. Wasn't perfect, but to me, it was everything. Your mother did some bad things but she's your family. There's gotta be something good in her.

Jessica

No, she's just a selfish asshole.

Oscar

You're gonna get through this, Jessica.

Jessica

No, I won't. I'm not gonna see my mother the first Saturday of every goddamn month. She's going to some Guantanamo hellhole, and I'm never gonna see her again.

Jeri

I wanted you to meet Shane before you made any decisions about Dr. Malus. What he did was unethical, yes, but also miraculous.

Jessica

Are you kidding me?

Jeri

Jessica, your mother is alive, you and Shane have extraordinary abilities. With the proper funding and support, imagine what Dr. Malus' work could do for the world.

Jessica

You want to profit from this.

Jeri

Screw profit. [sighs] He healed me. And if it works, he's given me a second chance. And I want other people to have that same chance instead of locking it behind bars or eliminating it altogether.

Jessica

Jeri, I don't think you are changed.

Jeri

Forgiveness is hard for you, I know.

Jessica

I mean physically. You're still sick, Shane's a fraud.

Jeri

I'm sorry?

Jessica

He was never at IGH, and they never made a healer.

Jeri

But Inez–

Jessica

She lied. She used what she knew from working at IGH, and she made the whole thing up.

Jeri

I felt something when he touched me.

Jessica

Because you wanted to feel something.

Jeri

I'm not some ignorant trailer park hick. What he did to me was real. I've had no symptoms.

Jessica

In, what, two days? [sighs] You can't test for ALS, right? So you can't confirm the results. Inez is a nurse., she knew that.

Jeri

Mmm-mmm. No.

Jessica

Let me deal with them.

Jeri

No.

Jessica

Then you need to go the cops.

Jeri

No.

Jessica

Jeri, you don't deserve this. They are scum.

Jeri

You're wrong. Whoever you talked to, whatever they told you, it's wrong. Shane is real.

Jessica

Then just be careful.

Alisa

Um, may I make a phone call before I eat my breakfast?

You trying to take advantage of the substitute teacher?

Alisa

No, no. It's just, my daughter had a blind date last night. I wanna make sure she got home safe.

I talk to my girl every damn day, whether she wants to or not.

Alisa

You never stop being a mom, do you?

Eight years of my life in this case, perfect as the day I designed it.

Trish

Then let's go.

Karl

Do you really need the gun?

Trish

Where were you gonna run?

Karl

Who's running?

Trish

With your new passports. Where were you running?

Karl

Uruguay.

Trish

Lot of cutting-edge science in Uruguay?

Karl

Hardly.

Trish

So you were just gonna go there and you were gonna read? Garden? Learn basket weaving? Or you'll just sit, smoke, wait to die alone?

Karl

You already have me at gunpoint. You don't have to crush my soul as well.

Trish

Maybe you will reflect on your life's work. Hurting people, creating a killer.

Karl

I wanted to save people. I did save people.

Trish

But the science was never harnessed, never perfected. So you failed. That's your legacy. But listen, it doesn't have to be. You wanted to be extraordinary, right? Maybe you still can be. Why don't you tell me, do I really need the gun?

Alisa

You can't send me out there alone.

Karl

I'm not sending you anywhere. I'll get us a little place by the water, somewhere safe. It'll just be you and me.

Alisa

[chuckles] I can't let you give up your life's work for me.

Karl

This is what I want. Not because I'm your doctor, not because you're the most powerful woman I've ever met–

Alisa

I can jump ten stories, but I can't grow hair. What kind of a lame-ass power is that? [laughs]

Karl

I know it's complicated. It's completely unethical.

Alisa

I'm an illegal experiment, and you're worried about ethics? Screw ethics. [kisses Karl]

Trish

How long will it take?

Karl

Jessica took 20 days, but she was near death and I've been honing the procedure ever since. On paper at least.

Trish

That's a plus.

Karl

Jessica and Alisa's abilities were a rare side effect, related to their specific DNA. I was never able to decode it.

Trish

So my DNA is a crapshoot? Just wanna know what I'm getting into.

Karl

Uh, this vaccine is a live virus. Its DNA can unlock yours. It's the first step in editing your personal genome. But it could all–

Trish

Go terribly wrong. You've said.

Karl

Are you changing your mind?

Trish

Do you know what it's like to feel powerless?

Karl

Everyone does.

Trish

Not everyone has an abusive mother and a superpowered sister. I just wanna help people who can't help themselves. [scoffs] God, I sound like an insurance commercial.

Karl

No, no, no. You sound like somebody who wants to save the world. I do, too.

Malcolm

Jess, I'm so sorry. I thought we were helping you.

Jessica

Why don't you help yourself? Because you can't, can you? So you obsess over everybody else's shit instead of dealing with your own.

Malcolm

Hey, I am dealing with my shit!

Jessica

Sticking your dick in anything that moves is the same thing as sticking a needle in your arm. But you know what? I don't give a shit what you stick where, as long as you do it far away from me.

Malcolm

Everything that I've done for you, peeling your sorry ass off the floor every single morning, working late every single night just to keep this sinking ship afloat? Why do you think I did all that?

Jessica

Because you have nowhere else to be.

Malcolm

Because I believe in you and what we could do. Maybe I've been wasting my time.

Jessica

I relied on you. I don't rely on anyone, but I relied on you.

Malcolm

It's my job.

Jessica

Not anymore. You're just some guy who lives down the hall.

Malcolm

Well, just in case you change your mind, again I quit.