While Kilgrave sexually abuses only some of his victims, his ability to take away their free will lets Jessica Jones stage interesting conversations about consent, who can lose it and what it means to have been deprived of your agency.
In the real world, those discussions have become deeply entangled in larger debates about the politics of college campuses and sexual assault law. Jessica Jones may not be able to break those deadlocks. But it at least gives us new ways into fraught ideas.
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Among the many strengths of Jessica Jones is the sympathy the series creators show for people who do dreadful things under Kilgraves influence, and their insistence on the possibility of reconciliation.
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In a similar way, one of the more subtle, and useful, things Kilgraves powers do for Jessica Jones is that they mean the show can draw a clear distinction between the times when Jessica has genuinely been robbed of her free will and ability to consent, and the occasions on which shes just making terrible, self-destructive decisions.
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This is a refreshingly grown-up perspective on Jessicas situation. And the series is a nice reminder that although comic books are derided as a kids medium, their supernatural setups can provide us with clarifying thought experiments that allow us to approach our present dilemmas with fresh perspectives.
