Kilgrave (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"Dear God, I would do anything to see the look on her face when she realizes she's helpless. I'd make her want me. Then reject her. Devastate her over and over and over until she wants to die... No, I won't give her that, either. She'd wither away like someone dying of thirst or starvation. Be a certain ring of hell, designed specially for her... Or maybe I'll just kill her."

- Kilgrave referencing Jessica Jones

"Kilgrave leaves a trail of broken people behind him..."

- Jessica about Kilgrave

Kilgrave, real name Kevin Thompson, is the main antagonist of the Netflix hit series Jessica Jones. Born with a brain disorder, he was tested on by his scientist parents who were able to save him but in the process he gained mind control abilities. When coming across Jessica Jones, he became obsessed with her until Jones broke free from his power, prompting Thompson to kill her.

He is portrayed by well-acclaimed actor David Tennant, who also portrays Barty Crouch Jr. and voiced Wilf.

Past
On January, 20th, after Kilgrave forced her to kill a women, Jessica continued to walk away from the scene despite Kilgrave's orders. Following Jessica onto the street while furiously demanding that she returns to him, Kilgrave was hit by a bus and Jessica expected him to be dead. However, though injured, Kilgrave survived. Using his mind control power on the ambulance driver, he escaped from the scene. The ambulance driver was found three weeks later, having almost died after having been forced to donate both his kidneys. Kilgrave, who had lost a kidney due to Crush Syndrome, had forced a doctor to transplant the kidney to himself without being put under anesthesia. Although the doctor told him that a man can perfectly survive with one kidney, Kilgrave forced him to proceed, as he wanted to be whole.

Revealing his survival
After having escaped from Kilgrave, Jessica is constantly tortured by hallucinations about him.

When a couple comes to Jessica to employ her to search their daughter Hope, Jessica finds out that the daughter left anything she had for an unidentified man. Going after the clues she recognizes that the man's behavior follows the same pattern Kilgrave had when Jessica was under his control, for example a one month anniversary dinner. Jessica realizes that despite having seen him die and having seen his death certificate, Kilgrave is still alive and has sent the couple to bring Jessica on his trace.

Knowing the pattern, Jessica goes to the hotel where she expects Hope and she indeed fights her there. She asks Hope whether Kilgrave is there which Hope denies. However, as Kilgrave told her not to move, Hope has to be forcefully removed from the hotel room by Jessica. Jessica reunites Hope with her parents, but tells them that the kidnapper escaped and to bring their daughter home as fast as possible. However, while leaving the apartment through the elevator Hope kills her parents, a order implanted by Kilgrave. When Jessica runs downstairs and arrives before the elevator, she sees Hope with a catatonic expression. Hope then tells Jessica to smile, which refers to a situation where Kilgrave told her the exact same thing. Realizing that the couple had to die just out of Kilgrave's spite, Jessica decides to hunt down her old nemesis.

Investigated by Jessica
"I'm gonna be your guest here indefinitely. You'll be delighted... Children should be seen and not heard. Or better still, not seen and not heard. Get into that closet."

- Kilgrave using his mind control powers on a family

When visiting Hope, who has been brought to prison, Hope reveals to her that Kilgrave made her jump as high as she could for hours, however Kilgrave told her that she never was as good as Jessica. Jessica tells Hope that none of this is her fault, to which Hope replies that it's Jessica's. Kilgrave told her that Jessica left him to die and better had waited until he had. She tells Jessica that Kilgrave is mad at Jessica and wants to get revenge by making her suffer as he did. Before Jessica is forced to leave, because Hope is too distraught, Hope tells Jessica that she would be better of killing herself. To save Hope from being sentenced to lifetime incarceration, Jessica tries to bring the powerful attorney Jeri Hogarth to play as a defender for Hope. However, Jeri first asks for proof that Kilgrave exists. Jessica finds the man who drove the ambulance car after Kilgrave's accident and visits him, finding out that he had a stroke after having been forced to donate both of his kidneys to Kilgrave. However, he was gifted a very expensive dialyses machine by an anonymous donor. Jessica uses the machine as lead and continues her investigation on Kilgrave. Listening to the doctor who forged Kilgrave's death certificate during a lecture he is holding, she is forced to run after him when he sprints out of the room to escape. When she eventually corners him, the doctor tells Jessica that Kilgrave was obsessed with her and had pictures of her with him. The doctor then tells Jessica about how he was forced to transplant the driver's kidneys to Kilgrave. Jessica then forces the man to tell all this to Hogarth, who becomes Hope's attorney.

At the end of the episode, Kilgrave uses his mind control to invite himself into the house of a family indefinitely, having returned to the city for Jessica. After confining both children to the closet, Kilgrave sits down at the dinner table and is served by the homeowners.

Radio show
"First-time caller, long-time listener. Trish, I want to applaud your courage. You've always been a hero to the downtrodden. Self-preservation be damned. It's admirable. But my question is, if there really is a man with the abilities you've described, someone who could make anyone, anywhere, do whatever he wanted them to do... seems to me that insulting him would be wildly dangerous. Or, let's just say it, stupid in the extreme. Everyone has feelings, even, um, how did you put it? Sadistic, corrosive men. Are you worried he might, I don't know, make you kill yourself? Or worse? I'll take my answer off the air."

- Kilgrave calls Trish

Having learned from the doctor that surgical anesthesia knocks out Kilgrave's power, Jessica makes it her next objective to get some. When Jessica persuades her adoptive sister Trish to talk to Hope in her radio talk show, Trish states that she thinks that Kilgrave is real, a sick, perverted man who is preying on the hopeless. Jessica intervenes, knowing that Kilgrave is listening and most likely furious about what he hears. When listening to answers from the people listening, Trish is suddenly called by Kilgrave, who calls her brave but rhetorically wonders if it would be wise to antagonize a person so powerful as she described.

To punish Trish, Kilgrave sends a brainwashed police officer to her home. When Trish opens the door, the man attacks her and after a short fight begins strangling Trish. Trish is saved by the timely arrival of Jessica. However, as he was not told to attack Jessica, he does not fight her, merely trying to get back to Trish to murder her. Having obtained the anaesthesia from the hospital, Jessica narcotizes Trish to make the officer think that he killed her. After seemingly having finished his business, the officer returns to Kilgrave, followed by Jessica. On the roof of the apartment where Kilgrave invited himself, Jessica watches Kilgrave dismissing the officer, telling him to jump off the balcony to his death. To prevemt amother innocent man fall victim to Kilgrave, Jessica jumps onto the balcony and pushes the man back to safety. Kilgrave gets up from the sofa he's sitting on, looking directly at Jessica. When the officer once again tries to jump Jessica is forced to knock him out. When she turns around, Kilgrave is gone.

On her way through the appartment, Jessica is ambushed by the owners, who were told by Kilgrave not to let her follow him. In one of the rooms, she finds that the walls are completely full of pictures of herself, showing Kilgrave's obsession with her.

To be Added

Death
Kilgrave had Jessica meet him at the Hudson Ferry Terminal. Kilgrave taunted Jessica for not having the bravery to confront him before being revealed that Jessica was Trish Walker. As his defenses failed as he made his way to his yacht, Kilgrave revealed that he had chosen the wrong sibling to love and that she would rape Walker, causing her soul to die. When he believed that he had Jessica under his control, he ordered her to say that she loved him. She responded yes, before killing the latter by snapping his neck.

Quotes
"Here I am, just debating where to eat, and then, bam, there you are! Performing feats of heroism. Come here, let me look at you. Come on. Jesus, you're a vision. Hair and skin. Appalling sense of fashion, but that can be remedied. And underneath it all, the power. Just like me."

- Kilgrave to Jessica

"Do not presume to know! Before I met you, I got everything I ever wanted. And I didn't realize how unsatisfactory that was until you left me to die. You are the first thing - excuse me, person - that I wanted that walked away from me. You made me feel something I never had before. Yearning. I actually missed you."

- Kilgrave reveals his obsession towards Jessica

"I understand. Mum... pick up the scissors. Stay there, Dad. Take note. For every year that you left me alone... stab yourself."

- Kilgrave orders his mother to kill herself

Trivia

 * This version of Purple Man differs from the real name of the character: Zebediah Killgrave was his name in the comics, unlike Kevin Thompson, the name that the show uses was never in the comics itself.
 * Despite being Purple Man, although, he is never called by the title and is instead referenced as Kilgrave.
 * Kilgrave's veins changing purple in the season finale AKA Smile is a reference to his skin changing purple in the comics, a prime factor on his supervillain identity "Purple Man".
 * Kilgrave is arguably one of the vilest villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise alongside Red Skull, Daniel Whitehall, John Garrett and Ronan the Accuser.