I was relistening to Fire Escape, and it seems to frame Jon smiting Jude as revenge. But that seems very out-of-character for Jon. More likely, he’d just avoid her. He certainly wouldn’t go and kill her on purpose.

I think that he’s doing it partly because he thinks Martin would want him to. If it makes Martin happy, Jon supposes he’ll do it.

“ARCHIVIST

So why did you do it?

JUDE

Why d’you think? Because I wanted to hurt you.

[Martin coughs.]

JUDE

Because you were annoying and I didn’t like you, so I hurt you.”

Jon’s asking why, seeing if Jude feels sorry for burning him, for hurting her victims. But she doesn’t care. She likes it.

She does apologize under some duress. But then:

“JUDE

If I’d known, would I still have marked you? Yes. I would. I’m… happy in this world. I belong here.”

I don’t know, I just can’t see Jon taking revenge on people. And then this:

“MARTIN

The fires are still here. Doesn’t look like much has changed.

ARCHIVIST

No. I suppose not.” Martin wanted to see if that would change things, but it didn’t. I don’t know, but I feel like he’s doing this for Martin and definitely not for revenge.

I guess I’m just very confused. Because even Jon names it as revenge. But that just…???