Dr. Koslov Could Connect 'Jessica Jones' To Hydra

By now you should have finished your Jessica Jones marathon on Netflix, and if you haven't, what are you waiting for? I don't want to play favorites, but I'm going to, since Jessica Jones is by far the best Marvel television show to date. What might be even more surprising is how it mostly stays out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with only passing mentions to "the big green guy" here and there. Even though we barely get a taste of any other "gifted" people out there in the world, there's one character I'm willing to wager is actually a huge part of the MCU puzzle on Jessica Jones: Doctor Kozlov. Who is he, what organization does he work for, and who is he connected to? While I can't answer all those questions in full, I am willing to suggest this: Dr. Kozlov has ties to Hydra, and through it, the Avengers. Spoilers for Episode 9 and beyond of Jessica Jones ahead.

Dr. Kozlov is introduced in the latter half of Jessica Jones, and is barely seen on screen. He's first mentioned after Will Simpson (and we'll get to him in a second) is injured, and ends up at the hospital needing help. Will demands that Trish find this Dr. Kozlov, because he's the only doctor who can treat him.

And treat him he does. Dr. Kozlov gives Will some red, white, and blue pills (how patriotic!) that fix him right up. In fact, they seem to work too quickly. From this, it's not so far-off to theorize that Will is actually the character Nuke from Marvel comics, who was his own kind of super solider thanks to some colorful pills. Officer Simpson does exhibit some Cap-esque patriotism, and the rage of the Hulk. But where does this leave Dr. Kozlov?

He works for a company called IGH, which has no Marvel Comics counterpart — at least not yet. This group is clearly carrying out some sort of experiment with these pills, which enhance the user's ability to fight and heal. You know who else was pretty big on human experiments in the Marvel world? Baron Strucker, who was seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. He's the one who, for lack of a better word, created Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, via the powers in Loki's scepter.

Strucker was working for Hydra when he was killed, and we know that the evil organization is all up in that S.H.I.E.L.D. world right now. It seems possible that Strucker and Kozlov knew each other, because they were Hydra co-workers, perhaps working on similar projects. Kozlov could have been working for one of Hydra's secret divisions, which got its hands on the Cap super soldier serum, and instead of making it an injection, made it a pill — because not everyone can be genetically altered into "gifted" via the scepter.

Trying to disguise his work as anything but Hydra, Kozlov and his group could have called themselves IGH, and continued on with their work, hiding under the red, white, and blue flag in plain sight. They continued to make these super soldiers, who appear to be completely plain and normal guys, but pack a killer punch all thanks to some red pills.

Also, consider the fact that Kozlov has some sort of Eastern European accent. Strucker was based out of (fictional) Sokovia. There's also someone else from this region, too: Agent Carter's Dr. Ivchenko, who turned out to be Doctor Faustus, who was — WAIT FOR IT — able to control minds.

Is it a reach to suggest that all three of these men are somehow connected to one another? The experiments performed on Kilgrave as a child could certainly be linked to Hydra, and all the way back to Faustus. The mind experiments could even be a sort of boy version of the Black Widow program, which ties back to Will. These aren't things that necessarily jump right out of Jessica Jones, but the separate pieces may eventually form huge connections.

We also can't forget that we still don't know what else was on the flash drive Jessica gave to Luke. All we've seen are the brief moments where Kevin was subject to testing. There are still other files on that disk, and those might connect Kozlov, IGH, Kilgrave, and more importance components of Jessica Jones to the greater MCU.

Images: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix; Giphy