Season two picks up with a Jessica who is barely less of a mess than the first time we saw her. She’s still doing the investigation thing — and with a measure of success — but her newfound fame and her struggle with the idea of being a vigilante superhero isn’t going so well. Her pal Trish is on the warpath to fight for her rights, well-being, and information about how she acquired her powers. Because this is Jessica Jones – known for being the first Marvel character to drop the f-bomb — things get real dark real fast.
Beware — beyond here lie spoilers.
Trish feels like Jessica’s only shot at healing all the hurt she’s built up over the years is to discover what really happened to her — how she got her powers. The first step in the investigation is Koslov, the doctor who started it all. Trish follows the paper trail, while Jessica (who lives in denial) has Koslov’s work turn up on her doorstep — a paranoid man who claims to have super speed and calls himself “The Wizzer” (you read that right, comic fans). He says he’s being hunted by a monster, a claim Jessica ignores until he dies right in front of her.
Meanwhile, another of Koslov’s creations, season 1’s Simpson (Nuke, to you comic fans), is stalking both Jess and Trish. Turns out he’s not the guy killing people — he’s trying to protect Trish from the thing that is. He explains this to Trish and Jess about 10 seconds before the monster in question kills him, twisting his head so far around he has a great view of his own backside.
This sends Trish and Jess down the rabbit hole of pursuing the murderous monster. Along the way, they get Jess tossed in a jail cell, Trish hooked on the super drugs Simpson used for super strength, Jess a banging new relationship with her super hot new super (whose paintings look an awful lot like David Mack’s cover art) and Hogarth and entanglement with a super terrifying medical diagnosis.
But the worst part is who the fiend turns out to be. For Jessica, her vulnerability with other people is the part of her she guards the most. So when the villain turns out to be someone she loves, someone she longs for, someone who was supposed to have died in that car crash, it guts her. She’s mourned her family for 17 years, and now mommy dearest has returned to her.
The same series of experiments that brought her back from the dead and granted her powers worked its magic on her mother as well — only, not as well. Her fits of rage are unmanageable and her strength is even greater than Jessica’s.
Jessica is stuck. She’s finally gotten to a point where she’s let people in — Malcolm, Oscar, Trish — and everything this season comes at her from those vulnerable points.
In the end, Jessica ends up fighting her own monsters in her mother’s form. She’s a metaphor for Jessica’s worst fears about herself. Her mother’s rage makes for a fairly scary bad guy, too; among her human victims she can also count a piano, an aquarium, a van, a lab, a carton of eggs (along with the rest of the kitchen), a jail cell, Jessica’s files, and Jessica’s heart.
It would be easy to say she has her own puppetmaster, a la season one’s Kilgrave. But nothing in Jessica Jones is that simple, and the man behind her mom, Dr. Karl Malus, is not a monster. He is the embodiment of good intentions gone awry, and he spends every day trying to fix what he’s done. Meanwhile, her mom has been on a 12-year journey to fix herself so that she can be reunited with her daughter. Progress is slow, and while momster is terrifying in how quick she is to snap a neck, she’s also kind of sweet and gentle to Jess (when she isn’t putting Jess through a floor). There’s a lot in here about abusive relationships. Jessica walks around with a half-bruised face, defending her mother, trying to talk her mom through rages.
It’s such a bitter pill. Jessica is a pile of insecurities and in desperate need of affection, and when she gets finally it (and from her own mom!), it comes with hate and anger. It takes her to dark places, leads her to bad decisions, and eventually puts her in an emotional spiral so bad the only place in her mind that can cope is Kilgrave.
So there’s one mystery solved, at least. Kilgrave isn’t alive, he’s just a manifestation of Jessica’s. He lives on in the dark corners of her mind, unleashed when she’s at her most vulnerable and scared, still whispering bitter nothings in her ear. While Jess manages to shake his grasp, the rest of the season doesn’t get much better for her. Everyone in her life is at odds with each other, and it all comes together with a gunshot we all knew was coming and no one was prepared for.
The end of season one saw Jessica tentatively letting in her makeshift family. The end of season two obliterates it. While there is hope for Jess and Oscar, it’s sad to see her let go of the others — most notably, Malcolm.
The Good
Jessica is just as quippy and sarcastic as ever. She also puts the power in girl power. Underestimate a woman or say something misogynistic in front of her and you’ll find yourself at the business end of her fists.
Hogarth’s storyline this season is good stuff. It is heart-wrenching, sweet, and twisted in turns. Carrie-Anne Moss plays the many shades of a complicated character with such steely grace that she is easily one of the best parts of the whole show.
The Jessica/Oscar coupling is very sweet, especially for one of Jessica’s relationships. More of that, please.
All those Spider-Man jokes. Griffin’s scrotey-sense is tingling? With great power comes great mental illness?
KK’s dating profile for JJ.
The Bad
Oh, Trish. I liked you, Trish. I really did. I thought you might even be able to suit up with Jessica (metaphorically, of course) some day. I thought you were smart enough to avoid being what Simpson became. This series broke down her insecurities into actionable flaws. It took her to bad places, the worst places she could go. It did serious, everlasting damage. And even at the end, with that sly wink at Hellcat, she’s still one of the most problematic parts of season two (if not the most problematic).
This season is super fond of an over-the-shoulder shot that is half the back of someone’s head and half another person’s face. It’s used so frequently that you can tell the show is trying to make some kind of point with it, but honestly all I see is bad hair.
Trish’s music video is one of the most cringe-worthy moments I have seen in any of the Netflix/Marvel shows (and I’ve seen the entirety of Iron Fist).
This season is a veritable after school special illustrating the evils of alcoholism and drug addiction. It fits, given drinking is Jessica’s favorite past time/work aid/memory eraser. Jessica’s history of trauma means she drinks to hold herself up or knock herself out as needed, but Malcolm and Trish are recovering addicts, and they put themselves in dicey situations. Honestly, the whole group of them need an AA meeting like Iron Fist needs a better personality.
Two crazy powerful, and in Jessica’s case smart, superhumans get overpowered by the same sneak attack over and over again. You think at least one of them would have learned, but no.
Guest Stars
The crossover is strong with the Defenders and their circle of friends. Now that Foggy Nelson works with Jeri Hogarth, he peeked his head out for a quick bout of justified moral outrage. Turk Barret (from Daredevil and Luke Cage) pops up for a little bit of dirty dealing with Hogarth. Jess has a drink at Josie’s, from Daredevil fame. JJ’s fans will be happy to see the moments of peekaboo Kilgrave plays with Jessica’s mind in one of the season’s most tense episodes.
Ultimately, JJ season 2 is everything I wanted it to be. It sometimes feels like it goes long, but all the pieces are good, teh character development is solid, the side stories are interesting and the action is good (not daredevil good, but good).