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Five Thoughts On Jessica Jones‘s “A.K.A. I Want Your Cray Cray”

By | April 2nd, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

Going into its second season, Jessica Jones was probably the series with the biggest question mark. Jessica Jones is not a character with a long history so it will be interesting to see what the show chooses to do and be. In the seventh episode, the halfway point, the show decidedly positions itself as what it is. This episode is a giant flashback and it’s illuminating. Let’s jump into this but be warned, there are spoilers throughout.

1. I Want Your Cray Cray

This episode is a complete flashback so to make it easier, I’ve broken it into the parts that make sense with each other instead of going chronologically as we’ve done before. We’re taken back to a time not too long after “It’s Patsy” stopped being a thing. Trish Walker has decided to rebrand herself with a stupid, male gazey pop song. Think Britney Spears “Oops I Did It Again” or Christina Aguileira’s “Dirrrty” phases. Trish is without any supervision now and it’s led to her making friends with people who just want her fame to rub off on them. She’s deep into drugs and partying but she still lives with Jessica. Jessica is living off of Trish and going to college on her dime. She’s kind of going for both of them since Trish really can’t. On the night that Trish’s video for “I Want Your Cray Cray” debuts, they get into a huge fight and Jessica goes her own way. Trish continues to spiral in a very tabloidy way and Jessica goes on to something that will change her life forever. Doing an entire flashback episode is tricky but I was kind of into it. I think this episode  really worked to show a different side to each of these two characters and filled in some gaps. I also love how horrible this song is. They actually made the song and video and it’s so bad and hilarious. You can watch it here.

2. There’s Always  A Boy

Despite getting into a huge fight with Trish, Jessica ends up going home with the cute bartender from the club. Stirling and Jessica end up living together for a few weeks and they get into all kinds of mischief together, specifically stealing a now famous leather jacket, since he knows about her powers. They’re cute and despite being aimless, they’re happy. Stirling has an idea to open a club up called Alias (there you go) and he’s gotten in deep with some local loan sharks. He tries to get the money from Trish when he pushes Jessica to reconcile with her. This almost ends them but they figure things out and she beats up the loan sharks when they come to their apartment. Jessica tells him that he’s her family now and she’ll protect him. However, in her version of events, she wasn’t able to. One day, while out together at a local bar, Stirling steps outside to talk to those loan sharks and he ends up dead and Jessica wasn’t there. We find out that this moment is really what changed her. She sees herself as failing him. She thinks for years that she’s the reason he got killed and she never knew the real version of events. Her jacket, her business name, all come from him. She basically only trusts Trish because he’s gone now. She walled herself up and it’s really sad. I don’t particularly like this part of the flashback for one big reason: so much of her got defined by this guy. I think the emotional beats of this all work and I like to see how different she became in the aftermath of it because that trauma was extremely real and palpable but I wish so much of this character didn’t end up being defined by men. She was created by a male creative team (Bendis and Gaydos), her major villain is a man (Kilgrave) and she’s a grumpy bad ass because a boyfriend got killed. While it works and is good, it’s hard to not see that part of it.

3. What Mom Was Up To

So, it turns out that Janet McTeer’s character, Alisa Jones, is actually Jessica’s mother. There is no other swerve, that’s it. Jessica and her mother both survived the accident but Alisa was in horrible shape. The person we saw in Jessica’s memory who had no skin and was basically just meat? That was Alisa, her mother. After she attacked everyone at the IGH facility, she was kept in a coma while Dr. Karl worked on her. Years later, she’s woken up and his methods worked to an extent. Alisa had a face of her own but it wasn’t her old one and she had abilities but with all that came a personality disorder of sorts. She got worked up easily. She got mad over the smallest of things and when she was triggered, she was basically unstoppable. It’s very similar to the Hulk. Alisa is told about her family. Her son and husband died but her daughter is alive and was put up for adoption. Alisa is beside herself at this and in time, she heals up more and wants to know where Jessica is. Dr. Karl tells her who adopted Jessica but tells Alisa she’s not ready to see her because she’s still so unstable. We’re then taken to the day that Inez was there for, when Alisa escaped. Alisa goes to Trish’s mom and finds out where Jessica is and she tracks her to a local bar where she and Stirling are enjoying a day out. What Jessica never sees is that Stirling was once again approached by  those guys from before and Alisa overhears Stirling agree to using Jessica for more criminal activity. Alisa goes off and she kills Stirling. She vanishes and sees Jessica  in pain as her boyfriend lays there dead. Alisa goes back to the IGH facility but the damage there is done. They’re all scared of her. Back to the present day, Alisa asks Jessica if she can ever forgive her and Jessica’s response is a quick punch to the face.

Continued below

I am still really on the fence with Alisa Jones being alive. So much of what has defined Jessica’s life is now a lie and I kind of hate that? I think what bothers me so much is what I’ll get into in the final point. Alisa isn’t really a villain for the show and because the show has taken up so much time telling this one story, I kind of question what the point of any of this is? Is Alisa going to sacrifice herself near the end? Is she going to be a part of Jessica’s life? So much of this season feels aimless and this still does too.

4. One Great Friend Is Worth More Than Anything Else

At the end of the episode, Jessica shows up at the nightclub that Trish likes to frequent. High on drugs and out of her mind, Trish is about to take part in something she doesn’t want in the bathroom and Jessica is there to save her. This leads to the two of them reconciling with Trish realizing she needs help and Jessica realizing that she does need to bond with people, particularly Trish. One of my favorite things about Jessica Jones is the friendship between Trish and Jessica. It’s very rare to see two women be this close as friends on a television show because so often they’re related or they fall into the rivalry category. Trish and Jessica are really different people who share a bond that  no one else can really understand and I really just love watching the two of them interact. This is why the whole “Trish on Simpson’s drugs” storyline bugs me because it’s again, gone on so long, like everything else, and it’s taken away something that really works for the show.

5. This Is What It Is

One of the things that has vexed me about this season of Jessica Jones is that it doesn’t have a central villain. It’s really just a long telling of Jessica’s origin and how that relates to her life now. This episode basically cements that because I can’t see Alisa turning into an actual villain. Despite her anger issues, she’s not out here to purposely ruin Jessica’s life which is why it’s hard to see her as the central villain. Dr. Karl, if anything, is the real villain but even then, he’s not very much all on his own. Unlike the first season with Kilgrave, there is no real central antagonist and this would be okay if the show were not centered by this long story.  “A.K.A. I Want Your Cray Cray” doesn’t completely sell me on this twist with Jessica’s mother though.  This story works fine  despite my opinion of the quality but because the origin and her mother and Dr. Karl are all tied together, it’s hard to stretch that over 13 episodes without feeling like dragging. This is why the Netflix shows need to embrace singular episodes because a story that’s actually not that bad gets held back by being super dragged out for no other reason than it needs to fit a full season. This is the halfway point of the season. I don’t know how this keeps going for another SIX hours but I’m this far in so we’ll find out.


//TAGS | Jessica Jones

Jess Camacho

Jess is from New Jersey. She loves comic books, pizza, wrestling and the Mets. She can be seen talking comics here and at Geeked Out Nation. Follow her on Twitter @JessCamNJ for the hottest pro wrestling takes.

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