Jessica Jones Freak Accident Television 

Five Thoughts On Jessica Jones‘s “A.K.A. Freak Accident”

By | March 13th, 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. The second episode focuses a lot more on the pasts of both Jessica and Trish and gets scarily relevant to today’s headlines.  Let’s jump into this but be warned, there are spoilers throughout.

1. Jeri and The Girls

Jeri Hogarth is going through something but she kind of brought this upon herself if I’m being honest. Jeri’s action last season are inexcusable. Her pain and sorrow is a position she help put herself in but now there’s some kind of illness involved that’s thrown a wrench into things. We still don’t know the full scope of that though. Jeri leaves her doctor’s appointment and picks up a trio of prostitutes and takes them home with her for sex, dancing, and drugs. This scene is a little long but it’s full of decadence and misery but completely features women which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen on an actual mainstream television show. Jeri has lost herself in this evening but Pryce comes to her place and breaks it up and shames her for it. My problem with all of this is that I don’t care. However, this is probably me just being impatient. I don’t know what the bigger implications of this storyline are. It feels very disconnected with Pryce really only serving the tiniest connection.

2. Investigating The Whizzer

Now that Jessica knows The Whizzer wasn’t lying, she starts her own investigation but first, she has to deal with the cops. She’s a superpowered person and she’s got a history of anger management issues. They do have their eye on her for what happened to The Whizzer and she takes them to her new building super’s apartment. He says he saw nothing and now there is tension between the two. He wants to keep his kid in a custody battle and doesn’t need whatever trouble she’s in. This is fair. Jessica goes to Whizzer’s apartment and finds his computer. He has a video on there of him talking to someone about what’s been going on and says “with great power comes great mental illness.” Whatever Kozlov was doing, it was incredibly bad and he hurt a ton of people. There is a lot I don’t like about that line Whizzer said in this video. I don’t like anything that treats mental illness as a joke and I hope that the show is going to actually look at what experiments were done and what the side effects were. I am interested in these experiments and Jessica’s origin but I’m not convinced this is something that can sustain 13 episodes. I can already see the bits that are going to be drawn out too much and I really hope that’s not what we’re in for. I like the addition of Oscar and his son but I wonder what the end game here is. Is he a possible love interest?

3. Me Too

One of the biggest things that goes on in this episode is Trish’s continued mission to get more information about Jessica’s past. We’re only two episodes into this season but it’s become very clear that she’s willing to anything and everything even if it hurts her. Trish’s past as a child/teen actress has been addressed a lot but because this is the Jessica Jones show, we get information about Trish in little increments. We always knew that she went though some really rough stuff but in “A.K.A. Freak Accident,” we get even more explicit information. Trish meets with her estranged, abusive mother for brunch and asks her for contact information for someone named Max. Max has connections at Metro General because he’s a high profile donor. Trish gets Malcolm involved and asks him to record what he sees and hears but not to speak of it again because he’s going to hear some things he wishes he didn’t. It turns out that Max sexually assaulted and took advantage of her desire to be a successful actress when she was a teenager. Trish threatens him and leaves it at that but it’s caused her to relive a very dark time in her life. Jessica Jones has never been a show that’s been shy about tackling heavy issues straight forward. Jessica herself is a survivor of sexual assault and there was an abortion storyline with one of Kilgrave’s victims. This show has done it very well too and I think this is no different. Trish struggles with her past and has done everything she can to separate herself from it. Going back to Max to try and do something good for Jessica  is really rough to watch because Trish is hurting herself for what still doesn’t feel like enough. Trish and Jessica are sisters in every way that matters but I can’t help feel compelled enough by her reasons. We’re only two episodes in but I’m waiting for a villain to emerge and I’m waiting for a deep dive into Jessica’s origin to feel like it matters.

Continued below

4. Farewell Simpson

At the tail end of this episode, Simpson approaches Trish after her conversation with Max. Griffin, and Jessica are worried because they haven’t seen her all day and think something may have happened. Simpson has been following Trish and so, Trish shoots him in the leg when she gets a drop on him. Once Jessica gets to the movie set, we find out that Simpson isn’t actually trying to hurt Trish. Someone is coming after him and other people Kozlov experimented on and they’re also coming after Trish because she’s digging. This still unseen person shows up at the set and immediately goes after Simpson. Trish and Jessica are basically helpless as he fights against this person and they eventually break his neck and he dies in what would appear to be a freak accident. See what they did there? I still don’t find myself completely sold on this storyline to be honest. I think Simpson dying was supposed to make us feel something but he wasn’t really around enough to get redemption and thus give me the emotional impact of his death. He was a very simple cameo and gave Jessica and Trish a reason to sort of interact with whatever is doing these killings.

5. Random Thoughts

The first two episodes of Jessica Jones have been a little bland. I like this character and this cast so much but I feel a little blah about the whole thing so far. I’m honestly a little bored. I mentioned this in the first episode but I really wish this show would stray away from a big arc and embrace something episodic because what Jessica Jones actually does lends for that. She’s not actually a superhero. She’s a private eye who’s has moments where she’s joined up with superheroes. There is a big difference between her and Daredevil, who’s whole thing is setting out to fix the city that he loves so much. Jessica is here to solve cases and make a paycheck. Her version of helping people isn’t something she sets out to do everyday. If you did something episodic, you could embrace so many different genres and kinds of stories and it’s a bummer that so far we’re just getting this very by the number Netflix drama.


//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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