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 fourth episode of the second season leaves Jessica in a really vulnerable place at the end as she looks into what she could be and her issues in her building get a little more complex. Let’s jump into this but be warned, there are spoilers throughout.
1. Anger Management
It’s summer in the city which means it’s uncomfortably hot which means people are antsy and stressed out. This episode opens with Jessica explaining all that and how it fuels some of the underlying anger in people which is a great transition into Jessica’s first court ordered anger management session. Before we get to Jessica, we listen to other attendees talk about why they’re there. These all range from frustration about relationships to frustrations about work. What’s really weird about this is I found it a little tough to empathize with some of the other attendees here. I don’t know if this was intentional and I don’t know if this show is trying to say something about these kinds of group therapies but I think it’s worth pointing out that I was left feeling a little empty by these stories. If anything, I actually disliked the guy running the group. To work out their frustrations, they each throw a ball against a wall as they tell their stories and when it’s Jessica’s turn, well, you can assume what happens next. Jessica talks about her family being gone, how she was experimented on, and all that she went through with Kilgrave and then breaks the ball. Everyone is freaked out by her strength and she leaves. It’s a short scene but I think it really highlights how different Jessica’s trauma is and how her anger, while unhealthy, is easy to empathize with and understand.
2. Trish’s Life Is A Mess
Trish is having a rough go of it this season and it’s going to get worse. In this episode, Trish inhales some of Simpson’s drugs, faces her abuser again and we find out that Griffin is a bad guy. There is a lot happening with Trish this season but even she is forcing herself to be distracted by Jessica’s drama which really, she’s helped jumpstart by digging deep into IGH. She’s become obsessed with supers and powers and getting a big story that she’s not seeing the damage she’s doing to herself right in front of her. I don’t want Trish to die but I do hope that all the stuff going on with her is what pushes Jessica to make some changes. I don’t doubt she doesn’t love Trish but she’s so consumed by her anger that she doesn’t realize that Trish’s safety isn’t only physical. It’s mental too and she needs to be a friend to her. I also hope this whole thing with Griffin is not dragged out for an entire season because it’s already very transparent and could ride on being annoying very quickly.
3. Jeri Does It Her Way
Jeri is still dealing with the emotional blow of being diagnosed with ALS and in this episode, things don’t get any better for her. As she’s leaving work, she sees a woman using crutches stumble and fall and she freezes up. This woman needs help picking up her things and thankfully someone is there but it begins to dawn on Jeri that her body will give up on her soon so she goes to visit her doctor again. When she goes to visit her, she asks her doctor for a very specific kind of medication and treatment. Her doctor tells her what she wants to do for, including the treatments that exist in the market currently and the trials she can partake in. Jeri continues to push her about things outside of that, specifically a more drastic medication. Jeri tells her doctor about how her father died of brain cancer and by the end, he was no longer himself. It had destroyed everything about him and she didn’t want that for herself. Her doctor begins to understand and still refuses to help. We then cut to Jeri at her home looking up what she needs via a Russian website. You see, Jeri wants to be able to end her life before her ALS progresses to the point that she can no longer function on her own. She wants to end her life quietly and painlessly and if her doctor won’t help her then she’ll do it on her own. This is an incredibly tough storyline to try and do but I think it’s well worth trying. It’s complicated and I think so far Jessica Jones has handled it well. Jeri doing this is her choice and something that’s hard to understand for most of us but this episode does a great job at framing it and giving it a Jeri twist. In the end, I don’t think this will actually happen but I’m still not sure what will.
Continued below4. Even More Super Problems
Jessica and her building super Oscar are still at odds and in the beginning of this episode, things get even worse. Little Vido decides to go to Jessica’s office because his mother is visiting and she’s fighting with his dad. He gets really nosy and asks Jessica about her powers. So, like any incredibly dumb kid, he jumps into her window and asks her if he fell, would she catch him. That’s when Oscar and his ex come in and Vido falls but thankfully Jessica catches him. Oscar and his ex completely freak out and he tells her she’s got 25 days and then she’s out. Later that night, Oscar comes back and talks to Jessica and apologizes. He brings her booze and she invites him in. They have a heart to heart and things get hot when she kisses him and tries to have sex with him. Oscar gets up and leaves because none of this is normal to him and Jessica actually feels something about that. Again, this is one of those things that I just don’t see the endgame for but I hope it’s something meaningful. I think this season is trying to tell us a story about Jessica’s past and her beginning to move on from the things she’s been through and trying to forge something new from it. I’m not rooting for them to become a couple but it’d be great if she became true friends with him and his son.
5. The Hunt Is On
The bulk of the action of this episode centers around the hunt for Inez Green, someone IGH paid medical bills for. After looking at some photos, Jessica noticed that the woman she met last episode was wearing a very good wig and because Trish has experience with wigs, that’s where they start their search, at a wig shop. That takes them back to Max, who never gave Trish what she wanted after she threatened to take his abuse public. This time, Jessica is there and she threatens him physically, which seems to be the only thing that works with him. When they get the files, they find a name – Inez Green and so they go on the hunt for her. When they find her, they’re expecting someone super powerful like Jessica and the woman that she met. It turns out that Inez was a nurse who was almost killed by one of the people IGH experimented on and now she’s homeless and alone but has valuable information. Trish, high off of Simpson’s drugs, is intense this entire time and this is actually really heartbreaking to watch knowing her substance abuse issues. At the end, while they’re gone, Jessica’s office is broken into by one of Pryce’s employees and as he leaves, he’s murdered by the mystery woman we met last week. When Jessica and Trish return, Jessica is immediately arrested for this murder and that’s how the episode ends. This episode dragged this out a lot because these are very long episodes that could use some editing. What’s interesting in all this is to see how Jessica is making the attempt to be a little softer and understanding, particularly in dealing with Inez. Again, it’s a part of this long story this show is telling and while interesting, it does move a little slow.
