Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 2 Episodes 7-8

OK, we finally have some payoff of the build-up from the previous 6 episodes, we know the killer is Jessica’s mother and that opens a can of worms that will likely last the rest of the season. Will it be good? Well let’s take a look.

AKA I Want Your Cray Cray

We open with Jessica’s mother explaining what caused the accident. They’d agreed to go on the trip as part of advice from a marriage councillor. But, of course, the accident happened, she wakes up in the IGH hospital, her face scarred beyond belief. She makes a run for it, Doctors and patient trying to stop her but Doctor Malus is the one who ultimately knocks her out. She accidentally attacked Jessica in her rage.

Some time later, we see her skin has largely healed, although not without scarring. She seems to have made progress but we’re told she’s still very dangerous when angered. She’s told she’s been at the clinic for 5 years, she begins to remember the accident and goes into a panic. Dr Morris calms her down and does his best to explain the situation calmly, but the topic finally comes back to her kids and the hard news that her son died in the accident. She is told that Jessica is alive but that doesn’t entirely settle her. Morris is amazingly calm, and assures her that Jessica is fine

OK, so next we have Trish singing the song the episode is named after. It’s f*cking dreadful but that’s very much intentional. Although teen stars have had successful singing careers. Think Miley Cyrus or even Ariana Grande. It’s playing as a video in a night club and has so many flashing lights it could give you seizures. Jessica is sitting, drinking because even in the past she always downed her sorrows.

This is a teeny bopper song, what’s it doing playing in a night club? Trish is also there, enjoying the night with her friends but naturally the night devolves into arguing with Jessica. Being a child star worked out so well for Trish (not) that Jessica is concerned a record deal might lead her down the same path and would rather they both be in college.

Dorothy is there, oh f*ck of course she is. OK, Dorothy’s backstory and relationship have been explored. She’s a manipulative b*tch and unless we finally see her pay the price for it, I don’t care any more about her. She’s not the villain and everything we’ve seen with her is just on repeat. I don’t just dislike her; I don’t want her on my screen anymore.

The bartender gives her a drink that’s only ¾ full and she bribes her way to getting it topped up, but the manager takes notice of this. He pours a shot for Jessica and the two begin talking/semi flirting. The manager tells the guy off in a ridiculously callous way prompting him to quit. Jessica then hears that Trish is having a party at her place, which annoys her because she needs to study, and presumably sleep.

Welcome to the Trish is incredibly unlikeable portion of the series, let’s start a list of everything she does.

• Berate Jessica for studying in college after insisting on paying her college fees

This list will I think be quite long by the series end, but let’s continue with this episode. Jessica steals money from an ATM and we see the bartender from earlier is watching, offering her a drink. Back with Jessica’s mother, she puts on a wig and is notably more hostile with Dr Morris, wanting to know where her daughter is. Her violent temper and mood swings could be a sign of brain injury from the crash.

She’s told that they arranged for a new family to adopt her, something she seems to accept, but the idea that Jessica thinks that she’s dead and the notion that she may have attacked her own daughter trigger her anger. OK, her name’s Melissa, so that’s what I’ll be calling Jesscia’s mother from now on. She’s able to break free of the restrains but Dr Morris drugs her into unconsciousness.

Jessica and the bartender make out on the street, apparently at the point where the guy believes he should know her full name. He quickly finds it out by being a pickpocket. She breaks into a shop and steals a jacket, somehow without setting off any alarms. The next morning she hears the guy talking angrily on the phone, apparently his mother wants him to be a plumber and won’t invest in his idea to create a nightclub, Club Alias.

The guy wants to be introduced to Trish, and it’s revealed that in the intervening time, Jessica dropped out of college. Trish is still drugged up and loving it, with a club tour for her stupid song around the corner. It soon becomes clear what this was really about though, he wants investment in his Club Alias idea, this embarrasses Jessica but it’s soon overlooked.

Back with Alisa, she’s faked taking her meds so she can escape, creating the incident that forever changed Inez Green. Back with Jessica, they get a knock on the door and it’s a guy named Wyatt, who had invested in the club and wants his money. Jessica briefly beats them up before they make a run for it. Jessica believes him to be her only family.

Oh f*ck, Dorothy’s back, and Alisa confronts her, unfortunately what this scene does is convince Dorothy to try for a greater role in Trish’s life. She agrees to make a call to find out where Jessica is. Melissa sees Jessica leave her apartment and demonstrate her enhanced strength. She follows Jessica to a bar where she takes her usual drink, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. Do they actually say what his name is? I don’t remember it. Melissa sits at the other end of the bar, leaving to follow Jessica into the loo, she’s having a period. Lovely. Jessica tells Melissa she owes her a drink but as she comes back up she sees Jessica’s boyfriend being harassed by the muggers from earlier.

Wyatt wants Jessica’s help for a couple of ‘jobs,’ Jessica comes back up to the bar. The boyfriend agrees, wanting ¼ of their take which Wyatt agrees to for some reason. Dude, you have leverage, why agree to that bullsh*t? OK, it’s obvious why, so Alisa can he see the boyfriend basically selling Jessica out. Oh, his name’s Sterling, I must’ve missed that. Alisa beats his head against the wall, killing him and runs before Jessica notices her. I guess she must think Wyatt killed him and her attack made things worse with them.

With Sterling gone, Jessica returns to the club looking for Trish, finding her getting a blowjob off an older man. Jessica roughs him up a little and the two talk on a rooftop. Jessica uses it as a springboard to convince her to get help, with Trish going to her mother being regrettably the only option as Jessica is in not state to give her the support she needs.

Melissa meanwhile returns to IGH, realising after that outburst that she still needs more help, if she really wanted to end it all, she would’ve stolen a gun and shot herself. She’s not bulletproof. We see that the framing of it was her telling Jessica the full story in the present. Alisa asks to be forgiven, but Jessica punches her, Dr Malus drugs her into unconsciousness.

It’s necessary to get a bit of backstory for Alisa before we move forward, so I do get them bringing the narrative for a complete halt for this. It’s a decent enough story for Jessica and at least here Trish comes around.

Rating 8/10

AKA Ain’t We Got Fun

Jessica awakes from unconsciousness, strapped to the bed. Dr Morris claims ignorance against the deaths, that she did them of her own accord, protecting herself and Doctor Morris. Trish calls and Morris allows Jessica to answer, she claims the investigation is over and there are no more leads to follow, something that annoys Trish no end. 

• “This is not just a case to me… This is my life” 

Put that on the list. Asshole, this whole investigation was about Jessica’s past. And if there are no leads, what is Jessica supposed to do about it? If you’re convinced she’s lying, why aren’t you wanting an explanation? Morris convinces Jessica to try and talk to her, to prevent more people getting hurt. Jessica agrees but won’t do it cuffed to the bed. But it turns out to be a trick, Jessica wrote the address on her arm and sends the location to Detective Costa.

This turns out about as well as you might expect. Alisa pins Jessica to the wall, and begs Morris to escape, but he’s too smitten with her to leave. Malcolm quickly works out that Trish is taking something and wants to know what it is. Trish admits what he’s been using, and heads off to the bar. He refuses to go anywhere with her whilst she’s on that, which didn’t stop him from having sex with her last night (and he knew)

So, Jessica and Alisa are locked in their secret vault until the police arrive so time for catch up. In Hogarth’s subplot we find out that the ‘healer’ is in prison and we get a brief overview of how things got so bad for Inez. Hogarth reveals she built up everything she has from nothing but Hogarth doesn’t entirely believe her and she just storms out.

Back with Jessica, it’s revealed that Alisa and her husband’s life wasn’t as happy as Jessica had believed, they argued a lot, and were about to file for divorce and Phillip knew. It’s weird how often in media the younger brother tends to find after (I’m writing this after my Jurassic World review) I’d predict it’d be the other way around. Still, at least here Phillip walked in on them arguing rather than the older sibling being intentionally ignorant.

They start to reminisce on happier memories, as Jessica realises Alisa must’ve had a way out without Dr Morris knowing, she finds some scuff marks and realises there’s a hole behind the bookshelf. She uses it to smuggle Alisa out. The police arrive and find the house empty. Malcolm meanwhile has decided to get to work and is looking for the blackmail material for Hogarth, he thinks he might have a lead. He finds that chocolate bars may not actually be chocolate bars, if you get what I mean.

Hogarth heads to the prison to speak to the guy Inez said had healing hands. He seems at least aware of the obvious scam so goes along with it. Hogarth offers to get him out if he agrees to heal her. His previous lawyer had him in prison for over year just to await trial. He touches her to supposedly find out what she has but feigns being ill.

Jessica and Alisa are in a cab and like an idiot he’s texting and driving. Alisa tells him to stop and seeing that she’s getting angrier, Jessica decides they’d best walk. Also, she talks about Alisa being a wanted felon in public, bad idea. Jessica brings her mother back to her house and they talk some more but Detective Cash has come to speak with her, Jessica manages to throw him off but she finds that Alisa decided to run when her back was turned.

Malcolm heads to a bar connected to the ‘chocolate,’ as Jessica finds that Alisa has come back up, and met up with Oscar. Turns out they both know Spanish, neat. Jessica knows there’s no version of what’s about to happen that ends well and she’s right. We’ve got 5 episodes to fill. Back with Malcolm, he bumps into a guy who won’t admit that he’s gay and tells him to admit it, saying that Chao knows something, and he admits that he has dirt on Chao also.

They pass some thugs who beat up Malcolm but thankfully Trish is conveniently on the scene and pumped up on steroids so she manages to scare them off. She offers him the inhaler and he takes it, since it might help his injured, he immediately regrets it. Hogarth returns home, and tells Inez that she’s got the charges dropped to a misdemeanour and since he’s already spent over a year in prison, he’ll be released for time served. She admits she feels hopeful again and argh, this would be easier to watch if this being an absolute lie wasn’t so obvious, especially on a second viewing. That said the payoff for this subplot will be astounding so I’m going to be somewhat patient with it.

Alisa begins singing whilst preparing some tea but suddenly some bullets end up being fired through the window, one of the bullets grazes Jessica and Alisa runs out to confront the shooter.

This is one of the better episodes this season has but the crawling pace is still the biggest issue with it.

Rating 7.5/10