Last episode, Jessica Jones season 2 seemed to hit some sort of an apex as it delivered a tangible emotional connection between the grouchy, traumatised, private eye and the mysterious woman who has been literally tearing people apart who gets in her way. Drawing multiple parallels between what Jessica fears she may become if her rampant misanthropic rage is allowed to run unchecked, it once again proved that, when it comes to forging deep, personal relationships with her various antagonists, Jessica Jones is one of the better heroes to have emerged from the pages of Marvel comics to land on the screen.
However, while this proved to deliver some genuinely powerful moments, can the show actually succeed in keeping it up – after all, previous Defenders shows (not to mention Jessica’s first season) had notorious issues with dragging things out a bit too long…
After being arrested for the grisly dismemberment of one of Cheng’s flunkies, Jessica gets first hand experience just how nervous powered people make the NYPD feel. In actuality, Jones has been framed by the murderous woman who has been going round and ruthlessly exterminating any loose ends connected to IGH, the shifty company that gave Jessica her experimental powers; but thanks to her enemy not putting a lot of thought into her plan, the superpowered P.I. is eventually released. But while she figures out what to do with her only lead – former IGH nurse, Inez Green – those in her orbit are having to deal with their own issues.
After becoming addicted to the IGH performance enhancer she got from the late Will Simpson, Trish struggles with a violent come down – but when her opportunistic mother tells her she’s finally scored an interview to become a real journalist, the former Patsy Walker is horribly disappointed to find that instead, her boyfriend Griffin wants to propose, which leads her to end the relationship. Meanwhile, while Malcolm struggles to keep the nervous Green contained, he eventually hands her off to Jeri Hogarth, who seems very interested to hear more about the healing work the IGH was into.
But back in the main plot, Jessica scores a major lead when she tracks down a man wrongfully arrested for one of the mystery woman’s previous murders, who has since been locked up in a mental institution. Gaining entrance thanks to a fake ID courtesy of a reluctant Oscar, one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle falls into place when she uses this new information to track down IGH bigwig Dr. Karl Malus, and even manages to stake him out as he visits a local aquarium. But wait – who is that with him acting like she’s his lover? Isn’t that the maniacal woman who has been ripping people to shreds everywhere Jessica turns? Looks like we’re in for round two, but before Jones can engage the enemy, the enraged psycho takes some extreme measures…
Before I delve deeper into the mechanics of the episode, I have to say that despite some larger worries that might well trip up the season further down the road, “AKA The Octopus” proves to be yet another strong episode that once again favours Jessica’s detection skills rather than her punching abilities. However, while the ending of the precious episode was a near-perfect layout of what the emotional core of this season is actually about (Jessica’s fear of becoming a monster), episode 5 doesn’t have the time or ability to truly revel in that moment of her trying to convince herself that she isn’t capable of the bestial acts of the killer she’s facing. It’s wouldn’t be so much of an issue if this occurred at the end of the first act of a movie, because it could then pivot its pace and tone to reflect that, but in a Netflix/Marvel show, we just have to just keep on trucking.
Rather than bouncing back from this self-aware epiphany and forging ahead anew, the episode instead carries on as if nothing had happened, and once Jones is released from jail, we’re back to the same kind of P.I. stuff we’ve been doing for the past four episodes. But while watching Jessica ply her trade has always been fun, it’s a shame that the final moment from the previous episode isn’t allowed to resonate in a way actually shows how it’s affected her more. Now, that’s not to say that the episode is a wash – far from it, mainly because it shows a street level look at how the NYPD try to deal with super people that we rarely get in the bigger movies, or even some of the other shows. We got a glimpse into the super politics of policing super people in Luke Cage, where the first instinct was to tool up with bigger weapons, but since there’s no mention of Judas bullets here, we get to watch a nervous, overworked NYPD try to keep an impatient Jessica in line.
Having her chained up like John Doe in Se7en and having at least three guns on her even when she’s making a phone call, we can see that in the wake of Kilgrave taking over the entire precinct back in Season 1, the majority of cops have a really bad opinion of super people in general. However, it’s also intriguing that the odd cop, such as Detective Eddy Costa, can see past the prejudice and offer help, and a good word, where needed.
Elsewhere, chaos still continues to reign within Jessica’s supporting cast – but most interestingly, we get some more insight into this season’s still-unnamed antagonist as we watch her try to relax in her surprisingly well furnished home. But as she practices playing the piano for a new neighbour and her baby, we find that the reason for this woman’s apparent ferocity is that her abilities allows her rage to flow unchecked when even the slightest thing (such as a baby’s cries) trigger her. While I’d argue that it’s more like the rage attacks seen in Sam Raimi’s Darkman rather than anything we’ve previously experienced with the Hulk, it’s still alarming to watch a middle-aged woman suddenly freak out and pound a grand piano into matchwood with her bare hands. But while we get some more insight into this season’s villain (with more on the way when it’s revealed that’s she’s in some sort of relationship with the scientist that changed her), we also find that Trish is spiralling when she calls off her relationship to Griffin much to her mother’s horror. However, the residual effects of those IGH power inhalants is causing her to have sizable comedowns and irritability and as we know Trish is a past addict, her slapping her atrocious mother in anger is probably only the tip of this particular iceberg.
While undeniably a solid episode that continues to feed us all the Jessica Jones related goodies we’ve come to love, its a shame that the show has already moved on from that stellar ending that encompassed everything this season stands for. On the other hand, you don’t want a Marvel/Netflix show to stay in one emotional place for too long as they tend to stagnate annoyingly quickly, so I suppose that we should be grateful for all this forward motion.
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