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I have to say, for someone who has made it his business to repeatedly pick holes in the pacing issues of the various Netflix/Marvel shows, I’m somewhat dumbfounded how well Jessica Jones’ second season is being laid out. Time and time again I’ve cast a disapproving and slightly disappointed eye over all of the Defenders crew as the curse of the thirteen episode count has claimed all of them at some point. Daredevil, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Iron Fist – heck, even Jessica herself – all seem to be going great guns only to suddenly have a three or four episodes run that just spins it’s wheels in place and kills momentum.
Up until now, the saga that’s seen Jessica discover that her mother is alive and is a super powered, rage consumed, murderer, has beat this curse by being fairly meticulous with it’s story telling. While none of the episodes so far have actually moved a break-neck speed (despite featuring plenty of broken necks), the slow burn aspect has been working just fine. Can the season continue to keep it up? So far so good.
As sniper bullets whizz through Jessica’s apartment window (and her shoulder), we find that the shooter is none other than rival P.I. Pryce Cheng, who, after the murder of one of his employees at the hands of Alisa, has moved from trying to run Jones out of business, to assassinating her murderous mother for revenge. However, botching the shot, Cheng find that he now has a pissed off, super powered mother on his tail who would like nothing more than to twist him into knots. However, when Alisa inevitably manages to catch up with him, it’s Jessica who stops her by using one of her sedatives on Cheng. However, while she’s managed to save her rival, Jessica now finds herself not only sheltering a mass murderer, but has now graduated to a spot of kidnapping on the side as she finds her situation getting ever more complicated.
Meanwhile, Trish’s addiction to those power enhancers has resulted in her going full scorched earth on her career after the frustration of being ghosted by Jessica has her raging at the injustice she sees everywhere. However, while her seemingly self destructive behavior on “Trish Talk” seems like it’s career suicide, it actually scores her an interview with a news company impressed at her rants – but the fact that her super powered inhalant has now run out could end up being a major problem. Similarly, Jeri Hogarth is also seeming great change on the horizon thanks to Inez Green hooking her up with a super powered healer who performs a procedure to cure her disease. But are they actually on the up and up?
Back with Jessica, we find that the Cheng conundrum will have to wait after Oscar’s volitile ex-wife illegally attempts to take his son away to Peru. Teaming up to locate her and get little Vido back, it seems that Jones has yet more proof of her mother’s potential humanity when she helps to play the hero, but when she can’t be swayed from trying to kill Cheng, Jessica has no choice but to call the cops on her once and for all.
If we’re being honest, you could argue that “AKA Shark In The Bathtub, Monster In The Bed” is virtually the exact same episode as ‘AKA Ain’t We Got Fun” as we get the same amount of deliberate progression for the clutch of main characters – only with the adding of a hair more tension. The moralising of turning in your long lost flesh and blood when it transpires that they’ve done horrendous things has ramped up noticably between episodes thanks to the fact that a vengeful Cheng is now taped up in Jessica’s bathtub offering some awful temptation to Alisa. Obviously, she has no qualms about popping his vertebrae and running away to a non-extradition country with her daughter to start anew – but while Jessica is seeing more and more of her mother once again in this unpredictable woman, her decision making progress is getting tougher by the minute. In some ways, it’s a clever inversion of the season one episode where a desperate Jessica tries to get Kilgrave to use his mind control powers for good, but instead of panel beating decency into someone unfamiliar with the concept, she’s trying to draw out what she wants to see from a potentially lethal loved one.
It actually all works really well, mainly because the back and forth of Krysten Ritter and Janet McTeer is snappily written and well delivered (a particular strength of the series as a whole), but it also finally gives the character of Oscar something of a point too beyond a booty call for our jaded lead. Also (and this also has nothing to do with the episode, persay) I’ve just noticed that “Alisa” is an anagram of “Alias”, which was the title of Jessica Jones first comic series – which is kind of cool. But while it’s legitimately heartening to see mother and daughter working on the same page to do good (and stopping a bus with their combined super strength to boot), ultimately Jessica can’t let mommy deadliest kill Cheng, even if he is an asshole.
But while we continue to watch Jessica get repeatedly put through the wringer, it’s been quietly fascinating watching her supporting cast flounder while she’s otherwise occupied. Utterly obsessed with bringing in a killer that she has no clue is Jessica’s mother, Trish is essentially losing her mind with frustration, and when Jones figures out that her adopted sister is hooked on something, it causes an even bigger divide between the two that’s probably happening at the absolute worst time. Elsewhere, we’re still finding that the Hogarth story thread is suspiciously full of hope, but as she undergoes some sort of procedure by a powers wielding ex-con, I have to say that my bullshit detector is going off the scale. Again, you feel that with Jessica around, Horgath might have found a way to properly investigate these claims, but family – especially psycho killer ones – take precedence, I suppose.
Back to Jessica and we find that when given an insanely complex choice, she opts to save the rival P.I. (who hates her and accidently shot her), in favour of her back-from-the-dead mother, who wants to be with her, but also has no compunction about ending lives on a whim. Is it the right decision? Sort of – Alisa is undeniably card carrying menace – but it doesn’t mean that the decision is any less painful. However, when looking at the big picture, after two whole episodes of soul searching, it’s smart that the season is changing the status quo up again, because once more – despite the fact that the show is remaining at a consistently high quality – it constantly feels like it’s in danger of almost staying in one place for too long. Sorry Alisa, it’s off to jail for you – for the good of the show.
Yet another incrediblely satisfyingly solid episode of the season doubles down on the core themes of the show, while ensuring that it changes the goal posts just enough to ensure things don’t plateau or feel dragged out. I’ve got to say, while the more measured pace of the season has seemingly prevented the show nailing many five-star episodes, the high level of consistency that this series has thus far achieved needs to be studied by the Netflix/Marvel gang in order ensure it becomes the norm.
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Where to watch Jessica Jones – Season 2, Episode 9: AKA Shark In The Bathtub, Monster In The Bed: