As Jessica Jones continues its deliberate, winding path to whatever gut-wrenching mother/daughter endgame it has in store, we find that episode 10 has moved the goal posts more than an earthquake at the World Cup. When we last left the show, Jessica had finally realised that Alisa may be her long lost mother, but she’s also an unrepentant killer and needs to be put away for the protection of everyone. Thus, thanks to her daughter, Alisa was finally cornered by the police and arrested for her crimes while an emotionally torn Jones looked on.
However, once again it’s time for a Netflix/Marvel show to try and keep that slow, but steady, momentum up while everyone (especially us) gets used to the new status quo. With Trish, Malcolm and Hogarth now being allowed to re-enter the main plot, Jessica’s acts of secrecy are now laid bare – but it seems that Alisa can’t even stay out of trouble in prison and it ultimately leads to Jones starting on a path to becoming her own worst nightmare.
After surrendering herself the the cops, we find that Alisa is being treated with extra caution as guns are to be trained on her every moment she’s out of her cell and she’s required to be chained up like Hannibal Lecter. Jessica has gotten Hogarth on the case, who seemingly has a new lease on life after being cured of ALS by a superpowered healer, but while release is obviously impossible, the two campaign to keep her from getting transferred to supervillain supermax, the Raft, where her human rights will be next to zero.
Elsewhere, Jessica has to make amends with those she’s been keeping in the dark, and both Malcolm and Trish takes the news that she had her mass murdering mother stashed in her apartment under their very noses. But while Malcolm sees only betrayal and an insulting lack of trust, Trish sees things in a far more disturbing light. Still trying to dispel the remnants of that ability-enhancing inhalant she’s been huffing on, Trish not only bombed the interview for her dream television job in the wake of her quitting Trish Talk, but she’s convinced that Jessica’s decisions are not her own and plots to “save” her from the corrupting influence of Alisa.
However, the thing that’s holding everything in balance is the status of Alisa’s husband, Malus, who was essentially the grand architect of everyone getting their powers. Alisa will do her time quietly if Jessica can smuggle him to a non-extradition country to keep him out of jail, but Trish lures Malcolm into helping her go behind Jones’ back to track the doctor down. But while this has disaster written all over it, similar clouds of dread are forming over everyone else too. Hogarth finally discovers that her healing was a scam, and after discovering that one of her mother’s guards is being abusive, Jessica’s attempt to get dirt on him goes horribly wrong when she accidentally kills him in self defence.
So, there’s no one-take hallway fights, no gratuitous showings of super powers and certainly no happy ending in store, but season 2 of Jessica Jones continues on its relentless path to be the first Netflix Marvel season to not suffer a noticable, mid-season dip in quality. Every time it feels like the show is going to plateau, or stay in one narrative place too long, the episode shifts focus in such a way that, while the basic plot threads remain unchanged, the rules of the game get ever more thorny. Take “AKA Pork Chop” for example; the angst and pain being experienced by all the major players has remained constant, be it sickness, addiction, or the universal fear that we’ll end up exactly like our parents. But while those strong foundations has remained fundamentally unchanged, the season has busied itself making sure that they haven’t stagnated by smartly playing switcheroo with events.
With Alisa now in jail, you’d think that Jessica’s stress levels would drop – however, unable and unwilling to write off her only living flesh and blood, Jones is still dedicated to trying to protect her. Be it getting Hogarth involved to ensure that the guilty party isn’t sent to a super powered Gitmo, to altering her moral code in order to smuggle Malus out of the country in order to keep her mother calm, she’s tirelessly working to square everything away. However, part of that involves coming clean to her friends about her recent actions and it’s here we start to get a real sinking feeling over what could possibly come of this. Trish Walker has always had a sizable amount of powers-envy and as her result, her determination levels goes through the roof when it comes to realising her dream of making a difference as a righteous hero of the people. However, her behavior throughout the episodes leads us to believe that she’s going to screw up the delicate balance Jessica has strained to set up purely for her own selfish and warped concepts of right and wrong. As a result, she flatly refuses to believe anyone opinions but her own, manipulates Malcolm into helping her, and even goes to visit Alisa herself, who tells the former child star some uncomfortable truths – but while the whole atmosphere of season 2 has been winningly tense, there’s definitely a sense of mounting dread that’s building that suggests everything can still get worse.
It’s an exhilarating feeling. Surely nothing good can come out of Hogarth discovering that she’s been duped and still faces a long, drawn-out death sentence despite being given cruel hope by her scammers. But the real hammer blow comes from Jessica’s discovery that one of Alisa’s jailers is a sadist and in her efforts to uncover him, things rapidly end up getting even further out of control. Not only is this guy tormenting Alisa, but he has a history of prisoners committing “suicides” on his watch and after Jessica searches his house, she discovers that he’s actually something of a serial slayer of inmates. However, it turns out he’s home, and after brutally attacking her, Jones manages to retaliate by walloping him with his own nightstick in self defence – of course, when you take super strength into account, accidents happen (especially ones that can cave in a skull), and we now find Jessica stuck in her own, personal nightmare. We started the season with Jessica worried that her anger and her powers could turn her into a killer – especially after she was forced to eliminate Kilgrave at the end of last season. With the introduction of her mother, who has also become a savage murderer, Jones could see the parallels all too clearly as it hit dangerously close to home – but now she has actual blood on her hands, and despite the fact the victim was a murderous sadist, Jessica knows that the world at large won’t bother to make the distinction.
Ramping up those central themes to their natural peak, we continue to find that season 2 remains admirably locked-in when it comes to trimming away the bullshit and sticking to the point. With a distinct air of doom floating about the place, we’re all now stuck on the paths these characters have chosen and with only three episodes to go, things are about to get impressively worse before they get better. Could it be that the Defenders Saga has never been this strong?
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