We’ve arrived at the penultimate episode of Jessica Jones’ second solo outing, and once again we find the show sticking rigorously to its slower, darker pace. It’s a fairly impressive feat of restraint, as the MCU, even in its grittier, TV incarnation, isn’t exactly renowned for keeping things subtle – but even if Jones’ downplayed attitude is possibly born more out of a necessity to keep the budgets down, it manages to fit the character like a battered, worn, leather jacket.
This means that even with one episode left to go, the season is still playing the slow game, not allowing its various plot threads to be resolved by anything as predictable as a huge, flashy, fight sequence. Rather, it continues to play to its strengths, making the lead character’s life a steaming pile of unresolvable shit while her supporting cast barely end up faring any better. But with Jessica forced to make the rather crappy choice between her damaged, back-stabbing adopted sister and her psychotic mother, don’t expect the weaponized doom and gloom to perk up any time soon.
With news reaching her that her beloved Malus has died in an explosion, Alisa has predictably blown her top, violently escaped prison and is looking to rend the person she holds responsible limb from limb – Trish Walker. The good news for Alisa is that Trish isn’t exactly that hard to find as she’s been admitted to hospital due to her worrying reaction to Malus’ super power creating experiments, and matters are made even easier when Trish’s mother, Dorothy, drops her location during a typically self-serving interview.
This puts Jessica in something of a bind and neither her adopted sister or her back-from-the-dead mother are exactly their best selves right now. Trish is a hopeless addict whose power-envy has nearly killed her and Alisa constant rage-fueled rampages have killed more people than non-deploying airbags, so Jones is in something of a no-win situation. However, in the heat of the moment, Jessica chooses Trish, causing Alisa to kill yet more of the NYPD’s finest and putting her even further at the top of the city’s shit list. But while Jessica has no idea how to solve this situation, we find that Jeri Hogarth knows exactly how to resolve her own situations. Tracking down Inez Green and her con artist boyfriend who allowed her to believe that she was cured of ALS, she tricks Green into believing that Rybeck has got himself quite the secret nest egg due to scores of past, conned women, leading to Inez shooting him in a rage.
Lacking Hogarth’s cold-blooded clarity, Jessica tries to reconcile with a conscious Trish, only to discover that their positions on recent events are just too different to fix. However, Alisa makes one last play to score a future with her daughter by knocking her out and spiriting her away in a stolen camper van. More direct than a note, I guess…
While “AKA Pray For My Patsy” is noticably inferior to the previous episode, I guess that we’re just going to have to contend with the fact that the season could only bring David Tennant back for one, measly episode. While it’s a little weird that Jessica’s bouts of trauma-based hallucinations only lasted about twelve hours, the disappointment that Kilgrave wasn’t going to stick around for more imaginary trolling is mostly cured by us receiving yet another focused, driven episode that continues to up those stakes. Yes, those of a more impatient nature will be chomping at the bit that the show isn’t settling its issues with expensive fisticuffs between mother and daughter, Jessica Jones has never been a show that’s interested in solving its problems with blunt force trauma. Acts of violence in this show has always had grave ramifications, especially when even snapping the neck of a mind controlling rapist mostly only results in yet more trauma and self loathing.
As it stands, we get more of an emotional struggle as this trio of messed up women (let’s call it a hate triangle) try to lay down where their loyalties lie; but you have to hand it to the show for making Jessica’s choices so fucking unappealing. Even near death, Trish still resents Jessica for stepping in and saving her from Malus’ treatments even though it seemed about as pleasurable as having diesel pumped into your veins. However, the alternate choice is a mother who not only is utterly unrepentant about the lives she’s taken, but happily further murders a police detective while escaping from the hospital when her attempt on Trish’s life fails. But as the main bulk of the show enthusiastically delivers worse case scenarios relating to toxic relationships, one of the secondary plot lines comes to a rather unsettling and memorable conclusion.
While super powered killers have run rampant and Jessica has found herself torn, Jeri Hogarth’s plot thread has been puttering along nicely, mostly unbothered by what was going on in the main storyline. In the previous episodes, we’ve seen the lawyer with reptilian morals discover that she’s dying, search for options involving assisted suicide and seemingly find hope in Inez Green’s duplicitous former nurse. Hoping to take advantage of the various super people born of IGH’s illegal experimentation, Jeri was ultimately duped by Green’s boyfriend who not only got out of this jail term, but ransacked her apartment with his accomplice to pawn it. However, I don’t think any of us expected Jeri’s revenge to be quite so cold and calculating – especially as she only uses mere words to turn Inez against her boyfriend and shoot him dead before calling the cops. Still, as underhanded as it all is, she’s still a way more sympathetic character right now than Trish is, which is stunning when you consider all the skeevy shit Hogarth was pulling back in season one.
Yep, while I understand why Jessica chooses sisterhood over spending the rest of her life trying to get through to her mother through the red mists of a rage attack, Trish is still an infuriating piece of work. With everything that Jones is willing to sacrifice, the fact that Walker still can’t see past her own selfish wants made me so legitimately mad, Alisa was starting to actually make sense for a second. Of course, if we’re getting this kind of character progression between the two main players this close to the end, it probably means that we’re setting up a clutch of plotlines for a possible season 3. But before we can even consider this, there’s still the fact that the episode ends with Alisa laying out her spawn and kidnapping her in order to start a new life. Obviously, the fact that Jones was able to reach her through one of her rage tantrums means that Alisa now sees her daughter as some sort of salvation, but when plot threads are this relentlessly grim, salvation may be hard to come by.
While not a patch on the doom-sewing dread of the previous episode, the road to the season finale is reliably paved with enough blood and betrayal to make the big finish enticing enough to root for. But expect irreparable damage to virtually everyone and everything by the time it’s all said and done.
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