While the second season of Jessica Jones has been going great guns, I can’t help but feel that, for all of its meaningful themes and gritty aesthetic, it’s starting to plateau a little bit. For five whole episodes now, we’ve watched our flawed heroine manage to creep ever closer to the identity of the super powered murderer after painstakingly following increasingly disparate clues, and while it’s proven that Jones hasn’t lost her touch, or her relevance, we really need something of big revelation to take us to the next level.
Well, it looks like the finale of episode 6 has given us such a shock moment – but to get to it, we have yet another episode of diligent investigation and supporting character’s shenanigans to wade through. With such a game changing twist on the line, can yet another, standard, detective show episode whet our appetite before this big reveal?
After the start of this installment skillfully manages to edit around an episode break to avoid having to cough up the budget for a collapsing aquarium, we find a soaking wet Jessica giving chase to the mysterious, female psycho who has been mauling those connected to IGH, and Dr. Malus, who supposedly founded the company, but now seems to be in a romantic relationship with the killer. The pair ultimately manages to escape, but after viewing some revealing CCTV footage of the incident, it seems that despite being all chummy chummy with a bestial murderer, Malus still has to drug his lunatic lover in order to get her in his car. Now working under the assumption that the killer may not be in control of her own actions but is an unwilling assassin for Malus, Jessica subtly alters her approach, targeting the scientist through any past acquaintances.
But while Jones finally make headway, the people around her seem to be rapidly falling into despair. Her adopted sister, Trish, is now completely hooked on the abilities-enhancing IGH inhaler, and while high on its effects she’s actively going around looking for crimes to thwart while jacked up. What certainly doesn’t help matters is that in her “weaponized” state, Trish thinks it’s a good idea to hook up with fellow recovering addict and newly christened associate of AKA Investigations, Malcolm. Elsewhere, Jeri Hogarth is continuing to baby sit a vital witness in her flashy apartment, but while former IGH nurse, Inez Green, is planning to steal all of her hosts jewellery and jumping ship, she discovers that Hogarth has ALS and reveals that she might know someone with healing powers that could help.
But while Jessica is on the verge of finally finding out the identity of the savage killer she’s been tracking, she’s not prepared for what she’s truly uncovered. It seems that her connections to this woman goes way beyond the circumstantial as she claims that she’s none other than Jessica’s long-dead mother.
Obviously we’ll unpack some of that seismic twist in a minute – but on the surface, it seems to be exactly what the (IGH) doctor ordered to get the show to shift some gears. It’s tough to penalise a show that’s good, even though it has some noticable pace issues, but surely I can’t have been the only one to think that season 2 – despite its many virtues – needed to pick up its speed a little. However, I also have to point out how amused I was by how brazen the show was in avoiding having to show a huge aquarium shatter and expel tons of water by simply cutting away at the end of last episode and then returning to wet people fleeing at the beginning of this one. It’s a sobering reminder that, even though the Defenders Saga has the might of Marvel behind it, demands have obviously been made to keep costs low – so don’t expect any gargantuan, comic book, action sequences any time soon.
However, down and dirty is what usually serves Jessica Jones best, and while it would have been nice to see her in a crazed, balls to the wall, set piece involving saving people from a ruptured aquarium, the character doesn’t actually need flashy acts of super powers quite the way that – say – Luke Cage does. But while the show travels over plenty of established ground by giving us our sixth detective-heavy episode in a row, it’s still managing to give the supporting cast plots that are all building to some sort of emotional explosion. While Trish may still be off the pills and booze, her increasing reliance on the IGH drug not only suggests that a debut of Hellcat is not entirely off the cards (something that seemed unthinkable only one short season ago), but we get to experience a harrowing addiction plotline in a show literally packed with addictive personalities. In an effort to hide her dependence on the inhalant, Trish seduces Malcolm, and the fact that he’s an ex drug user means that this has the potential of getting incredibly messy. Also carrying the heft of a plotline that definitely won’t have a happy ending is the fact that Inez Green has given Hogarth sudden hope of salvation from her death sentence.
But while Jeri’s normally impressive bullshit detector has been clouded by hope, can there really be any truth in the story that IGH managed to create someone with healing powers? Honestly, I kind of doubt it, but the show seems to be dead set on getting every pound of flesh from Carrie-Anne Moss’ character it can due to her inhuman behavior last season.
However, as intriguing as all this is, the real lead here is the breakthrough we have with Janet McTeer’s mysterious antagonist. After being drip fed various details about this monstrous figure, we’ve been discovering that we’ve actually been humanising her episode by episode. Going from an unseen, destructive force that can rip off limbs like a disgruntled Wookie, to someone with the awareness to play the piano and have a relationship with her “creator”, the final hammer blow is that this woman is revealed to be Jessica’s mother. Obviously there’s a sizable amount to unpack here and a fair few explanations to be made (why doesn’t Jessica recognise her own mother?), but it’s yet another gargantuan step in once again taking a Jessica Jones villain and entwining literally every aspect of their being with our hapless heroine. If Jessica had issues about becoming this rage consumed maniac before, the fact that she’s also her literal flesh and blood certainly isn’t going to help Jones’ peace of mind any time soon. But while the plot twist wasn’t too hard to sort out if you examined the type of emotional threads the show was shooting for, predicting it doesn’t make it any less effective and it’ll no doubt give us plenty of moral conundrums to chew on in the remaining episodes. Oh, and whomever thought to have Oscar’s portrait of a sleeping Jessica be done in the art style of the comic deserves a goddamn raise.
Yes, the related-to-the-villain twist may have been done to death ever since Darth Vader insisted that he was the father, but when it’s done well, it still has the power to kick some ass. And with all the emotional connections and comparisons Jessica has already created between her and her foe, the fact that the big bad is her mother gives the show carte blanche to turn those dramatic screws to an excruciating degree.
Momma’s home.
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