Following her appearance in Defenders, Jessica Jones is back on Netflix for a second season. As ever, we’re going to be reviewing every episode of the series – one per day – providing analysis, easter egg spots and speculation for those who aren’t planning to binge it all in one go. All discussion is welcome but please don’t spoil future episodes in the comments.
This review contains spoilers.
2.12 Pray For My Patsy
Well Alisa’s escape went about as well as expected. I’ll give them this: I genuinely thought Patsy was dead for a second before she seized back to life, and that’s one thing about the Marvel-Netflix shows that doesn’t go for most TV: you can’t tell who’s going to die. (Except Jessica’s mother. She will definitely die. And so will any other incidental character with fewer than three lines.)
I am 90% sure Trish actually does have super powers now but doesn’t realise, which is a development I’m not sure is a good one, though if it happens it’ll at least bring her out of the downward spiral she’s in. And hey, it puts her on the path to being “Hellcat”, so look for someone to use that phrase next series. The best material Trish got, actually, was between her and her mother. There’s a relationship that is the definition of damaging, such that it takes no more than three words from a reporter for her to turn her back on all the progress the pair had made in favour of toxic behaviour patterns.
Jessica, too, has her own maternal issues, most of which revolve around the (understandable) urge to reconnect with the mother she thought she’d lost. In her lucid moments, she knows her mother’s life isn’t worth more than the scores of people she’ll inevitably kill if she’s allowed to live – but only in the abstract. Given the chance to dish out karma, Jessica refuses to take her mother’s life. And that’s interesting to me not least because it shows us that despite her concerns she really isn’t a killer. Even when that’s the sensible thing to do. Even when people die because of her refusal to become one.
The problem with Alisa is that she’s at her least interesting and relatable when she’s in single-minded killing-machine mode. It’s one thing to have short-term rage issues, but slipping into an extended fugue state where you obsess on one thing is a bit too specific to have much of a metaphorical or thematic connection to the wider ideas behind the series. I enjoy her as a character, but when this happens to her she’s not really a character.
In contrast to that, Hogarth is single-minded and obsessed in her own way, and she gets revenge the only way she knows how: in absolute cold blood. You’d have to be a cold person not to be impressed by her talking Inez into shooting Shane and being smart enough to make it look like someone else’s idea. And she got Turk in on the action, which is always my favourite moment of any Marvel-Netflix show. Turk, last seen being spared by The Punisher during an arms bust gone wrong, rolls up in an expensive car. I can’t wait to see what he’s gotten himself into by the time Luke Cage season two drops.
Reference-wise, the only thing obscure enough that I thought needed explaining was Jeri’s watch. In case you don’t remember, the engraved W is for Wendy, her wife who was killed last season by Jeri’s lover, Pam. Hogarth is nothing if not a magnet for bad times, is she?
And since we’ve only got one more episode to go, let’s do the customary guesswork. Here’s my feeling about where everyone’s going:
So, Hogarth will get everything she wants, except a cure. Malcolm will quit Alias and probably leave town to get away from the psychodrama. Trish will have gained the superpowers she always wanted. Alisa will be killed, probably by Jess, probably to save Trish. Oscar will stick around for Jess’ sake, declaring he accepts the danger being around Jess involves. And no-one will even mention Griffin.
Read James’ review of the previous episode, AKA Three Lives And Counting, here.