"Pretty good for a girl."
Jessica Jones
Review & Overview
[s02e01 AKA Start at the Beginning]
After finished binging on the whole sophomore season of the resident detective, I think I would want to give it a thorough review this time around after watching it started with Daredevil's debut until the mini assemble of the Defenders. If you want to go through episode by episode and plot by plot, let me be your handy guide!
"Whatever you let in will eventually get out, particularly with me around."
We opened with her going through the motion again as a hired private investigator for another client, seemingly like nothing has changed from the first time we saw her onscreen but it turns out something did, with her successful crusade against her captor at the end of the first season was viewed by the nearby citizens as a justifiable reason for them to ask her to kill for them, to suit their needy vendetta. Without them knowing the full journey behind her lethal decision, she understandably lashed back at the woman's shortsighted judgement of her being a hired killer.
"It's Patsy ..." sung Trish Walker again as her sordid past came back to haunt her (which would continue throughout the season) in order for her to help her adopted sister to reveal her own mysterious past, doing a favour for an old fan in exchange for a classified record from the hospital.
"Patsy's kinda mean."
"Supervigilante shit" affects Jones in many ways especially after the Defenders but this has continue to be in the conversation because of Walker's Trish Talk segment that keeps heaping praises on them since the host believes in the cause and wants to champion those who fight for it. She also wants her superpowered sister to face her past instead of moving past it, more specifically the twenty days missing from her medical record with educated guess putting her in the hands of IGH. Whether she likes it or not, Jessica couldn't fight the fact that Simpson, the ex-lover-turned-superpowered soldier, got his powers from Koslov of IGH, but she just couldn't care less to piece them together because she thought it would be done after disposing of Kilgrave.
"Hey, don't knock meaningless sex."
Her apparently new normal now is with Malcolm, the recovered addict that she extended her hand to help during her fight against the Purple Man before, barging into her house-slash-office, helping her to recharge for the day (with Redbulls to cure the hangovers) and get ready to meet new potential clients, ranging from a mother looking for her biological son, a lizard-people-truther, a whistle blower, and a fear-based speedster wanting protection from a killer of powered heroes. For one reason or another, she overlooks all of them because she won't take a pro-bono case, preferring to have an objective case instead of a personal ones in case they eventually turned to ... crap. Then comes Pryce Cheng of Cheng Consulting, who wants to absorb Alias Investigations (if you didn't notice already, this is her PI's business' name) into his firm by giving reasonable excuses at first and then just pointing out that he can't have her siphon off his clientele. Even if she doesn't want most of her clients, they still go to her because she's known know as a vigilante superhero.
New characters coming one after another with Oscar and his son, Vido, just starting to move in the apartment 6F below, as the new superintendent. Judging by the contrasting reactions between them when she 'helped' moving their refrigerator like lifting a feather, they would play more roles in her life in the coming days.
"Pretty good for a girl."
Working for a boss that only cares for ratings couldn't have been calming for Trish as she wants to keep going down the superhero route, not touching on the lifestyle craps again. This might not turn out as well as what she expects in the end ...
Trying to get some dirt on the new formidable threat on her livelihood, it is all for naught as her spot perching on top of an MJ sign is quickly being found by Cheng.
Pulling out the ace up her sleeve, Walker pulls out something that Jones have put away 17 years before: her family's ashes, the casualties of the car accident that left her as the sole survivor, understandably forcing her to put it away and isolate it from her life. With the adopted sister forcing this sore spot upon her without any agreement from her whatsoever. Giving some heroic speech as well as some materialistic goals to gain at the end of this effort just shows that Trish just want to do everything that she could to help people in needs and if learning the truth behind IGH and its experiments would help her achieve just that, that's a fight worth fighting for, moreover if it will help her adopted sister to come to terms with her troubled past. The sisters could find some common ground op the matter but her trying to relive that accident proven to be too much, but at least she's holding on to what's left of her family.
Bare in mind though that the radio personality is being followed or at least monitored by a person in a car and a guy in a hoodie, with the latter using some kind of a inhaler. Two possible threats closing in on the former Patsy ... which one would attack first?
"A good PI doesn't leave secrets that can be leveraged against them."
Forced to come this close again to the remains of her former family, it's never in doubt in triggering back that fateful incident as a nightmare after trying to numb herself from the memory and the resulted pain. As a confident retaliation, Pryce Cheng sent his whole life story straight to Alias since he knows he doesn't have any secret to be used against him, which she had to admit as a ballsy move.
Meanwhile, the Wheezer came to the door again to beg for protection after a failed air conditioner assassination attempt on him and his pet mongoose, Emil. Thank goodness for that! Nevertheless, since her client is now being stolen from right underneath her, she's using her specialty as an 'unconventional' investigator to use the secret if not of Pryce then of his own clients, getting Felipe the dog for example. That would be all and good but he just needs to pick a fight with her, a one-sided fight started by another assumption made of her tragic situation that now turned violent when it just goes too far. A broken glass door, bleeding nose and dislocated shoulder later, she finally comes back to her senses and faces the music of her own outrage.
Probation and a court-ordered anger management; it could've been worse. Jessica could talk of her predicament and be vulnerable with the guilty-stricken Trish, discussing the fact of her killing for Kilgrave and finally killing him are all nurture and not nature at all. A new addition to Walker's private life is Griffin, a famous anchor that could vibe with Jones really but in the end is bringing them into the limelight, which is not something the titled hero needs more right now. Their budding relationship is of mutual respect and looks too good to be true already, as she caught a glimpse of the hooded figure and he appeared to be Simpson, the ex-lover-turned-crazed-powered-soldier.
"Jessica, you're not a killer." "I've killed. Ergo, I'm a killer."
We learned that this new investigator is being hired by Hogarth herself as a viable alternative after the past season's fallout. It seemed to be an unsuccessful attempt at first but when the bruised ego of Cheng takes over and wants to use Jessica's pleading guilty to the assault charges against her, the lawyer is now intrigued and willing to help him in his endeavour. This is not looking good for out protagonist ...
Speaking of which, a lethal threat is welcoming her as she enters her apartment-slash-office, as the desperate Whizzer aims a gun at her to finally force her to hear his life-and-death situation out finally, being relentlessly hunted down by someone strong and fast.
How he explained his 'sickness'; how 'they' made him a monster and 'their' pills to turn him back to normal, and how 'they' actually the maker of this thing that's coming after him should have let her know there's truth behind his claims after all but when she sees his 'fast' ability with her own eyes, finally her attempt to help him is all for naught when his paranoid state is kicking in, running away from a possible life-saving help. This proves to be the fatal undoing as he runs away from her and straight into danger, being blocked by a downed scaffolding and could only looks back with a doomed expression on his face as another scaffolding fells upon him along with anything that's on top of it. She could only confirms her worst suspicion after pushing the debris around to find him dead with a bar through his body.
The always stoic Jeri Hogarth is about to face the fact of her own that it's not muscle cramps as her physician appears to give her a bad news as we see shock on her face and fear in her hand movements ...
Caught in the crossfire between the powered before is one of the boxes containing her family's remains that bursts open and scatter all over the room and now Jess is sitting in the ashes, reminiscing of the recent passing of the Whizzer as well as her brother, letting the emotions envelops her. Talking out the recent incident with Malcolm who is thoughtfully sweeping up his brother's, she went through Whizzer's stuff in his bag to find clues and indeed she does, a high dose of anti-psychotic medicine that confirms his abilities and the manufacturer behind it, Salento.
"Lesson number one: read the fine print."
Breaking into an industrialized space that is certainly not handling any garment whatsoever, she opens every door and looks into every room but when she reaches a certain corridor, flashbacks of her being experimented upon indicates that she is in the right place after all. Who is that horribly scarred patient holding onto a kid in one of them?
P.S. Please bare in mind that I won't do it like this for the future episodes ever again ... such a time drain, spending the whole Sunday writing it up! This is admittedly more of a overview rather than a review ... I'll just highlight some of the key points of the episodes and give my opinions on how they progress through the sophomore season.
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