Jessica Jones season 2 premiere review: Take the case, take the clues, take the cash
When we last saw Jessica she had defeated Kilgrave and was finally ready to get her private eye business back on track, but just because Kilgrave is dead, doesn’t mean that he’s not still going to be present this season. We have know for months now that David Tennant will be appearing this season, we just don’t know how that’s going to play out yet, whether it be in flash backs, dream sequences or just as a vision in her head that won’t go away. For now though, let’s get into the Jessica Jones season 2 premiere.
Jessica, Trish and the IGH
Jessica may be back to work as a detective, but what happened with Kilgrave still haunts her and not just what happened when he had her under his mind control. The thing that is really sticking with her is that she killed him and she doesn’t want to think of herself as a murderer, but it’s stuck in her craw – even more so after a job she takes ends up asking her to kill someone since it was all over Trish talk how she broke Kilgrave’s neck.
Needless to say Trish and Jessica’s relationship is a bit strained at the moment and even though Trish is trying to mask all the superhuman’s she’s talking about on her show, it didn’t take the internet too long to figure out that one of them is Jessica. There’s something deeper going on here between them – Jessica wants to bury everything that happened to her and move forward, where as Trish thinks she needs to actually deal with things to make that happen.
Trish is still trying to find out what happened to Jessica with IGH after her car accident. She knows that Jessica went into the hospital without powers and when she “woke up out of her coma” 20 days later she had them. Trish also knows that IGH experiments on people and she not only wants to expose them, but she thinks that if Jessica understood what happened to her during that time, she might be able to put that mystery to rest. Trish has an added pressure from work to bring something big to Trish talk since her ratings are slipping and she thinks this expose could stop her from having to go back to talking about celebrity hair stylists.
Even though Jessica says no, Trish decides to bring over her parents ashes to force her to deal with her issues and get her on board with investigating IGH with her. This brings up memories of the day of the crash where her brother was telling on her for breaking her toy in the back seat, and her father turning around for just a moment before the crash killed her family. Obviously Jessica has some self blame for this and as much as she puts up a wall to keep her feelings at bay she actually feels quite a lot. When she meets a potential client named “The Whizzer” (who is actually another Marvel superhero) saying that he has super speed and that someone is trying to kill him, she at first doesn’t believe him, but after seeing his super speed and watching him killed in what wasn’t just a freak accident she is becoming more interested in finding out about the IGH. She thinks it’s possible they are behind his powers and are trying to kill anyone with superpowers which will eventually lead them to her as well. After getting a lead on a facility where IGH might be located she arrives there to see a ton of evidence that this was a place where human testing occurred and she even has flashbacks to being there herself.
Pryce Cheng and Hogarth try to play Jessica
Jessica’s business is doing well, so well in fact that a competitor (Pryce Cheng consulting) wants to absorb her and put Jessica on their staff. After she says no Cheng makes it clear that he has the resources to put her out of business and plans to do so anyways. Jessica starts investigating him to see what’s she’s up against, but he’s just as good as she is and knows he’s being watched, so he sends her everything he can about himself – school records, military transcripts, tax returns the works. Once Cheng starts stealing clients, she decides to grab one of his to show that she can play dirty too. Cheng starts pushing all her wrong buttons so she beats him to a pulp and ends up in handcuffs, but more so she realizes just how out of control her anger really is and if she can’t get control of it she may become the vigilante that kills people. She gets probation and court ordered anger management.
We had a chance to see behind the illusion of Hogarth’s success in that her ex assistant (Pam) is suing her for harassment. This is a topic that is very much in the media these days with the Me Too movement and with Jessica Jones being a very female forward show, it wasn’t too surprising to see this subject addressed on the show. While Hogarth insists that the relationship was consensual, the assistant says different. Jessica and Hogarth had a “falling out” as we will call it, and Jessica would never take her on as a client so in a very Hogarth way to get what she wants she was behind Cheng trying to absorb Jessica so that she could get her to work a case for her without knowing it. Jessica gets results and she knows it. When Cheng comes to Hogarth and says he wants to sue Jessica and put her out of business, Hogarth sees another opportunity to get to Jessica.
Related – Check out our review for Jessica Jones episode 2!
CarterMatt Verdict
So far it’s not clear who the villain is supposed to actually be this season outside of the IGH, but for us this is more about Jessica’s past and self discovery and if this season decides to focus only on that we will be thrilled. There doesn’t always have to be a villain to to fight against, when there is a battle raging inside you like Jessica has. That’s one of the things that makes Legion as good as it is – while there is a villain on that show, it’s not the primary focus: Instead, it’s David Haller dealing with not only having superpowers like telepathy, but also dealing with mental illness including dissociative identity disorder. The premiere mostly focused on Jessica’s demons and the fact that drinking them away isn’t exactly working anymore. We also love that it kept the same film noir feel in a modern world complete with the familiar blue palate and piano score in the background.
What did you think of the premiere of Jessica Jones season 2 and do you think this is shaping up to be just as good as season 1 was? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. We will have episode reviews of all of Jessica Jones season 2 so be sure to check them all out at the link here.
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