S02.E02: AKA Freak Accident

[The Crazed Spruce]

Jessica sets out to find Dr. Kozlov and makes a startling discovery.  Trish recruits Malcolm for backup as she visits a figure from her past.

[Helena Dax]

Still slow. Poor Trish, that guy from the movies was disgusting. And her own mother pimping her? Sad. No wonder Jessica despises Dorothy.

I guess Jeri has a terminal illness. The character is fine, but right now her plot seems to be very disconnected, like she's on her own TV show. 

[SnoGirl]

Ugh, poor Trish. I hope she destroys that director before the end of this series...

[thuganomics85]

Well, by then, Simpson!  His death really came off like the actor wasn't available or they realized the character wasn't working, but wanted to give him some kind of exit.

Damn, Trish had a rough upbringing.  That director is obviously the worst, but it really shows how much Dorothy sucked as a mother as well.  No wonder Jessica hates her ass.

I'm guessing Jeri is dying or something, so that's why she is throwing caution to the wind and doing things like drugs and partying with prostitutes.

Still think there will be more the superintendent besides just being an anti-powers dick. 

Edited March 10, 2018 by thuganomics85

[2727]

My fear for the superintendent is that he's going to become a love interest for Jessica. Mutual loathing at first sight turns to lust, blah blah. They cast that young, good looking actor for a reason.

I'm not sure why I'm finding the show such a slog this time, but it's been a struggle to get through without fast-forwarding. I did zip through Jeri's scenes with her street pick-ups after a while. The point of her reckless behavior could have been made in 30 seconds without all the drugged, "sexy" dancing and whatnot. So tedious, and it's only the second episode.

[Anela]

I'm tired of plot lines that have people turning to drugs and prostitutes, when they're depressed. 

I haven't watched the end of the episode yet. but I love you, Malcolm, for hitting that guy. I hope something awful happens to the director. 

[AimingforYoko]

Hi Simpson. Bye Simpson. I'm glad they didn't keep him around too long. He would've been a lame villain.

[Wayward Son]

• Simpson’s alive! Run Trish run! I wish I’d rewatched season one as I only remember his storyline in the vaguest of details.

• “With great power comes great mental illness”. As inappropriate as it may be that line made me laugh. It is the dark gritty nature of Jessica Jones encapsulated in one line. 

• Is the new supervisor a love interest for Jessica? I thought I sensed a spark between them in the hallway. Plus, it seems as though they don’t want us to completely hate him; since wanting to maintain custody of your kid is a pretty understandable reason for keeping his distance and being an asshole.  

• Jessica’s loathing of Trish’s mother is completely understandable. What type of mother pimps her own kid out like that? It has been a while since I watched season one. Did they reveal this back in season one? I can only remember the first season mentioned the fact that her mother had been overly pushy and put a lot of pressure on Trish as a child. 

• Is Jessica’s father the monster? The picture of a member of her family’s hand hanging out the window after the car crash reminded me of the flashback Jessica had in episode one. I’m ruling out her mother since the figure looked male and her brother would have been too young during what was presumably a flashback to her lost twenty days.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Poor Trish. And of course her mother was pushing her to do something as terrible as sleepy with a creepy pervy old man in order to further her career. Even though part of me thought it was very dangerous and impetuous for Malcolm to attack Max, I understood the impulse. How could you not be sickened after hearing how glibly Max blew off what happened and reframe it as saying that Trish crawled into his bed. SO GROSS.

I hope someone adopts Whizzer's mongoose! I was actually worried that the poor thing would starve to death so I was glad that Jessica went to his apartment.

Poor Simpson. Even in that state, tortured by remembering what he'd done, his focus was on protecting Trish. At least he got a heroic death.

Can't say I was sorry to see that Kozlow is dead. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!

[Lady Calypso]

Wow, that's a sucky ending for Simpson. I remember not liking Simpson last season around the time he really went batshit crazy and evil, but the way he went here seemed a bit contrived and unnecessary. He pops in to get some sort of redemption and then is killed off. I just felt like it was a sloppy way to get rid of the character, especially only after episode two. Why? Are they just looking to up the body count with this monster so they're throwing expendable characters, one of whom we knew from season 1? 

Yeah, I definitely got vibes between Jessica and the superintendent Oscar. They certainly telegraphed something happening with them down the line. I'm still unsure of his purpose, but we'll see how exactly he comes around. Hopefully not anything to do with the kid....but it'll be around the kid. 

Damn, that's an awful piece of information we learned about Trish. Dorothy is the nastiest person. I know we met her last season, but I don't remember her being that despicable to the point where I wanted Jessica to toss her into a wall. The woman trusts a pedophile over Jessica? Also, I'm looking forward to the director eventually meeting his demise, or suffering the consequences. I can't imagine them not punishing the director by the end of the season. I hope it's brutal and by Trish's hand. Good on Malcolm for at least getting a shot in. I thoroughly love Malcolm.

Ok, so I am intrigued to find out what kind of illness Jeri has, but her scenes completely detracted from the episode. I almost did fast-forward through her minutes long drug-induced dance. They're going to need to hurry that part of the story along, and fast. I'd actually prefer some sort of twist there, because a terminal illness and drug addiction due to depression is something I've seen a bazillion times before. I don't know how they'll tell that type of story differently here. 

[dkb]

Am I forgetting why Dorothy hates Jess so much from last season? Is it just because Jessica doesn't let Dorothy tell her what to do? Cause yeah no way is Jess worse then the dude who was sleeping with your teenage daughter, yikes.

Poor Whizzer, no one wanted to listen to his story.

[Sakura12]

I think Dorothy just hates Jessica because Trish always goes with and listens to her. 

[Llywela]

Also, I think, because Jessica sees through her. Dorothy adopted Jessica as a publicity stunt, right? We know that from season 1. But Jessica refused to play the game - refused to smile and play along with the charade for the cameras, because she knew she was being used for publicity, could see how abusive Dorothy's behaviour was, and stood up for Trish. They have diametrically opposing views of what is best for Trish - from Jessica's point of view, getting Trish away from Dorothy's influence saved her from a life of debasement and abuse, but from Dorothy's point of view, Jessica's influence robbed Trish of the career she might have had if she'd continued to play the game. That's why Dorothy hates her. She was a PR stunt gone wrong that contributed to Dorothy's loss of control of Trish - and, in Dorothy's eyes, contributed to the decline of Trish's once-promising career. Everyone loves a good scapegoat.

[tennisgurl]

Dorothy really is just a nasty piece of work, isn't she? Its totally in character for her to try to pimp out her own teenage daughter to further her own goals. Poor Trish, what a messed up life shes had. The only reason she comes off as the well adjusted one of the Jess/Trish duo is because literally everything that could go wrong does go wrong for Jessica. And I hope that skeavy director gets more than a broken nose. 

Yeah, they are totally going to set up Jessica and the super. I guess he will get over his hatred of super powered people by the end of the season so he and Jessica can hook up. I mean, I can kinda understand wanting to avoid Jessica if you have a kid and are in the middle of a custody battle, but hating people with powers is less understandable. 

Well, bye Simpson. Him showing up seemed pretty pointless, especially so early in the season. Did they just realize that they needed to wrap his story up, but the actor was busing doing something else while they did most of the filming? At least he had a somewhat heroic death, I always felt bad for Simpson. He was probably always kinda messed up, but everything that happened last season clearly busted his brain up badly. I also liked that Jessica still untied him when the creature/guy was coming towards them. Jessica might be super snarky and pissed at most everyone, but she does care, and feels a lot of empathy towards people who are struggling, even if she doesn't like that she does. 

[Danny Franks]

Wow, Jessica really is at an all-time low. Banging that douchey finance bro in the bathroom, because he had the swoonworthy line of "nice ass". At least she dismissed him cruelly before he could get off but still... make better decisions, Jess. She also really didn't need to look at the photographs from her family's death.

Being an asshole to cops is a good way of making yourself a suspect as well, you'd think Jessica would understand that. And beating up guys with no legs is a good way to find yourself a social outcast. Particularly when you're making a name for yourself as an unpredictable, sort-of-murdering super-powered person.

Still don't care about the bland super guy. Flat acting, and so clearly a love interest of little consequence.

It looks like the Whizzer was just as screwed up by IGH as Jessica was. And I like the idea that being given these powers can actually be really traumatic, and not the "wow, this is so cool!" trip that it often is in superhero stories.

And I'm even more convinced now that Griffin is bad news, that's what my "scroty sense" is telling me. He's just too supportive and nice to actually be either of those things. We all know how these bland love interest characters work out: Dead or evil. Meanwhile, I'm getting slightly crushy vibes between Trish and Malcolm. That would be interesting, despite my aforementioned disinterest in romance on the show.

Trish's mother is fucking evil, absolutely awful. It's sad that Trish even needs to acknowledge her existence, but again she's willing to do it for Jessica. And of course there's a sleazy, predatory, sex criminal director in her past. One who her mother put her in the path of for her own selfish goals. But I did really appreciate that they showed just how much it affected Trish, to confront her abuser. Even as strong and collected and brave as she is, it was still traumatic, and something that took a lot of courage to do.

The stuff with Jeri? Don't care. Is she dying? Maybe. Am I interested in seeing her do drugs and sleep with prostitutes? I am not. It was really uncomfortable to watch, which was surely the intention. I ended up skipping through the last couple of minutes of it.

Simpson's return was underwhelming and brief. He was a potent villain, with the toxic masculinity and 'I'll handle this, little lady' vibe of his character. Oh well.

[rmontro]

On 3/11/2018 at 8:40 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Poor Trish. And of course her mother was pushing her to do something as terrible as sleepy with a creepy pervy old man in order to further her career.

Dorothy and the director were of course despicable,  But from what I took from it, Trish herself was eager to go along with using her sexuality to manipulate the guy into giving her the movie role.  Legality aside, I don't think her hands are entirely clean in this. 

And of course we get treated to yet another scene filmed in the dark, right after I made a first episode post about how nice it was to actually have well lit sets on TV for a change.

[Ottis]

Trish and Jeri’s lead prostitute bear a close resemblance. Also, those were some professional hookers. Took Jeri’s 180 in stride. 

I get why Jessica wants to know about her past, I guess. Maybe she wants to hold someone responsible. It’s not very interesting, though. A bad guy created people with powers, and the powers cause angst to physical distress. Got it. Would love to move on to something interesting. 

What the director did years ago was  wrong and possibly illegal. I didn’t find him awful in that scene with Trish, however. She played a role in what happened apparently, and I’ve known plenty of mature 16 year olds (not in that way tho!).

”Scroty sense.” Ha. 

Edited March 21, 2018 by Ottis

[rmontro]

10 hours ago, Ottis said:

Trish and Jeri’s lead prostitute bear a close resemblance. Also, those were some professional hookers. Took Jeri’s 180 in stride. 

You have to admire thier proffesionalism  :)

Strange thing, this is one of my favorite Marvel Netflix series, and Jessica is probably the most interesting character of the bunch.  And yet, for some reason, I find that her seasons tend to kind of drag.  I thought that last season as well.  At the time I thought it was maybe just too much running Killgrave into the ground.  Now I'm not sure what it is.  

[Ottis]

2 hours ago, rmontro said:

Strange thing, this is one of my favorite Marvel Netflix series, and Jessica is probably the most interesting character of the bunch.  And yet, for some reason, I find that her seasons tend to kind of drag.  I thought that last season as well.  At the time I thought it was maybe just too much running Killgrave into the ground.  Now I'm not sure what it is.  

ITA (except I liked Daredevil season 1 more). But as much as I liked JJ season 1, I actually just quit watching it about 5 episodes from the end. The villain was terrific, but for some reason I lost interest. I didn't watch the last 5 eps until almost a year later.

It struck me during this current episode that much of JJ is different characters lamenting/complaining/whining about their situations. JJ and her moaning about having powers against her will is reaching new levels in season 1. The landlord is an ex-con on probation, afraid of losing his kid. Malcom is a former junkie who keeps reminding us that he has to stay busy, or else. Trish is ashamed of aspects of her past. And now Jeri has a disease that not only leads to death, but first makes you go through a scary and terrible decline. I would love to find a character whose life is either OK, or who is OK with who they are and their past. My favorite characters in this ep were the hookers.

[rmontro]

21 hours ago, Ottis said:

It struck me during this current episode that much of JJ is different characters lamenting/complaining/whining about their situations. JJ and her moaning about having powers against her will is reaching new levels in season 1. The landlord is an ex-con on probation, afraid of losing his kid. Malcom is a former junkie who keeps reminding us that he has to stay busy, or else. Trish is ashamed of aspects of her past. And now Jeri has a disease that not only leads to death, but first makes you go through a scary and terrible decline. I would love to find a character whose life is either OK, or who is OK with who they are and their past. My favorite characters in this ep were the hookers.

Good point.  For all the fun Jessica is with her sarcastic snark and bluster, she's not a very pleasant person.  She's clearly an alcoholic, and she falls into bed with any guy that is civil and nearby.  In the case of that guy in the bar who told her she had a "nice ass", she didn't even make it into bed - the public toilet was good enough.  Not exactly a role model for young girls, is she?  And please don't give me any BS about being empowered and in control of her own sexuality.

On top of this, of course, as a superhero, she has to have a self righteous rage to her, because deep down she's supposedly a "good" person.  We just don't see it very often.  And like you say, all the characters are downers.  Maybe that's why it drags.  She stole The Defenders because they didn't give her time to wallow, they just highlighted her fun side.

Edited March 22, 2018 by rmontro

[Ottis]

I just watched the last 10 minutes of this episode. I assume Jeri is going to choose to become IGH powered? 

And I am really, really, really tired of our powered heroes being mistaken for criminals by cops. 

Edited March 21, 2018 by Ottis

[rmontro]

13 hours ago, Ottis said:

And I am really, really, really tired of our powered heroes being mistaken for criminals by cops. 

Agreed, it's getting to be tiresome.  I guess it's a common problem for "street level" heroes.

[WatchrTina]

On 3/21/2018 at 9:01 AM, Ottis said:

My favorite characters in this ep were the hookers.

Okay that made me laugh.  Because it's true.  

I also have to give Malcolm props stepping up and punching the sleeze-ball director in the mouth but I was too worried about him to really enjoy it.  I was sure he was going to get shot in the back as he walked away.

On 3/9/2018 at 7:46 PM, AimingforYoko said:

Hi Simpson. Bye Simpson. I'm glad they didn't keep him around too long. He would've been a lame villain.

I really struggled through the first two episode because I couldn't figure out who he was.  Season 1 was too long ago (though based on these boards I THINK I'm recollecting that he's a cop that dated Trish for a while but then he got Kilgraved).  Furthermore I can't figure out who this "Koslov" is/was.  Generally speaking I'm just really confused by this season.

Also I miss the humor and the snark.  I don't think I laughed once in the first two eps.  I was glad to come to these boards and get a laugh here.

[wayne67]

I'm not sure what it says about the show that the hookers were the MVP's for professionalism. I'd imagine they're used to clients whose personalities change when they sober up, have someone in their real life interrupt the party or when they 'finish'. 

Jerri and her drama is boring. 

[AKA...CJ86]

Simpson's death... that's going to put a damper on Trish's current relationship.  And I'm glad he wasn't in any way related to the bad... it was too obvious... but so was protecting Trish, it was either one or the other.

With the flashbacks of Jessica's family and another experiment... obviously signs obviously pointing to someone in Jessica's family surviving and reeking terror now.

I thought signs were pointing towards Cheng and Arocho being shady in some way, more tied to what's happening, they still can be... but they'll probably just be a thorn in Jessica's side until they need to be saved by her.  Arocho, already know something will come up with the son and he'll be all googly eyes for Jessica when she saves him/them...

Every time I have an unsure, bad feeling, it will be the "scroty sense."

I know the first episode had a scene with Jeri and a doctor, but did we ever get any specifics of what her, most likely fatal illness is?  But damn, she knows how to go all out... honestly, my favorite parts with the hookers was their chitchat.

[shrewd.buddha]

Not sure we are going to make it thru this season ... so slow .. such heavy-handedness on all the same heavy-handed issues from the first season : guilt and grief from family's death, crappy adoptive family,

I think I have lost sympathy for Jessica's alcoholic, asshole lifestyle. It is not helping that she is not as witty this season. Actually, no one is fun or snarky. And Malcom being everyone's eager personal assistant in exchange for verbal abuse is not enjoyable. Jessica should be left to sweep up her own apartment. 

We are giving JJ one more episode. Then we are going to skip to the end and decide if we care enough to see what led  up to it. The other option is to put in in the Luke Cage category of unfinished Netflix series. 

Edited June 10, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[rab01]

On 3/17/2018 at 12:54 PM, rmontro said:

Dorothy and the director were of course despicable,  But from what I took from it, Trish herself was eager to go along with using her sexuality to manipulate the guy into giving her the movie role.  Legality aside, I don't think her hands are entirely clean in this. 

I think that comment is part of why Trish was so very traumatized by her reunion with the director.  She feels complicit in the relationship she had with him and he pushed all of those arguments directly back at her. 

But she was only 15-years-old at the time.  She couldn't know how entirely fucked up that relationship was, which is why the law puts predators like him in jail when they can catch them at it.  Her mom convinced her to cozy up to him and his 40-year-old ass was totally into having sex with a girl who was just FIFTEEN.  The adults are the ones responsible but the victim is the one carrying the guilt.  Pretty realistic. 

Edited December 26, 2018 by rab01