S02.E09: AKA Shark in the Bathtub, Monster in the Bed

[The Crazed Spruce]

The shooting forces Jessica to rethink her plans.  Meanwhile, Oscar asks for help with a family crisis, and Trish's frustrations finally boil over.

[dkb]

It was Pryce, I was right! 

Tough situation for Jessica. But you can't control Alissa for long, no matter how much she wants to not be a killer, she just is.

Trish is probably going to do something stupid to get her hit of the enhancers. Glad Malcolm went to talk to his family, if that is where he is.

[Lady Calypso]

Oh, Pryce. You really, really don't like when your manhood's questioned, do you? He's now been beaten by two women. I'm loving it.

Jessica, on the other hand, is going to need to figure out the Alisa situation soon. She's still very dangerous, and that's likely part of her now. She's going to have to decide what to do with her before more people get hurt. Also, it seems like Alisa telling Jessica about her crappy father isn't helping matters. 

I did like the subplot of Jessica helping Oscar to get Vido back. I even liked her words to Sonia.

Trish is absolutely losing it, if she hasn't already lost it. Her first concern with Malcolm is that he's told Jessica, not if he's ok. I hope he's ok and really getting clean again. But Trish is not happy with nobody being as intense as her. And, of course, I knew the inhaler would run out.

I did thoroughly enjoy the Stan Lee cameo...ok, it was just his face on a billboard at the bus station. But still, I chuckled and rewound.

I felt bad for Shane, who was being blackmailed by Jeri to help her. If he says it causes him pain, then maybe sympathize a little first! 

[thuganomics85]

Ah, Pryce.  You would be the one to try and take Alisa out with a sniper rifle.  Luckily for him that Jessica still has a moral compass and would let her mother kill him.  Not only that, but she was even willing to turn her in to the cops.  Did not see that coming.  But I imagine this isn't the end for Alisa this season.

Trish ends losing her shit over the radio and quitting, only to get a job from the news station.  But, sure enough, the inhaler is finally out of juice or whatever it is, so I can only imagine what she would do now.

Jeri blackmails the guy into healing her.  Lets see if it works!

[Kel Varnsen]

I like how all it took was someone to verbalize what Jessica needed to do for her to realize it was the right thing and call the cops. Even though she had been thinking it the whole time I think she just needed to hear someone say it. Even if it was someone she hated. 

Although if Pryce is such a bad ass military guy why did he miss the sniper shot?

[jaigurudeva]

I think Jessica turned her mother in because her mother's bloodlust was getting out of control, and after seeing how much stronger her mother was while stopping the bus, knew she wouldn't be able to stop her. Previously, both her mother and Karl assured Jessica that her mother's murders were triggered by uncontrollable rages and disassociated states. That, combined with feeling like she'd just gotten her mother back from the dead, made Jessica hesitate to let the cops arrest her mom. But after Alisa all but begged Jessica to let her kill Pryce, even while she was lucid and calm, it became clear that the only place Alisa belonged was away from the general population.

I hope Malcolm's okay and not fully relapsing. Trish is going to go absolutely bonkers next episode. Is the stimulating effects of the drug the reason why Trish is so fixated on IGH? Does she think blowing up the story will further her career? Or is she desperate to track them down and potentially obtain more of the drug? Her motives can't be so pure as fighting for justice, because she's ready to throw other people (Inez, Malcolm, Jessica) to the wolves in order to get to IGH.

[Llywela]

9 hours ago, jaigurudeva said:

Trish is going to go absolutely bonkers next episode. Is the stimulating effects of the drug the reason why Trish is so fixated on IGH? Does she think blowing up the story will further her career? Or is she desperate to track them down and potentially obtain more of the drug? Her motives can't be so pure as fighting for justice, because she's ready to throw other people (Inez, Malcolm, Jessica) to the wolves in order to get to IGH.

I think it's a mixture of causes. I think it started out as Trish genuinely wanting to help Jessica, albeit in a way that Jessica did not want to be helped - Trish honestly thought it would help Jessica to come to terms with her powers if she understood where they came from. But she also wanted to push Jessica to make greater use of her powers, because Trish - faded child star unable to rekindle former glories and struggling to find her place in the world as an adult - can't understand having that kind of power and not making use of it. She loves Jessica, but is jealous of her. Then, Trish has been feeling unfulfilled in her career - we've seen this season that she is trying to branch out into more serious journalism, while her radio station wanted her to stick to lighweight lifestyle topics, and that she has chosen the topic of 'people with powers' as her bandwagon - partly because it is highly topical, but largely because her exposure to Jessica has left her fascinated with the subject. She hooked up with that TV warzone reporter dude in large part because she envied the kind of life he was living and wanted it for herself. So she already had all that going on when she started using the drug, which I think only served to heighten her pre-existing obsession, pushing her to greater and greater extremes and blinding her to the collateral damage she was racking up along the way.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Really, Pryce? Your idea of handling the situation is to get a sniper rifle and try to kill Alisa through a window? And even then, Jess still wouldn't let her mom kill him. No matter how much shit has been dumped on her, she still doesn't want another life on her hands.

I know that Jessica had really hoped that somehow she and Alisa could heal their relationship and be a somewhat normal mother and daughter, but Karl was right in the previous episode when he said that Alisa needs him. He knows her drug protocols, he knows how to calm her down (most of the time), and he is sympathetic to her situation. She is not going to get all of that from anyone else - not Jessica, and definitely not on the Raft.

Going back to Pryce, I don't know how Jessica could trust him to keep his word. He seems like the slimy kind of guy who will either find a loophole or just straight up go back on his word with both middle fingers in the air.

I want to know if Malcolm really went home or if that's just what he told Jessica so that he could skip work until the inhaler stuff was out of his system. Most people can just call in sick but when you live down the hallway from your boss, you have to make up some kind of plausible excuse as to why you won't be in the building. Poor guy. I'm glad he didn't hear Jess and Trish's conversation about him. Trish wasn't concerned about him at all. The only thing she was worried about was that Malcolm might have tattled on her. Malcolm, you deserve so much better than Trish.

[Danny Franks]

Yeah, so they ran out of plot half way through the season. This seems to be a recurring theme with Marvel's Netflix shows.

Now Pryce is shooting people with a sniper rifle? Just because there needs to be drama for Jessica and her mother to bond over?

I fucking hate Jessica's mother. Everything about her. I do not want to watch her, as a villain or as a tragic figure. Am I supposed to be torn on Jessica's behalf? I'm not. Her mother is as bad as Trish's.

The transition from Jessica confronting Trish over being high back to Jessica tiptoeing around crazy mom summed up this season for me. I went from being interested and invested in the personal relationship of one pairing, to my eyes practically rolling out of my head after the umpteenth rehash of 'mom goes crazy and does unpredictable shit while Jessica frets'.

And the next scene is straight into building super getting involved, and then his ex turns up to yell. The one after that, Jeri and her new toygirl. It's like they're actively trying to make me lose interest.

And then we get the super looking for his missing son? Good god, save me. This show became something I actually don't want to watch, with the last two episodes. I'm not even sure if I'll finish, given how these last two episodes made me feel.

[AllyB]

The Oscar, Vido, Sonia story annoyed me soooooo much. I can't help but see it from Sonia's pov. Oscar presents her as bitter as he cheated on her so using Vido as a weapon. The reality is he's not only a cheat but a criminal who was caught and sent to jail, leaving her as a single parent picking up the pieces with a son who was old enough to be distraught by that. (No surprise that she's in debt due to all that but of course Oscar immediately blames her for that too.) 

Then when Oscar gets released, his plan was secure a home and job based on his committing a serious crime. Meaning that the three of them are all living with the possibility of him being caught and sent back to jail, probably for longer this time. Oscar has also forged documents for Jessica that allowed her access to a patient in a secure mental institution, Sonia mightn't know that for a fact but I bet she's pretty sure it's a possibility given that she knows Oscar. Her concerns about Jessica are very valid too considering how Jessica is harbouring a serial killer with super, super strength and uncontrolled rages in the building. And Oscar knows the building was shot up the night before by someone after Jessica's mother but he's fine with bringing Vido back there that night. Sonia clearly knows from experience that all thought of Vido's safety goes out the window when Oscar is thinking with his dick and that involvement with Jessica brings unprecedented level of danger to their child.

I'm not saying Sonia is a perfect mother and her plan to leave the country wasn't great parenting. But I absolutely can't stand how she is being presented as the one in the wrong while Oscar is supposedly so great and level headed. In fact his immediate reaction to the abduction situation was to offer to commit more crimes for Jessica and Alisa. If I was the judge in the up coming custody hearing (and I know what we know) I'd be granting Oscar very limited custody of that child, probably supervised only and certainly with a stipulation that the child is brought nowhere near that building.

Edited March 23, 2018 by AllyB

[BakerStreet]

Really liked this rpisode... except for Pryce. WTF? Sniper? THAT'S what he came up wtih? 

he's so whiny, I really can't stand him.

[Delphi]

 If you were going to be the judge in an upcoming custody battlebattle, I'd hope you also take into consideration that Sonia attempted to kidnap a child and flee the country.  If Vido is old enough to remember the psychological damage that was caused when his father went to jail,  I think he's now even more able to recall being forcibly removed from the United States. 

I imagine that Sonia was probably well aware of what Oscar was up to and didn't care until he got tripped up.   Everything about the character is pretty much unlikable starting with her introdction of dissing Jessica's building complex. 

[Loandbehold]

On 3/13/2018 at 5:59 PM, Lady Calypso said:

I felt bad for Shane, who was being blackmailed by Jeri to help her. If he says it causes him pain, then maybe sympathize a little first!

Have you met Jeri? I agree that blackmailing a client wasn't out of the book of "How to Win Friends and Influence People," and also isn't looked upon all that favorably by the bar. 

[Quark]

I think Jeri was healed just now, which I find really aggravating.

I must say, this season has just felt really slow so far, I keep thinking the pace will increase with every episode, but it really doesn't.

[TiredMe]

This disease storyline is really triggering for me having a close family member pass from same thing. I know it’s a comic book show but I just cannot with this healing shit. 

This season is something I feel like I’m gutting it out to get through. I’m sure that’s not what they were going for. 

[Catfi9ht]

On 3/22/2018 at 2:21 PM, Danny Franks said:

I fucking hate Jessica's mother. Everything about her. I do not want to watch her, as a villain or as a tragic figure. Am I supposed to be torn on Jessica's behalf? I'm not. Her mother is as bad as Trish's.

I agree completely. The whole point of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde villain trope is the Dr. Jekyll side of the character is tragic and/or sympathetic. I feel neither toward Jessica's mom.

While not good writing, I feel they're writing Trish's Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde storyline better than Jessica's mom's. At least I can see Trish's point of view and the reason why she would take the combat enhancing substance. Trish has always wanted to be a superhero, and she's tried to live vicariously through Jessica. Jessica's mom's motivation is just to murder anyone who gets in her way.

[Paloma]

37 minutes ago, Catfi9ht said:

The whole point of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde villain trope is the Dr. Jekyll side of the character is tragic and/or sympathetic. I feel neither toward Jessica's mom.

I disagree because I do see the Dr. Jekyll side of Alisa as tragic and sympathetic. As far as we know, before the accident she was a good person and a good mother (even if she chafed at conventional expectations for women/wives). After the accident, the first thing she sees when she wakes up is that she looks like a monster, and then she finds out that one child died and the other was taken away from her and she can't see her. The killing rages were a side effect of the experiments that were done to her, not something she asked for. She doesn't want to be that way, and most of the time she can't control the rage or the effect of her physical strength--breathing exercises only go so far. And it seems that most, if not all, of her rages are directed at people who are hurting or threatening the life of her or her daughter. 

Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I can relate to getting easily angered and having trouble calming down once I'm angry. I have to wonder what I might do with that anger if I had super-strength. 

[Paloma]

I just found this quote from the Vulture review that expands on why I see Alisa as sympathetic. "Women in the Jessica Jones universe end up being monstrous, more often than not, when men are controlling them, coercing them, threatening them — sometimes even while pretending to care for them or even love them.... And I think about how Dr. Karl has made Alisa so powerful and full of rage — but every time she expresses that rage or uses that power, he goes, See? I told you that you were dangerous. If she’s behaving, she’ll never get out. And if she misbehaves, according to Karl, it’s all the more reason she can’t get out. She’s the manifestation of the trap that women land in so often: In circumstances that are objectively rage-inducing, your anger is used against you to prove that you’re being emotional, can’t be trusted, and don’t make sense."

[Taryn74]

On 3/26/2018 at 7:07 AM, Catfi9ht said:

On 3/22/2018 at 1:21 PM, Danny Franks said:

I fucking hate Jessica's mother. Everything about her. I do not want to watch her, as a villain or as a tragic figure. Am I supposed to be torn on Jessica's behalf? I'm not. Her mother is as bad as Trish's.

I agree completely. The whole point of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde villain trope is the Dr. Jekyll side of the character is tragic and/or sympathetic. I feel neither toward Jessica's mom.

Well I'm glad I'm not alone.  I can't tell yet if we're supposed to be feeling that way about Alisa or not, because it does seem from Jessica's brief flashbacks that her mom was a generally pleasant person before the accident, although that could be based on:

1) Jessica's memories are faulty, she sees everyone (except herself) from her life before through rose-colored glasses and has built them up in her mind to be better than they really were; or

2) Alisa's entire personality was changed by the treatments, not just her rage moments; or

3) The character is supposed to be sympathetic during her calm times and the actress just can't bring the nuances needed.

 

I honestly don't know which it is, but all I see out of Alisa is a snarling, cruelly sarcastic, incredibly unpleasant person constantly on the verge of snapping someone's head off. Literally.

[Delphi]

11 hours ago, Taryn74 said:

1) Jessica's memories are faulty, she sees everyone (except herself) from her life before through rose-colored glasses and has built them up in her mind to be better than they really were

I think this is defintely partially the case,  back in season 1 there was the neighbor lady said that the parents were always fighting and Jessica said it wasn't true.   Alisa says they were always fighting.   The neighbor said Philip was a delinquent,  while Jessica said he was a good kid.  Alisa said he had been getting into trouble at school because he acting out about the parents fighting.  Jessica wanted to remember the good parts of her childhood and blocked out the more upsetting parts. 

[Taryn74]

1 hour ago, Delphi said:

back in season 1 there was the neighbor lady said that the parents were always fighting and Jessica said it wasn't true.   Alisa says they were always fighting.   The neighbor said Philip was a delinquent,  while Jessica said he was a good kid.  Alisa said he had been getting into trouble at school because he acting out about the parents fighting.

Oh, good catch!  I didn't remember that conversation with the neighbor at all (S1 is really difficult for me to rewatch because Kilgrave is SO disturbing).  Very interesting.  So Alisa may just pretty much be a terrible person regardless, ha!

[tennisgurl]

I find Alisa to be sympathetic, but I also think she needs to be stopped, and her problems might go beyond just her rage. She comes off as rather bitter, even when she isnt going into a murder rage. I mean, did she have to dirty the happy memories Jessica has of her family? Jessica doesn't have a lot of good memories to counteract the bad ones, cant she just keep these? Why bring all this old crap up, just to make herself look better? That being said, I do feel bad for her too. The woman is clearly unwell, and hasn't been in control of her own life or mind in a LONG time. 

Trish wants to be a hero, shes wanted to be one since her martial arts stuff last season and her insistence on coming along to all of Jessica's fights with her. As someone else said, I feel like half the reason she got with the reporter was because she was attracted to his "important" work. Whats sad is that she could do good work through her "fluff" pieces and raise awareness albeit in a "fun" way, but she wants to be a hero, and thats not what "heroes" do to her. I think she still has serious self esteem issues. 

[LilJen]

On ‎3‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 9:46 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Going back to Pryce, I don't know how Jessica could trust him to keep his word. He seems like the slimy kind of guy who will either find a loophole or just straight up go back on his word with both middle fingers in the air.

I thought the same thing.

[benteen]

On ‎4‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 5:47 PM, tennisgurl said:

I find Alisa to be sympathetic, but I also think she needs to be stopped, and her problems might go beyond just her rage. She comes off as rather bitter, even when she isnt going into a murder rage. I mean, did she have to dirty the happy memories Jessica has of her family? Jessica doesn't have a lot of good memories to counteract the bad ones, cant she just keep these? Why bring all this old crap up, just to make herself look better? That being said, I do feel bad for her too. The woman is clearly unwell, and hasn't been in control of her own life or mind in a LONG time. 

Trish wants to be a hero, shes wanted to be one since her martial arts stuff last season and her insistence on coming along to all of Jessica's fights with her. As someone else said, I feel like half the reason she got with the reporter was because she was attracted to his "important" work. Whats sad is that she could do good work through her "fluff" pieces and raise awareness albeit in a "fun" way, but she wants to be a hero, and thats not what "heroes" do to her. I think she still has serious self esteem issues. 

Yeah, Alisa seems big on blaming her dead husband, Jessica's father, for the choices she made and the stuff that happened in her life.  She could have been honest with Jessica about it without shitting on her good memories.

[Taryn74]

5 minutes ago, benteen said:

Yeah, Alisa seems big on blaming her dead husband, Jessica's father, for the choices she made and the stuff that happened in her life.  She could have been honest with Jessica about it without shitting on her good memories.

I think that's one of the things that really stood out to me about Alisa.  When she realized Jessica had been blaming herself for the accident all of those years, it took Alisa about 2.6 seconds to move from the 'oh honey it wasn't your fault' comforting to 'it was your father's fault, actually' bitterness.  I got the impression she wished he hadn't been dead for too long for her to go dig him up and rip his head off in a spiteful rage.

[Ottis]

This season is terrible. It’s taken me weeks to try to finish this episode, because it’s all soap opera drama. And after watching for 5 more minutes, I hear Jessica’s mom trying to make Jessica feel better about the accident that killed their family, see the Super ask Jessica to get his kid back and watch a highly agitated Trish rant and quit her show. I. Don’t. Care. This is the least interesting Marvel show ever, and I’m including Iron Fist. I think this is where I get off this season. Maybe I’ll try again if there is a season three. 

[AKA...CJ86]

I forget about Pryce until he pops up. Honestly, would it have been anyone else but him...

Jeri and Inez... who is conning who?

Everyone minus Malcolm and maybe the super and his kid is unlikeable at this point.  

So... was Griffen not doing something shady with Trish's computer a few episodes that seem like an eternity ago? Did I nod off and that get explained? That is the one thing I keep thinking of this season.

[Llywela]

7 hours ago, CyberJawa1986 said:

So... was Griffen not doing something shady with Trish's computer a few episodes that seem like an eternity ago? Did I nod off and that get explained? That is the one thing I keep thinking of this season.

I can't remember what happens in which episode - I think this episode is past the point where it is explained, though. Griffin messing with Trish's computer was a red herring - all he did was go through her contacts so he could throw her that surprise proposal party and invite all her friends and family without her knowing.

[rab01]

On 4/11/2018 at 10:48 AM, Taryn74 said:

I think that's one of the things that really stood out to me about Alisa.  When she realized Jessica had been blaming herself for the accident all of those years, it took Alisa about 2.6 seconds to move from the 'oh honey it wasn't your fault' comforting to 'it was your father's fault, actually' bitterness.  I got the impression she wished he hadn't been dead for too long for her to go dig him up and rip his head off in a spiteful rage.

I thought it was all right.  Her main concern was to get Jessica to stop blaming herself.  If that requires telling mean truths about your dead spouse, then so be it.