Jessica Jones S2EP2 – Review

Following on from episode one, the tension and intrigue continue to build in episode 2. Both Trish and Jessica are investigating the mystery of Jessica’s past and the origins of her powers but niether wants to get the other involved.
Jessica decided to investigate the background of Robert Coleman aka The Whizzer, this leads her further down the path towards Dr Koslov being responsible for the experimentation. On a side note, the constant mongoose references around The Whizzer are amazing since in the comics The Whizzer got his powers from a transfusion of Mongoose blood. Also, I loved the twist on the famous Spiderman line, With great power comes great mental illness,  It really fits into this seasons seemingly underlying theme of the destruction of people, lives and families that having powers brings.
Whilst Jessica is investigating The Whizzer, Trish decides to revisit her painful past with an old director Maximillion. The conversation takes a dark turn when we discover that 15-year-old Trish was pimped out to a 40-year-old director in order to get a place in the movie and that MAx is still using that technique within desperate women today. I have no idea how long ago these scenes were actually shot but the relevance of this story arc alongside the real world accusations of similar behaviour by Harvey Weinstein make this even more hard-hitting and relevant.
I am a massive admirer of the writing of Jessica Jones how it is the mundane that shapes her character and those around them. What is sensationalised in other shows is treated as merely an aspect of who they are. Whether that is Jessica drinking in a bar and having meaningless sex in the toilets or Hogarth picking up prostitutes and partying at home. The show neither exaggerates or judges either character for it it is just simply a part of the personality and character. Action done, move on. The toilet sex scene isn’t about the condemnation of Jessica or the act of picking up prostitutes on the street isn’t meant to defame Hogarth it is quite simply a narrative tool to show where they are in life, how they are thinking and how they react to situations.
Both Jessica and Trish investigations end up coming to the same connecting point… Simpson. With Koslov and The Whizzer dead then the only source of information they have is Simpson and the last time they saw him Trish popped his battle pills and knocked ten bells out of him! Sure you can imagine how that ends up.
The episode finishes with Jessica declaring that to catch a monster you need a bigger monster and so the hunt begins!

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