Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 3 Review: AKA Soul Survivor

This Jessica Jones review contains spoilers.

Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 3

This episode starts on a dark note, immediately after Jess and Trish dump Simpson’s body, makes a pit stop in the middle with a different person’s skull, then twists and turns its way toward some new clues in the IGH mystery.

Jessica shares a very Sylvia Plath moment from her past with Trish, as they look out onto the water where they dumped Simpson’s body. Again, Jessica is opening up more than we’ve ever seen before. Trish wisely chooses to keep Simpson’s arsenal, but I’m more concerned about what else she might be keeping of his.

Jeri’s illness – and the way her partners are using it to force her out – is exposing us to a soft underbelly that no one knew she had. It’s a great move for the character – cold, calculated, and willing to sacrifice literally anyone leaves little room for growth or worthwhile narratives. We learn that Jeri’s diagnosis is ALS, and she comes up big with the emotional growth, ripping up the complaint she was going to file against Jessica. My god, in some ways, these women are nearly identical.

Griffin continually saying that Trish is, “in over her head,” is the kind of thing that some people call sweet or concerned, but that women like Trish and Jessica (hopefully) see through. Add to that the fact that he admitted to lying about his past girlfriend by saying she was unstable, which is pretty much the cardinal sin of wannabe progressive men. His inability to handle his ego over Trish being the one that’s “leaving him behind” is wearing thin. If he scoops Trish’s IGH story, he’s dead to me. Luckily Jess checked out his past, so that limits him to run of the mill terrible behavior. I really can’t imagine any other marvel show saying the word vagina, but I love that Jess did here, in a way that’s completely natural to the characters and other women of a similar age.

Trish continues to show her resourcefulness, this time using her radio show to send up a signal flare to a former IGH employee, whose scull she and Jessica may or may not have found later on. Things aren’t all peachy, though, and it seems Malcolm is the only one who notices or cares. The Malcolm and Trish train gets a big boost in the form of paparazzi who decide they’re together, and the case gets a hand from a persistent paparazzo who catches their mystery woman on camera.

Jessica keeps sidelining Trish though, out of a desire to protect her. Trish does take Jessica to task for what a low move it is to both kick her off her own investigation and use a major violation of privacy to do it.  Once again, it’s Malcolm who comes through for Trish instead of Jessica, and for Jessica instead of Trish. I love the guy, but when will these women, who often call each other sisters, start trusting each other again?

Jessica’s too focused on her own issues to take much of that in. She’s been having freakishly realistic nightmares, and all kinds of intrusive thoughts related to her past. This little trip down memory lane also gives us a season 1-era shot of Jess sitting on her desk, murder board on the wall behind her. This time it’s in yellow instead of purple, but it’s still a nice touch.

Back on the homefront, Jessica gets an eviction notice and has Malcolm get some dirt to help her out of it. Malcolm’s exchange with the landlord did briefly have me wondering if he would be revealed to be bi, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s worth noting, though, that Jessica’s hint was the fact that Oscar was uncomfortable around cops, something that supposedly only applies to those with a reason, like ex-cons. Jessica, hun, I don’t know if you’ve read a headline lately, but basically all people of color have a great reason to be skittish around cops.

Jessica’s low-key trolling of her super as a way to have the chance to poke around his apartment is a perfect combination of her PI skills and her refusal to take anyone’s shit. Oscar better buckle up if he really wants to take Jessica on.