Determined, she seeks answers
doubt can fell the strongest of women, especially if their enemies know how to manipulate those weaknesses.
Jones, of course, must also now contend with a new round of foes tied to her past, as well as the fans and lookieloos who line up outside her Alias Investigation office/ apartment door each day in hopes of hiring the famous “vigilante chick.”
Her one-liners here are as acerbic and sharp as ever. Example: A jock-ish PI from a competing agency offers her a place in his agency. She refuses, he persists.
“I never take no for an answer,” he says with the confidence of a man who always gets his way.
“How very rape-y of you,” she replies in that sardonic deadpan that makes her the scrappiest of all the MarvelNetflix superheroes.
“Jessica Jones,” which is headed up by Melissa Rosenberg (“Twilight”), helped popularize the streaming service’s comic book franchise of series that kicked off with “Daredevil” before Jones’ debut, then went on to introduce “Luke Cage,” “Iron Fist” and “The Punisher.”
The drama’s return has been highly anticipated, and it’s no coincidence that Netflix chose to break its usual protocol of Friday series releases by dropping the new episodes Thursday (March 8), a.k.a. International Women’s Day.
Season 2 gives the heroine the space to grapple with issues lost on most of her male counterparts — such as being maligned for being too powerful — and come out swinging with the knowledge that her actions have lasting repercussions beyond the mangled body of that car she flipped or that brick wall she reduced to a pile of rubble.
Without giving anything away here, and there is a lot to give away in the four episodes available for review, her story this time around is rooted in a mystery: How exactly did she get her powers?
We already know from Season 1 that she was the sole survivor of a car accident that killed her family 17 years ago. She woke up days later in the hospital with surgical scars and super strength.
Now, lifelong friend Trish (Rachael Taylor), with whom she was raised, is pushing Jones to get to the bottom of the mysterious IGH medical organization that treated her, and perhaps others, as guinea pigs.
Trish, a lifestyle radio host who aspires to be a serious journalist, has her own motivations. Namely, a ratings-winning series of stories.
Jones doesn’t want to dig into her painful past until pushed by a series of bizarre events, one involving a character named the Whizzer. And she soon discovers that getting to those who altered her body so many years ago won’t be easy, as they are seemingly protected by the other “monsters” they created.
Cold-blooded attorney Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Jones’ neighbor, recovering addict Malcolm (Eka Darville), also return with key roles.
It’s with their help — and a hard journey through her own baggage — that Jones begrudgingly realizes that no matter how many butts she kicks or bars she smashes, she still needs the help others.