Jessica Jones - Start at the Beginning

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I was curious how the second season would follow the death of such a memorable first season villain as Kilgrave, and Jessica Jones' past is of utmost focus, as Trish wants to "fill that hole in her head", giving closure to that mystery involving her powers and their ties to the company giving Will Simpson supersoldier drugs. Malcolm, bless him, won't give up on her no matter how she just disregards him (and his secretarial assistance to her, including talking to her about accepting clients that come to her and even working to secure her clients...), while Trish is up against a ratings slide because she won't divulge Jessica's identity despite talking about her story on air. And with all of that, Jessica has this smug, jerk, macho, narcissistic PI with a successful firm, Pryce Cheng (Terry Chen), wanting her as his employee so she won't be a rival. And a new super in Jessica's building, Oscar (JR Ramirez), who seems to have a problem with superheroes/superheroines, could prove to be yet another irritant. So as a major adversary is removed by her from her life, Jessica has other problems (including her own misery and alcoholism) now to deal with.

At its best this episode continues to further show Jessica's vulnerable side, her pain, the unlocking of mysteries in her past regarding her powers and how Koslov and IGH (later learned to just be a fictitious cover name). It goes a bit off the grid with the brief introduction (and eventual demise) of a paranoid high-speed super named The Whizzer (Jay Klaitz), needing Jessica's assistance but too panicky and anxious to calm down, proclaiming that he was drugged into this creation and is now being pursued by a "monster" (later Jessica visits the IGH warehouse and uncovers a lost memory regarding this monster's mangled visage and intimidating presence), later killed during a "construction incident". The collapsing scaffolding and Jessica's inability to slow him down, her defeated look as he lies dead, Jessica is at her lowest.

The murder of Kilgrave (hearing the "neck snap", and how "easy it was"), constantly reminded she's a vigilante, the confrontation with Pryce which resulted in his visit to a hospital and her arrest for assault, Trish bringing the ashes of her family and how her father is "scattered" throughout her office, interrupting Trish's gala date with a new love (a noteworthy news reporter, Griffin Sinclair (Hal Ozsan) when needing to be bailed out, and the memories of her family's final moments before their dearly depart; Jessica is under duress, conflict, embattled with grief and guilt, gradually deciding to surrender to the suppressed memories in order to unearth what happened to her and others with powers, human experiments with traumatic emotional turmoil as a result.

But Whizzer speeding around like The Road Runner-meep, meep-the episode does get a bit cartoonish. But when focused on Ritter's performance and all the emotional roller coaster her character endures, I think this first episode of the second season is exceptional.

Trish seeing Will furthers that story while she seems to have moved on to Griffin (who seems to like Jessica, understanding she has baggage, attempting to use her type of humor to diffuse the intense situation involving her arrest and subsequent probation and penalties as a result). The introduction to the "monster" and Jeri's own troubled (and unannounced) diagnosis, seemingly in cahoots with Pryce (who wants to sue Jessica), also adds a fresh dynamic to this season's fresh direction.