Jessica Jones - Ain't We Got Fun?

 

"She let me think she was dead…for 17 years."

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Karl, the “mad scientist” who “created” Jessica and her far more dangerous (and explosive) mother, begs Jessica (she’s in restraints meant for Alisa due to her “night terrors”) to try and talk her into quiet, as they listen to her just going ballistic upstairs in the kitchen. It just always seems, no matter how much Karl wants to help solve her close-to-the-vest rage problems, Alisa just can’t control them. Jessica, despite just wanting to make Karl pay for his “mistakes”, realizes that he’s right: Alisa, her mother, is alive even though she’s just “not quite herself”. But Jessica, true to who she is, tries to warn the authorities about Alisa (a certifiable killer with seemingly no mechanism of true control even as Karl has tried over the years and failed) and Karl, briefly getting the chance to take a picture of their address on her arm before mommy disrupts any other attempts to escape. Alisa tells Karl to leave, although he wants to stay, so that he can’t be caught by the police, pressing Jessica against the wall with just one arm…that is how much stronger Alisa is than her daughter.

Trish gets to talk to Jessica momentarily, but Karl is assured (well, before she tricks him) she won’t tell her their location. Trish’s safety has always been a concern for Jessica. But Trish is the throes of her “combat enhancer” addiction, so taken to how it heightens her reflexes and smarts, she sees it as a necessary addition to her life, if just to “take on IGH”. Malcolm understands addiction when he sees it, although a conversation about it obviously goes nowhere. They talk briefly about their amazing sex, but Malcolm isn’t about to chill with Trish on that volatile, if intellectually and strength-empowering, drug.

If anything, while stuck together in Alisa’s room, daughter and mother get to address the past and truth, even if it hurts. Alisa tells Jessica that their time before the wreck wasn’t as rosy and perfect as she thought. That Alisa and Jessica’s father were on the verge of divorce. She wanted to pursue a career in mathematics but chose to avoid that in favor of trying to make the marriage work. Despite talking about a Ferris wheel ride and Jessica’s teenage asshole issues, sharing some exchanges that weren’t tinged with anger, resentment, and regret, both need to leave the room or else deal with the police soon to arrive. Jessica realizes that her mom would get out despite being locked in the room, locating scratches on the floor revealing the bookcase hiding a dug hole leading to the outside.

The truth is that Alisa is a ticking time bomb ready to kill someone at any moment, and Jessica understands she’s a dangerous weapon just ready to go off. A cab driver texting and driving carrying them throughout the city unnerves Alisa with Jessica needing to get them out before she blew a fuse. That kind of burden Karl had to deal with for twelve years. Just how many people has she killed just because they provoked her unintentionally? Jessica with mom at her apartment is struggling to figure out what the hell to do about her. This “shitshow” Jessica is “winging it” is something she simply wasn’t prepared for. A lot of unresolved issues and the fact that Alisa is a “rage monster and mass murder” doesn’t help Jessica deal with this situation astutely.

Jeri seizes an opportunity presented to her by former nurse (and current live-in), Inez, to get a healer, created by IGH, out of jail so he can take her own disease “out of” her. Since Inez temporarily moved in, there has been serious sexual tension between her and Jeri. Jeri is obviously attracted to Inez, and I think observantly viewers can see that Inez knows that. Jeri is hopeful and actually seemingly happy, wanting Inez to share some $200 champagne (“liquid joy”) with her. Scars on Inez’ leg doesn’t scare Jeri away and she eventually goes down on her! So that is an unexpected development all things considering.

The detective who followed Jessica’s text comes to her apartment looking for answers as to why she keeps dicking him around. Jessica is able to ward him off but just a little later, when she and Alisa are discussing hot toddies, bullets pierce through the apartment from outside, grazing Jessica’s arm and sending Alisa in a blind rage. Jessica knows that hell hath no fury like Alisa.

In another case that has been idle and unattended to, Malcolm follows a lead on one of Jeri’s partners, Benowitz, locating him at a gay bar called Whiskers. Malcolm tries to talk him into just coming out to his wife so he can just stop the lies. Instead of using Benowitz closet homosexuality against him, Malcolm instead wants to help him. But it doesn’t go according to plan, resulting in Malcolm having to lie by pointing a finger at not Jeri but their other partner. Leaving the club, three brutish, homophobic bigots pick a fight with Malcolm, resulting in a three-on-one pummeling Trish eventually interrupts. Trish bloodies and batters them (I especially like when Trish claw scratches one of them, leaving impressions on his face) while Malcolm recovers. Offering him the “enhancer”, giving an addict some other drug to become beholden to was perhaps not a good idea by Trish, as Malcolm responds in terror, not reacting as she would have expected. Malcolm just runs off, leaving Trish bewildered and awestruck. Uh-oh.

This episode does bring mother and daughter together, but where it goes from here could still result in a trail of bodies left by Alisa that will just drive Jessica further into guilt and depression if she can’t be stopped.