Jessica Jones - Playland

Jessica Jones getting to be happy…seems highly unlikely if you wanted the first two seasons of her show on Netflix. But the end of the second season finale of “Playland” would seem to indicate she might finally allow herself of such a right. When she has her mother killed right in front of her by her best friend, blood spatter all inside a cup carrying her and Alisa on a Ferris wheel at some amusement park on the outskirts of NYC, the idea that Jessica would have a moment of potential joy at the end of the episode would appear to be preposterous. And yet she sits at a dinner table with Oscar and his son, Vido, getting to talk about a robbery she prevents (and she does make sure the shop counter guy doesn’t do anything stupid like shoot the robber while he’s down) as the show concludes. Before that you see Malcolm joining forces with Pryce after helping Jeri turn the tables on her partners wanting to buy her out of her corporation’s contract, Jessica’s competition. Jessica, unable to see Trish as anything but her mother’s killer, can no longer see her as family. So Trish appears to be reconnecting with the needy showbiz mother looking to “build her back up” while also discovering her quick reflexes could be something quite…superhuman. And Jessica’s back working on the streets with her camera, seemingly right back to where she started at the beginning of the series…but how will she compete against the likes of Pryce, Malcolm, and Jeri? Jeri presents Pryce and Malcolm with an opportunity that appears quite illegal and questionable…what is it? Emboldened by Inez and Shane’s “defeat” and getting “extra zeros” on her buyout, Jeri seems poised to run her own firm (with plenty of clients taken from her former partners). She’s “got nothing to lose”. The episode, “Playland”, does give the viewer one last trip with Alicia and Jessica before Trish put a bullet right where it counted. Oscar was nearly pulled into it but undercovers were caught by Jessica’s keen eye for spotting cops dressed in civilian clothes, as Jessica seemed willing to give up a free life in favor of fugitive time on the road. Ritter absolutely kills that “lost in a sea of traumatic agony” performance. Her face just shell-shocked with her mom’s body and the blood all over the place gets the point across quite dramatically. Concluding the second season with Trish and Jessica split and Jessica without her support (and employ) going over to help her competitor leaves a lot of bait for us to desire that third season. Too bad the third season sort of arrived on Netflix after all the Marvel shows got the axe and didn’t quite achieve the same level of fanfare it did during its first season. 3.5/5