Jessica Jones season 2 episode 1 review: AKA Start at the Beginning

Jessica Jones can leap to the top of skyscrapers and destroy a metal chair with one hand, but she can’t outrun her past. So she decides to face it head-on.

To quote The Lion King, “The past can hurt.”

That’s why it can be so tempting to bury the painful things that have happened to us and pretend they don’t exist. That can work for a while, but as the season 2 premiere of Jessica Jones stresses, our pasts have a way with catching up with us. In fact, they are part of who we are, and therefore inescapable.

This is the revelation Jessica has at the end of “AKA Start at the Beginning.” Throughout the episode she ignores or outright rejects Trish’s suggestion that Jessica explore what happened to her in the 20 days between the car wreck that killed her family and the moment she woke up in the hospital.

Trish believes that Jessica’s powers came from illicit experiments at the hands of IGH. She tracks down Jess’ medical records and her late family’s ashes, but Jessica remains uninterested. She still grieves her family and is scared that digging up the past will just make her more miserable.

“I can’t change the past,” Jess tells Trish, “it’s got to stay where it is.”

Eventually, after crossing paths with another “super”/guinea pig, the superfast Whizzer, Jessica finds IGH’s front business, Industrial Garments & Handling. In the abandoned warehouse she begins experiencing flashbacks of AHS: Asylum-level horrors.

She remembers being strapped to a gurney, receiving dozens of injections in her legs at once, and another super — possibly a monster — going postal. Jessica is positive that IGH is where her story as a super began, so she chooses not to bury her head in the sand; she wants to know what happened and why.

“Whatever it is, the only way to find it is to open the door wider,” she declares at episode’s end.

Unfortunately, whatever went down at IGH isn’t the only trauma weighing on Jessica’s mind. She put Kilgrave “out of [her] misery,” but that outed her as a “superhero vigilante” to the world. Clients think Jessica’s rage towards Kilgrave was of the standard scorned-woman variety, not provoked by repeated mental and physical abuse.

Though she’s happy to have him out of her life, Jessica feels guilty. She knows killing Kilgrave was the only way to stop him, but is scared of what the act has turned her into. She maintains that she’s not a killer, but she’s definitely crossed a line. As a result, Jessica Jones is most scared of herself in “AKA Start at the Beginning.” She knows she could easily dispatch her annoying client or Pryce Cheng, the risk management dude trying to absorb her PI business. Worse, she’s tempted to kill them.

Jess isn’t the only character who runs into her past in this episode. Trish literally becomes Patsy — the character she played as a teen — again to secure Jessica’s medical records. She agrees to perform as Patsy at a kid’s party so the doctor dad will give her Jess’ file. Trish’s boss also wants her to embrace Patsy and her massive fandom to bolster Trish Talk’s ratings.

Plus, Trish’s more recent past is actually following her around: Will Simpson, the ‘roided-up cop she was seeing last season, is stalking her. You get one obsessed person out of your life, another one just pops up to take their place. It’s like Whac-A-Mole, except the mole is the one inflicting pain.

As for Jeri, Jessica’s erstwhile employer, her affair with her assistant, Pam, has come back to bite her. Not much is said on the matter, but we do learn that Pam is not in prison, despite taking the fall for killing Jeri’s wife. Pam is going after Jeri for sexual harassment, a case on which Jeri’s firm is planning to settle.

This has tarnished Jeri’s reputation and that of her firm, and her colleagues basically had to buy her back some goodwill in the form of a Women in Law award. Things only go from bad to worst for Jessica Jones‘ most ethically bankrupt character. At the doctor, she receives a mysterious but most likely dire diagnosis.

So, that being said, welcome back to the world of Jessica Jones. The show is as dark as ever and, if “AKA Start at the Beginning” is any indication, season 2 will double down on stories of morality, trauma, healing, and power. Better buckle up.

Next: Women to Admire: Jessica Jones

Misc.

• Again, welcome to Culturess’ coverage of Jessica Jones season 2! We’ll be recapping one episode per day for the next 12 days.
• Every episode this season was helmed by a woman. “AKA Start at the Beginning’s” director is Anna Foerster, AKA the director of everyone’s favorite Outlander episode.
• I didn’t mention him in my review, but I like the dynamic between Jessica and Malcolm. He’s like the supportive, ultra-competent “girl Friday” character from every other TV show and movie. That being said, I hope he gets his own, Jessica-free storyline this season. He’s too good to be stuck in the Alias office.
• Jeri’s dig about Pam — “I never harassed the stupid girl. She was more than a consenting adult. Or did you not see the way she was dressed?” — is off-putting. I’m not sure if the writers are trying to highlight how ridiculous that line is by having a woman say it, or even if we’re supposed to side with Jeri. Either way, a remark like that has never been more tone-deaf.
• Proof that Jessica Jones is my Marvel avatar:
  • “Nothing better than dinner and a movie after a crap-ass day.”
  • “I don’t even know what ‘ergo’ means, but it sounded right.”