Jessica Jones season 2 episode 6 recap and review: AKA Facetime

Jessica Jones and Jeri Hogarth are master manipulators, but in “AKA Facetime” Trish and Malcolm are giving them a run for their money.

Jessica Jones is a very intelligent, suspicious person. She’s cynical and has to remind herself that there’s good in people. Therefore, I have to believe she knows deep down that Trish has fallen off the wagon, and is choosing to ignore it.

Even though Malcolm is an addict himself, I can understand why he can’t see Trish is backsliding: he likes her and is looking at her with rose-colored glasses. Jess, on the other hand, grew up with Trish and has seen her go in and out of rehab. Also, she’s an experienced private investigator — sniffing out people’s secrets is what she’s paid to do.

No, I believe Jess doesn’t know Trish is using again because she doesn’t want to know. Jessica is allowing her foster-sister to manipulate her since the alternative — Trish is in the kind of trouble Jess can’t protect her from — is just too much for her at the moment.

Despite the hard front she puts on, Jessica is craving some human contact in “AKA Facetime.” She needs the emotional support Trish provides as a best friend and sister, and needs the physical connection Oscar offers as a lover. Jessica is also in dire need of her biological family, something she had thought was impossible to have until this episode.

The end of the episode sees the killer heavily suggesting she is Jessica’s mother, whom Jess believed to be dead for the past 17 years. In some ways this development makes sense: Jessica feels a strong connection to the killer and, since she was brought back from the dead, it’s possible her mother was, too.

As nice as it would be for Jess to reunite with her mom, this whole reveal is very sketchy. I have a gnawing feeling that IGH knows how lonely and lost Jess is and is willing to use her pain as a trap. The killer might be her mom — or she just might be exploiting Jessica’s weakness so she’ll back off from her IGH investigation.

Of course, Jessica displaying vulnerability doesn’t mean she’s going soft. She manages to extract information on Dr. Karl’s whereabouts from one Justis Ambrose, a hosiery business mogul and the person who’s been bankrolling Karl’s personal expenses for years.

As a baby, Justis’ son, Eric, was diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disorder, which Karl cured. Justis has been in Karl’s corner ever since.

Just as I sense IGH is doing with her, Jessica uses this intense familial love for her own gain. She threatens Eric and Justis gives in quickly. As she takes a cab to find Karl and the killer, she admits that the “line keeps moving. And I keep stepping over it.”

Manipulation is the name of the game in “AKA Facetime,” so I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Jeri and her houseguest, Inez. At first, it appears as if Jeri is taking advantage of Inez, but it’s actually the other way around. Inez knows how to throw Jeri off-balance (i.e. changing clothes in front of her, making a mess in the pristine apartment) and is also savvy enough to withhold valuable IGH information until she knows for sure what Jeri wants.

Theirs is a fascinating dynamic, not least because Inez isn’t afraid of Jeri’s power or cruelty. Not many people in Jessica Jones‘ world can honestly say that.

Malcolm, however, is fairly new to the art of exploitation, but he’s making tremendous strides. (And living up to Inez’ harsh words in AKA The Octopus).He seems to genuinely apologize to his ex-girlfriend when he goes back to his old college campus, and she seems to genuinely accept it.

It’s fairly heartwarming until you realize Malcolm swiped her ID to make his Dr. Karl research easier. Oh, Malcolm. I think you took Jessica’s “don’t wait for permission” tip a little too seriously.

Next: Jessica Jones S2E5 recap: AKA The Octopus

Misc.

• Jessica Jones does an impression of me on Valentine’s Day:
  • “Love isn’t for the weak-hearted. It’s for idiots.”
  • “The creep and the maniac have found happiness together. Guess there’s someone for everyone.”
• Jess and Oscar sleep together this episode, as do Trish and Malcolm. Between Jessica’s antisocial tendencies and Trish’s addiction, I don’t predict either couple is going to have an easy time of it.
• Speaking of which: Oscar, I like you. I think you and Jess are cute together. But painting someone’s portrait while she is asleep is creepy, Angelus-reminiscent behavior. Just… don’t.
• Great visual gag: Trish follows a tough-looking dude who appears to be carrying a concealed gun, but it’s actually a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking.
• “AKA Facetime’s” commentary about immigration and guns is much more effective than the season’s other attempts at being political (looking at you, alternative facts joke).
• This line just cracked me up: “I’m gonna stick around and play nurse, so don’t puke on me.”
• Justis’ remark about Jessica being “flawless” thanks to IGH is very well done. You don’t necessarily have to be attracted to a person or think they’re beautiful to objectify them.
• I’m not sure if the timelines add up, but is it possible that the boy who healed Inez is Jessica’s brother?