Jessica Jones 2.10: “AKA Pork Chop”
Episode 10 is where things start to get messy in Jessica Jones season 2- as if they weren’t messy enough already. Despite being in prison, Alisa had a pretty good thing going. She could still see Jessica, she had her own cell, she wasn’t being sent to The Raft. But then Mean Prison Guard starts taking out his anger on the new inmate. Alisa mentions something to Jessica, knowing full well what her daughter is capable of and what she will do to protect her mother. Jessica goes to the guard’s house and finds out Alisa isn’t the only inmate he has been mistreating. In fact it seems he has been killing inmates in a number of different prisons and making them all appear to be suicides. Mean Prison Guard finds Jessica in his house and starts attacking her- and in self defense she kills him.
After spending the majority of season 2 professing she is not a killer, Jessica Jones has killed again. The episodes ends with Jessica over the guard’s disfigured body, the shock clear on her face. It’s a horrific and violent image, but it doesn’t feel earned. The guard was introduced and killed in one episode. It was clear that his introduction and seemingly random tortue of Alisa was going to lead somewhere. After watching Jessica spend so much of the season re-defining herself, it’s disappointing to see the thing that causes her to relapse could have been handled in another way. However, it does drive home the similarities between Alisa and Jessica in terms of their uncontrolled rage and the lengths they will go to protect one another.
Another person Jessica wants to protect, however grudgingly, is Jeri. With help from Shane Jeri has been been healed and has a new outlook on life. She has a purpose once more. But Jessica knows the truth: IGH never created anyone with the power to heal. Shane is a fraud. It’s incredible to watch the mask slip from Jeri’s carefully constructed new outlook as she realizes the truth she does not want to confront. And when Jeri returns home to find a completely empty apartment and falls to the floor with almost inhuman sobs, it’s hard to watch. She wanted to believe. She did believe. And that is the hardest part. In a season of strong performances, it has been incredible to see Carrie Anne Moss play all the complex sides of Jeri.
Stray Observations
- Despite lying about it in the first place, it was nice to see Jessica finally tell Trish and Malcolm the truth about her mom
- Jessica and Oscar continue to be really cute, but he sure turned around fast from being the guy mad she called the cops to being the guy who forges documents for her
- “You almost single handedly took down IGH with a Patsy wig and a cell phone, how much more of a badass do you need to be?”
Read on for our review of Jessica Jones 2.11!