Netflix & Marvel’s Jessica Jones Season 2 Recaps By Penny; Episode 8 – “AKA Ain’t We Got Fun?”

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So Jess is in restraints as is to be expected when a sick evil mad scientist who tortured her and her mom without consent FOR SCIENCE!!! has gotten his grubby mitts on her again. She wakes up to find Malus beside her bed staring at her. He tells her about everything her mom has been through since the accident, why she never sought Jess out. Jess of course stonewalls his attempts to play nice and resists his every attempt to convince her things are just fine. Alisa is upstairs cooking breakfast and struggling with her anger management and Malus says Jess should really give her a chance, as the only reason she’s killed anyone was to protect Jess. Just then Jess’ phone rings. It’s Trish, and Malus tells Jess to inform Trish the case is over and tell her she’s off somewhere getting drunk. Jess does so but does it by speaking in a way that is completely unlike how she actually talks hoping Trish will catch on. Jess isn’t ready to fully believe Alisa IS Alisa, but she agrees to go upstairs and see her. When Malus undoes the restraints, Jess grabs her phone and kicks him out of the room. She hurriedly sends a text to Costa with the address, but before she can text or call anyone else, Alisa runs in and smashes the phone. Pinning Jess against the wall she convinces Malus to just leave her there with Jess and run before the cops arrive. He reluctantly gives in and locks them both in the secret room as he leaves.

Trish did indeed pick up on Jess’ tone of voice ploy, and is worried something bad has happened. She’s high as balls on the Cap Inhaler though and starts tweaking about it. Malcolm tries to calm her down, agreeing that Jess didn’t sound right and the case probably ISN’T over but pointing out rightly that Trish is indeed acting like a junkie right now. The penny drops and Malcolm clues in on the inhaler not being for asthma and asks her about it. She fills him in on Will and the Super Soldier shit and what the inhaler is for but like all addicts insists she’s got it under control. She wants to go hit all of Jess’ favourite bars to track her down. Malcolm tells Trish as a recovering addict himself he just can’t be around her in the state she’s in so if she’s going she’s going alone.

Jeri has been doing some digging and has found the young fellow whom Inez said healed her spine. He’s in the system, and is currently in jail awaiting a trial date for some petty crimes. Inez is acting like this mea culpa saved her from Jeri kicking her out, but Jeri, having gotten the info she wanted, reminds her to be out today.

Stuck together in the secret room, Jess and Alisa are having seriously the most awkward mother daughter chat EVER.Alisa is correcting Jess’ rose coloured view of their family before the accident, explaining that she and her father were initiating divorce proceedings, and that her brother was being such a dick because he knew about it and was acting out in anger. Then she talks about the last trip they took to that now abandoned amusement park beside the beach where Trish and Jess disposed of Will’s body, of how she and Jess rode the Ferris wheel alone together without Dad and big bro because the menfolks were afraid of heights. While Alisa is swerving down memory lane however, Jess realizes that Malus was locking Alisa in here every night but she was still getting out. She looks around the room and finds another exit. Alisa begs her to let Malus escape. Jess stares at her for a moment, then tells her to gather her things, and together they escape before the police arrive to an empty house.

Malcolm is pacing after the stuff with Trish, and it’s clear he’s having cravings under all this stress. So he distracts himself with work and starts digging into Jeri’s partners. After a few minutes looking into Benowitz, he finds something. Jeri meanwhile is at the prison waiting to visit the kid who saved Inez. She tells him she knows about his powers and offers to take his case pro bono if he in exchange cures her ALS. He thinks about it for a moment, then hesitantly touches her hand. He can feel the disease in her but suddenly gets violently ill and asks the guards to take him back to his cell.

Jess takes Alisa to her place. While there Costa shows up to ask her why she sent him to an empty house. She tells him it’s a bit complicated but she promises she’ll come to the station tomorrow and explain everything to him. After he leaves she finds her bedroom window open and Alisa is gone. Jess panics and is about to leave to go find her when she sees Garcia walking her back to her office. Apparently Alisa panicked hearing Costa in the office and climbed up to the roof to hide, but couldn’t remember which floor Jess lives on. She ran into Garcia and he brought her back.

Malcolm has tracked Benowitz to a gay bar. Benowitz has apparently been cheating on his wife with cute young twinkies and one would assume his wife would NOT approve. Malcolm tells him he was hired to get dirt on him, but this is just wrong and he needs to go home, tell his wife the truth, be honest with himself about being gay and stop living a lie. Benowitz asks who hired him and he pawns it off on the “Other partner”. Benowitz assumes he means Lynda, and offers Malcolm dirt on HER instead. Benowitz leaves and for some reason a few coked up gay boys pick a fight with Malcolm. I guess Benowitz was their whale and they’re pissed Malcolm chased the money train away. They hand Malcolm his ass but Trish shows up and throws them around like ragdolls. Malcolm is beat up pretty bad and Trish convinces him to tak a puff off the inhaler so he’ll heal faster. Given the state he’s in he reluctantly agrees, but the miute he does he KNOWS that shit ain’t right and he books it away from Trish.

Jeri feels a little better for the brief moment the kid touched her, and comes home to celebrate. She convinced the DA to give the kid time served and got him freed and finally has hope she can beat the ALS. She tells Inez she can stay, and then Jeri being Jeri makes a pass at her, and honestly I’m a little creeped out the fact that literally EVERY gay character we’ve seen in the Netflix MCU shows is a creep, a predator, a cheater, or a mix of all three. Meanwhile Jess and Alisa are talking when bullets break her windows. Jess takes a bullet for Alisa, and Alisa spots the shooter across the way and takes off to chase them down, leaving Jess on the floor bleeding from a pretty bad shoulder wound.

End of episode. See you tomorrow for Episode 9!

Just a side note; Malcolm is EASILY the star of this episode. That boy is seriously coming into his own. Methinks it won’t be long before he doesn’t need Jess.

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.