Jessica Jones, Season 2, Episode 4: AKA God Help the Hobo
Episode 4 of Jessica Jones's second season is a bit of a slower bit as well, with some scenes that would've really felt like filler if not for Krysten Ritter's extremely fun to watch performance. Like that bit in the opening scenes of this episode where Jessica participates in some court-mandated anger management support group, or practically everything involving Jessica's neighbour Oscar -- which is pretty well-executed, but feels kind of pointless and drags on a bit. Essentially, Jessica befriends Oscar after a bit of bonding over saving Oscar's dumbass kid and drinking alcohol (of course) and Jessica tries to get some sex in there which Oscar says no to. We've also got a bit of a fallout where poor Trish ends up being hounded by paparazzi who think that she's having an affair with Malcolm -- although thankfully that bit ends up being cleared up pretty quickly.
Jessica and Trish continue their little detective investigation, which is fun. Jessica ends up confronting the pedophile movie director (who confesses that the only child he's ever molested is only Trish -- which doesn't make it any better) and smashes up the fucker's car in order to intimidate him to get Metro General to give them IGH-related intel. A bit convoluted, but okay? The conspiracy also gets deeper and deeper as Jessica and Trish, in search for the lady from the previous episode, manage to track down Inez Green, a nurse-turned-hobo who once worked for IGH.
Perhaps the most interesting bit in this storyline is Trish, who uses Samson's superhero steroid inhaler to give her heightened Daredevil senses and super-strength to tackle down Inez when they assumed she was someone with superpowers as well. It's interesting for sure, and it does open up avenues for Trish to become a vigilante herself -- she's Hellcat in the comics, if I'm not wrong.
Another subplot going on through all this is Pryce Chang, who tries to get Hogarth and later Malcolm as allies in his fight against Jessica, and, failing that, sends one of his goons to try and steal everything in Jessica's apartment to find something incriminating... only for the lady with super-strength (who I really need a name to refer to) to kill Pryce's minion in a van -- something that ends up getting Jessica arrested, as the closest and most possible suspect. It's pretty interesting, although, again, it does take a bit too long for the episode to get to the good parts and as something meant to be binge-watched it feels a bit odd why the pacing is such a slow burn.
Meanwhile, the Hogarth subplot really feels pretty bland and uninteresting. She's apparently looking for some painless way to kill herself if she's unable to get a cure, which might bring her into the IGH conspiracy sphere, but at this point I'm just finding it really, really hard to remain invested with Hogarth's story. It doesn't help that her relatively petty attempt to destroy her associates. There's also a silly "Griffin takes a phone call very ominously" that seems so blatantly ominous that it's likely to be a red herring.
Overall, the pretty neat acting by Krysten Ritter and the competent script and direction keep this from being a bore, and there's definitely a running theme of Jessica seeing the worst qualities of herself -- her temper, her being prone to bouts of violence, her misanthropy -- reflected in other people in the world, be it Inez Green or the Villain, and Jessica's vulnerable "that's not me" at the sight of the mangled corpse seem to be her trying to reassure herself more than trying to defend her innocence.
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