Jessica Jones continues to get deeper in confusion and chaos in Episode Two, “AKA Freak Accident.” It starts off with some fairly normal Jessica behavior in a bar. She’s snarky to someone being nice to her, and more than nice to someone making comments at her. He ends up talking too much and having some closed-minded opinions, which don’t go well.

In the midst of all that, she makes a late night call to Trish, but Griffin answers. If Griffin isn’t an actual good guy, he’s doing a great impression of one. Malcolm helps Jessica with some research before making some questionable decisions of his own. Jessica clearly doesn’t quite get what makes Malcolm tick. It does start to seem like the whole “City That Never Sleeps” thing is true.

In a taxi, Jessica goes out to the suburbs and muses, via voiceover, about her being a freak but someone having made her that way. She ends up at Kozlov’s place, but gets a big surprise when she makes her way inside. Nothing is going easily in this mess for her, but there’s a lot of evidence this isn’t all in her, or Whizzer’s, head. She tries to bluff her way through the situation she finds herself in, and overhears a few things that don’t jibe at all with what she knows of Kozlov so far. The visit also triggers another flashback, this one to a nasty scene with Trish’s mom, Dorothy.

Trish and Griffin are at a restaurant, and Trish is clearly on edge. Why becomes more obvious when Dorothy shows up. She really is an awful woman. While Dorothy tries to pry into Trish’s love life, Trish gets right to business. There’s a reason she met up with Dorothy, and it wasn’t for a chat. Trish get wants she wants, after more nastiness from Dorothy. If she helped raise her after a traumatic event, I’m surprised Jessica isn’t more screwed up.

Speaking of screwed up, Jeri Hogarth is still in shock from her recent bad news. After flaking out at a traffic light, she makes her own questionable decision with a new friend. Jessica keeps up her attempt at subtle investigation, and runs into a problem with someone there. They disagree on a few levels, and in the course of things, she learns something surprising about a familiar name. Worried, she calls Trish and leaves an urgent message.

As Trish flees from her brunch date, with Dorothy tagging along making more comments, we see that Trish is still being followed, but now we see by who. Her shadow has looked better, and doesn’t seem to be preparing for a friendly chat. Jessica gets home, cleans up, and has a sad moment with the ashes, thoughtfully rebagged by Malcolm. She really doesn’t appreciate that man enough. Jessica moves on to researching stuff about the Whizzer, and figures out a few things to look at. However, nothing goes smoothly for her, and she gets interrupted by two NYPD Detectives at her door, asking her for a statement about Whizzer’s death. She and they trade barbs as she takes them to Oscar, the supers’, apartment, but doesn’t get what she was expecting. Annoyed, she leaves, telling the detectives she’ll come down to make a statement when this turns into a real case, and leaves. That’s Jessica, winning friends and influencing people everywhere.

Trish makes a cryptic phone call to Malcolm, asking for some help and interrupting his own morning after. Having looted Whizzer’s backpack that she grabbed after his death, Jessica lets herself in to the man’s apartment. It’s a very dark place with ominously boarded over windows. She finds overdue bills, which should look familiar, and Emil, a mongoose on the loose in the apartment. Eventually, she finds his computer and gets a few clues about what happened to him, as well as a twist on a classic Marvel catchphrase. With company at the door, she pauses long enough to leave them a distraction and flees through one of the windows after tearing the boards off.

Jeri is having a party at her place, and the bad decisions are fast and furious. Malcolm meets up with Trish, who continues with vague instructions. Trish meets up with someone from her past and sets up a private meeting with him. He’s clearly a lot happier to see her than she is to see him. Jessica gets back home and has a confrontation with the super over the interview with the police. He, too, turns out to be biased against powered people, but at least has some reason to be careful about getting into any kind of trouble. Jessica gets into her apartment, continues studying Whizzer’s computer, and finally finds a connection, prompting an emergency phone call.

Trish has her meeting, and we find out a bit more about her mother’s manipulations. It’s a really nasty scene, and Trish gets a bit ruthless herself. Malcolm, hidden, listens and records all this, repulsed at what he’s hearing. She tries to force a deal, but he doesn’t bite, and the meeting ends abruptly. Jessica, worried, gets to Trish’s place. She’s about to let herself in when Griffith opens the door. They compare notes and worries about Trish being gone still. They agree that Jessica will go look for Trish after going through Trish’s notes. She finds a lot about IGH and her family’s death. Jessica calls Dorothy, demanding to know what they discussed during the brunch Griffin told her about. Dorothy is as helpful and cooperative as ever. We also see what a sad, shallow, one track person Dorothy is from her apartment.

Malcolm has a run-in with the man Trish met, and seems to surprise even himself by what he does. Trish, upset at her meeting, is skulking around the movie set where she had her meeting. She finds out she’s not alone and things spin out of control quickly. Jessica pays a call on Dorothy and gets the information she needs. She’s possibly more pissed off with Dorothy when she leaves then when she got there. Jeri’s party gets interrupted when Cheng comes by, sick of her ducking his calls. It breaks up the party fairly quickly, and doesn’t sound good for Jessica’s future.

Jessica finds Trish and the last scene contains a lot of surprises. There are a lot of twists as Jessica learns she has a few things wrong. There’s a partial exchange of information but it leaves Jessica more confused than when she started. The episode ends with a death, another surprise or two, and Jessica’s voiceover musing that they need a different type of monster.

What I liked: Jessica is abrasive as hell, but if you manage to get through to her, she’s unshakably loyal. She’s good in spite of herself, which is why she gets people like Malcolm and Trish by her side. They are making IGH and the mystery behind it more and more intriguing. They did a great job with the surprise at the end, and made prefect sense. I like Griffin so far, and hope he’s what he seems.

What I didn’t: Dorothy is a reprehensible person. Jeri isn’t handling her bad news well, and I’m not clear on why she suddenly seems to have turned on Jessica. Cheng is just slimy. I wish Whizzer had lasted longer; I’ve always like speedsters.

It was a good episode with the unfolding of a new mystery for our noir super detective. I’ll give this a 3.5 out of 5. Jessica’s world is very dark, which sometimes makes it a bit harder for me to enjoy it more. A friend of mine called her “PTSD Woman.” I can’t entirely disagree.