Jessica Jones’ “AKA Sole Survivor” starts off cleaning up from last episode, in a typically unique Jessica way. She and Trish pay a visit to a summer vacation spot from Jessica’s childhood, but not exactly for sentimental reasons. Jessica also shares some dark insights about her thinking about returning before this. They search through a car they’ve acquired, and Trish decides to keep some souvenirs. Jessica is resigned to the fact she needs to try and yank some of her memories out of the shadows, and Trish has an idea for her.

Trish’s idea is about as un-Jessica as you can imagine, starting from the fact that there’s no alcohol involved. Jessica isn’t exactly the most cooperative, shocking as that is. Aside from a somewhat tragic comment by Jessica, this doesn’t produce a lot of results. Jessica and Trish decide on different tasks to go on with the hunt for IGH and the holes in Jessica’s past. They get back to Trish’s place to find something Jessica forgot to do causing more tension for them.

Jeri is in her office when she gets an unwelcome visit from her partners. They clearly don’t like her that much, and come bearing some bad news. It’s a very tense scene of office politics, drama, and acrimony. Jeri is presented with an option she doesn’t like, and argues over it. At least one of the two of them tries to keep things friendly… -ish.

Jessica gets home and gets more bad news from Malcolm. As if she didn’t have enough to do, now she has to deal with an eviction notice. Oscar the building super at least owns up to his bias, but isn’t budging. Malcolm tries to caution her about how to handle the situation, but she’s her usual stubborn self and launches into a confrontation. Jessica plays what she thinks will be a trump card and gets a surprise answer.

Griffin and Trish have an argument, but it’s one based on actual caring and worry, and doesn’t get as nasty as Jessica’s tend to. I understand both of their points of view, but they’re not going to convince each other. At the end of it, Griffin takes off, needing some time. I do like these two together, although I’m suspicious of anyone who seems like a nice guy in this world at this point.

Jeri has a nasty scene with Daredevil’s former sidekick, Foggy, who has jumped shows and jobs. Jeri is even nastier than Jessica sometimes. Jessica starts going through the boxes of material she’s gotten from Trish. Jessica muses on death and the aftermath as she starts pinning things up on the wall. At least she doesn’t start connecting them with string. Jessica has a strange dream/flashback that ends with her falling out of bed and Malcolm knocking on the door. Malcolm has some news about Oscar’s past that Jessica partially deduced. They also talk about the previous super, who Jessica doesn’t seem to have known, which isn’t surprising. Dealing with more flashbacks, she leaves, after sending Malcolm out on another mission.

Jessica returns to the abandoned IGH facility and pokes around, looking remarkably uncomfortable. After rummaging through various rooms and finding bits of old medical equipment, she gets a new lead to follow up on. She brings this information back to Trish, and they do some digging. They also talk about Griffin and how things are going for Trish on that front. Jessica gives her grudging approval to Griffin, having done some checking up on him. They eventually go to the next lead, and find a cranky neighbor instead of who they were hoping for. They get pointed to the basement storage area, and get a nasty shock when they go rummaging around.

Malcolm does what he can on the job Jessica sent him on, but doesn’t get too far. He gave it his best shot, though. Jessica and Trish pull a really slick scam to get more information on what they found. They really impressed me with this number. I was less impressed with her next scheme, to dig up something on Oscar the building super. That ends with a lack of success and some really nasty jibes from Oscar.

Trish does some research on the late Whizzer and gets a surprise visit from Griffin. It doesn’t get off to a good start, but they have a good talk. He offers her some good advice and reassurance. Griffin is seeming like a great guy… right up until the end of the scene, where he does something that’s at best suspicious.

After another night of self-inflicted damage, Jessica wakes up on the floor again, with more knocking on her door. This turns out to be Jeri’s first visit to Jessica’s home/office, and the lawyer isn’t impressed. After some harsh words between them, Jeri finally reveals what her diagnosis is. It’s as nasty as I expected, although I didn’t have the specifics right. Jeri is there to get Jessica’s help fighting back against her partners, and takes some pretty impressive steps to get the PI’s help. Jessica finally agrees to help her.

Trish decides to see if she can get any results by using her show to troll for leads. It’s an interesting gamble that apparently pays off. She and Jessica debate how to follow up on this, and, when Trish won’t listen to Jessica, Ms. Jones pulls an interesting trick that would only work in the modern day to keep Trish busy while Jessica goes to see what their new contact has to say. Jessica calls Malcolm to ask him to come be with Trish while she runs things down.

Naturally, even though Jessica wasn’t supposed to attend the meeting, it’s in a bar. An older woman finally shows up and Jessica goes to talk to her, with her usual cockiness and annoyance. Things take several unexpected turns during the conversation that becomes a confrontation. Jessica gets a big surprise when things turn physical. There’s a lot of chaos and the bar probably isn’t going to want Jessica or her “friend” back again.

Meanwhile, Trish and Malcolm meet up, debate whether he needs to be there at all, and then make a break for it. They get to the bar just as Jessica’s meeting spills out into the street. The woman gets away, but Jessica at least gets a big clue to help figure a few things out. Things are definitely going even weirder than usual for this mess as Trish, Malcolm, and Jessica meet up at the end.

What I liked: Jessica has people that are close to her in spite of her efforts, and it’s fun watching her try and deal with it. I like her relationships with both Trish and Malcolm. Trish is the fearless reporter but she’s smart, having done all the martial arts last season and now focusing on guns. It was nice seeing Foggy again, even under that circumstance.

What I didn’t: Oscar is just a dick. I hated seeing Jeri run down Foggy like that. He’s a good guy, he deserves better. Poor Simpson deserved better.

Jessica lives in a dark world, but it’s a well told story. I’ll give this a 4 out of 5.