The penultimate episode of Jessica Jones’ second season, “AKA Pray for my Patsy,” opens with Trish in the hospital and Jessica and Dorothy standing watch over her. The doctor is at a loss in regards to Trish’s condition, and comments about the existence of back-alley power brokers (literally) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whatever Karl did to her, the hospital staff are stumped. To me, this would be a great chance to bring in Claire Temple, but this seems to be the second Netflix/Marvel show that doesn’t have her (Punisher Season 1 being the first). Jessica and Dorothy have a wide-ranging conversation which ends up turning in a direction that confuses Jessica. She gets saved by the proverbial bell as Detective Costa calls with some bad news.

 

Alisa makes her way through the final stages of her unplanned furlough and has a run-in with someone who mostly seems to serve as foreshadowing for where Super-Mom is going next. Detectives Costa and Sunday meet up with Jessica at Alias, and we learn that most of the usual questions about a fleeing fugitive aren’t going to help here. Costa still supports Jessica, and Sunday is still pointlessly antagonistic. Jessica finally produces Karl’s journal, which provides a bit of insight and a fresh source of outrage from Sunday. While all this goes on, Alisa pays a visit to a radio station, and it’s not a friendly call. Jessica shares her theory about what Alisa is up to with Sunday and Costa, and gets mixed reactions from them.

 

Dorothy gets confronted by one of various things she can’t resist, and gives in to temptation. While this isn’t a good sign for her personally, it also has some ramifications for Trish as just the wrong person sees just the wrong thing on tv as far as our heroes are concerned. This is followed by one of the funnier, but more believable, carjackings I’ve ever seen. Costa, Sunday, and Jessica try to get where they need to be, but New York traffic rears its ugly head and Jessica takes matters into her own hands. Or feet, as the case may be.

 

Jeri isn’t taking her previous defeat laying down, and you can practically see the gears spinning in her head as she plots. Alisa closes in on her target, and she and Jessica end up in Trish’s room at the same time, in very different ways. Jessica tries to talk Alisa down, and things go very poorly. This scene highlights how ruthless Alisa is and how much Jessica needs training. She relies on snarky attitude and being stronger than everyone else, and neither one is doing her much good in this instance. Jessica needs to swallow some of that pride and get some lessons from Matt or Danny. Something Alisa wasn’t expecting also happens that gives her some hope about her future. The Detectives finally catch up and make things even more tense, and the scene ends with a few major shocks and surprises.

 

Jeri pursues the next step in her payback, and she’s very determined and persuasive. Jessica has a nasty confrontation with Dorothy, who has changed her tune since earlier. It goes badly, and poor Costa ends up trying to play peacemaker. After Dorothy is dealt with, Jessica and Costa have a fractious discussion where we see that even his patience has a limit. Given what’s happened, I can’t really blame him. Costa is a strange mix of nice and nasty throughout the scene.

 

The Medical Examiner we’ve seen before scurries past as Jessica catches up with Trish in her new secure location. Trish is finally awake and she and Jessica argue over recent events. It’s a really unpleasant conversation between the sisters. This gets interrupted by Jessica getting a phone call and setting up a meeting, which Trish helps with despite the venom they were hurling at each other. Jessica and Trish argue over what Jessica should do when she meets up with her caller.

 

Jeri has a very different meeting with Turk, the luckless gun dealer who has run afoul of both Daredevil and Luke Cage so far. They’re somewhat in synch, which makes sense given the professional nature of the exchange between them. I guess him knowing Jeri might explain why he keeps ending up back on the street.

 

Jessica is not happy about her escort assigned by Costa, and ditches them pretty quickly. It’s partially a “I can’t believe they fell for that” moment, but I could see it working. She gets off the hospital grounds in a creative way that’s probably going to give a driver nightmares for a while, but it gets her where she needs to be.

 

Jeri sets her plan in motion, and it’s cold, efficient, and shows what a nasty piece of work she can be when she’s pissed off enough. Remind me not to get on her bad side. Jessica sets up for her meeting, taking precautions she usually doesn’t have to use, but then, she’s not the strongest one in the room this time around. Dorothy is in her element, setting things up for Trish whether she wants it or not, when Trish takes a sudden dramatic turn for the worse.

 

Jessica and Alisa are set for their big showdown. Alisa spins some fanciful dreams for the future and Jessica isn’t buying. After some back and forth, Alisa seems resigned and urges Jessica to go further than she was planning. It’s a grim, tense moment that tests the resolve of both women. One of them essentially blinks first, and the episode ends with an unexpected development, leaving us to wonder what’s going to happen to both Trish and Jessica in the finale.

 

What I liked: Jessica is steely and determined, and wants to do the right thing no matter how much it costs her. Jessica and Patsy going from raging argument to more or less working together rings true for family. Jeri’s revenge was well-thought out and executed, if disturbingly cold and calculated. Dorothy is a mess, but the various extremes she’s at in this episode make sense to me.

Turk popping up was a nice bit of continuity that you don’t have to have watched the other shows to get, but if you have it’s another layer on the events.

 

What I didn’t: I’m a bit sick of Trish’s tirades about powers and how Jessica is misusing hers. I don’t recall that even being hinted at first season. I was hoping for more of a resolution in this episode. While it makes sense that Malcolm wasn’t around for this, I’m hoping they haven’t written themselves into a corner and him off the show.

 

I’ll give this one a 3.5 out of 5. There’s going to be a lot going on next episode to wrap all this up.