Jessica Jones season 2, episode 1 recap: AKA Start at the Beginning

Julie Andrews once said it’s a very good place to start, so let’s do that for Jessica Jones too.

Guess who’s back in business? Whether she likes it or not, it’s time for Jessica Jones to get back to work.

With Kilgrave behind her and the Defenders in the rear view mirror as well, Jones can focus on herself and her career. The thing is, she seems like she barely likes her job, and if something wasn’t going to force her to reluctantly play hero again … well, we wouldn’t have a season 2, now would we?

And that wouldn’t be much fun.

Jessica Jones season 2, episode 1 recap: “AKA Start at the Beginning”

We start, as you no doubt guessed, with a pizza delivery guy, as Jessica’s voiceover notes that you can get anything delivered in New York City — or anyone. Turns out our favorite PI was on the trail of the dude because he was a cheater. Except when Jessica turns in the evidence, the wronged woman wants her to kill the guy too, for three times the money.

Things immediately get complicated. Jessica tells the cheater his woman tried to pay to have him killed, then when he takes off, the client chastises Jones for killing the guy who did her wrong but judging other people. Ah Jess, nothing’s ever easy for you, and it sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself you’re not a killer instead of the pizza shop woman.

Meanwhile, our first glimpse of Trish Walker in season 2 makes it appear things are going even worse for her, considering she’s singing as Patsy for a girl’s birthday party. She’s actually doing some detective work, singing in exchange for a hospital file. What she finds immediately makes her call Jess.

The two friends waste no time having a heart to heart, something it’s clear they haven’t done for a while. And Trish has a bit of an origin-related bombshell: Jess has 20 days missing from the time after her accident, the one that turned her superhuman. Trish wants to connect all the dots from Jessica’s past, the ones that include Dr. Kozlov and IGH. You can guess how well that turns out for Trish.

At least she still has Malcolm to get her up, give her energy drinks and prepare her for potential clients. One has a story about lizards wearing human skins and taking over the government (Skrulls?!?), while another guy claims he has super-speed and he’s considering calling himself the Whizzer, another fun Marvel Easter egg. Her 2 o’clock, though, is different. Pryce Cheng is a fellow PI, and he wants to absorb Alias Investigations. Naturally, Jessica is unenthusiastic about his offer and his declaration that he’ll make her see that working for him is her best move. She tells poor Malcolm that she has a new pro bono case, and that she’s the client.

On her way downstairs, Jessica finds her way blocked by a refrigerator and has to show off her strength in front of the new super, Oscar. Bookmark that interaction for later.

Let’s check in on Jeri Hogarth, shall we? She’s got her own problems, namely the fallout from the mess with her assistant with whom she was having an affair. Yep, this episode has plenty of season 1 threads, but at least they’re being laid out for newcomers.

On her radio show, Trish serves up another fantastic Marvel Easter egg by announcing an upcoming guest will be Maynard Tiboldt, who comic book fans might know as the Ringmaster. Good to see Trish Talk is still a thing, but she’s having ratings issues and her boss wants her to turn things around. You can see the sparkle of an idea in her eye as she leaves.

Jess is going to great heights (literally) to spy on Cheng, but he’s onto her. Trish waits in Jess’ office to give her a box from 17 years ago, and as soon as it’s opened, it starts an argument back up again (it’s Jessica’s family members’ ashes in the box, by the way). We see a side of Jones we rarely see as Jessica talks about how hard she’s been trying to forget waking up alone after her family died, though she does ask to keep the box.

Oh, and who’s in the hoodie watching Trish leave? He’s got an inhaler of some sort.

Later that night, Jessica drinks to “not missing you someday” and then has a few flashbacks to the day of the accident before waking up still at her desk in the morning. Malcolm gives her a packet of papers from Cheng Consulting, but they are startled by a frightened knock at the office door. It’s the Whizzer with another paranoia story, but Jones is more upset that Cheng gave her all his tax returns, school transcripts, etc. He’s an open book.

In amazing Jess fashion, she responds to Cheng stealing one of her clients by returning the favor. That leads to a showdown in his office, one that turns physical when he gets under her skin by mentioning how she killed Kilgrave and how her family got killed. “Super,” says Cheng. “You’re the weakest human being I’ve ever met.”

Hey, whoever had “Jessica gets arrested in episode 1” in your pool, you win! At least it’s just probation and anger management classes. along with her having to pay Cheng’s property damage and hospital bills. She asks Trish, who bailed her out, if killing Kilgrave defines her. We also meet Griffin Sinclair, Trish’s new beau and a TV personality of some sort, before Jess tells her friend to stay away. Of course. This guy seems like a story of his own.

Sporting a sling on one arm, Cheng drops in on Hogarth and we find out she tried to use Price to hire Jessica. He wants to sue Jones now, an idea to which Hogarth takes unusual interest.

The Whizzer isn’t done with Jess either, zooming up and pulling a pistol on her. He’s convinced something strong and fast wants him dead. Surprisingly, he’s telling the truth about his fear-based super-speed, and he starts throwing stuff in Hess’ office at her — including one of the boxes with her family’s ashes. Uh-oh.

She tells Whizzer she believes him and asks if Kozlov or IGH made him. But she’s not fast enough to keep up with him, and can only watch helplessly as he’s crushed to death by building materials falling from a scaffold, one that looks like it was torn apart. People on the street see Jess standing by the body, including Oscar and his young son.

While we don’t hear it, Hogarth obviously gets some bad medical news. Really bad, judging by her reactions to it.

Malcolm comes to the office and finds Jessica a mess, bemoaning the fact that she never buried her family. She’s also torn up about the Whizzer and now totally believes his story that whoever made him made something worse. Jess snaps into full PI mode, telling Malcolm to track the Whizzer’s meds. The lead ends at a place called Industrial Garments & Handling (IGH!), and Jessica resorts to a little breaking and entering.

While exploring she has a flashback — is this the actual room where she was experimented on? She thinks so: “We were made here. Me, Whizzer … and something else.” It’s not too handsome by the looks of her last flashback, but Jessica says the only way to find it is to open the door wider.

Final thoughts

Just one episode in and we’ve already been treated to some unexpected delights. Everyone who thought the Whizzer was a wack job, please raise your hands. Plus that’s just a really fun reference for comic book fans.

It’s pretty obvious that season 2 is going to delve more deeply into Jessica’s origin, which is fine because it fills in the blanks left by season 1, which didn’t need to tell that story. It remains to be seen if the villains this time around can even hold a candle to David Tennant’s Kilgrave, but the series deserves more than one episode to get around to that.

This was a promising start, one that came out of the gates faster than many several Marvel Netflix series, and for that, it has our gratitude.