Jessica Jones recap: 'AKA God Help the Hobo'

Season 2 of Jessica Jones happened to land in the wake of a big slush storm in New York City, which is pretty funny because this fourth episode opens with her complaining about how hot it is outside. Hard as it might be to imagine right now, that New York heat wave certainly doesn’t help Jessica control her stress. When she shows up at her anger management class, she gets so angry thinking about all the trauma in her life (from the fatal family car crash to the whole Kilgrave ordeal) that she destroys the stress ball. Here’s hoping she can find another outlet for all that.

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It probably doesn’t help with her stress that Jessica keeps winding up in the wrong place at the wrong time. She gets back to the Alias office just as Sonia, Oscar’s ex, shows up. While they’re screaming at each other, little Vido sneaks into Jessica’s office. He’s still starstruck by her superpowers and won’t stop asking her questions. Eventually he takes it too far though, asking her if she would save him — and even getting up on a window ledge to demonstrates. He slips, and Jessica catches him, right as his parents return. This distresses Sonia to no end, and Oscar angrily gives Jessica 25 days to move out of the building.

So that’s one more thing to worry about, but in the meantime, Jessica wants answers about that woman she fought. After looking up some photos of her assailant, Jessica notices that she’s wearing a wig, so she and Trish hit up Trish’s old wig shop. There they learn the woman needed wigs to cover up chemotherapy-induced hair loss. So they know she’s a cancer patient, but they’ll need medical records to get anywhere else. Which means they need Max.

Trish shows Jessica the video Malcolm took of her confronting Max about his abuse. They then show that video to a young actress working on Max’s current film. Considering she’s about the age Trish was when Max abused her, that’s enough to get the actress to abandon the set. This is a problem for Max, but not enough for him to pull the records they need. So Jessica shoves him on top of a car and just barely restrains herself from punching his head in. That gets the job done! (Recap continues on page 2)

In between all the investigating, Trish and Jessica each go in for a hookup. Trish and Griffin are back on track after smoothing the damage caused by Jessica’s paparazzi stunt, but by this point it seems obvious he’s evil and is spying on her for IGH or someone else. I mean come on, no polite-seeming boyfriend with a British accent is ever NOT evil, right? Meanwhile, after Vido told Oscar the truth of what happened in Jessica’s office, he comes by to apologize, and even agrees to rip up the eviction notice. As they sit on the couch drinking beer, they start to grow closer, and Jessica goes straight for the belt. That’s a little too much whiplash for Oscar, though, and he leaves.

She’s not the only one who’s stressed. Jeri Hogarth is getting so desperate for an ALS cure that she comes to her doctor begging for any information about black-market drugs or experimental procedures that might help her. She watched her father die agonizingly of brain cancer over the course of two years and refuses to let the same happen to her — especially since dying of ALS could take as many as eight years. The doctor doesn’t have answers for her, but Jeri insists she’ll find a way. Something tells me she’ll find her own way to IGH soon enough…

NEXT: Jessica Jones recap: ‘AKA The Octopus’

After getting medical records from the hospital, Jessica and Trish realize that only three patients ever had their bills paid by IGH: her, Whizzer, and someone named “Inez Green.” Using arrest records, they track Inez to a derelict building. They convince her to come with them, and an antsy Trish even speeds through the streets worried about people pursuing Inez. In fact, the real danger is back at the Alias office, where the mysterious woman has just murdered one of Pryce Cheng’s employees. Everyone naturally suspects Jessica, and she’s promptly arrested when she gets there, even while muttering “it’s not me” over and over.

Case Notes:

-Some amazing Jessica snark in this episode. I think my personal favorite comes when Trish walks in with her gigantic gun and asks if it’s too much. Jessica’s response: “Not unless you’re going grocery shopping in Texas.”

-I love the way Jeri’s story line complements Jessica’s this season. Both are dealing with traumas both past and present, and both refuse to let anyone else in to help, still insistent they can do everything themselves. I hope we get to see them in the same scene more, because Ritter and Moss literally complement each other well.