'Jessica Jones' Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need to Remember Before Watching Season 2
Grab a leather jacket and swipe the cheapest bottle of whiskey you can find because Jessica Jones is back!
It's been two and a half years since we smashed though the gritty and gripping first season of Marvel's Jessica Jones, and now that season two is hitting our Netflix queue on Thursday, March 8 -- our hangover is finally over.
To celebrate Krysten Ritter's triumphant return as the one-and-only female Defender, we're catching you up on everything you (probably) forgot from season one with the ultimate Marvel's Jessica Jones cheat sheet.
WHO IS JESSICA JONES?
Jessica Jones is a talented private investigator for Alias Investigations, which she runs out of her apartment in New York City. Her superhero powers include intense super strength, the ability to fly -- OK, more like jumping really, really long distances -- and the highest tolerance for alcohol we've ever seen. She's short-fused, unrelenting, sarcastic, resourceful, volatile and, above all, unwaveringly loyal to the small group of people she actually cares about.
HOW DID JESSICA GET HER POWERS?
In season one, we were able to piece together that Jessica acquired her powers when she was a teenager on a vacation road trip with her family. Jessica was arguing with her little brother in the back seat and her father, who was distracted by their sibling bickering, rear-ended a big military-looking truck. Sometime later, Jessica woke up from a coma to discover that her entire family was killed in the crash and she had been adopted into the family of her school friend, Trish Walker -- aka the child star known for playing Patsy. At the end of season one, Trish discovered that a mysterious group called IGH, which paid for Jessica's hospital bills after her accident, is the same organization that gave Will Simpson his rage-inducing combat drugs.
WHICH CHARACTERS DO I NEED TO REMEMBER?
Kilgrave (David Tennant): Born with a neurodegenerative disease, Kilgrave, whose real name is Kevin Thompson, was experimented on by his parents since childhood, but the brutal and painful treatments ended up giving him the new ability to control people's minds at will. Assuming the name Kilgrave, he began to use his powers for personal gain and developed a cruel and sadistic nature. Kilgrave eventually became obsessed with Jessica, whom he held captive under mind control for several months as his personal bodyguard and girlfriend, until Jessica was finally able to break away from his spell after killing Reva Connors.
Luke Cage (Mike Colter): A fellow Defender and resident of New York City, Luke Cage is also a former lover of Jessica's. While serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit, Luke was subjected to experiments and physically enhanced with the ability of superhuman strength and seemingly unbreakable skin. Luke fell in love with and married Reva Connors, but their marriage ended when Reva was seemingly killed in a random bus accident. In reality, Jessica, while under the controls of Kilgrave, murdered Reva and she eventually confessed the truth to Luke.
Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor): Once a former model and popular child star, Trish Walker is now a successful radio talk show host and the adoptive sister/best friend of Jessica's. Trish grew up under the abusive tyranny of her mother and manager, Dorothy, which led her down the path of drug abuse and addiction. In order to change Trish's reputation, Dorothy arranged a PR stunt and decided to adopt Trish's classmate, Jessica, into their family. At first the two teenagers did not get along, but Jessica fiercely came to Trish's defense against Dorothy and served as her loyal sister and protector until Trish could move away from her mother's abuse.
Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss): One of the top and most ruthless lawyers in New York City, Jeri Hogarth is a partner at Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz and has hired Jessica on multiple occasions as a private investigator on many of her cases. When Kilgrave ordered a young woman named Hope to brutally murder her parents, Jessica called in a favor and asked Hogarth to serve as Hope's lawyer and help her expose the truth about Kilgrave's mind control to a jury. Meanwhile, Hogarth began an affair with her secretary, Pam, and began the process of a vicious divorce with her wife, Wendy. Kilgrave eventually ordered Wendy to kill Hogarth with "death by a thousand cuts," but Pam stormed inside the apartment and hit Wendy across the skull, accidentally impaling her temple on a glass table and killing her.
Malcolm Ducasse (Eka Darville): Malcolm is Jessica's next-door neighbor who, unbeknownst to our antihero, was forced by Kilgrave to become a drug addict and spy. Once Jessica helped him escape Kilgrave's manipulative clutches and get clean, Malcolm set out on a path of redemption and became determined to help others who had been affected by Kilgrave's powers. Malcolm has now inserted himself as one of Jessica's closest confidants and friends.
Will Simpson (Wil Traval): A police officer from the New York City Police Department, Will Simpson was forced by Kilgrave to seek out and murder Trish. Trish survived the attack and the two eventually began a romantic relationship together. Will became obsessed with tracking down and killing Kilgrave, and he teamed up with Jessica and Trish in their quest for vengeance against the mind controller. However, when Will began to believe that Jessica's methods were not effective, he returned to a military program that he left years before in order to obtain combat-enhancing pills to increase his strength, while also turning him into a powerful and crazed murderer.
WHAT HAPPENED IN SEASON ONE?
Season one of Jessica Jones focused mainly on the PTSD that Jessica suffered after having spent several months as Kilgrave's captive and mind-controlled slave. Jessica escaped Kilgrave's mental clutches after he ordered her to "take care of" Reva, who was the then-wife of Luke, and the only woman to know about Kilgrave's childhood experiments. Jessica killed Reva and the deadly act mysteriously unlocked Kilgrave's mind-controlling hold on the super-powered antihero. As Jessica walked away from Kilgrave, the villain was hit by a bus and seemingly left for dead.
Months later, we meet Jessica as she's trying to build a new life as a private investigator, but relying heavily on alcohol to keep her haunted memories at bay. Jessica discovered that Kilgrave did not die in the bus crash and he has actually been spying on her for months through her drug-addicted neighbor, Malcolm. Kilgrave, who has become obsessed with getting Jessica to "love" him back, announced his return by compelling a young woman named Hope to kill her own parents in Jessica's apartment building. With Hope awaiting trial for two murders that she did not want to commit, Jessica's desire to find and kill Kilgrave became her only concern.
After many failed plans to catch Kilgrave, Jessica -- along with Trish and Will -- found Kilgrave's parents and used them to lure the villain into a trap. Kilgrave murdered his mother, escaped his makeshift prison and forced his father to find a way to make his mind-controlling powers even stronger. Season one came to a climax when Kilgrave, after discovering that Jessica shared a romantic relationship with local bar owner Luke Cage, ordered Luke to blow up his own bar and then secretly spy on Jessica. Upon Kilgrave's order, Luke then tried to kill Jessica and the two engaged in an intense superhuman showdown that only ended once Jessica shot Luke point blank in the face with a shotgun.
Luke survived, but this was the final straw for Jessica. Together with Trish, Jessica came up with one final plan to find her torturer and she successfully snapped Kilgrave's neck and ended his reign of mind-controlling tyranny once and for all.
Season two of Jessica Jones premieres Thursday, March 8 on Netflix.
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