Jessica Jones: 9 Things That Should Happen In Season 2

Jessica Jones is officially returning to Netflix for a second season. We all knew it was going to happen, based on the rave reviews the show received across the board, but when it took longer to announce than a season two of Daredevil, we started to get a little nervous. Which gave us time to mull over how terrible life would be if Jones and her pals only returned to our screens in spin-offs rather than their own cohesive show, and race through all the things we could possibly be missing in a second season. But alas, finally, our fears were calmed, and the announcement was made. Jessica Jones shall return.

And now that we have to anxiously wait the traditional 56 years in between Netflix seasons, here is a list of things that would be awesome to see in the second season.

1. Trish starting on her journey to becoming Hellcat.

For those who don’t know, Trish Walker doesn’t exist in the Alias (Jessica Jones) comics. She originated as ordinary teen Patsy Walker in Miss America Magazine, was reintroduced as the superhero known as Hellcat in Amazing Adventures, and eventually joined up with The Defenders in 1977. Certain parts of her backstory stayed the same between the comics and the Jessica Jones TV show, like how she was a child star with an overbearing mother, so it’s not unrealistic to think some of her future may fall in line with her trajectory into heroics as well.

Our Trish Walker has already expressed how much she wishes she could join Jessica in helping to keep the streets of New York safe on numerous occasions, and has even tasted a few (albeit ultimately disastrous) moments of super-abilities when she took one of Simpson’s pills and hulked out a bit to help Jessica defeat him. While it’s completely plausible that Trish could undergo some sort of safer Simpson-esque transition, or have whatever happened to Jess and the others happen to her to grant her powers, I’d love to see her assume the Hellcat persona (and probably even a costume like she seems so desperate to get Jessica into) even before gaining any sort of powers. It seems like a very Trish thing to do, and would also inevitably cause some tension between her and her protective BFF.

Speaking of drama…

2. Trish dealing with her mom.

I’m a sucker for a tragic backstory, I’ll admit. Particularly when it turns the person good (Trish) or even messed up good (Jessica) as opposed to, you know, just generally terrible (Kilgrave, duh).

Trish’s issues with her mom were touched on throughout the first season, and blatantly displayed for the audience to see by the last few episodes. We ended with her mom making repeated efforts to come back into her life, despite both Trish and Jessica warning her not to. Considering she clearly has some sort of information about the company behind Jessica’s powers (even if she doesn’t fully grasp it), it seems likely that she’ll still be around next season. She’s obviously done a lot of damage to Trish’s life, and even Jessica’s, and the potential for continued angst and reopening of wounds could make for some great spiraling. Bring it on, I say.

And okay, yes, I realize the first two items on this list have basically revolved around Trish. I make no apologies. This is the first American TV show starring Rachael Taylor to not get canceled after one season and we better take advantage of that! But in the interest of fairness to like, any other characters, it would also be great to see…

3. Backstory about how people like Jessica got their powers…kind of.

It seems pretty obvious that this is going to be a plot point next season, if not through the entire series. And as exciting as that is, it’s one that could easily overtake the show and change what’s at the core of the show, which is really humanity and the relationships between the characters. So it’d be great to delve more into that gradually over time, but not so much that it becomes some giant conspiracy theory show. But these writers did us so right in season one, I have faith that they’ll find the right balance.

And hopefully we’ll meet more people with powers, too! You know, as long as it doesn’t become the latter seasons of Heroes. That having been said, it would be awesome to have more…

4. Guest stars.

Okay, not just any guest stars. Specifically, I want guest stars from Krysten Ritter’s A+ previous show, Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23. Give me Dreama Walker, give me Liza Lapira, hell, give me James Van Der Beek — but only if he plays himself, naturally. Give me thinly veiled references to Jessica’s brief stint in New York as The It Girl or give me death. And while we’re at it, I wouldn’t say no to having some guest appearances by actors from Crisis or that Charlie’s Angels reboot my friends still wish I would stop talking about, either. What do you mean you didn’t watch them? Hush. It would be hilarious to the five of us who did. Actually, give us Billie Piper while you’re at it. Really there are just so many good options here. Don’t let us down, show.

Ahem. But, uh, back on a more serious note…

5. Jessica angsting over Kilgrave.

Don’t get mad. It’s not what you think.

I don’t want to see Jessica dealing with the “trauma” of having offed Kilgrave. I don’t want to see her writing epic fan fic about how differently his life could have turned out if someone had just loved him. Hell to the no. And I have no doubt that the show would never do that to us, unless of course it was suddenly overtaken by someone like Steven Moffat or a magically-brought-to-life Ross Gellar. What I want to see is an even darker Jessica wondering how much suffering could have been spared if she had just murdered him when she had the chance.

Can you imagine Jessica taking on all these new cases where people need her help against terrible people and just defaulting to “okay but what if we just OBLITERATE THEM?” Okay, obviously there would be a gradual trajectory that got her to this point and only with the worst cases, but imagine Malcolm desperately trying to reel her in, to no avail, and having to call Trish, the only person who could even maybe talk Jessica out of this dangerous spiral. Only Trish is also spiraling because of her mom. So they’re both spiraling and— okay, maybe only one of them can properly spiral per season, but I’m definitely okay with it being either one. You have options, show. Choose wisely. (Hint: it’s all good, you’ll choose great no matter what.)

But while we’re spiraling into the endless fountain of angst, what about seeing more of…

6. Malcolm helping Robyn deal with her brother’s death.

Robyn is a frustrating character. She was introduced as annoying, and even when we felt sorry for her after her brother disappeared, she quickly ruined it by knocking Jessica out, freeing Kilgrave, and essentially getting Hope killed. And even after all of that, she still didn’t seem to understand that Jessica was trying to look out for all of them and end all the Kilgrave problems once and for all. It was hard to empathize with her, and sometimes her and Malcolm’s stuff felt like it was separated from the rest of the show.

But there’s still a lot to unpack there. She still (hypothetically) lives in the same building as Jessica and Malcolm. She still lives in the same apartment she shared with her dead brother. And now she knows firsthand about this world of people with powers, and I don’t really think she’s decided what to make of it yet. And then you have Malcolm, trying to find a place in the world, trying to do good. She makes him feel like things are hopeless, yet he kept trying to help her anyway. They have a bizarre dynamic, but it has the potential to be interesting if explored in the right way. I hope the writers touch on it, even though I don’t have any particular direction I’d prefer them to go in personally.

Someone I do have more concrete thoughts for, though, is…

7. Hogarth.

Jeri Hogarth has the potential to become a fantastic villain. She’s currently on Jessica’s side, yes, sort of, but it’s obvious that she always prioritizes looking out for number one. She’s calloused and cold to the people she claims to love when she gets tired of them, and geez, that whole thing with saving the aborted fetus of Kilgrave’s baby for testing? Definite villain origins if I’ve ever seen them. But I’m hoping they take their time with this one as well, keep Hogarth straddling the line between light side and dark side until she both becomes powerful enough to really do some damage and becomes ingrained in the world of Jessica and her friends enough that it packs a proper emotional blow when she turns evil as well.

Of course, this brings us to another point.

8. More LGBT representation.

Hogarth is fantastic. As much as I’m not usually into “cheating on your spouse with the assistant” plots, seeing that go from your “traditional” heterosexual storyline to a lesbian storyline without any caveats or implied judgment stemming from their queerness was weirdly refreshing. Naturally, if Hogarth does go evil on us down the line, there’s going to be some annoyance about how of course the lesbian character is evil. Understandably so, since modern media is still coming out of a dark age where lesbian characters on TV were ONLY portrayed as evil or sick. That having been said, we need queer storylines and characters of all types, not just super fantastic angelic cinnamon roll queers. I want my evil gay lawyer overlord ruling the streets of Hell’s Kitchen outside of the reach of the law. So the easiest way to stop the potential backlash from any super-villainy Hogarth may get up to (and just have a more compelling, well-rounded cast of characters) is to make sure to pepper in more LGBT characters throughout the upcoming seasons.

And it wouldn’t hurt if that started with…

9. JESSICAANDTRISHJESSICAANDTRISH

I ship it. I will not apologize. Luke is great and all, but he’s got his own show now. Let him be. Meanwhile, Trish is over here clearly in love with Jessica and I will hear nothing to the contrary. I want them to fight crime and kiss and go on coffee dates that should be awkward because it’s Jessica but aren’t because it’s Trish and I know the show will never give me these things but THIS IS MY LIST DAMMIT.

And, look, there are, of course, plenty of other things that would be awesome to see in season 2 that weren’t mentioned in this list. Things we know the writers will do, like further explore Jessica’s trauma from Kilgrave, delve into the cases she’s now taking with Malcolm, continue to fearlessly tackle gender issues we rarely see handled with finesse and sincerity on television. And of course there will probably be some new big bad for the season to threaten the characters we love and everything they, in turn, care about.

But as much as I not-so-secretly want Jessica and Trish to get together, I still love their friendship. It is hands down the backbone of the show. As long as the show doesn’t shy away from this, doesn’t have them fade in and out of friendship as is convenient to the plot lines as so very many shows do with their female friendships, I will be satisfied with any direction in which Jessica Jones as a whole may go. Because as long as Jessica and Trish have each other, they will find a way to be okay. And so will those of us watching at home.*

*desperately scanning through fan fic archives in between episodes