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REVIEW: Jessica Jones Season 3, AKA A Hero’s Journey Ends

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What does it take to be a hero?

Jessica Jones has always been about the great responsibility a person with power has. The third and final season of the Netflix series is the culmination of that discussion.

The show delivers its answer by the end with bittersweet precision.

Marvel's Jessica Jones on Netflix

Rachael Taylor, Krysten Ritter in Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Courtesy: Netflix

Season 3 begins a year after Jessica’s sister, Trish Walker, does what the super-powered private eye can’t bring herself to do and kills Jessica’s mother.

In the aftermath, Jessica is trying to honor her mother’s wishes and be a hero. But Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) never was a caped crusader, and she’s not likely to start now. In reality, being a hero out in the open is thankless, and the pay is awful. Moreover, with the exception of a new assistant (how she finds people to accept her abuse I’ll never know), she’s alone.

Former associate and neighbor Malcolm Ducasse (Eka Darville) is now working for lawyer Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Ann Moss).

Marvel's Jessica Jones.

Carrie-Anne Moss, Eka Darville in Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Courtesy: David Giesbrecht/Netflix

To no one’s surprise, Jessica is not on speaking terms with Trish (Rachael Taylor) who is hosting a fashion segment on a Home Shopping Network-type channel.

And then Dorothy, Trish’s estranged mom, shows up at Jessica’s door. Trish is missing. A search of Trish’s new apartment shows she’s been living a very different life in the past year, one that isn’t nearly as polished and luxurious as before. Jessica soon learns why – Trish is doing some nighttime detective work of her own.

And what’s more, she now has powers of her own.

But Jessica’s drunk-on-super-power sister is not the only problem. A serial killer is led to her door – and he greets her with a knife to the abdomen.

The rest of the season is Jessica’s toughest case yet, not necessarily because of the “oh-so-smart” serial killer Gregory Sallinger (a creepy Jeremy Bobb), but because Trish’s constant impulse toward taking matters into her own hands (“I’ve got this,” as her mother used to make her say) hampers Jessica’s efforts to work with the NYPD and bring Sallinger to justice within the law.

Then there’s Hogarth who becomes Sallinger’s attorney after she’s publicly accused of using powered people to further her needs.

Marvel's Jessica Jones

Jeremy Bobb in Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Courtesy: David Giesbrecht/Netflix

When Sallinger claims he’s being harassed by Jessica and her “masked vigilante” friend, Hogarth uses his claims to place her on the side of justice and law and against vigilantism.

Indeed, vigilantism is at the very heart of season 3 of Jessica Jones.  All of the characters are taking matters into their own hands this season in one form or another.

Sallinger kills people he feels are not getting ahead through hard work, but through gifts they squander. In the preview, you hear him call Jessica a fraud. He sees powered people as cheats.

Trish, meanwhile, is using her powers to take down people deemed to be bad guys. She believes she’s saving lives and doing what Jessica is unwilling to do. But is that really what a hero would do? Or would a hero know when to let the justice system take over?

The show’s answer is not an easy one, but a bit predictable.

Marvel's Jessica Jones

Rachael Taylor in Marvel’s Jessica Jones. Courtesy: David Giesbrecht/Netflix

5 Favorite Things in Jessica Jones Season 3

  1. In a bit of a side plot, Ballinger is a disgruntled white guy angry at people who are different who seem to use that to get ahead. In one episode, he challenges Jessica to a wrestling match, taunting her by saying she can’t beat him without her powers. She mops the floor with him. Maybe I’m reading a bit into it, but it sure felt like a satisfying jab at certain online controversies like gamergate and comicsgate.
  2. Trish Walker gets a couple of episodes from her point of view. In the second season especially, I found Trish’s push to become a hero quite annoying. With these episodes, we see her childhood and how she spent the past year honing her powers. I felt like I understood her better which makes the end all the more heartbreaking.
  3. A bit of redemption for Dorothy Walker. Not a lot of redemption. She’s no saint now. But you feel a bit better about her at the end.
  4. Jeri Hogarth gets what she deserves.
  5. A couple of great cameos in the last episode, in particular the return of Luke Cage. I liked the way Ritter and Mike Colter worked together in season 1, so seeing them again was a bit of a treat. It also felt like a nice way to say good bye to The Defenders series, which were cancelled by Netflix as Disney prepares to move all of its properties to Disney+ later this year.

All 13 episodes of Marvel’s Jessica Jones are now available on Netflix.

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Christie Zizo is never far from a computer or her phone anyway, so she decided to put that addiction to use and became a journalist. Usually while she bangs away at a keyboard, she's got Turner Classic Movies, a British sitcom, or something Scifi/Fantasy on TV (Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, American Gods, and many, many others). Her new obsession is "A Discovery of Witches," and all the history and science that goes into this fantasy series.