We're taking a stroll back in time to see exactly what led Trish out of her cushy life and chasing a man related to an assault.
After miraculously catching her phone last season, Trish gets excited thinking she can finally do something, but her attempt at repeating the catch fails.
Outside, everything is bright as day despite the time, and Trish realizes she can't even tell Jessica, who needs time to deal with her loss. She instead goes to hone her abilities, quickly becoming more agile and surprising her boxing coach, only to realize she doesn't know what to do next. ​She decides to fight crimes using PI skills she learned from Jessica. She becomes sad upon seeing an article about Jessica being hailed a hero for her mother's death, but is happy to see Jessica added a sliding scale to her firm. She meets Dorothy for lunch, where her mother says that although she's better off without Jessica, she needs to not be fully isolated. Dorothy annoys her by bringing up her career and suggesting she go on a dance show or get into fashion, claiming she's unemployable if not working onstage. Leaving, Trish tunes into a police broadcast to listen for crimes, only hearing petty things she isn't needed for. After seeing an article about Jessica busting an abusive employer, she gets word of a robbery, but doesn't make it there before police. She sees and quickly calls a nearby Jessica, who lets her go to voicemail, then hears a man cry out about his phone getting stolen and chases the thief. Though able to stop him, Trish is frustrated when both he and his victim recognize her as Patsy.
Trish goes to a costume shop, turning down outfits including a Ms. Marvel reference, a black cat mask, and a yellow outfit matching her comic look. She leaves with outfits and wigs, then realizes her toboggan hat and handkerchief can hide her face.
While Trish is working out, a woman enters and reveals the phone thief is suing her, and Hogarth doesn't think her chances look good Learning that Jessica respects her, Hogarth agrees to helpand takes the opportunity to demand she be Trish's lawyer in all areas, seeing possibility with entertainment. Hogarth calls for Malcolm and suggests toTrish that she liquidate what she can to get cash, since the thief assumed she has money and wants a large sum. Malcolm tries to keep things business, but Trish brings up their past and reveals she's the one who killed Jessica's mom. He is disgusted, but she points out he helps a lot of guilty people go free. She refuses to stop going after "bad guys," believing he's given up, and he tells her as he leaves to keep them on retainer if she's going to do so Noticing a man nearby with a murder file, Trish offers to get the door for him, then trips him to swipe the file.
She returns to her new apartment, and Dorothy arrives soon after, horrified to see the place. Trish refuses to tell her what's going on, simply saying she can "help" by cleaning the place with her.
Dorothy reminds her that she can't handle whatever she's doing alone, then surprisingly sets about scrubbing the oven. Later, Trish goes on a stakeout of the guy from the murder case, Reid, realizing Jessica probably likes the grueling work because she can keep people at a distance and focus on their problems, rather than her own. She sees Reid spike his date's drink and tries to call Jessica, then decides to handle things on her own as he leaves with the girl. As the girl, Birdie, starts feeling the drug, Reid leads her into an alley, but as he unzips his pants, Trish kicks him between the legs, then knocks him out. Trish gets Birdie to come to and explains what happened and how Reid has done this before but got off, saying this time he won't and that Birdie fought him off. The girl angrily kicks Reid as Trish tells her to get a tox screen. Trish watches happily later as the police handle things, wondering when she'll have saved enough people to redeem herself with Jessica. She then goes to Jessica's apartment, where Oscar asks Jess what happened that left them as friends rather than a couple. She says it's because a good guy and jokes that she just wants Vido around, and Oscar reveals he's met someone. Trish leaves when Jess' mom is brought up, exercising at her place. Her trainer wants her slow down, but she gets hyped and spars and then has sex with him. She is surprised he's still there the next morning and tries to ease him out, but stops when she sees a report that a woman, Madeline Brandt, was assaulted and robbed. Her trainer explains that the woman's half-brother got everything he wanted from their inheritance except the statue, and hired some thugs to attack her. Trish sends him out when Malcolm arrives. He shocks her by revealing he got the mugger to back down on his demand, and only needs $50,000. She demands to know what Malcolm found, and he reveals that while the guy has a long rap sheet, the break came from learning he didn't father his admiring son. The man didn't believe Malcolm would tell, so Malcolm, breaking down talking to Trish, broke him by calling the boy and asking if his dad told him what a bastard is. Malcolm claims he simply got the job done to prove himself to Hogarth, but the disgusted Trish tells him to never do something like that on her behalf again. He fires back, bringing up her crime crusade. Saying soon enough people will start asking what she's doing now, he tells her she looks crazy. Along with taking Malcolm's advice, Trish soon begins the stakeout that leads her to the point we saw Jessica meet her in the first episode.
In the past, I had issues at times with Trish, but I really enjoyed this episode and how it was handled flashback style.
Taking us back to the moment she caught the phone with her foot was a good way to start things, and along with being funny how her second attempt broke her phone, it was also a good moment to include because it shows she needs to practice. I'm not a fan of characters who gain or just find out they have abilities, then immediately start using them perfectly; this moment is the opposite. Characters need to work to hone their abilities when they find out about them, as it doesn't make sense for them to be able to use a power that has changed their body into something the person is unfamiliar with. When Trish catches her phone, it was a reflex, and her body was in that moment tapping into her abilities, but after that, she is moving consciously and isn't able to. Something I like about the powers she's gained is that they're very different from what Jessica is able to do. Trish seems to have some degree of increased strength, but the focus of her abilities, fitting the name Hellcat, are agility based. This episode is also perfect for answering questions I had after last episode, with Malcolm being fed up with his work and Oscar not showing up. Both of these could've been left up to interpretation I suppose, but I feel like these are key parts to the season's story to begin things, and knowing them helps. I had assumed something happened with Oscar's actor so he left, but as we learn in this episode, her mom's death has caused her to pull back into her shell, pushing away those she cares about for fear that they'll die. It's such a shame to see things end like that, because she had such a great relationship with Oscar and Vido, but of course in the comics, Jessica marries Luke, so I always had a feeling things wouldn't go perfect for her relationship. With Malcolm, you could just have him saying he's tired of helping bad people, but we'd only seen him do this a single time, just before he says it. This is a drastic change from how he ended last season, especially considering that must not have been too far back since people are still reporting on Jessica's mom. Malcolm is definitely in a pretty typical plot point for his story, as he's realizing that while he's living a better life working for Hogarth, he's often just helping the dregs of society avoid punishment for their crimes. There are so many moments that directly correlate to ones from the first like this, and one of my favorites was Trish typing the email Jessica reads. We see when she types it that it's everything she's been narrating thus far, in an effort to apologize to Jess and suggest a team-up. Eventually, however, she turns it into venting her anger about how Jess is spurning her, unaware that Jessica is going to read the message. With this episode, we at least get another moment where he's questioning his actions, because to help Trish he had to threaten some pretty terrible blackmail. The guy suing Trish doesn't deserve what he's trying to get, but his son shouldn't be hurt. I really liked the moment where Trish searches for a costume, as it continues a gag we saw in Luke Cage of the comic costumes looking silly for live action. It would just look weird if Trish were running around in a yellow outfit and a sash, but an aspect I enjoy of this section is she keeps her coloring. When she goes after Andrew Brandt, she's wearing a yellow shirt, and the hat and handkerchief she's wearing are blue. The Ms. Marvel outfit she wears is a nice reference, especially, as I found out, because in the comics Carol Danvers was originally Jessica's friend, not Trish. Ironically, while Trish has wanted powers for so long to do what Jessica won't, she's becoming more similar to her adoptive sister. To become a hero, Trish is having to rely on the PI skills she learned from Jessica, and her mom keeps having to remind her not to isolate herself. She also gets impatient when annoyed, like Jessica, shown when she decides to enter Brandt's apartment sort of early. Oddly enough, she's actually starting to seem even less patient than Jessica, as she complains about her first stakeout. Despite this, the way she goes about her stakeouts is effective, and she does tend to get results when Jessica isn't interfering. Reid is a perfect kind of character for Trish to start her crime fighting with; he's a charming guy who obviously uses his looks to get away with things. When you first see him, he doesn't look capable of committing a huge crime, only to spike Birdie's drink moments later to try to rape her. As the drug affects her, he's even slimy enough to continue that she's just fine and say they're just "keeping each other warm" before throwing her to the ground. It's incredibly satisfying to see Trish deliver his comeuppance, especially when this is followed by him facing police as well. So far I'm feeling like this could be a similar case to Iron Fist's second season for me, where season three will be a great one for Jessica, making the cancellation sadder.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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