Summary
“A.K.A You’re Welcome” is undeniably kind of silly, but it helps to contextualize the previous episode and flesh out Trish’s new headspace.
“A.K.A You’re Welcome” makes it immediately obvious that it’s going to be about Trish: As well as vigilantism, she’s taking her own stab at the hardboiled noirish narration that is usually handled by Jessica. And the results, to be frank, are a bit mixed, as is the entire episode, really. It’s a sort-of flashback that eventually catches up to the previous episode, providing some additional context regarding Trish’s current headspace and the events that Jessica interrupted in that prior installment.
First though, training, which is really just grappling with basic playground apparatus. This whole sequence — “A.K.A You’re Welcome” keeps returning to it — is a bit ludicrous if we’re being honest. The culmination of her training is being able to successfully navigate the same kind of kit children do; admittedly she occasionally hits focus mitts with a personal trainer (she later aggressively seduces him), but every time she contrives an excuse for a bit of amateur parkour my eyes rolled so hard they almost plopped out onto my lap.
Another obstacle to Trish’s moonlight crimefighting is Dorothy, who wants her back on TV as quickly as possible, intimating — but not quite saying outright — that she isn’t really good for anything else. Trish is having none of this. Instead, she attempts to respond to a street crime but gets completely outpaced by the police. She’s also keeping discreet tabs on Jessica, like a creepy ex.
“A.K.A You’re Welcome” also highlights a particular problem with Trish fighting crime: She’s famous. After she chases down a mugger, he recognizes her, as does the man he mugged. To combat this rather fundamental issue, she starts looking into outfits — comic book fans will have their beady eyes peeled here, I’m sure – – eventually settling on a lame discount ninja getup that’s quite suitably silly.
There are further obstacles for Trish. She gets served for assaulting the mugger and is conned into retaining Hogarth’s services to get her out of similar troubles. Malcolm is dispatched to dig up some leverage on the mugger so that he’s persuaded to reduce his settlement offer. He accomplishes this by threatening to reveal to his non-biological son the true nature of his parentage; a despicable move that Malcolm pretends to be unconcerned about, even though he’s quite clearly putting up a front that doesn’t suit him.
While in Hogarth’s offices, Trish nabs a file that allows her to track down a serial rapist halfway through an attempted assault; the intervention is a success. I must admit, though, that I preferred the scene in which Dorothy ridiculed Trish’s new apartment. The whole “you’re a celebrity, act like it!” routine is a little tedious, but Rebecca De Mornay is just perfect in the fussy, controlling mum role, and criminally underappreciated here.
Jessica Jones is scarcely in “A.K.A You’re Welcome”. She makes some brief appearances; once when Trish overhears a refreshingly frank conversation between her and her absurdly handsome neighbor Oscar, and again when she dives through the window to bail Trish out of her drama. But Trish is clearly thinking about her. At one point she drafts and deletes and re-drafts a proposal for the two of them to fight crime together; we’re literally just reading her character conflict aloud at this point.
Eventually, “A.K.A You’re Welcome” catches back up to the previous episode, and then jumps a little ahead. Post-stabbing, Jessica has been hospitalized and summons Trish to her bedside. She wants the name of the man with the statue and the gun, whom she suspects is the same man who stabbed her. But she wants nothing else, least of all conversation. It looks like that crimefighting partnership will have to be put on hold.
