Jessica Jones: Season 3: Ending Explained Breakdown

Netflix has just dropped the final season of Jessica Jones and the show has a lot to unpack from it. Throughout this, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the season as well as giving my thoughts on whether it delivers a worthy send off.

This is full spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t had a chance to watch this show yet then I highly recommend that you turn off now. With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this, I hope you enjoy it, now sit back, relax and let’s get into my full breakdown of Jessica Jones Season 3.

Jessica Jones: Season 3 Recap

From the off, you get the feeling that Jessica possesses a lot of disdain towards heroism and Season 3 deals with her coming to terms with the responsibility that has been thrust upon her.

Phrases like ‘Captain America would never have done that’ ring out from the off and it’s clear that this isn’t your cookie cutter Marvel character at all.

Whilst this has been a standard for the heroine, there’s an increased amount of eye-rolling going on from Jessica this time around and from the outset and throughout she seems like shes truly decided to be as distant from humanity as well….humanly possible. There’s a huge shadow left over the season by Jessica’s Mother and she, though the titular character hates to admit it, inspired her in some ways to do good.

In addition to this, she has to deal with the fact that morality and the law are often opposites and she realises that she has to cross the line in order to do the right thing even though she will be crippled legally. Mirroring this Hogarth, played by Carrie Ann Moss, finds herself losing her mobility physically after the ALS disease slowly begins to take over her body. Malcolm too finds himself struggling with the morality of the law and it’s clear that justice isn’t always well…just after he sees first hand that anyone, if rich enough, can buy themselves out of trouble, which calls the need for vigilantes.

The Trouble With Being A Hero

Jessica finds herself put in a position of power where she is reluctantly looking out for not only Hogarth but also Trish, who’s powers are beginning to manifest as she eventually becomes like her comic counterpart: Hellcat. This isn’t made any easier by the rise of a new villain in New York named Salinger which Trish becomes entangled with after he kills her mother and the season becomes as much about Jessica saving Trish as it does Trish wishing to save the city.

Overall this season really drives home the fact that if we are capable of doing the right thing then we have a duty to do it, no matter what it costs us personally. There is a true sense of morality to the entire piece and it examines how a lot of those perceived as heroes by the viewers are not too distant from Salinger should they decide to step over the line.

Salinger

When Salinger is hospitalised, Trish is given the opportunity to kill him, however, Jessica wishes to have justice rather than Vengeance so that Trish will not go down a dark path that she probably won’t come back from. This transformative moment shows that Jessica has truly become a hero and though she can’t save the show from being canceled by Netflix, she can at least save her stepsister. Salinger challenges that deep down she does want to be a heroine even though she won’t admit it to others and though she initially denies it, it becomes clear that this is the case.

She tricks Salinger into confessing his crimes after luring him into a false sense of security and it seems that she has finally done enough to clear Trish’s name and end the saga once and for all. However, in a shocking twist at the end of episode 12, Trish kills the killer and thus descends into darkness.

Like A Bat Out Of Hellcat

It’s at this point that Jessica questions whether it’s worth even being a hero as everyone else gets to look away whilst she is the one that’s required to fix it. We get an awesome Luke Cage cameo but the main talking point of the finale comes down to Trish and facing off. We learn that once the line is crossed there’s no real going back and Jessica worries that Trish’s murders will escalate and become less merciful the longer she goes on. If she is the one to judge who lives or dies then surely even those who haven’t committed major crimes will eventually become victims if their fate is based purely on morality.

In the end, we head into a showdown with Jessica fully aware of what Trish is capable of. With her aim on Hogarth Trish actually realises that she’s the only way to get out of New York and off to a new life. However, Jessica exposes her online and tracks down her transport which literally puts the final nail in the coffin for the character.

She shows Trish that if she continues on the path that she is, eventually she will come up against a good guy and this completely breaks the character who yields and comes to the conclusion in the end that she was the bad guy in breaking the law, no matter how corrupted it may seem.

Jessica Jones: Season 3: Ending Explained

Jessica, on the other hand, hasn’t really accepted that she is a hero and she decides to shirk off the responsibility. After parting ways with Erik who represents the darker path, she finally closes the door on her past self, deciding to flee the life of a hero.

She says a final farewell to Trish who is being escorted to the raft and heads out to get as far away as she can. However, when buying the ticket, which is appropriately purple, she hears the everlasting voice of Kilgrave in her head and realises that this is the wrong decision.

Jessica defiantly turns around and heads back out into the world, ready to embrace the fact that she is hero and that she will do good.

It’s a bittersweet moment to end the season one and one that feels triumphant whilst also disappointing at the same time. I really wanted Jessica Jones to go on longer but unfortunately, due to the cancellation by Netflix, this is potentially the last we will ever see of her in this incarnation.

Jessica Jones: The Final Season Review

It’s such a shame because, whilst season 3 is probably the weaker of the run, it’s still really enjoyable. There’s no heavy-handed messages here and it’s easy to put yourself in the shoes of Jessica and Trish in deciding who you would side with.

Whilst the costumes are really lackluster, with pretty much a scarf over someones face being the height of it, the tense drama created by Salinger and the question of what it really takes to be a hero, drive this season immensely.

In this end it’s pretty sad to see the show go, along with the rest of the Marvel Netflix Universe but perhaps this is the send-off we needed, knowing our heroes are off into the world doing their own thing against the grain.

Overall I enjoyed Jessica Jones Season 3 and it get a…