From executive producer Melissa Rosenberg, Marvel’s Jessica Jones is back for Season 2 (available to stream at Netflix), forcing the reluctant superhero to confront who she really is while digging deeper into her past to explore the reasons why. Being known throughout the city as a super-powered killer is torture for Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), who just wants to be left alone with her anger and a stiff drink, rather than being drawn into other people’s problems or forced to confront her own. But in order to survive an immediate and deadly threat, Jessica must step out of the shadows and look into the secrets of her past, in order to move forward.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, showrunner Melissa Rosenberg talked about when Jessica Jones is at its best, expanding and deepening the characters, living up to the expectation for the first season, having female directors for all 13 episodes, the partnership she’s developed with lead actress Krysten Ritter, how Kilgrave’s appearance in Season 2 came to be, the addition of Janet McTeer, that Jessica and Trish (Rachael Taylor) is the central relationship in the series, and why being a showrunner is the best job in the world.

Collider: Looking back on the first season of Jessica Jones, when do you feel that the show was at its best and how did you build on that for Season 2?

MELISSA ROSENBERG: The show is at its best when it is coming from a place of character. That’s really how we build the season and it’s how we build the scenes in the series. It’s really starting from the inside out. That was something we felt, very much, in the first season, and that’s how we approached the second season, as well.

What was easier this season because you’d already done a season of this series, and what was harder because you’d already done a season?

ROSENBERG: With Season 1, we were being creative, as we went along. We were all finding our footing – the actors in their roles, the writers and me – and trying to figure out who these people are, what the rules of the world are, the tone, and the look and feel. By the end of Season 1, I think we really established all of that for ourselves. With Season 2, we got to play in that. You’re not building it from scratch. You’re building certain characters from scratch, but you’re not building the world and your regular actors anymore. In Season 1, you build the highway, and in Season 2, you get to drive on it.

Did you feel pressure because people loved the first season so much?

ROSENBERG: Yeah. What made it a bigger challenge was that Season 1 was so well-received and such a success that the expectation level, from our expectation of ourselves and the expectation of the audience, has gone up exponentially. That’s very intimidating. We looked at Season 2 and said, “Season 1 set the bar really high. We’re not gonna repeat ourselves. We’ve done it once and we’re not gonna do it any better than the first time, so we’re gonna try to do something different.” That’s what we’ve done.

How did it feel to have all 13 episodes directed by women, this season?

ROSENBERG: It was lovely! It really began organically. I started this season knowing that I wanted at least half of the directors to be women and/or people of color. As we went along, we realized that there’s a very deep bench of very talented, very experienced pros. It was my colleagues over at Netflix who said, “Well, just do all 13.” It was born out of just looking around and seeing who was out there. We’ve got a really talented line-up. No one was giving anyone any breaks here. These women all have a long list of credits and we’re fortunate to have gotten all of them.

Since it seems much more like a partnership than just a working relationship, what have you most enjoyed about the collaboration that you have with your lead actress, Krysten Ritter?

ROSENBERG: It’s just an incredible stroke of good fortune that I get to work with her and that she’s my muse. We really come from the same place with the character. She works from the inside out, as do I. She’s someone with whom I can collaborate on building this character and we both experience her, in the same way. There’s no two people who are more passionate about this character than she and I. We both are driven to dig in, in a way that is exciting to bounce off one another. She just has such insight and is so smart about it.

How much of this season did you think about, as you were laying the groundwork in Season 1, and were you thinking about where you could go with a third season while you were laying the groundwork for Season 2?

ROSENBERG: Not really. Writing is tough. Coming up with story is tough. You make sure to leave enough doors open, at the end of the season, to have some material to play with, if you choose to, in another season, if you get another season. But it’s really about leaving it all on the floor, when you’re in the middle of it.

Is it harder for Jessica Jones to face her past and finally get some answers, or deal with her present and think about what her future could be?

ROSENBERG: Well, she’s never really thought about her future. When one sits on one’s past so adamantly and refuses to deal with it, it just continues to creep up. That is the way life works sometimes. When you try to ignore the things that shape you into who you are, they have a tendency to creep up. You tend to repeat yourself and get yourself into similar situations. She’s been mired in it and this season is really about her facing it and dealing with it, so she hopefully will move on, going forward.

Because Jessica is dealing with her past, however reluctantly, how changed will she be, by the end of this season, as a result of what she finds out, as a result?

ROSENBERG: She’s always gonna be Jessica. She carries all of the damage, whether it’s resolved or not. It stays with her. After the Kilgrave of it, she walks into this season not cured. There was a resolution to it, but it’s still very much a part of who she is. That will be the case, leaving Season 2, but there will be some major advancements for her, some of them positive and some of them negative, moving forward. We wanted to take her on a journey and we wanted to move her character forward.

Kilgrave was such a big part of the first season and of Jessica’s story, and we still feel his presence, even if he’s no longer around, and we’ve seen that David Tennant does return in Season 2. How did that come about? Was that something you wanted to find a way to work out, or did his appearance develop out of the story, as you were telling it?

ROSENBERG: Both. If you work with David Tennant, you always want to work with David Tennant. He’s just such an incredible actor to work with, and the character is one of the funnest to write for. So, if I could always work with him, I would be thrilled, but you have to be very careful how you bring a character like that back. You don’t want to do it just because you love working with David Tennant. The show is called Jessica Jones, so it has to move her story forward. You can’t just show up as a greeting card, and then disappear. It’s really got to move her story forward. So, it came up organically, in pushing her character into some really interesting places. It was a really perfect match. It was fueled by the fact that we just love David Tennant, but he’s not in there arbitrarily.

Janet McTeer is a great addition to the show. There’s something so interesting about her character because every time you think you might understand what’s happening, it goes another direction. What do you feel she added to the season and how was it to work with her?

ROSENBERG: Oh, my god, what an incredible actor! She brings such gravitas. She’s such a chameleon. She really shaped the character so beautifully. She has such craft and talent. She becomes a much bigger presence, as it goes along. It was a very slow build. In the second half, she takes more of the stage and it’s really incredible watching her with Ritter. They’ve really found their match, in terms of craft, talent and passion. You see them building on one another, in each moment of every scene. It’s really exciting to watch and to be a part of. Also, Janet McTeer, as a human being, is just one of my favorite people.

We see Trish taking some risks that she probably shouldn’t be taking. What did you want to do with her, this season, and how will that affect the friendship between Jessica and Trish, when so much of their relationship is about each of them protecting the other?

ROSENBERG: The relationship between Jessica and Trish is one of the primary relationships of the series. It’s the love story, that friendship. Trish is an essential part of Jessica’s story. One thing we were able to do with this season, which we were less able to do with the first season, is really expand on the ensemble around Jessica and dig into those characters, and Trish is going into some really interesting territory this season. All three of the ensemble, as well as Jessica, are going into some uncharted territory, which is super fun, and those actors just eat it up. They shaped it into these incredible things.

As the showrunner of a TV series, people give you credit for all of the successes, they blame you for all of the failures, and they turn to you with all of their questions. What do you remember about your first day as a showrunner, and did you immediately know that it was something you wanted to keep doing or did you have a moment of panic, ever?

ROSENBERG: It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I started writing, many years ago. I think every writer wants to have creative control over their material, in some way. That’s what showrunning is, or that’s one of the benefits. You really do have creative control. The downside of that is that you get credit for every frame and you take the blame for every frame. That’s what you take on. It’s an incredible job. It’s the best job in the world, but it’s also one of the hardest jobs in the world. It’s not something that one person can do alone. This season, I had a great partner in that, with Raelle Tucker, which was awesome. So, panic is a daily experience. You just learn to live with it and deal with it. That’s just what it is.

Jessica Jones Season 2 is available to stream at Netflix.