Spoilers for Jessica Jones Season 2 follow below.
From the very beginning, one of the cornerstone characters of the Marvel Netflix series Jessica Jones has been Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor). Trish was very much the Voice of Reason in Season 1, serving as Jessica’s (Krysten Ritter) best friend and confidant who could call Jessica on her own BS. Trish and Jessica’s relationship grew throughout the first season, but it evolved to new heights (and new lows) in Season 2 as Trish became obsessed with the idea of matching Jessica’s superpowers.
If you’ve finished the mostly excellent second season of Jessica Jones, you know that Trish takes matters into her own hands and forces Dr. Karl Malus (Callum Keiht Rennie) to revive his experimental genetic editing procedures that gave Jessica (and her mother) powers, and perform them on her. Jessica halts Dr. Malus in the middle of the procedure, seemingly saving Trish’s life, but while it’s assumed that the experiment didn’t take, the Season 2 finale left audiences with a tease for Trish’s story to come.
Yes indeed, it very much looks like Trish has superpowers now. While her relationship with Jessica may be strained to the max on account of her murdering Jessica’s mother, Trish finally has what she wished for: powers of her own. The extent of her powers is unclear as audiences are only treated to a glimpse of cat-like reflexes, but the insinuation is very much that there’s more of Trish’s story to come in Jessica Jones Season 3.
Comics fans are well aware of where this leads—according to the source material, at least. The Jessica Jones comics actually give us a hint of what could be on the table for Trish’s future. There, Patricia Walker makes the conscious decision to don an ability-enhancing costume and assumes the name “Hellcat,” going on to fight crime and such. Hellcat’s weapons of choice are retractable claws and grappling hooks on her wrists, and she also has supernaturally-tinged senses—although that may or may not be a result of her time spent in actual Hell.
Indeed, the comics diverge pretty heavily from the TV version of Trish Walker, so it’s probably silly to assume much (if any) of Hellcat’s comics storyline will come to the screen in an eventual Jessica Jones Season 3. In the comics, for instance, Trish finds the suit while working for X-Men team member Dr. Hank McCoy. But this is a show that is very grounded when it comes to powers and abilities, so it’s more likely we’ll see that Trish now has heightened reflexes and abilities, and potentially fashions a superhero suit of her own to aid in her quest to help people.
It’ll be interesting to see where the story goes. Trish claims she only wanted abilities so she could rescue folks that need rescuing, not-so-subtly taking a jab at Jessica’s wasted potential. There’s also the fact that Trish herself is a recovering addict, a storyline that played out in hit-or-miss fashion throughout the show’s second season.
Jessica Jones stands as Marvel’s best Netflix series not because of any fidelity to its source material, but because of showrunner Melissa Rosenberg’s commitment to telling grounded, relevant stories. So if Trish does indeed become Hellcat in Jessica Jones Season 3, expect the character’s story to bare only a minor resemblance to her comics counterpart. Given how well Rosenberg has steered the ship thus far, that’s likely for the best.
For more on Jessica Jones Season 2, peruse our recent coverage in the links below:
- 'Jessica Jones': All the Season 2 Easter Eggs You Missed
- 'Jessica Jones' Season 2 Spoiler Review: It's Hard to Be a Hero
- Krysten Ritter on 'Jessica Jones' Season 2, Going to Dark Places, and the Show's Female Directors
- 'Jessica Jones' Showrunner Melissa Rosenberg on Season 2's All-Female Directing Team
