This Mind-Blowing ‘Jessica Jones’ Sex Scene Breaks New Ground For Lesbian Representation

Spoilers for Episode 2 of Jessica Jones Season 2 follow. Season 2 of Jessica Jones meets Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a very different position than she was at the beginning of Season 1. Since the first season, Jeri has lost her wife and her lover, and now her job is on the line. Jeri's health is also a question mark after the Season 2 premiere has her getting bad news from her doctor. And her coping process leads to a Jeri sex scene in Jessica Jones Season 2 that people will definitely be talking about.

Her diagnosis leads Jeri to pick up a sex worker in the second episode, "AKA Freak Accident," and she ends up having a drug-fueled romp with three women. While no sex is shown on screen, it's a fascinating scene for any TV series — let alone a Marvel one. By displaying her sexuality and her risky behavior, Jessica Jones gives viewers insight into the dark mindset that Jeri is currently in and simultaneously proves how excellent this series is for its wide representation of female characters.

Jeri is an immensely intelligent and capable character, but Episode 2 has her going off the rails a bit. While morality has never been one of her strong suits, it's still slightly surprising that Jeri would call out of work one day to hire sex workers and party with illegal drugs. But she's dealing with a major health scare that's impacting her behavior. And in her lowest moments of self-loathing, she blames her past behavior for her current health condition (which is not revealed to viewers by Episode 2).

"Do you believe in karma?" Jeri asks one of the women that she has hired. "Nah, I know too many bad people doing just fine," the woman replies. Jeri takes another bump of cocaine and it's in this moment that Jessica Jones fans know that Jeri is thinking about how she tried to have Kilgrave manipulate her wife, Wendy, into signing divorce papers. This, of course, had utterly disastrous consequences when Jeri's lover, Pam, unintentionally killed Wendy, who was cutting Jeri due to Kilgrave's mind control.

But this Season 2 scene also continues to display what a sexual and power hungry character Jeri is — which is so absurdly rare when it comes female characters over the age of 40. In the Marvel comics, Hogarth's character is a man named Jeryn. The role has been revamped in other ways, but this gender switch is particularly interesting when it comes to Hogarth's sexuality. Her story lines ofter mirror ones that audiences have seen time and time again with male characters. For instance, in Season 1, the business-minded Jeri was divorcing her similarly-aged wife because she desired a younger woman. And now, in Season 2, Jeri is trying to suppress her emotions with drugs and sex.

By layering her womanhood over these typically "male" plots, Jessica Jones hits on something unique. As June Thomas for Slate wrote about Jeri's divorce in Season 1, "... there's none of the old, anti-lesbian stereotypes at work here — instead, it's a story that's been written over and over about successful men. It's also pretty great to see lesbians portrayed as sexual beings whose relationships are treated with total seriousness by everyone they meet."

Jeri doesn't act this way because her comic counterpart is a male. She acts this way because it's true to who she is. She is a flawed, power-craving, sexual character going through a major life crisis — and that's why she hires the sex workers. And it should be comforting to know that women both wrote (Aïda Mashaka Croal) and directed (Minkie Spiro) this episode. In fact, every episode in Jessica Jones Season 2 was directed by women.

Once her business associate Pryce Cheng shows up, Jeri's attitude toward the women she hired completely changes. She orders them out of her home and is left alone to process what she has just done. And viewers are left thinking about a scene featuring an older, lesbian character unlike one that they have ever seen before.