This Powerful Drug Makes A Comeback In 'Jessica Jones' Season 2 & It's Serious Bad News
Jessica Jones Season 1 had one of the weirdest antagonists in Marvel Cinematic Universe history: Will Simpson, the good guy cop who was driven slightly off his rocker after an encounter with Kilgrave. Over the course of the season, Simpson's response to a spot of mind control trying to get him to kill Trish sent him down an increasingly unhinged path until Jessica had to squash him under a fridge. Spoiler alert: Don't read on until you've seen Jessica Jones Season 2 Episode 5. But Simpson returns, and he's still taking drugs to be a powered-like person. What is in Simpson's inhaler in Jessica Jones Season 2? Does it really make Will Simpson into a powered person?
Jessica Jones was not born a powered person. She was made into one, due to the experiments that IGH did to her a decade ago. But just because Jessica was then released into the world by IGH doesn't mean they stopped experimenting. One of the drugs they created in the last few years was tested on ex-soldiers. Called "Combat Enhancers," the idea was that the drug would temporarily create "super soldiers" for the United States, which is not that far off from experiments conducted by the CIA back during the 1960s. Will Simpson had been part of that clinical trial but was rejected as a candidate because the drug made him too aggressive and unable to control his temper.
After his experience with Kilgrave, Will contacted the doctor from IGH who had run the clinical trial he was kicked out of — Dr. Kozlov. Will convinced Kozlov to let him got back on the drug to try and take down Kilgrave, but that backfired. (Hence the fridging at the end of the season.) When we last see Will in Season 1, he's being taken away by Kozlov to somewhere unknown.
Now we know where Simpson was kept: that same IGH lab that Jessica was poking around in and having memory flashbacks about. Kozlov kept him there for nearly a year — Simpson only escaped recently. (Fans assume he escaped when Kozlov was killed.) Will gets out, and having seen the monster that killed Kozlov, is trying desperately to protect Trish from it, stalking her wherever she goes and feeding himself combat enhancer via an inhaler.
Sadly, Will's time on this Earth isn't long, but he does get to die in the line of duty, keeping Trish (and Jessica) safe from the monster, at least for the moment. Jessica gives him a proper burial at sea, off the coast not far from Coney Island, where his body probably won't be found.
With Will dead, that leaves Jessica and Trish with the arsenal he amassed in hopes of taking down the monster, as well as the inhaler full of combat enhancer goodness. Obviously, this is a highly volatile and dangerous drug. The effects may make one feel like they are the equivalent to a powered person, but as we saw when Will went up against both Jessica and her adversary, they really don't hold up against whatever it was IGH created. Also, the effect is temporary, and unless the user keeps using, the crash isn't worth the high.
Well, from the outside, the crash doesn't look to be worth the high. But if you're someone who spent all last season being the show's Designated Damsel in Distress? And you're someone Jessica keeps trying to leave behind to keep you safe? And you're someone with a history of drug use and addition? This might just sound like the best idea you've heard all week.
At least, it seems like Trish has decided it's the best idea she's heard this week. Within a few episodes, her addiction to Simpson's inhaler of combat enhancers is already starting to be a problem. How much longer before she gets herself really hurt?
