We Learn All About Jessica Jones' Old Boyfriend In Season 2 & His Story Is Intense

Jessica Jones' romantic life is always... a bit complicated. That's why it was pretty surprising to learn halfway through the newly released Season 2 of Jessica Jones that the superpowered PI once had a very stable and pretty normal relationship with a nice, supportive guy. Or, that's at least how things appeared. A quick glimpse into Jessica's pre-superhero past in the new season may have viewers asking the question who is Stirling on Jessica Jones, and was he really as good of a guy as he seemed? Spoiler alert: This post will discuss details from Season 2 Episode 7 of Jessica Jones "AKA I Want Your Cray Cray," so don't read on if you haven't gotten there yet.

The seventh episode of Season 2 takes place entirely in the past, a few years before Jessica first runs into Kilgrave and starts her detective agency. As the only flashback episode of the new season, it hits fans with a lot of previously unknown details about how Jessica got started as a PI, along with a look at Trish Walker when she was still addicted to drugs and trying to keep her child-star fame alive with a music career. But the big reveal about the flashback episode is Stirling Adams, Jessica's boyfriend at the time whom she seems to be head-over-heels in love with.

Jessica first met Stirling at a bar during Trish's music video release party for her song "I Want Your Cray Cray." Stirling was a bartender (already a step into Jessica's heart), who quit in front of Jessica when his boss started being a jerk. Jessica was having a particularly terrible night as well after witnessing Trish's drug problem continue to grow, which made for the perfect environment for a hook-up.

Stirling and Jessica began a pretty stable relationship, and although viewers had never heard of him before in the show, we started to see just how much of an influence he had on the Jessica Jones that we know today. On one of their dates, he encourages Jessica to swipe what would become her iconic leather jacket, and he also gives Jessica the idea of naming her private eye business Alias Investigations. Stirling's dream was to open his own nightclub, which he wanted to call Club Alias.

Unfortunately, things did start to get a bit dicey in Jessica and Stirling's relationship because of his nightclub ambitions. Apparently, he promised a group of dangerous men a stake in the club, who dropped by Stirling and Jessica's apartment looking to collect because the club had not been built yet. Of course, they were no match for Jessica, but that didn't stop these guys from continuing to pester Stirling.

Those men run into Stirling again later at a bar, and this time, Jessica's mom Alisa is watching on from the shadows. At this point, Jessica still thought her mother was dead, and Alisa had just snuck out from IGH for the first time since the genetic organization saved her life and gave her superpowers. After learning that her daughter was dating Stirling, Alisa watched as he secretly made an agreement with those men to pimp Jessica out as their hired muscle. Yeah... not a good look for Stirling. But when Alisa confronts him about it right afterwards, he claims that he was lying to the men in order to get them to go away. Sooooo, what's the truth: Was Stirling actually planning to trick Jessica into a shady life as a criminal, or is he telling the truth about lying to the men?

Well, we never find out, because Alisa loses her temper and smashes Stirling's head in, leaving his dead body in the bar alley for Jessica to find. Although she never really talks about Stirling again, he clearly still means a lot to her, given the name of her PI office and her love for that leather jacket.