WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Jessica Jones Season 3, streaming now on Netflix.
In a series full of broken, complicated characters trying to make sense of the world, Trish Walker is among the most complex, damaged figures across all three seasons of Netflix's Jessica Jones. Trish's entire arc takes her from being Jessica's best friend and closest confidante at the start of the inaugural season to one of the primary antagonists for the third and final season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series.
While the rapid, villainous turn may have been off-putting for many viewers, the seeds for Trish's fall were planted long ago, not unlike a certain Mad Queen in the final season of Game of Thrones. And like Daenerys Targaryen going from sympathetic character to fiery destroyer, much of Trish's heel turn stems from her family.
Ever since she was a young girl, Trish's mother Dorothy has been a domineering, manipulative presence in her life. The very worst kind of child actor helicopter parent, Dorothy had her daughter become a television actress and constantly exploited her fame and image for her own ends. The entire adoption of Jessica by the Walkers after the death of Jessica's parents was a bid to build a charitable image for Trish in the press rather than out of genuine concern.
Dorothy's obsession with Trish maintaining a perfect body image led her to tauntingly call her "Fatsy" as a play on her television persona, Patsy, leading Trish to develop a serious eating disorder and become bulimic. After years of living off the success of her daughter, including manipulating her to launch a career as a pop star, Trish and Dorothy parted ways some time before the start of the series.
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Attempting to put her unhappy childhood, turbulent teens and the extensive drug and alcohol abuse of her early 20s behind her, Trish becomes a popular talk show host in Manhattan while maintaining her friendship with Jessica, even during Jessica's self-destructive spiral. As Kilgrave resurfaces to torment Jessica, Trish becomes ensnared in the plot, with Kilgrave using his mind-control powers to have police officer Will Simpson nearly kill her in her own apartment.
Traumatized by the incident, Trish's mental state and increasing feelings of helplessness amplify when Simpson becomes unhinged due to his dependence on an experimental drug dubbed Nuke, giving him a degree of superpowers. Trish similarly starts taking the drug to gain powers herself and, in Season 2, allows herself to be experimented on by Karl Malus to develop powers like Jessica.
Trish's obsession with becoming a superhero in her own right stems from lifelong feelings of insecurity and inadequacy instilled into her by Dorothy, never good enough to enjoy her life and constantly being put into the rat race of the entertainment industry. As Trish's trauma and feelings of helplessness grow, she begins to grow more and more jealous of Jessica, seeing her as a competitor rather than a best friend and adopted sister. And, by the end of Season 2, this takes an especially dark turn that estranges the two women forever.
Much of Season 2 saw Jessica coming to terms with the realization that her life had been upended by a villainous turn from her mother, Alisa, after she endured similar experiments conducted on her by Malus years before. The two women attempted to reconcile over the course of the season, culminating in a confrontation at a carnival.
After nearly being killed by Alisa herself and Jessica apparently kidnapped by her mother, Trish shoots and kills Alisa believing it to be heroically rescuing Jessica, but effectively ends their friendship. Trish's first murder was a case of miscommunication and her own past trauma manifested in another villainous mother figure, Alisa Jones, and she reacted in a way she thought would decisively end a new threat.
During Season 3, Trish continues to hone her newfound superpowers and training to launch her own vigilante career, brutally fighting criminals in the streets of New York City. After the manipulative villain Foolkiller murders Dorothy, Trish's crimefighting mission turns into a vengefully lethal one, killing individuals she believes to be evil in her extreme attempt to make the world a better place. After being subdued by Jessica, Trish realizes she has become a villain herself and turns herself over to the authorities for her crimes.
Trish Walker's descent into violent villainy was one that unfortunately serves as a tragic reminder that the character has been manipulated and taken advantage of her entire life. Whether being exploited and abused by her mother and the entertainment industry since childhood or used as a pawn against Jessica Jones by Kilgrave and Foolkiller, Trish's attempts to stop being a victim and start being her own hero would ultimately turn in her into a villain. With a lifetime of resentment and exploitation, Trish's arc on the Netflix series was one of self-destruction and harmed many who crossed paths with her.
Streaming now on Netflix, Jessica Jones Season 3 stars Krysten Ritter, Rachael Taylor, Carrie-Anne Moss, Eka Darville, Benjamin Walker, Jeremy Bobb, Sarita Choudhury and Rebecca De Mornay.