The Season Concludes In Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire Episode 16

It’s hard to believe, but Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire Episode 16 wraps up the first (but hopefully not only) season of Jessica Jones’ journey. It all started as a missing person case but quickly spiraled into something so much more significant. And darker.

Last we saw, Jessica had successfully taken down one of the major threats – with some help, of course. Following that, she set out to find the rest of the missing flares.

Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire is the latest Marvel series to hit Serial Box. It brought Jess’s story to a new format, bringing audio components and a weekly episodic adventure for our favorite heroine.

Ripple Effect

The final episode of Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire Episode 16 is basically everything the series has been promising. It’s a hefty dose of action, character development, and even just a dash of humor. All while wrapping up all the loose ends.

Elsa Sjunneson-Henry took charge for the final episode, creating an ending that will leave fans hoping for a season two. I know, I’m hoping! Given how things left off, it feels entirely possible for the story to continue, and wouldn’t that be grand?

This episode brings with it a ton of satisfaction. This is a battle that has been building for at least five episodes now? It was worth the wait, and it even brought with it a few surprises, a nice touch.

I love the way everything was wrapped up in this episode. It wasn’t mushy – that isn’t Jess’ style, but it does feel like a solid ending regardless. All of the characters we’ve fallen in love with were present, as well as quick cameos from certain Marvel characters (again). It was perfect and exactly what the fans deserved, not to mention Jessica herself.

More than that, this episode spoke so strongly to trauma and recovery. It’s been a running theme for this series (and for Jessica’s series in general), but I feel like this episode in particular truly nailed it. It’s pretty powerful, especially when woven into the ending.

One more highlight before I end this review: I loved the small details about inclusion and accessibility. Matt Murdock’s quest to make life more accessible for all and even Jessica knows some basic sign language. These were small moments, but they mean so much. It was terrific to see included here.

Narration

Fryda Wolff was the narrator for Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire Episode 16, as with the rest of this series. She has done a fantastic job this season. I hope that if there are future seasons, they’ll get her back for them as well.

Jessica’s story did come to life through Wolff’s reading. She nailed her personality, both the good and the bad. It created a lovely experience all around and made it seriously memorable. More impressive is how well Wolff brought all of the secondary characters to life, making them all distinct and clear right from the start.

Once again, those subtle sound effects reared their heads, but honestly, I cannot express how well it worked during those combat scenes. There were additional elements, some more effective than others. But nothing compared to that overall background sound or the tone it evoked.

Conclusion

Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire Episode 16 is the conclusion everyone deserved – the fans, the characters, everyone. It was karmic and satisfying, and overall really did feel like it was pulled directly from Jess’ world.

Knowing that there won’t be another episode of Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire dropping next Thursday, it’s pretty depressing. It had become a moment to look forward to each week. On the bright side, the conclusion did leave enough room for this series to continue, should they feel so inclined (fingers crossed!).

It looks like there’s going to be a brief period of time where Serial Box doesn’t have any actively updating Marvel series. On the bright side, that means that there are three series to binge for those that want to. Thor, Black Widow, and Jessica Jones all now have complete seasons. Hopefully, it’ll help pass the time waiting for Black Panther’s series to drop.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.