Personal Notes
Frankly Jessica is a fascinating character, and I think the moment in the original series that really encapsulates her characterization is in entry#_ when she wakes up in the woods with Brian. Here is a young woman who either passed out or was attacked in a hotel room, waking up out in the woods in the middle of the night, with a man in a mask who has a camera, and she could not care less. He tries to help her up and she snaps at him "I've got it" like she's more affronted by the idea she needs his help than she is the fact of her current situation. You can't find a better horror protagonist than that.
The more you think about early Season Two Jessica the more fascinating she is because she acts just like Jay without having any of the context he has for acting that way.
Like, Jay is missing seven months worth of memory, but he still has the YouTube channel and whatever memory he independently maintained of the Season One time-frame to influence the action he takes. He knows he has reason to be paranoid and playing cards close to his chest, and is somewhat familiar with memory loss enough to know he must have been in the area for a reason and lingers there in an attempt to explore this.
Jessica, though, doesn't have any Season One context when she wakes up in the motel. She's just a regular person who woke up one morning in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar town and doesn't know how she got there; she knows that this isn't her apartment, but can't remember how to get home, and apparently can't remember anything else enough to be able to look it up in an attempt to find it. It's unclear how much memory she's missing beyond this, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was missing a lot more than just that. Still, she doesn't go to a hospital, or seem particularly frightened of what's going on, or seem like she's seeking any help for any of it at all -- she just adapts to it.
She doesn't remember how to get home, so she lingers in the motel, maybe she's also exploring the Rosswood area in the hopes of finding a familiar landmark or an explanation for why she's there, but she seems largely willing to stay put and wait out the circumstances while she waits for things to start making sense -- although she does take the time to be suspicious of and a little antagonistic towards Jay. Whether because she's also aware of the strangeness of their adjoining rooms or just because she recognizes that Jay also 'isn't acting like a normal person', she keeps an eye on him (who's to say just How closely she's actually watching him -- at the very least, she's paying more attention to Jay than Jay is paying attention to her/the lies he's been telling her) until she feels she's gathered enough information to confront him.
This, of course, is characterization that leads into my favorite Jessica moment of all time -- the clip in the Entry #76 footage when Jessica wakes up in the middle of the woods at night with a masked stranger covering her mouth to prevent her from speaking, which she only really acknowledges with an irritated sounding "I've got it" when he tries to help her stand up a moment later. Jessica is like those wild animals who start running mere minutes after being born -- she doesn't need context or information like Tim or Jay do for the circumstances she finds herself in, she just accepts it and hits the ground running trying to figure out where to go from there.
Like what circumstances is Jessica Used to that she can shrug these situations onto her shoulders and get to work with them? It indicates that Jessica might be a lot more like Tim in the sense that she's Used to dealing with symptoms like this and has been for a while; although i DO think that Jessica is Unlike Tim in that i Don't think that she's ever seen a doctor about any of it; I think Jess is firmly Aware of her symptoms but NOT diagnosed
(i also don't think anything she experienced Prior to the events of the show is Operator related; au naturel mental illness if you will)
Like the way Jessica acts is very familiar to me in contrast to the way a lot of horror protagonists are often Alien to me; in the sense that it's a common horror trope where someone experiences 'unreality' things & immediately starts researching the supernatural and trying to convince their peers that something Tangible is happening to them -- whereas if I woke up in an unfamiliar motel w/ no memory of how I'd got there my first thought would prob be "fuck. new symptom... how do i start managing this one?" and Jessica resonates a lot like that. it's also indicative that Jessica is deeply USED to dealing with these kinds of things Alone - that she doesn't call anyone or seek help until she's Convinced that Jay Does know something about their circumstances; until then she rolls w/ it all on her own. Something further supported by the comics where like, I'm convinced if Jess hadn't been Found by a Doctor in the woods she never would have gone to a hospital; and when she's there she begs Taylor to keep the narcolepsy stuff to herself bc the driver job is All Jess has & she can't afford to lose it -- Jessica doesn't have a support system she's used to relying on; she's always had to think on her own & is comfortable with that.
Archived Material
Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted in Entry #76 when Alex holds Jessica at gunpoint. She tackles him while he's trying to apologize and talk her down. (X)
Through the Eyes of Madness: Jessica has begun hallucinating from Operator exposure, and it's often unclear what's real and what isn't. (X)
In my brain.. Jessica isolates herself from most people for many reasons (I hc her as schizoaffective) like her past with entering fugue, which puts distance between her all these operator-infected guys and also grants her experience in dealing w/seeking help in these kinds of situations (X)
Marble Hornets is a narrative haunted by both Amy and Jessica. So much of the series revolves around the mystery of what happened to them, and how they affected the characters behind the camera.
It's Amy that first shows us Alex does care and is affected by the actions he's taken.
It's Amy that unintentionally gets Jessica involved with the Operator and the others.
It's Jessica that first directly points out how strange Jay's behavior is, and who drives Jay forward to confronting Alex.
It's Amy's mention that allows Tim to finally gain the upper hand in his fight with Alex.
It's Jessica who closes Tim's part in the story, and who carries on the narrative in the comics.
Constantly in the latter two seasons we are left wondering where they are, who knows, and whether they are alright. For characters not given a lot of screen time due to the availability of their actors, so much of the story is driven by their involvement.
-- @creepiefarm