Coroner Review: Fire (Season 2 Episode 1)

Jenny is up in flames on Coroner Season 2 Episode 1, “Fire.” Not literally, of course.

And her life is together for the most part. She’s basically living with Liam, performing her coroner duties, refreshing her hair color, remembering Ross’s birthday. But her core personality is chaotic and on fire — and not in a good way. 

It’s about time Coroner addresses head-on that Jenny has an unhealthy dependency on her medication. The solution to that problem isn’t to throw your pills into a lettuce patch, though. 

It’s still an absolute wonder that she’s employed as a coroner, no matter what the title of the show is.

Understanding employers are wonderful and rare gems we should all hold on to. But it tracks that anyone who is having panic attacks in the middle of a crime scene should not be on said crime scene, right?

We are in Canada, a land full of logical people. Jenny’s panic attacks on the job are going to continually pull me out of the story from now on. 

She could do most of her job from the Coroner’s Bureau and there would still be a show. 

Jenny’s anxiety and personal issues are compelling. They make her one of the most interesting female characters on TV right now (whether most of the world knows it or not). She’s worth rooting for.

But the episode ends with her sleepwalking into the street and nearly getting hit by a car.

Forget the fact that it’s totally unbelievable that Liam would wake up out of deep sleep and sense where he needs to go to find Jenny. At least fate saves her and not her man. 

But after nearly dying as a result of sleepwalking, she should really take a leave of absence and go see multiple doctors. 

At least Jenny is at the point in her mental health journey where she knows she has to feel the difficult things. She doesn’t have to think she’ll be able to survive those feelings yet. She just needs to start feeling. 

I definitely wish I could hug her though because feeling things about the fact that you basically committed manslaughter by pushing your sister down the stairs must be so difficult. Let’s hope Liam can keep his word and doesn’t leave her.

Speaking of fire, the energy between them is still smoldering even though they’re basically a domestic couple as of now. As long as he still has his treehouse, all will be well. 

But the truth is, there are signs that Liam might have to leave Jenny for his own mental health.

Imagine if your partner triggered your PTSD and traumatic memories just by coming home from work every day smelling like smoke and/or death. She’s a coroner, she can’t avoid that.

No one is blaming Jenny. But she’s smart to question whether Liam is safe around her or not, and it’s foreshadowing trouble in quirky domestic paradise. 

Liam needs to take responsibility for himself. While the TV word has a surplus of deep stories for white male characters, I’ll watch this one because Liam is so good to Jenny. His issues deserve to be explored, too. 

It’ll just be amazing if this relationship survives all of the personal work and trauma that Jenny and Liam must face alone. 

Autopsy Notes: 

• It’s officially getting boring watching Ross laze around and blame everything on his dad’s death. Grief does not give you a free pass from responsibilities forever.
• Dwayne’s exit is very strange, but it is what it is. 
• I want to see Alison’s baby on the screen! 
• Where is Sabina? Are she and Alison still together? Tell me everything! 
• “Jenny Cooper, who’s dead?” is the perfect way to answer the phone and the perfect tagline for Coroner. 

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What did you think of this episode of Coroner? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Coroner airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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