A Brief History Of Luke Cage & Jessica Jones Before You Binge 'The Defenders'

The world may be burning, but at least we finally get to watch Marvel's The Defenders, which premieres on Netflix this Friday. This eight episode miniseries is the culmination of all your Netflix Original Marvel favs: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Yep, Matt, Jessica, Luke, and Danny are all teaming up to save New York City, and while you certainly don't need to have watched all four shows to understand Defenders, but you probably should know about Jessica and Luke's complicated romantic history. So, in order to help you out, here's a refresher on how Luke Cage and Jessica Jones know each other.

The first time they met.

Luke Cage (actor Mike Colter) and Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) first met on Marvel's Jessica Jones, which came out in 2015. It all started when Jessica spied on Luke in his bar, which we later found out isn't for one of her cases, but because Jessica killed Luke's wife, Reva Connors, when she was under the influence of that evil mind-controller Kilgrave. Of course, Luke doesn't know that but does catch her spying, so he invites Jessica into his bar. The two flirt with each other in their own secretive superhero way and end up sleeping together. Unfortunately, then Jessica finds a picture of Luke's dead wife, which understandably freaks her out, and she bolts.

Jessica tells Luke he's sleeping with a married woman.

When Luke finds out Jessica was taking pictures of him, he wants to know why. Jessica tells Luke the woman he's been sleeping with, Gina, is married (Luke had no idea). Luke isn't very happy to be spied on until he finds a certain something out about Jessica....

They learn about each other's powers.

Luke and Jessica found out that they both have super strength, which leads to some very steamy, superhuman sex scenes.

They break up.

Jessica realizes Kilgrave is back and has that deal with, as well as the whole guilt-over-murdering-Luke's-wife thing, so she breaks up with Luke. Luke thinks it's because Jessica can't handle the emotional baggage of a dead wife, which is sort of true, just not for the reasons he thinks.

Luke finds out about Kilgrave.

Lukes learns of Jessica's tragic past when she was controlled by Kilgrave — but she leaves out one important detail, the part where she killed his wife (again, her mind was being controlled). Luke and Jessica then get back together.

Luke finds out about his wife.

In order to prevent Luke from killing the bus driver who hit his wife, Jessica reveals the truth to him: She killed his wife, and the woman was already dead by the time the bus driver hit her. Luke rightfully demands why Jessica didn't bring this up before she slept with him, and Jessica has no answer. Luke storms off in rage and grief.

Luke forgives Jessica.

Kilgrave gets all mind controlly on Luke, and forces him to blow up his own bar. Luke survives, because superpowers. Everything works out OK, and Luke tells Jessica he forgives her for killing his wife, because now he knows what it feels like to be controlled by Kilgrave.

Luke and Jessica have a giant fight, and Luke gets injured.

So, Luke gets under the control of Kilgrave again, and tries to kill Jessica. Eventually Jessica shoots Luke (at his request), as the only way to stop Kilgrave's control. Jessica does everything she can to save Luke, but eventually leaves him unconscious under the care of Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) while Jessica goes off to kill Kilgrave.

And that's where these two tragic lovebirds left things off! Now, we know Jessica and Luke will meet again in The Defenders, but whether or not they will rekindle their romance remains to be seen. The Defenders begins streaming on Netflix this Friday, August 18.