Jeri Hogarth from Jessica Jones Is Daria’s Mom: The Ballad of Helen Morgendorffer

I was struck by something fantastic that happened right under my nose.

Don’t you see it! Jeri Hogarth IS Helen Morgendorffer!

The Ballad of Helen Morgendorffer becoming Jeri Hogarth

After her longtime husband Jake Morgendorffer finally succumbs to the stress that has blanketed his life since the 60’s causing the inevitable heart attack his doctors warned him about, Helen Morgendorffer finally realizes what she’d always known deep down.

Family has made her weak.

With Daria and Quinn out of the house and in college, Helen cuts ties Lawndale, with her daughters, and with her whole life so she can finally put the single-minded focus on her legal career; where it should have been all along.

With that, she contacts a few friends who can pull a few strings and land her a job in New York City. Now unfettered by concerns like crazy teachers, mother/daughter fashion shows, and caring whether her oldest has any friends other than that weird Lane girl, it doesn’t take long for Helen to prove herself and ascend to partner, making piles of money in the process, scruples be damned. To make the transition from to her new life complete, and because putting “Morgendorffer” on a building would be way too expensive, Helen changes her name to Jeri Hogarth.

Feeling freer than she ever has in her life, Helen, now Jeri, is finally able to explore her deeply repressed love of women. She begins a relationship with a compassionate doctor named Wendy. Sweet, brilliant, beautiful Wendy was everything that her dead husband Jake was not. Jake was self-centered and boorish. Wendy was tender and compassionate. Where Jake was insecure and repressed, Wendy was open and encouraging. Helen had forgotten what it was like to feel so loved. Not wanting to waste any time, Jeri asks for her Wendy’s hand in marriage. It was sudden but felt so right. This time, Jeri would be giving a last name rather than taking one. She had never felt more happiness than on the day Jeri and Wendy Ross-Hogarth professed their love for one another at a small ceremony in Martha’s Vineyard.