“Previously, on my show,” Jen Walters says at the start of this episode, and it’s kind of a necessary reminder. No matter what you’ve been waiting for—and how well that waiting pays off this week—this show belongs to She-Hulk.
So why does it feel like so much of it was built up for the purpose of reintroducing Matt Murdock?
I am forcefully handwaving the entire legal-case first third of this episode, because if I spend much time on it, I will do nothing but ask too many questions. (Did she not ask LeapFrog anything before this case went in front of the judge?) It serves one purpose: Creating a reason to bring Daredevil to Los Angeles.
I’m not complaining about Daredevil! I love seeing Matt and his ketchup and mustard suit! Their banter is genuine and fun and I would like an entire season of it! I just don’t like making Jen look bad at her job for the purpose of introducing the male character that everyone has been clamoring for over the course of seven episodes.
Like so many things about She-Hulk, I almost want to think this is intentional—that it’s making a point about how female superheroes are so often treated as second-rate; that the show and its entire team are aware that promising Matt Murdock and then not delivering until the penultimate episode would serve to illustrate how some viewers almost see Jen as second fiddle in her own show. But the commentary never quite gets sharp enough for me to think that’s the case.
All that aside, though, Matt’s a fantastic addition—and the poor man finally gets to have some fun. But first, he gets to make some very valid points about superheroes and how they live in the world. Jen’s got an Avenger in the family. Her experience is specific: Avengers are basically celebrities, as we’ve seen throughout Marvel’s television series. They’re known quantities.
Daredevil is not. He’s so local, so specific to New York City, that Jen’s never heard of him. He’s a reminder that there are different ways to move through this world with power—different ways to do good. His moment in the bar is a highlight not just because Charlie Cox and Tatiana Maslany have incredible chemistry, but because it’s a sign that Matt, with all his internal conflict and crises of faith, has reconciled both parts of himself since last we saw him. He gives Jen purpose, and he shows something key about who Daredevil is going to be when he reappears in his own show. The advice he gives Jen is the advice it took years for Daredevil to take to heart: “Jen Walters can use the law to help people when society fails, and She-Hulk can help people when the law fails. Or, you can if you choose.”
Despite my frustration with Jen’s wibbly wobbly lawyering, the structure of this episode delights me: Jen’s legal failure leads directly to her superhero success, all within the same narrative. She was just on the wrong side, legally speaking, because of course she was. That should’ve been clear when Holliday bullied her into taking the case simply because LeagFrog’s daddy is one of the firm’s biggest clients.
This show has no shortage of horrible rich men, that’s for sure. Todd, naturally, continues to be the worst, and in an increasingly overt way: the Wakandan spear, the obliviousness, the entitlement with which he demands Jen’s time. LeapFrog is Todd but far less intelligent, and that’s what makes Todd so creepy. He’s too smart to blast his lair’s name in giant pink neon and visibly surround himself with dozens of henchgoons. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have those things.
The excellence of this episode’s writing (bravo, Cody Ziglar!) pays off beautifully when Matt and Jen come head to head over LeapFrog and his situation: His preference for stealth, hers for brute force; the way they will both cede a well-made point to each other; the way Matt gives Jen legal advice while fighting goons. In court, he makes his point about how superheroes work in different ways; on the battlefield, they both demonstrate it. The hallway scene is no Daredevil hallway scene, but it’s still a good setup for Jen doing a smash.
I also love, 100% absolutely adore, the way Jen pulls off his helmet without the slightest hesitation. The tiny bit of Daredevil theme! Matt enjoying himself! (Legal dramas, snort.) Tadpole henchmen! The details are all fantastic, the dialogue is snappy, and Maslany and Cox should get to do this for, like, seventeen seasons. The perfect image of Matt doing his rooftop brooding thing under pink neon encapsulates the whole idea of “Daredevil in LA” impeccably—and then Jen shows up and the episode goes exactly where it was always going from the minute he bought her a drink. (Though we still don’t quite get to see just how that elaborate Daredevil suit comes off.)
Side note, this entire episode would’ve been worth it for the sunny morning Daredevil walk of shame.
This also may be the best use of Jen’s fourth-wall breaking we’ve gotten all season. It did seem like the episode had come to a satisfying conclusion. It did seem like something else was about to happen. It is quite fun to have Jen reference one of the theories about who the real enemy is here.
And then after all that fun, the comedown is brutal. And believable. There had to be payoff from Josh copying her phone, and it’s so much worse than I expected—a modern-day Carrie at the prom. HulkKing’s public shaming is horrible, believable, infuriating, and deeply uncomfortable to watch. Jen’s superhero identity may be public, but none of this ever should have been. The camera in her bedroom is the icing on the shit cake: The show doesn’t make it clear that she figures it out in this moment, but Jen has to realize that it was Josh. He didn’t just ghost her. He took steps to ruin her life.
All that rage we were promised in the first episode—here it finally is. And what will she do with it?
KETCHUP STAINS
- This week’s “previously on” included a very specific Todd remark that I assume sent the theorizers into a tizzy.
- Once again I am underwhelmed by the work of one Mr. Luke Jacobson, which makes me sad. I know her suit is basically straight out of the comics, but things that work on the page don’t always work on screen! Jen just looks like she’s wearing a modified wrestling singlet! (I guess I should just be glad it’s not a super-bikini.)
- Matt has to have a driver in LA because it’s too big and flat for him to just leap from rooftop to rooftop. This detail is excellent. And speaking of LA details, I am no expert, but in my brief time there it did seem like every bar was named something like “Whiskey and Pony.” So “Hoof and Fleur” was another nice touch.
- So many good lines, but “My ass remains unwhupped” is a favorite, along with “I’m sorry that I assumed the guy dressed as the devil was the bad one.”
- Why are there gun goons outside the gala?
- Mallory Book remains my non-super hero.
Molly Templeton lives and writes in Oregon, and spends as much time as possible in the woods. Sometimes she talks about books on Twitter.
