Welcome back to another episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, this one titled “Superhuman Law.” Throughout the week I’ve perused comment sections, social media, and listened to a variety of YouTube videos to get a gauge of where the public at large stands with the MCU’s latest. Predictably, reactions are all over the map. Some loved the first episode, and felt it was “hilarious,” “empowering” and “the best thing Marvel has produced since the last thing Marvel produced.” Others thought She-Hulk’s origin story was “lazy,” “contrived” and a not-so-subtle “dig at the patriarchy” that undermined previous MCU heroes such as Hulk and Captain America in order to prop up its female protagonist.
After a week spent pondering the episode — well, to be honest, after a few minutes pondering the episode since most MCU content evaporates from the brain the second the credits roll — I find myself stuck firmly in the middle, but I say that about nearly every new Marvel offering. The studio seems Hell bent on making outright comedies rather than action adventures with well-timed humor thrown in to diffuse the tension, which is an entirely different thing.
To that end, the first episode of She-Hulk worked as a mildly entertaining sitcom that would have felt right at home during TGIF back in the early 90s. As played by Tatiana Maslany, Jessica Walters/She-Hulk is plucky enough to hold our attention, but it’s a largely comedic performance occasionally underscored by a few brief emotional beats that occur so randomly and quickly (and feel entirely out of place amidst the fart gags) you don’t have much time to process them.
So, here we are at Episode 2. There’s still plenty of time for this show to make an incredible mark on the MCU at large. Let’s see if “Superhuman Law” can get us moving down a better path.
What Happens in She-Hulk Season 1 Episode 2
Episode 2 kicks off with news coverage of She-Hulk’s brief showdown with a villain known as Titania — who, according to lawyers, burst into the courthouse as a result of “an extreme case of low blood sugar.”
Jessica’s fame rose quickly. Nikki and her head out to a bar where people are shouting her new moniker: “She-Hulk.” Jessica scoffs at being a “derivative” of Hulk, which Nikki points out is a dumb name too because this show can’t go five seconds without undermining the MCU’s previous heroes. While CGI Jessica takes a shot, slimeball male co-worker Dennis takes his shot and berates his foe for using superpowers to drum up publicity. This is one of those plot beats I’m going to have to unwillingly accept because I can’t imagine a world where powers like invulnerability and superstrength are treated as little more than inconveniences.
See, Jessica didn’t go to law school to become a superhero — as if! “That’s for billionaires and narcissists and adult orphans, for some reason.” That’s an actual line in the show. Jessica notes that the Avengers don’t offer healthcare, maternity leave, or a pension. Eventually, the boss appears and asks our very drunk hero to un-She-Hulk so he can fire her. Not only did Jessica lose the case she was working on in the previous episode, but she’s also apparently a liability to the law firm.
As it turns out, every law firm feels the same way, leaving Jessica out of a job. You’d think one of the Avengers would show up and recruit her to the team, but who needs logic when you can have hilarious situational comedy centered around family dinner? We meet Jessica’s family, including her father, Morris — and is that Mark Linn-Baker?! From Perfect Strangers? Suddenly, my TGIF comment feels entirely spot on. We also meet cousin Ched, who just got promoted at Best Buy, Jessica’s eccentric mother, Elaine, who tries to set her daughter up with a guy at the local coffee shop (he wants lessons in how to be a hero), and a gaggle of other family members.
No one seems to care that Jessica can turn into a giant green monster. Again, this show exists in the MCU.
Morris pulls his daughter into the garage where he reminds her (and us, I suppose) that she isn’t the first Hulk they’ve had to deal with in the family. I mean, at least that kind of explains the family’s nonchalant attitude. Jessica’s upset that she was forced to hulk out in the courtroom against her will and heads to another bar to drink away her sorrows.
This is meant to be the low point. She lost her job, she has no money — she has the ability to HULK OUT whenever she wants!
Instead, Holden Holliway, who is definitely the show’s bad guy, approaches and offers Jessica a job. She accepts and demands her own paralegal, Nikki. “I really don’t care who your paralegal is,” Holden deadpans.
The next day, Holden escorts Jessica around her new job site but only after instructing her to morph into She-Hulk. He’s launching a new division dedicated to superhuman law, you see? And who better to tackle the new gig than, well, a superhero lawyer? Jessica breaks the fourth wall to complain about the new opportunity. “These dodos didn’t have to do this on their first day of work,” she says whilst passing a room full of men. Subtle. (It’s worth noting that the FX in this episode are…not very good. She-Hulk moves erratically and occasionally look like something out of Beowulf. That wasn’t a problem in the first episode, or maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention.)
Nikki is far more enthusiastic and just excited to have a job.
We meet Pug, who walks in with a gift basket and directions to the “best bathroom for pooping.” These are top-tier jokes, people.
Moments later, Jessica learns she’s taking the villain Abomination on as a client despite the rather obvious conflict of interest the situation presents. “If you don’t take the case you don’t have a job here,” Holliway says. He’s mean.
Cut to a prison where a guard orders Jessica to un-She-Hulk. You just know at some point she’s going to call out these men for constantly ordering her to change form. Another guard escorts Jessica to Abomination. The music informs us that this moment is serious, but our plucky hero doesn’t look worried in the slightest. She even cracks jokes.
Surprisingly, Tim Roth is in this episode. I thought it would just be his CGI counterpart, so color me surprised. Emil Blonsky recaps the events of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, where the big green guy was played by Edward Norton, and explains that the chemicals pumped into him by the government were the reason he went all Abomination in Harlem. (Man, The Incredible Hulk was a long time ago.) Blonsky starts reciting haikus he wrote to each of his victims because that’s what you use Tim Roth for in a television show.
Jessica heads home and calls Bruce to gauge his feelings on Blonsky, leading to a funny exchange that’s capped off with the latter stating: “That fight was so many years ago, I’m a completely different person now.” Besides, Blonsky wrote Bruce a letter and a nice haiku.
The first thought that popped into my brain during this beat: we are going to see Hulk rage out once more. Abomination is obviously still a bad guy. I assume Jessica manages to free him leading to a larger plot (probably devised by Holliway) centered around our incredible pal. Jessica will have to use Bruce’s notes to figure out how to talk him back to normal and in so doing discovers a mysterious name — Betty Ross. Liv Tyler returns to deliver the whole “sun’s gettin’ real low” line to turn Bruce back to normal — following some intense (or wacky) fight scenes between Banner, Abomination, Daredevil, and She-Hulk — and gives the lonely, isolated man the happily ever after he deserves. In a sense, She-Hulk could end up serving as closure for The Incredible Hulk.
Anyway, Bruce is okay with Jessica representing Abomination. He still laughs at her new name though.
The conversation ends with Bruce stating he has some “things” to take care of and the camera pulls back to reveal our hero kicking back in that weird spaceship we saw in the first episode — and yes, it’s in space. Which just means Hulk isn’t around to help out his cousin when things inevitably take a turn for the worst, at least until the final few episodes. My theory still stands.
With Bruce’s blessing, Jessica calls Holliway and takes the Abomination gig. She’s gonna give it her all. Of course, he says. “Oh, you might want to turn on your TV.” She flips on the tube and sees that her client, Abomination, escaped from prison to participate in those underground death matches we saw in Shang-Chi. “Oh,” Jessica says to us. “That sucks.”
Cue credits. Oh, wow, that was it. Rather abrupt and incredibly short, but okay.
A post-credit scene shows She-Hulk doing odd jobs for her father — hanging a large flat screen TV, picking up a truck while he changes a tire, and carrying an absurd amount of water into his home. That actually made me laugh.
She-Hulk Season 1 Episode 2 Final Thoughts
Okay, so Episode 2 was good. To be honest, my theory got me all hyped, which means I may have set myself up for colossal disappointment. We’ll see. There’s not much more to say that hasn’t already been said. As a comedy, She-Hulk hasn’t found its rhythm, but maybe it gets better. The first few episodes feel more like table setting than anything else.
What does Abomination’s escape from prison mean? I assume he’s only leaving the facility with Wong, so he’s technically not escaping but just taking a brief break from his facilities. Right? Jessica can work with that, or chalk it up to the chemicals impeding Blonsky’s judgment since he transformed into raging alter ego to participate in the fighting events. Curious to see where this goes.
I’m also curious to see if Jessica warms to her powers or continues to bemoan their existence. Since Holliway will end up being the bad guy, I assume She-Hulk: Attorney at Law eventually starts her own (or takes over his) law practice and populates the new office with female staffers and more guys like Pug. She will use her powers, but only when she chooses to.
That’s just a guess. Maybe the show goes in an entirely different direction. Maybe Jessica will discover that not all men are horrible dodos and learn to work alongside the likes of Daredevil and Hulk to achieve her goals.
No, that probably won’t happen, but you never know. At least we’ll get to see Liv Tyler again.
