Those who critique “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” every other week go on long rants about how egregious its CGI is or how the MCU has become the M-she-U (because it’s female-centric). Those who applaud “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” every other week, they flood social media timelines with “meme-able” moments or just say “it’s like the comics” over and over again. And between these two extremes, the conversation around the absolutely horrendous writing gets buried. Because that’s the true villain of this Disney+ Marvel show. It’s not doing anything radical about making its plot, well, plot-less. Every great sitcom has done it and has done it well. The writers of “She-Hulk” are clearly trying to emulate that, but they are evidently not good at it. Episode after episode, they deliver bad dialogue, which is only amplified by the tasteless direction and cinematography. Anyway, onto today’s episode.
Spoilers Ahead
Jennifer Walters Goes To Emil Blonsky’s Retreat.
Lazily titled “The Retreat,” the episode opens with Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) going on several dates with Josh Miller (Trevor Salter). That’s right, the guy from Lulu’s (Patti Harrison) wedding. One day, Josh and Jennifer hook up, and from the following day, Josh starts to ghost Jennifer. Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) tells her that she should give him some time because it’s awkward to face someone right after hooking up. On a Sunday, Jennifer gets a call from Chuck Donelan (John Pirruccello), i.e., Emil Blonsky’s (Tim Roth) parole officer. He tells her that he has detected an anomaly in Blonsky’s inhibitor, and he wants Jennifer to come with him for a check-up because he’s afraid Blonsky has turned into the Abomination. Jennifer obliges because she has nothing better to do. They reach the retreat, and Blonsky says that while going after his favorite chicken, he got electrocuted by the fence, and that might’ve triggered the signal in the inhibitor. Chuck promptly fixes the device and bolts out of there.
When Jennifer prepares to do the same, Man-Bull (Nathan Hurd) and El Aguila (Joseph Castillo-Midyett) accidentally wreck her car. Since there’s no cell reception there, she can’t call the tow truck or, for that matter, anyone to help her get back to the city. So, she starts reaching for a spot where she can get any signal and ends up in the hut where a group therapy session is going on. It’s, of course, being helmed by Blonsky, and along with him, there’s Man-Bull, El Aguila, Saracen, the vampire (Terrence Clowe), and Porcupine (Jordan Aaron Ford). Blonsky asks Jennifer to enter the circle, but she declines. Because she has found a spot where the internet works and wants to make the most of it. But things get heated up when Wrecker (Nick Gomez) shows up as a part of the therapy session and prompts Jennifer to go into She-Hulk mode. As Wrecker appears apologetic, by admitting he was wrong for acting like a “super-villain” and attacking Jennifer, Blonsky and the rest force her to join the group and “work on herself.”
Now, here’s the issue. From this point onwards, everyone in that room starts talking about how Josh’s non-responsive nature is bothering Jennifer. And the conversation concludes with Jennifer learning that she isn’t spending enough time with herself and is more focused on how she’s being perceived as She-Hulk. But no one, not even Jennifer, brings up the point of why Wrecker attacked her and tried to extract her blood. Yes, Blonsky’s whole retreat, and Wrecker’s presence there, can be a hint that this is all a front for something villainous that will be revealed later, thereby making it a metaphor for how manipulative men can be. However, as a character who is a lawyer and a superhero, wouldn’t it make sense for her to at least question Wrecker about why he did what he did, instead of accepting his juvenile excuse? She could’ve been shut down, or her questions could’ve been completely ignored, but she doesn’t even bring up the topic of Wrecker and his team’s employer. All for what? A surprise reveal? If that’s not an example of bad writing coupled with inconsistent character-work, I don’t know what is.
‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Episode 7: Ending Explained – Josh Miller Is Actually A Villain?
In the concluding moments of the episode, Jennifer takes a steam bath session in the ceremonial yurt and leaves with a greeting card from the group. Dua Lipa’s “IDGAF” plays loudly to signify that she doesn’t care about Josh anymore. That’s when we are slapped with a “Three Days Earlier” card. It is followed by the scene where Josh extracts all the data from Jennifer’s phone, takes a picture of a half-naked Jennifer, and sends a text to someone to confirm that he has her blood.
All I want to say is that there are two more episodes left in “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law.” If the point of the show was to be a regular sitcom, what’s the reason behind doing such an elaborate set-up for a potential villain? Is it because it’s a superhero show that it needs a villain? Then doesn’t that make this another run-of-the-mill, generic Marvel property, which is something that the writers keep claiming it is not? If it does want a hero vs. villain showdown, why not just establish it in the first few episodes itself and make that villain the personification of Jennifer’s problems? Wouldn’t that make for a compelling commentary on everything that Jennifer is dealing with? But no. That’d make it a decent show instead of whatever it is right now, and Marvel can’t have that. Because, right now, Marvel is on a mission to prove that they can churn out the most lackluster pieces of media imaginable and still make money off of them. And you know what? Good for them.
