Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 4

 Stage Magicians always look like real assholes, just sayin'. 

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen began working on ironing out the trouble that a leaked video of Blonsky fighting Wong in the fighting ring with Macau. She and Nikki track down Wong and get him to agree to testify on Blonsky’s behalf. At the hearing, Wong runs late, but we get a quick montage of the various prison staff and inmates testifying the Blonsky is a model prison and seems to have genuinely improved. But Blonsky is just so smarmy that it still sounds like a line. Wong arrives, explains he let Blonsky out against his will. Fighting strong opponents is important for the growth of the Sorcerer Supreme, I guess. The board still seems iffy on this, though. But, the B-plot helps out. Jen’s dick of a former coworker Dennis is suing his ex for defrauding him, she was a Light Elf from New Asgard whom had been pretending to be Megan Thee Stallion. Jen comes to the rescue to testify that Dennis is the sort of creepy, overly confident asshole that would 100% believe he met Megan Thee Stallion on a dating app and charmed her. The court finds in favor of him, and Runa the Light Elf gets thirty days in prison for impersonating the judge to try to drop the case against her. It’ when Dennis muses that somehow taking her powers away would be a real punishment, Jen has a lightbulb moment. She is able to get an inhibitor from Bruce’s lab… somehow… and tells the board that Blonsky will wear this and be unable to transform. And, obviously, if he takes it off, they’ll know. Blonsky gets paroled and high five are had all around. Later, she’s jumped by four guys with Asgardian construction equipment, Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver and Bulldozer aka the Wrecking Crew, who try to steal her blood. Jen easily overpowers them, and they run off, telling their bosses the needle they were given couldn’t penetrate the hulk skin. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.  

 

Episode 4: Is This Not Real Magic?

 

Madisynn don't give a F***.

            We begin with a magic show. The magician, Donny Blaze, shows off a few tricks that look kind of impressive: levitation, sparking fingers, that sort of thing. They’d probably be more impressive if Thor and Dr. Strange weren’t “a thing” in the MCU. Getting desperate for applause, Donny gets a volunteer from the audience. The volunteer, Madisynn (how she spells it, but it’s pronounced Madison) is brought up and he does a trick of changing white roses to red. No one is impressed. Encouraged by his manager, Donny puts on a Sling-Ring and opens a portal to a creepy looking village.

 

Cutting to Katmandu, Nepal, Wong is getting ready to enjoy some Sopranos (the mob show, not a musical number) when a Sling-Ring portal opens, and Madisynn drops in. She still seems fairly drunk despite it being at least a few hours after the show, explaining that a cut rate magician (Wong’s words) sent her to a different dimension and a talking goat helped her get home in exchange for six drops of blood. Wong offers to bring her home, but Madisynn is rather out off it. She notices he’s watching the Sopranos, spoils the episode, and Wong vows revenge against Donny Blaze. I can respect this man’s priorities.

 

We cut to Jen, who uses her fourth wall breaking powers to muse about how great Wong is and how his presence basically gives the show Twitter Armor for a week. Her dad stops by to help beef up security at her place. I respect the paternal instinct, but I’m reasonably certain in his shoes, I’d leave things like her protection up to my daughter who can become seven feet tall and largely invulnerable at will. Morris is annoyed to hear that Jen didn’t call the cops and report the assault, but Jen’s extremely blasé about the whole thing and walks off.

 

At the office, Jen makes a dating profile for herself. Excellent use of office hours. Nikki comes in and turns on a rerun of Jen’s big interview, commenting that they need to get her better clothes. Jen points out that there’s limited options for Women’s big and tall, but their conversation is interrupted by Wong’s arrival. He tells her about his issue, Donny Blaze was a student at Kamar-Taj, but was kicked out after a week when he summoned three kegs and his fraternity brother Ky-Dog into the sacred wizard training facility. He wants to stop Donny from using portals and putting the fabric of reality at risk for applause. Jen thinks it’s a pretty open and shut case… until Wong reveals that Kamar-Taj doesn’t have students sign anything to keep them from doing shenanigans like this, legally speaking. Jen is still willing to help, but it’ll take her more time. Wong gives her his card before he storms off.

 

That night, Jen is avoiding talking to Nikki about her dating profile by doing legal work at the bar. This is a subplot about Jen not getting a date is one that I do not get, as I would 10000% swipe right on the woman with superpowers and is the head of a full legal department. I would be completely okay being the non-powered househusband. But Jen has dating issues… because. They’re interrupted by a sleezy guy hitting on them, poorly. They shut him down hard and the guy walks off. The interaction gives Nikki an excuse to good naturedly bullies Jen into giving her phone and starts swiping for Jen. She also suggests maybe Jen make a She-Hulk profile. Jen isn’t interested in being She-Hulk in her off hours and feels validated when she starts getting matches.

 

Donny is exactly as douche as he looks.

Later, she and Wong have a meeting with Donny Blaze and his assistant Cornelius P. Willows about their cease and desist. Donny and Willows refuse, believing you can’t copywrite magic. Wong and Donny almost get into a magic fight, which Donny would have lost so fast it would have been spectacular, but Jen stops them, gives Donny the Cease and Desist and tells them they’ll see them in court. They leave but stop for a second when Jen gets another match on her dating app. When Donny notices she’s on “matcher” he is super creepy about it and tells Jen to swipe right for a hot date, which she ignores, and they leave for real.

 

We cut to the first, but not last, of Jen’s terrible dates. Dude is an idiot with no life goals and has the audacity of telling his friend as he leaves the ‘date’ that Jennifer Walters (who looks like Tatiana Maslany in this universe, because actress) is ‘like a six.’ My rage at that line was intense.

 

Dream team.

At court, Jen and Wong start their case against Donny. To prove their case that Donny’s show shows “gross negligence,” Wong is forced by Jen to open a portal and bring Madisynn in as a witness. She’s at a club of some kind, but walks in and is incredibly happy to see “Wongers” before Jen quickly tells her what’s happening. And correcting a misunderstanding about how defensible the “texting 911” excuse is, which is to say it isn’t defensible at all. As she walks to the booth, Wong prays to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guanyin, to be extra merciful for the next few minutes. She talks about her experience with Donny, which lead her to making a pact with a demon, probably that talking goat, to return to this dimension. Jen tries to lead Madisynn with her questions, but Madisynn is either too drunk or too stupid (both?) to get it and instead makes it clear she wasn’t particularly scared the entire time she was in that demon dimension. Donny’s lawyer motions to dismiss as Donny’s tricks are harmless, for now, and that there’s precedent that you can’t copywrite magic. Jen points out a magician’s sleight of hand and deceptions aren’t truly comparable to actual magic, which these idiots scoff at for some reason. Wong tries to make a passionate speech to sway the judge, but I think it kind of goes over her head. The judge disagrees with Madisynn when she announces Case Closed, and says that she’ll review the case and give judgement in a few weeks. Jen tries to get an injunction to stop Donny from using the tricks while the judge… judges but can’t get it. Wong suggests sending Donny to the Mirror Dimension, he probably won’t even die, but Jen says no. He and Madisynn go to get froyo and talk Sopranos while Jen does legal stuff.

 

That night, Jen is at home doing work when she’s reminded by Nikki that it’s Friday night. Jen, feeling insecure and bummed that she’s not getting attention as herself, Hulks up and makes a She-Hulk dating profile. She quickly swipes and starts getting matches galore. I am calling bs again on anyone who looks like Tatiana Maslany having trouble getting a date. She-Hulk has a bad date with a weightlifter, and creepy dude who seems more into the power than Jen herself, and then finally with a hot Pediatric oncologist. Guess which of these three goes *extremely* well.

 

Meanwhile, Donny is doing a show and does the Sling-Ring portal trick. The most recent assistant doesn’t want to go through the portal and get stranded, so Donny tries something a “little different” and creates a bird from magic. Said bird lays an egg and it hatches into some species of demon. It attacks, but he kicks it into another portal to get rid of it. A huge swarm of the demon rats come pouring out of the portal. Whoops.

 

Wong is relaxing on the couch watching a movie when Donny portals in and lets him know what’s happening. Wong says he’s going to help to save the universe, not Donny, and that Donny can help by calling Jen.

 

Jen is hitting it off with the doctor, but she keeps getting calls from Wong. She ignores it, twice, and is about to get some when Wong opens a portal to her living room and asks why she’s not answering her phone. He needs her help to stop the demon things. Thoroughly pissed off at the interruption, a begrudging Jen follows Wong through the portal. She is tasked with distracting the demons while Wong tries to get rid of them. They hit a bit of snap when Jen is unable to permanently kill them, but then Wong has her fling them through a portal to some mountainous region. He’s able to seal the portal to the demon’s home realm and they swap to throwing demons through the portal. Jen points out that missing her actual good date is bad, but being at a magic show is worse, and then get all but one of the demons through the portal. Jen uses the last one to make Donny and Cornelius agree to the Cease and Desist, and then gets rid of it.

 

Jen returns to her apartment and she and hot doctor… enjoy the evening. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

 

The next day, Nikki texts Jen about getting the details of the date but tells her to check the news because Titania is doing something crazy. She’s been freed and cleared of all charges for that courthouse incident. Jen is briefly distracted when the hot doctor comes out and is clearly weirded out to see her as Jen. It’s super awkward, and he leaves. Jen tries to play it off, but she’s clearly hurt. A knock comes to her door. She immediately spots the delivery guy is a process server here to serve her court documents. Titania is suing her, claiming that Jen’s misusing the trademark on She-Hulk. Which Titania trademarked. Jen remarks this is a bummer way to end the episode and the credits roll.

 

I'd legit watch a show that is just their movie nights.

In the post-credit scene, Wong and Madisynn are hanging out and watching a movie together while Madisynn quizzes Wong on what drinks he’s had. These two are adorable.

 

I agree with what Jen said at the start of the episode, it’s just fun when Wong shows up. Loved every second of him in this, from his meeting of Madisynn, his (what seems to be) intense hatred of Donny Blaze, and his escalating frustration at not being able to stop that idiot. Benedict Wong seems to have a blast playing Wong, and the energy is infectious. Madisynn was a whole bunch of laughs too, as I’m 90% certain she (the character) was buzzed the entire time. Her liver is powerful indeed. Especially loved her dubbing Wong Wongers and his inability to get her to stop. Only flaw is the show spoiler thing, but like, come on, Wong, Sopranos has been over for a while. Donny Blaze was also a great antagonist for this episode. Smug, stupid but with just enough knowledge to screw up all of reality, it’s a deadly combination. Though the comparing his sleight of hand tricks to actual portals in space time was… odd. The plot point I had the most trouble with was Jen having trouble getting a date. Like, a successful lawyer that runs her own branch of a big company with an infectious smile and looks like Tatiana Maslany… she’d be getting more matches than she’d know what to do with even if she kept the She-Hulk thing on the down low. But I suppose they’ve got to show that Jen’s having a bit more fun as She-Hulk than she was initially. Even if the hot doctor ditching her the next day was completely insane. Like breaking up with a woman after she washes her makeup off. Bro, she can be big and green again at any time, this isn’t a spell that breaks at midnight thing. But what do I know, I’m just a nerd. Oh, and the twist with Titania suing for the trademark was a great ending. Like, I feel like it’d be pretty easy to prove that she only trademarked She-Hulk after Jen started being called that. Like, surely the date of trademarking would have to be several days at least after Jen’s big story broke… but if it were that easy, we wouldn’t have a plot for the next episode. Whatever, guess we’ll see where this goes. Have a good night, everyone. 

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