Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney
at Law, Jen had a good thing going with Josh for three days before he ghosted
her. She dwells on that for most of the episode, even when she’s stuck spending
a Sunday at Blonsky’s retreat after two of his guests wreck her car. She ends
up being in a group therapy session with several reforming villains, including
Wrecker of the Wrecking Crew. He’s the guy that tried to jump her in episode 3.
They help Jen talk out some of the anxiety and negative feelings she’s been
having, both about Josh and about being She-Hulk, and ultimately encourage her
to delete his number and try to move on. She has a nice session in a yurt and
things seem to end on a high note. Until we see a flashback to three days prior
where Josh is revealed to be working for HulkKing and that he stole her blood
and copied her phone data. Oh no. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
Episode 8: Ribbit and Rip it
Why... why is the frog flying?
We open with a stupidly dressed teen
trying to fight off some guys steeling some flatscreen TVs. This is Eugene Patililo
aka Leapfrog. He’s an idiot with too much money trying to be a superhero and it
shows. He hurts himself more doing his jump kick than he hurt either guard. We
jump out of the scene to Jen and Eugene in Jen’s office. Back to the scene, Eugene
narrates (making it sound way cooler than it was) him embarrassing himself in
front of these two thieves who kick his ass. He tries to escape (he framed it
as deescalating the situation) using rocket boosters on his ankles, but the crashes
after flying several feet into the air and catches on fire. His suit was
supposed to be fireproof, but instead he got third degree burns on his legs.
The thieves escaped, and Eugene is looking to sue the guy who sold him the
suit. Luke Jacobson. … OH, this is going to get complicated for Jen.
Jen has a meeting with Holliway.
She’s really hoping to pass the case to someone else, as she loves the suits that
Jacobson makes for her and he’s literally the only tailor that she’s found that
can make a size changing suit. Yeah, I could see that as a pretty niche market.
Holliway isn’t willing to shift lawyers, though, as Patililo sr. is one of
their biggest clients and Eugene is super excited to have a Hulk as his lawyer.
Holliway suggests Jen go speak with Jacobson and see if they can’t settle out
of court. They both mock Eugene’s catchphrase “Ribbit and Rip it” as Jen walks
out.
At Luke’s office, Jen tries to politely
ask Jacobson to settle out of court. Jacobson, upon hearing Eugene is calling
his defective, throws a spectacular fit, ripping up the dress he was making for
Jen’s big gala and telling her they’re done professionally. Well… at least she
got a few suits beforehand, right? Jen is rightly upset as she prepaid for the
suit and storms off angrily.
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She's never getting more clothes...
We jump to the day of court. Jen is
clearly annoyed to be dealing with Eugene still, and Luke, interestingly, is
present without his lawyer. Is he representing himself? No, his guy was just
running late. Who is his guy, you may be asking? Why, none other than Matthew Michael
Murdock. Matt comes in with perfect dramatic timing. He starts by asking that
the judge block Jen’s request to compel Luke to provide a client list. Luke has
a very strict confidentiality policy, as a certain Devil from Hell’s Kitchen is
extremely aware of. Matt says the list isn’t relevant, Jen thinks it is since
she could use it to find other potential defective merchandise. They have a
back in forth for a bit, Jen pointing out all the reasons why she should have
the list, Matt pointing out all the reasons why she should not, but it ends up
being a moot point. Why? Eugene pulls out the suit when the Judge sides with
Matt, and Matt is able to smell jet fuel from the suit’s rockets. Luke’s
instructions specifically told him not to do that. Eugene tries to backpedal,
everyone can tell he’s lying, even the people without super hearing, and the judge
finds in favor of Luke Jacobson. Jen tries to apologize as Luke walks out, because,
again, she has basically no other option for suits. Luke gets her hopes up for
a second before saying “No. Because I hate you now.” I really love this guy.
Jen goes to the bar and is given an
appletini… courtesy of Matt. Everyone’s favorite blind lawyer is trying to
extend a peace offering to her, and Jen is willing to listen. She asks him his story.
He explains that he owed Luke a favor after Luke made him a few suits, and that
he in fact prefers doing pro bono work for clients that need a skilled lawyer.
But he does a few higher profile cases on occasion to pay to keep the lights
on. He describes it as “one for us and one for them.” Jen admits that that’s
noble, but she personally doesn’t have the gas to do more as she works for “them”
full time. Matt disagrees, saying that Jen can help people in the court, but
maybe She-Hulk can help when the law fails people. I wonder where he got this idea
from? Ha. He walks off to check a call, and Jen turns to the camera and asks if
we all felt that. To which I say, yes, we did all feel the electricity between
them. The moment is ruined by Jen getting a text from Todd, the rich creepy
dude she went out with once and is a big GLK&H client, saying he has a
legal issue to discuss. Matt has to leave for a work thing, and Jen is strong
armed into meeting with Todd. Her firm has a 24/7 policy for guys like him.
Jen meets with Todd. Todd brags about
getting an authentic Wakandan war spear at an auction. He claims to have studied
abroad there and creepily does the Wakanda Forever salute. So the legal issue
he had was with Wakanda demanding they get the spear back because it was taken
by colonizers, which is a solid point, but he admits this meeting was more
about him making a pass at She-Hulk. Jen says no, shoves the table at him and
storms off, saying she billed him for the whole hour.
She makes it home and drops on her
couch, just in time to get a call from Eugene. He’s being attacked by someone
and needs Jen to bail him out. He adds her on Find my Friends and beg her to
save him. She agrees to help and suits up.
She finds Eugene racing down a
parking ramp, leaps in the way and stops the car, hurling his assailant from
the roof. Got to say, I dig Jen’s suit. Luke Jacobson does do really good work.
The guy stands up, and it’s none other than Daredevil. He’s rocking a new
yellow and brown version of his suit. Daredevil tells her to back off, but Jen
is like “And waste this outfit?” She tells Eugene to go and she proceeds to
fight Daredevil. She-Hulk outclasses him in physical strength by an absurd
degree, but Daredevil is second only to Spider-Man in dexterity and easily
dodges her heavy, concrete breaking blows. She collapses part of the parking
lots top floor with one punch, Daredevil dodges, and acrobats his way to group
level. Eugene just passes him, shouting “Ribbit and Rip it” as he does. Daredevil
goes to chase him, but She-Hulk lands in front of him, cutting him off. She grabs
at him, he dodges, and then she throws a car at him. He dodges a few more
times, but then Jen tries the Thunderclap. That throws him off his feet and
stuns him, because ya know, loud noises hurt him a lot. She-Hulk rips off his
mask, and it’s Matt Murdock, what a shock.
She-Hulk de-hulks back to Jen and
asks the obvious question “are you just pretending to be blind? Because I find
that very problematic.” Matt explains his ultra-hearing thing. Matt explains that
Leapfrog is the bad guy here, as he’d just kidnapped Luke Jacobson. When Jen
asks why he didn’t open with that, Matt asks why she didn’t ask before trying
to whoop his ass. In her defense, I would probably also assume the guy in a
devil costume is the bad guy. They banter a little before going to save Luke.
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It's an okay costume, ngl.
Inside, Eugene is forcing Luke to
make him a new suit. He wants all the bells and whistles for version 2.0,
bulletproof shields, British AI, and poison darts. Luke, clearly pissed, tells
Eugene to find whoever told him that he could pull off Green and shoot them. As
Eugene workshops the name “Leap Squad” for his guys, Jen wonders how this idiot
could have henchman and goons. Matt explains that goons and henchmen are
different, goons are hired muscle while Henchmen believe in their boss’s cause.
So yeah, the Leap Squad are very much goons. Matt detects 25 goons scattered
around the building. Jen is disbelieving of Matt’s heartbeat hearing, but then he
points out hers is beating pretty fast. Matt wants to take them out stealth-fully,
but Jen is all for just breaking in and wrecking the place.
Matt goes to do his “thing.” He
starts taking out the goons one at a time, but then Jen busts in an takes out five
of them in one go. “She-Hulk smash” she says as she does. She-Hulk and
Daredevil burst into the main room. Jen frees Luke while Matt takes out the
rest of the goons. Jen tells Eugene to just stop before he wracks up more
charges. Jen says they might be able to spin it as a mania episode, Matt (while
still beating guys up) says that that’s murky ethically speaking and suggests
maybe trying undiagnosed PTSD instead. Jen lets us know that ninja + lawyer =
doing it for her. Eugene tries to escape out a window, falls and breaks his
legs. Whoops.
In the aftermath, Eugene is wheeled
out to an ambulance and Luke forgive Jen after he helped save her. Jen asks him
to make her the gala dress, to which he agrees and gives her a backhanded
remark about not getting bloated between now and then. Jen is happy they’re
strained professional acquaintances again.
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Great way to end a team up.
Jen and Matt meet on the Lilypad
sign. They bond a bit while play arguing who was the lead hero on this case.
Jen asks when he flies out, Matt says tomorrow and says maybe he can take her
out next time he’s in town. Jen prefers now vs. later, so they head back to her
place and finish their team-up episode in style. Ha ha.
The next day, Daredevil is seen
walking away from Jen’s place with boots in his hand and whistling. Jen comes
out into her living room and wonders why we’re still here, since it seems like
the episode should be over. Nikki comes in and reminds her about the gala. She
points out that she saw a guy in a devil costume doing the walk of shame, but
then compliments Jen when she learns his walk started at her place. Jen, upon
realizing that we’re doing the gala tonight, has an existential crisis when she
realizes that this is the penultimate episode of the season. She wonders if the
big twist is like “there’s another hulk but he’s red,” or “I’m about to get
fridged” but is willing to roll with it.
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Jen looking FIERCE.
That night at the Gala, Jen and Nikki
meet with her parents. She sees that creep Todd again and does her best to avoid
him. At the award presentation, Jen wins along with a few others because that’s
the kind of award this is. Mallory also wins, so that’s neat. Jen gets the mic
and begins thanking her friends and family, but then HulkKing and Intelligencia
take over the projector. They put up all of Jen’s personal info that Josh stole
and then the sex tape Josh made with her. Dude, not cool, her parents are in
crowd. Jen, despite Mallory’s warnings, gets pissed and smashes the wall. Alarms
start blaring and people run. She sees a dude in a mask run out, jumps through the
wall, and grabs him, but is stopped by Damage Control. The episode ends with
Jen breathing heavily and in custody.
Let’s be real, everyone was waiting
for this episode pretty much since She-Hulk was announced, and that Charlie Cox
was going to come back as Daredevil. Two of Marvel’s most iconic lawyers facing
off in court and then teaming up in their superhero identities on the street? No
one would with any sense would say no to that! Again, love Jen’s suit, it’s a
nice spin on one of her comic suits. Matt’s I’m less in love with, I was
partial to the red and black, but it at least looks better than it did in comic
form. Yeah, the brown and yellow costume is his canonical first suit. And he wore
it for years. It was also fun to see how their fighting styles clash. Jen,
obviously, all brawn. She can’t be hurt and can throw around 90% of things, so she
rushes in like a bull. Matt relies more on ninja tactics, cornering opponents
and overpowering or out classing them. It’s a brain vs. brawn situation, and I’m
happy it’s gender swapped from the two of them. Also, them hooking up makes
total sense. What, they’re both extremely attractive lawyers that fight crime
on the side and are lawyers? You’d need to spray them like cats to forgo that
conclusion. Tatiana Maslany and Charlie Cox had solid chemistry between the two
of them, so the meet, flirt, fight, flirt, and… the last f word, makes a lot of
sense. Don’t look at me like that, my mom reads these on occasion so I try to
keep it classy as best I can. Matt doing the next morning walk in full costume
was hilarious too. I refuse to call it the walk of shame when the scene makes
it clear he had the smuggest grin on his face the whole way back. Eugene was
annoying but I enjoyed him. He’s an eventuality that ya know definitely exists
in any world of costume heroes, the idiot that tries to buy his way in. I
enjoyed every single time when he got hurt because of his actions. It was
cathartic. The reveal at the end was dark as hell. I figured that HulkKing and
Intelligencia would ruin the big night, but was not expecting them to go that
hard. I am looking forward to the finale and all its fourth wall breaking
splendor. See you then.
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