After being served by Titania for infringing on the “She-Hulk” trademark, Jennifer Walters proceeds to get bombarded by ads for her She-Hulk line of beauty products. TV, billboards, even her morning podcast sponsor has been taken over by Titania promoting her new line and pop-up store she has at The Grove. Even Jen’s cousin Ched is bothering her about it, supporting her by buying boxes of the stuff to resell once Jen signs it. Jen tries to explain that it has nothing to do with her, which leads to Ched mansplaining how copyright law works while Jen screams into a couch cushion.
Ambivalent as Jen was about the She-Hulk name, she absolutely does not want the “slightly superpowered” influencer to profit off of it by selling literal snake oil. In this case, in the form of a Snake Venom Lip Plumper. (After all, we can’t have any actual copyright infringement!) GLK&H isn’t thrilled about it either, so they assign her case to Mallory Book.
Comic fans know Mallory Book as She-Hulk’s rival at the law firm, who thinks of herself as a real lawyer and looks down on Jen as a publicity gimmick. She’s played by Renée Elise Goldsberry, who Broadway stans know as Angelica Schuyler from Hamilton, and she is an utter delight. She captures Book’s haughtiness and disdain for She-Hulk, while still allowing a bit of her human side to peek through. Fingers crossed these two have to work as co-chairs on a case once they get done with Walters v Titania.
After needling Jen about not copyrighting her professional name (“Did Doctor Strange have to trademark his name? Did Thor?” “You chose two examples where they use their real names.”) Book thinks it will be a straightforward matter of establishing that Jen has been using the She-Hulk name first and Titania is profiting off her name recognition so they can countersue to stop her fashion line. But first, Book needs Walters to dress like she respects herself, and not like “a football player pleading no-contest to a DUI.”
There are a lot of digs in this episode at Jennifer Walters’ fashion sense. Walters obviously believes her work should speak for itself (and the ADA salary probably didn’t help), but welcome to the world of influencers. Fortunately, Ginger is already on the case. She does the lawyer Pug a favor by agreeing to stand on line with him so he can get two pairs of the limited edition Iron Man Three sneakers. In return, he introduces her to his superhero fashion hookup, so Ginger can get Jen a snazzier wardrobe.
After getting ushered into the back room of a boba tea place and buying some genuine “Avongers” merch, Pug and Ginger get sent to Luke Jacobson, designer to superheroes. Ginger fibs a bit about She-Hulk’s Avenger status (She an Avenger! Practically! Just gotta work out some parts of the deal before they announce it!) and wrangles her an appointment for a fitting. Luke, leaning into all the imperious designer and Edna Mode tropes, takes one look at the shape-shifting She-Hulk and immediately puts in an order for all the stretch wool he can get.
In court, Titania is quite the stunning contrast to She-Hulk: confident, glamorous, and full of swagger. As a long-time fan of The Good Place, I am thrilled to finally get Jameela Jamil back on screen this week. She plays Titania as vain, narcissistic, spoiled, and a savvy businesswoman and she is absolutely eating it up. She has a great time this week, calling Jen “Shrek” when they meet up in court, and generally relishing her turn as a super-powered Paris Hilton.
Things aren’t going great for Jen, since Titania’s lawyer is able to show clips of Jen angrily telling the press to stop calling her She-Hulk, that’s not my name! Even though Book rebuts this with the clip of her TV interview saying that whether she likes it or not, she’s She-Hulk now, the judge needs more evidence that Jen was using the She-Hulk moniker before the copyright.
Luckily (?) for Jen she bumps into Todd, one of her loser dates from Matcher, back at the office. He has business with Mallory Book, his favorite lady lawyer (Mallory: “Don’t touch.”). This gives her an idea. Because she set up a dating profile as She-Hulk—complete with the cringey profile touting that she is “mean, green, and straight poured into these jeans” (classic bad flirting from an introvert, btw.)—she can use her bad dates as evidence. This means parading the self-involved dudes before the court. Yay?
The scene is as embarrassing for Jen as you’d expect, with the bodybuilding bro calling her a “try-hard,” a writer(!) calling her “self-involved,” and worst of all, the hot doctor admitting that he wasn’t into Jen, but She-Hulk was awesome. After that, the judge rules in her favor. Titania stomps off, angry, but not before the bodybuilder tries to hit on her. “Ok fine. Buy me things.”
After the trial, Book is impressed that Jen was so willing to humiliate herself in order to win the case. They share a drink, where they bond over shared slights at GLK&H. (Holloway would never have to prove he is who he says he is by parading bad dates.) When Jen (getting tipsy in human form) blurts out that she’s glad they’re friends now, Book shuts down a bit and disses her suit, asking wasn’t she going to do something about her clothes?
Her new suit! Back at Luke’s, her suit is ready. As she tries it on in the dressing room, Luke snaps at his assistant for leaving a box open. Customer confidentiality! As he shuts the lid, we get a peak inside the box and see a familiar pointy-headed helmet. The label says Pick Up, so it looks like the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen will be making a trip to LA very soon…
Overall, a fun episode! They are getting much more confident in the courtroom adventures, since this week focused almost entirely on the one case. Goldsberry as Book and Jamil as Titania are great, and the cast is really starting to get confident in their roles both at the firm and on the show. And after no major cameos (See? Jen wasn’t kidding! It’s not a cameo show!), next week promises the return of Charlie Cox as Daredevil! Mark your calendars!
RATING: 4.5 out 5
RANDOM NOTES:
- Hmm, considering Ched just bursts into Jen’s apartment without knocking, maybe she should’ve listened to her Dad and let him install more security? LET DADS BE DADS!
- I love that Pug is a sneakerhead. Absolute perfect hobby for a bro-y lawyer. And the credits show that he has quite a collection! He’s showing off his new Iron Man kicks, but his shoe room also has Deadpool, Captain America, and Spider-Man themed high tops.
- Also, Pug in the comics has a big time crush on Jennifer Walters (as opposed to She-Hulk) which Jen is largely oblivious to. Will this change? We’ll see…
- No post credit scene this week! Awww… I guess the Daredevil tease will have to do.
