Before we dive into the latest episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, I want to spend a moment to thank Victor for his fantastic coverage these past few weeks. Not only did it cover some of my absolute favorite moments from the show thus far, but it was well written and a delightful read. And while I don’t think Madisynn and the Sorcerer Supreme (AKA Wongers) will ever become a power couple, I’d love to see more of both in the future. But for now, let’s get zen with The Retreat.
The episode starts in a good place. The cute guy from the wedding last week, Josh, has stayed in touch, texting Jen like crazy. Best of all, he seems to genuinely like Jennifer herself, not her super-powered Hulk alter ego! Which is proving to be incredibly rare in the superhero’s brief time on the dating scene. Jen and Josh go on several dates, and eventually sleep together. Which is where everything goes wrong. Jen texts him the next day, saying how “she can’t stop smiling”. And Josh doesn’t respond. For days.
It’s a good thing Jennifer has mastery over her anger, because her cousin Bruce would be Hulking out 24/7 in her shoes. Regardless, she’s still not handling things particularly well. She’s constantly checking her phone, even at work. Nikki tries to convince her to give the phone some distance, but Jen just can’t. Then she gets timely intervention from an unexpected source – Emil Blonsky’s parole officer.
Turns out, Emil’s inhibitor bracelet malfunctioned, and so the PO wants a Hulk to go with him to check on things. Make sure he’s not being Abomination again, and maybe help keep the PO out of the ICU in the process. Though Jen would prefer to wait by her phone all weekend, she feels responsible for Emil. So she meets the guy at Emil’s super fancy wellness retreat. And while we don’t get to see Emil’s multiple wives in the episode, there’s a lot of hilarity that ensues.
Emil is still doing his laid back cult leader thing, and seems to be abiding by the conditions of his parole. Apparently his inhibitor got affected by an electric fence when he was chasing after his favorite chicken. It happens. The PO verifies the situation and hauls ass out of there. Just as Jen is about to follow suit, two super-powered doofuses (doofi?) crash into her car, stranding her until a tow truck can swing by. Oh and did I mention that the wellness retreat has very bad cel reception and almost no Wi-Fi?
Yes, I was immediately worried this was some form of a trap, especially when the Wrecker shows up in the sharing circle. But to my pleasant surprise, Emil seems to actually care about the wellbeing of his people. For a price, sure, but it’s still better than running around smashing things as Abomination. Or at least less dangerous.
As for the “super villains” at the retreat, they’re a motley crew. The first two that smash her car are El Aguila (totally not a matador, despite his electrified sword and attire) and Man-Bull. The latter is working out issues with matadors, and the former is trying and failing to convince everyone he’s not a matador. They have a weird and hilarious codependent relationship, and they really steal the show.
The other two are Porcupine and Saracen. Porcupine has a giant, pointy suit and green helmet he refuses to remove. Saracen thinks he’s a vampire, even though he’s not. And Wrecker? Well, he’s apparently trying to get past his very recent violent impulses and putting his enchanted crowbar away. He never explains why he went after Jennifer a couple episodes back, which was my main irritation. Honestly he’s the only one I still don’t trust, but the others are just misfits.
Much as Jen doesn’t want to unload her truth on the group, Emil convinces her, and it actually makes her feel better. She realizes that the divide between She-Hulk and Jennifer is still a problem for her. It’s so tempting to transform into the popular green version of herself, and yet she wants people to love the human side. Which is why it hurts so much that Josh is seemingly ghosting her after a whirlwind romance.
In the end, Jen yurts it out, and finds a semblance of peace. She’s also convinced to delete Josh’s number, which is a great choice. The problem is, the damage is already done. They flash back to several days later, and it’s revealed Josh is working with She-Hulk haters, and probably up to no good. The moral of the story is never trust a cute guy named Josh. Overall a great episode, and we’ll be back with more coverage in the coming weeks!
