'She-Hulk: Attorney At Law' Episode 7: "The Retreat" Recap and Review
Jennifer is forced to confront her foes, her feelings, and her hulking alter-ego with the help of a familiar face
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Sometimes, to really address your issues, it’s best to sit and talk about them. The writers of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law took that literally. Jen’s flaw has been explored through small tidbits and moments throughout the season and her inner conflict between She-Hulk and Just-Jen grown at about the same pace. This week, they took that pace, loaded it up on a giant rock, and threw it into the stratosphere. Her issues are attacked head on and truly explored but the innate problems with the conflict are exposed because of the spotlight. Because the conflict, despite its strength, lacks depth, the episode feels a tad stretched for time and once she ‘deals’ with her issues it feels like a strong enough conclusion that it doesn’t really need more time to explore despite there being two episodes left in the season.
We begin our episode with Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) and Josh Miller (Trevor Salter) on a whirlwind of romantic rendezvous which eventually leads to the boudoir. But the morning after, Josh is gone, and so is all communication from the him. This vexes Jen and eventually leads her to panic until she receives a call from… not Josh. the call is from Emil Blonsky’s (Tim Roth) parole officer lets Jen know that Emil’s power inhibitor was malfunctioning and he needed to go to his Meditation Retreat to fix it, and he wants She-Hulk to come as backup. The two arrive and, unexpectedly, Emil is just Emil and the visit is quite pleasant . Jen is about to leave when a battle between Man-Bull (Nathan Hurd) and El Aguila (Joseph Castillo-Midyett) crashes into Jen’s Prius. She-Hulk ends the fight quickly only to find that the two are just working through issues. Unfortunately, a tow truck won’t arrive for hours leaving Jen stuck at the Retreat. Hung up on Josh, Jen wanders around the Retreat searching for a cell signal which leads her to stumble into a group therapy session with Emil, Man-Bull, El Aguila, Saracen (Terrence Clowe), and Porcupine (Jordan Aaron Ford). Jen sits and ignores the session for the most part when in walks Wrecker (Nick Gomez) of the Wrecking Crew who attacked Jen for her blood a little while ago. She-Hulk immediately attacks her but Emil insists she sit in the calming chair and agrees to attempt to talk things out. It takes a bit of prying but Jen outlines her situation with Josh, and her issues with She-Hulk’s popularity verses Jen’s. Together they work on Jen’s issues and she arrives at a better place, she even agrees to spend some time in the Yurt. Before the episode ends we get a glimpse at what happened after Josh and Jen sept together. As Jen slept, Josh copied her phone and got a sample of Jen’s blood with the intent of giving it to the HulkKing.
Oh boy does this episode start slow. The story meanders its way through several overly long montages that may have been included to emphasize Jen’s frustration with her situation with Josh but more realistically was included to pad out runtime against a conflict that lacks depth. Again, it important to emphasize that the conflict itself is strong, inner-conflicts are rare in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and are stronger and more engaging for an audience able to spend more than two and a half hours with the hero. The problem is that there is a lack of depth because the whole conflict can be summarized with four words: Jen’s jealous of She-Hulk. The conflict is a good primer for a new character as it is extremely easy to relate to. However, it could also be too relatable to the wide-ranging audience to the point of being juvenile and slightly out of character for the strong-willed lawyer. Outside of that, it is always nice to see Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky. The acting vet has leaned into to the spiritual leader version of Emil to the point of comedic gold and the use of lesser known Marvel characters to round out the group therapy session is pure genius. Which brings us to the cliffhanger. Given the nature of the major conflict, it wasn’t difficult to see the twist coming from Josh, yes it would be nice for Jen to have a love interest lead to a successful relationship but successful relationships aren’t exactly riveting television. But Josh’s betrayal does hit fairly hard, despite their build up to this moment only lasting the better halves of two episodes , and serves nicely towards deepening the mystery of ‘HulkKing.’ So now, judging by the string of emoji’s Josh sent the HulkKing, they have a sample of She-Hulk’s blood for whatever nefarious actions they need it for. Guesses as to who the HulkKing may actually be are range from Valentina Allegra de Fontaine as a way to pad up her Thunderbolts, to the Skrulls which could lead to Young Avenger Hulkling, but the money bets are still squarely on Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader. With two episodes to go, the answer may come sooner rather than later, despite the impending arrival of a Daredevil.
The episode was good overall but not to the quality that the series has been averaging over the last few episodes. Compared to the others, the episode feels slow and could have benefited greatly from a side adventure with Nikki, Mallory, and Pug. The fact that the B-Story was so noticeably absent from an episode that severely needed one is confusing. Even the previous wedding episode which was supposed to be self-contained had a nice little side story. Now we are on the horizon of the final two episodes in what has become and excellent series for the newest addition to the MCU and we are coming dangerously close to the return of one of the most popular characters in the history of Marvel Entertainment. Hopefully She-Hulks 6 foot 7 inch tall frame can peak out of the gigantic horned shadow set to debut.