She-Hulk: Attorney at Law - Episode 8 Review

He's finally here, folks.

​Yes, the day has finally come friends: we finally have the highly anticipated superhero appearance that has been on everyone's mouths and has been angrily demanding for weeks. The day has finally come and we can rejoice: LEAPFROG IS HERE! Everyone's favorite street-level bad boy has finally made his way to the MCU along with his signature catch-phrase of "ribbit and rip it," which I don't remember being in the comics but I've found my memory is a bit hazy on Leap-Frog lore, to be honest. Maybe it's just been a while since I've read any Leap-Frog books. Anyway, they did take some liberties with his character a bit. Instead of a down on his luck inventor, they've turned him into a stuck-up rich boy, using his father's money to purchase his suit from Luke Jacobson. Obviously, in the comics, Leap-Frog is talented enough to make his own frog-related super suit with which to do crimes. They also made him initially trying to be a hero, which threw me off a bit, but they corrected it by the end and had him being the antagonist. Gripes about the changes aside, I'm glad that this character has finally made his MCU debut. It will be interesting to see how his character is utilized in the future, or if he's just relegated to a one-and-done kind of thing.

Oh, Daredevil also pops up in this one, like anyone cares.

Episode 8 sees Jen get tasked with representing the Friendly Neighborhood Amphibian as he goes after Luke Jacobson for faulty merchandise. Apparently, his fire-proof suit caught fire and he suffered 3rd degree burns on his legs. They take this man to court and who should show up to represent him but the devilishly handsome Matthew Murdock himself. Long story short, turns out Leap-Frog was an idiot and that's what caused the burns, which Matt figures out using his Super Sniffer™, and the case is dropped. Matt and Jen meet at a bar, hit it off, flirt a little, both have to leave for urgent work-y things, and Jen is off to meet up with the creepy dude Todd who just keeps being creepier and more entitled as time goes by. He claims to have a legal issue, says some entitled white boy shit, makes a pass at She-Hulk, gets a table shoved into him, and Jen leaves to crash on her couch after her extremely busy day, wherein Leap-Frog calls her in a panic because he's being relentlessly pursued by somebody.

Wait, that "somebody" wasn't ominous and hinty enough...

He is being relentlessly pursued by

SOMEBODDY.Jen finally dons her super suit, which looks fantastic by the way, and is off to help the Spectacular Frogger Man, when who should she come face to face with but the Matthew-ish-ly handsome Daredevil himself! He flip flops his way around as the two banter, eventually getting the opportunity to explain that Leap-Frog is the real villain and has kidnap Luke Jacobson! The two head off to the Lilypad (yep) and punch, wham, smash rescue Luke. Cops show up, day is saved, Luke forgives Jen for suing him in the first place, credits roll.

Wait, no, first Matt and Jen flirt some more and then go back to her place to put the D in Defenders.

d​Now credits roll.

Wait, no, the next morning, after a shot of Daredevil doing the walk of shame, Nikki shows up because it's time for the GALA! As mentioned last episode and the "last time on my show" bit in the beginning, Jen won "Female Lawyer of the Year" and is being honored at a gala. We pop over to the Gala and Jen, Nikki, Pug and Jen's parents grab their table. Jen's name gets announced as well as the names of a few other female lawyers, meaning the award is more of a group affair than lead on the believe. As Jen gives a little speech, the screen gets highjacked by the HulkKing Intelligencia community. They start flashing Jen's texts and photos from the phone Josh cloned in the previous episode as Jen and the audience panic. The whole thing culminates when it's revealed that Josh actually filmed the two of them having sex. As the video plays and gets more heated, Jen has her very first encounter with the Hulk rage that Bruce warned her about. The episode ends after a mini rampage and we are still in the dark as to who the HulkKing really is. A hefty episode setting up a very chaotic finale.

This episode was super cool. Jokes aside, it was absolutely great having Charlie Cox back, and he just seemed to be having so much FUN. My favorite thing in all these films and shows is when you can truly see the passion that the actor has for their character. You see it every time Ryan Reynolds dons his red suit, every time Vincent D'Onofrio clutches a jewel tipped cane, and it was super apparent here that Charlie was just happy to be back. If Daredevil's character here was any indication of what he'll be like in Born Again, than we are definitely in for a fairly different DD experience, which I'm sure will have plenty of people hot under the collar. However, Charlie Cox is incredible at having chemistry with whoever he is on screen with, so I'm not worried in the slightest. I'm glad that Daredevil got a whole episode and it wasn't just relegated to a cameo in the finale, a trick that Marvel has shown time and time again they are not above. Moreover, I'm glad that Daredevil acted as an accompaniment to Jen and the two worked well together on screen. It's nice seeing this character that we've only seen so far in a very limited capacity be able to hold his own in a new universe that is much faster and more bombastic than his old one. His fighting style felt familiar but more advanced and faster than that of his Netflix predecessor, which is where the character needs to be to work within the rules set by the MCU and to feel more tied to his comic counterpart.

​Overall, this episode did a good job tying threads together from previous episodes to build to the finale. I'm excited to see how the whole thing culminates. While I feel the middle of this season could have been improved by at least one additional episode that allowed room for a bit more emotionality on Jen, I think this episode does a nice job rounding out the finishing touches on the main storyline of Jen figuring out how to live two lives at once, especially at the serious leg work put in by the previous episode. Sure, a mid-season episode that was very bottled and character focused would have made the message a bit clearer sooner, I still think we had enough happening throughout the season to keep things pushing forward. There's no love lost from me.

One episode left. October 13th. BE THERE!