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She Hulk Ep 6.png

'She-Hulk' Skips Daredevil But Adds A Whole Lotta Baddies

By Tori Preston | TV | September 23, 2022 |

By Tori Preston | TV | September 23, 2022 |


She Hulk Ep 6.png

One time I found a vial of glitter at a New Year’s Eve warehouse party, pocketed it, then proceeded to sprinkle it ALL OVER my friend’s apartment. They were still finding glitter in the cracks in the floor a year later — a detail I was reminded of when Jen opened that glitter-bomb bridesmaid box. Point is: Nobody appreciates glitter explosions in their home. You could even say that glitter is an… abomination?

BOOM — full circle Tim Roth joke, you’re welcome!

Ahem: She-Hulk continues to breezily nail the finer annoyances of everyday adult life (a wedding on a Thursday? WHY) in an episode that manages simultaneously to advance the overarching Marvel mysteries of the series while seeming to take a step away from the plot altogether. The fact that none of it followed up on the Daredevil reveal from last week was just the icing on the (wedding) cake. People tuning in expecting to see Charlie Cox and instead getting treated to a repeat performance of Shulky smashing Titania may have been disappointed but let’s be real. Would you expect anything less from She-Hulk at this point? Thwarting fan expectations is this show’s whole-ass SCHTICK. Besides, there are three more episodes left this season for Matt Murdock to make an appearance in an irreverently comedic way that’ll also probably frustrate large swaths of Twitter.

Instead, the ever-delightful Patti Harrison steps in as a high school friend turned absolute bridezilla named Lulu, who wants Jen — just Jen, not She-Hulk — to attend her wedding as a bridesmaid and maybe also help pick up the dirty dishes during the reception. After last week’s gutting humiliation, Jen was ready to embrace the natural appeal of her She-Hulk side to impress her old classmates, until Lulu points out that her appeal might, you know, overshadow the actual star of the event. Unfortunately, Jen finds it hard not to be She-Hulk when she discovers that Titania is also attending the wedding as someone’s plus-one, and not (wink) to get revenge (wink wink) on her nemesis (winkwinkwink oh god my eye).

Turns out, Titania isn’t the bad guy Jen should be worried about. The final scene of the show hints at a larger conspiracy tying back to the Wrecking Crew from episode three (the dudes who tried and failed to get a sample of Jen’s blood), as mysterious scientists seem to be finalizing a new needle that could actually piece She-Hulk’s skin. The kicker? They’re working under the direction of someone calling themselves “HulkKing”…

Another threat appears over in the B plot, where Nikki is assisting Mallory in a superpowered divorce case involving the extremely conflict-averse Mr. Immortal (David Pasquesi). He’s got a roomful of exes who want a settlement from him, because instead of breaking up he’d always, uh, fake his own demise. The exes caught onto his ruse when a website “for hateful man-babies” called Intelligencia posted a video of his death and subsequent resurrection — but Nikki and Mallory also discover that Intelligencia is running a lot of anti She-Hulk propaganda and even death threats. Yup, the big nemesis on She-Hulk is… a bunch of angry online misogynists. How do they come up with this stuff hahaha oh right…

review bomb she hulk.png


The thing is, the scientists and the website might actually be connected — and may all tie back to another character we met in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Tim Blake Nelson played Dr. Samuel Sterns in the film, and he was working on creating an antidote for the Hulk by studying Bruce’s blood samples. In the process he also synthesized the blood and not only injected Emil Blonsky with a sample, transforming him into the Abomination, but also got exposed himself and began to transform. In the comics Sterns becomes a supervillian called the Leader, who works with a group of evil geniuses called… Intelligencia. A Leader, who is a Hulk, eh? Sort of like a HulkKing?! Anyway, Tim Blake Nelson is supposed to reprise his role in the upcoming Captain America: New World Order, while another member of Intelligencia, M.O.D.O.K, is supposed to be introduced in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, so there’s plenty of reason to believe that their schemes could have early roots appearing in She-Hulk. In fact, in the comics the Leader was behind the mutation of a few characters, giving them superpowers — which could explain some of the random superpowered people Jen’s already encountered, like the Wrecking Crew and Titania.

So, as you can imagine, when I got a message from Mike Redmond on Thursday wondering if I noticed the same thing he did in episode 6, I was like “OMG Intelligencia and AIM are the bad guys, right, crazy!” And Mike, very politely, was like no sh*t but ALSO don’t you think that Josh, the hot guy Jen hit it off with, is actually the groom?

*record scratch*

This is the moment I realized that I did the bad dumb fan thing too, y’all. I got so wrapped up in the MCU yarn-wall of hints and teases that I missed the sort of theories that are actually fun — the sort of theories that matter in this show. Sure, Lulu at one point called the groom “Adam” and not Josh, and sure, it makes no sense to lie about your identity at an event where you’re the main attraction, but I don’t care. He was being a little ambiguous when he said he was on the groom’s side, and it was a little weird that we never actually saw the groom at the wedding. Mostly, though, I want Mike to be right because thematically it works. Jen finds a guy who hits on the real her, but also is impressed when she transforms into Shulky, he’s down to watch her eat nuts and fries and isn’t put off by the fact that she puked in the landscaping outside, he’s basically PERFECT… but he’s a cheating cheater. That fits so well with a show that’s more about dating than fighting! Of course, Josh could be just another part of the conspiracy to get Jen’s blood. If Titania could snag a wedding invite, there’s no reason a second very attractive enemy couldn’t as well. Or maybe he’s evil AND the groom!

Anyway, I’m a Josh Truther now. Blame Mike.

Stray thoughts:

- Jen is still leaving Bruce voicemails, because she doesn’t know he’s off in space somewhere! That’s gonna be important someday.

- David Pasquesi has been in everything, including Book of Boba Fett, Strangers with Candy, and At Home With Amy Sedaris… all with Amy Sedaris. So I guess it’s time for me to kick off my latest campaign, the Cast Amy Sedaris In She-Hulk Challenge. Your move, Marvel!

- No end credit scene this week either.

- As for trolling the fans, teasing Daredevil and then not putting him in the next episode should have been the big winner of the week… but then I saw this fan-made poster that the angry fan-bros don’t seem to realize is fake and it’s delicious. Go read through the comments and let them wash over you. You’re welcome.