She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has had an interesting journey. Ahead of its launch on Disney+, many were hesitant about the project’s CGI, which was admittedly questionable. However, when the first few episodes landed, the reception was mostly positive.
But that didn’t stop the rampant review-bombing or angry viewers across social media voicing their resentment loud and clear (ironically making the show’s Intelligencia storyline hit harder).
The show pushed on and was even able to give the world an incredible installment with everyone’s favorite guest star: Charlie Cox’s Daredevil. Jennifer Walters definitely enjoyed his visit.
Now, the finale has finally arrived, and it’s quite the ride. Here’s a step-by-step recap.
Imprisoned By the DODC
While the beginning opens up on a fun montage paying homage to the title sequence of The Incredible Hulk from 1977, the actual episode picks up when Jennifer Walters wakes up.
Thanks to Jen losing her composure at the Gala (for a justifiable reason), she ended up in the slammer; a very similar one to that of Abomination’s.
It’s not immediately clear how long she’s been in there, but really any time at all is too much. Thankfully, she has Mallory, Nikki, and Pug to fall back on—not Bruce, though, seeing as no one can get a hold of him (with the former Avenger being off the planet and all).
It becomes painfully clear that Intelligencia’s attack on her actually worked; all the witnesses remember is a giant raging Hulk. Because of that, Jen is unable to build a case against them. Instead, she gets her own inhibitor chip, loses her job, has trouble finding a new one, and news reporters are harassing her at every point.
Jennifer Walters has now reached a pretty miserable low. She even has to move in with her parents. It simply isn’t fair. But at least all the charges against her were dropped, so that’s at least a silver lining.
Taking Aim at Intelligencia
As noted by Nikki in the opening scenes, suing Intelligencia for the incident at the Gala was going to be hard, seeing as the witnesses were more so worried about the giant Hulk in the room. Despite that road bump, Jen and her friend still joined forces to try and find out how to take them down.
Despite Nikki’s encouragement for a more hands-on approach to solving the matter, Jen maintains that she’s going to legally take them down—not Hulk smash them.
This is when audiences are treated to some more of those savory fourth-wall breaks.
Now alone in her room, Jen admits to the audience that despite saying she wanted no more She-Hulk, it just feels wrong. The Narrator from the beginning of the episode tries to take over, but Jen calls him off—can’t go too crazy, after all.
While she tries to contact her brother once again, to no avail, it’s actually Emil Blonsky who she falls back on. Time to take a healthy “mental health break.”
Nikki’s Covert Op
Unbeknownst to Jen, Nikki has taken to some undercover work on the Intelligencia site; hopefully, She-Hulk won’t mind that twerking video out there.
In her work, Nikki ends up getting a DM from the one and only HulkKing. Much to her surprise, the site admin invites her to a special event—an anti-She-Hulk one, no less. But they expect that she’s a dude.
Thankfully, Pug owes Nikki a favor, so she comes to collect. Unfortunately for him, the price is pretending to be one of the many man-babies that make up Intelligencia.
While it takes a second, sporting his new earbud, Pug gets into the zone and heads into the event.
As one would expect, the general conversation isn’t all too flattering; downright hard to listen to at times. There’s even an unfortunate dig at “Lady Thor,” providing confirmation that the wider MCU world now knows about Jane Foster’s time with the hammer.
It doesn’t take long before Pug runs into his unintentional target: Todd.
The HulkKing Arrives
The oh-so-welcoming creep greets his new friend with open arms. Not but seconds later does he admit to not only being the mysterious HulkKing but also creating Intelligencia in the first place; of course, there are plenty of She-Hulk insults sprinkled in there as well.
These new revelations are enough to make everything tenser for Pug. But then things get even worse: the reception cuts out; he’s on his own.
Right on cue, Todd proceeds to go onto the stage and admit to all of his wrong-doings, particularly that of hacking Jen’s phone. He teases how it's only the beginning, and the action is just getting started.
But where’s Jen?
The Special Guest Arrives
While viewers saw Jen arrive at the property and receive a nice greeting from a reformed Wrecker, her story took a brief backseat so that Nikki’s spy mission could get the spotlight.
Sadly, Emil’s book provided little entertainment for Jen, who was quick to get a little restless. She asks Wrecker where Emil is, and he informs her that he’s at a private event down at the lodge.
This leads Jen right into the hornet’s nest: the anti-She-Hulk rally.
She walks into the event to see Emil giving an inspirational speech on stage as Abomination—something she immediately questions, seeing as how it breaks his parole.
Somehow, the timing is just right, and now it's Nikki’s turn to join in on the fun. This leads to Jen finding out Todd’s real identity, to which he promptly goes to confront him.
This is when things get amped up to eleven.
Everyone Goes Crazy… Maybe Too Crazy
As Jen confronts Todd, he eventually admits (on top of all his other sins) that he has synthesized her blood in order to give himself the superpowers he supposedly deserves. He’s handed a syringe of green stuff and promptly injects himself.
Despite Jen’s astonishment, expressed directly to the viewers, the blood seems to do the trick, and Todd starts to live up to his username.
Jen cries out in dismay, “This can’t possibly be where this season was going!”
Then, Titania bursts through the wall and joins in on the chaos. As Todd goes for Jen, Abomination goes to protect her, which leads to all of Intelligencia attacking Emil.
To add to everything, Bruce Banner himself drops through the ceiling, with no warning, as he picks a fight with Abomination over a big misunderstanding.
She-Hulk is now addressing the camera directly, potentially even the writers themselves: “This is a mess… none of those storylines make any sense!”
But then, suddenly, the Disney+ app has now kicked everyone watching at home out of the show.
Breaking Disney+
As viewers stare at the Marvel Disney+ tab, many are left briefly wondering if this is still the show. It doesn’t take long before they get that answer.
Jen punches through the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law icon and swings down into an installment of Marvel Studios: Assembled. As She-Hulk, she lands on her feet, somehow now in a studio.
She clearly has a plan as Tatiana Maslany makes her way across the studio lot and into the very production offices for her own show.
Somehow, She-Hulk herself now stands in front of the writers for the series, who are all discussing Season 2. Should this meta moment be taken as a legitimate hint at the show’s future? Only time will tell.
Not wasting a moment, She-Hulk starts criticizing the writers; “What kind of stupid finale is this?” The writers try to explain that there are certain conventions they have to follow for a superhero story—but Jen isn’t having any of it.
She wants to talk to Kevin.
K.E.V.I.N.
Yes. The Kevin Feige, aka, the President of Marvel Studios himself.
Upon arrival at his office, she’s immediately asked to sign an NDA. Despite her signature, the employee calls security anyway. Even with their best efforts, the Marvel Studios goons are, unsurprisingly, not able to best a Hulk.
Now Jen is in Kevin’s secure area. Viewers see a circular room full of monitors playing various clips from past MCU projects, including Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame.
Then, a robot comes down from the ceiling—looking very much like GlaDOS from the Portal games. It’s labeled K.E.V.I.N.. Those wondering what it stands for don’t have to wait long to find out: Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus.
This is the being making all of the decisions for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Doing Things She-Hulk’s Way
After turning back into Jen for budget constraints, which is understandable, she’s quick to try and reason with the MCU’s overlord. She expresses her disappointment with how her show is ending—it’s cliche and like every other Marvel Studios project.
Given that her show is a legal comedy, she wants to make her closing argument. K.E.V.I.N. appreciates the cleverness, so it lets her continue.
Jen notes that they shouldn’t do the whole Todd-blood thing. She feels “it distracts from the story:”
“It distracts from the story, which is that my life fell apart right as I was learning to be both Jen and She-Hulk. Those are my stakes K.E.V.I.N.… can we not do Todd gets Hulk powers? The powers aren’t the villain, he is.”
The little robot considers her words and moves to erase the blood plot.
She then moves to question the whole Bruce-falling-from-the-ceiling bit, something the robot tries to defend, claiming it was going to introduce something important to the audience. Jen tells the bot that it can “save it for the movie.” But what movie exactly? They sadly don’t elaborate.
One of her final changes is to change the timing of the climax to the middle of the day instead of at night—spice things up a bit.
Before making her way out of Marvel Studios’ office, Tatiana Maslany does try to do fans a favor by asking about when Marvel’s going to introduce the X-Men, to which K.E.V.I.N. promptly responds that it can’t tell her.
To get her back, he tells Jen that he will see her on the big screen. Jen looks shocked and asks if he’s for real, to which he sharply says, “No.”
But fans should never lose hope! It’ll happen one day.
Wrapping Up
With all the changes in place, She-Hulk wraps up her story. She tells Todd that she will see him in court, and Emil goes back to prison for violating parole (though he’s promptly rescued by Wong in the after-credits scene).
As for Titania, she’s just there at the scene of the lodge. This new plot doesn’t really do anything at all to explain her presence—may be best to let that one slide?
On a brighter note, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil made it into this new version, as he drops in right after everything at the lodge is resolved, which ends up being fine, as he joins Jen at a fun family get-together.
Given even these brief exchanges, there’s no denying that Jen and Matt Murdock are going to be one of the best power couples in the MCU. Fingers crossed, he can convince her to visit NYC for his Daredevil: Born Again adventures.
Then came another big reveal: Bruce is back, and he’s brought his son, Skaar, with him. Literally, no other info is revealed, and the new member of the family doesn’t even speak. Who knows when the MCU might come back to that one?
To top it all off, She-Hulk gets her nice classic courtroom steps shot, as it's revealed that she’s now happily back at work defending the world both in and out of the court.
Who Needed Canon Anyway?
All of those meta adjustments certainly do quite the number on the show’s canon. Did Todd’s Intellgencia still get She-Hulk’s blood, despite not having used it in this new order of events? Could that be a plot thread set to be picked up by The Leader in Captain America: New World Order?
With World War Hulk rumored to be in development, that hypothetical project seems like it would be the perfect place for the stolen blood plot thread. There’s also the matter of Skaar, which will have to be picked up at some point.
K.E.V.I.N. was seemingly hinting at that plot’s importance to an upcoming movie. Maybe World War Hulk is what it was referring to.
As for Abomination, he’s a free man! Well, sort of. But what will come of his time at Kamar-Taj? It feels like the most likely option could be to take part in the Thunderbolts film, seeing as his rogue status fits in with the other team members.
With how insane the finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was, many fans will likely be hoping for another season more than ever before. Fingers crossed that Marvel Studios will deem Jennifer Walters fit for another set of She-Hulk adventures as they did for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s first season is now streaming on Disney+.
