She Hulk Episode 5 Recap: Jen vs. Titania in the courtroom

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen its heroes fight hyper intelligent AIevil aliens with infinite powers, multiverse traveling witches, Godslayer and much more. But nobody has ever had that a fight like She-Hulk just had – in a courtroom, with their literal identity at stake. That way, audiences finally (we think) got a clearer idea of ​​what the Disney+ show is aiming for, and it did it with a lot of wit and humor.

episode five of she hulk, “Mean, green, and cast right into those jeans,” picked up right where the fourth episode left off. Jen (Tatiana Maslany) is still reeling from the copyright infringement lawsuit Titania (Jameela Jamil) served on her over the name “She-Hulk.” Titania joins She-Hulk launching a line of skincare, beauty and wellness products. Jen sees the billboards on the Sunset Strip and even tries to confront Titania in her popup at the Grove (all very specific LA references that made me feel like I was watching an episode of entourage, but less problematic). The social media superhero has gone full Kardashian with Jen’s superhero name, and Jen acts like she doesn’t care, but she does.

Jen’s boss doesn’t like it when the name and person he’s invested in, She-Hulk, is used to promote products like Booty Boost, prompting her to clean up her own mess. He gets Mallory Book (Renée Elise Goldsberry) to take Jen’s case and it quickly becomes clear that this was the right move. Mallory doesn’t have confidence and bragging about Jen and decides to counter by claiming Titania stole the name just for profit. The problem is that she has to prove that Jen used the name before the lawsuit. Hmmm, wonder how she would do that.

Meanwhile, in a very funny but very tangential side story, Pug (Josh Segarra) asks Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) to help him wait in line for some limited edition sneakers (the Iron Man 3s, in case you’re wondering), and he brags about his “drip broker,” Alonzo, a man who can get him anything. Nikki wants Jen to get new clothes, so the invisible Alonzo leads her to a seemingly innocuous boba tea shop. The shop secretly claims to specialize in superhero apparel, but what it really sells is pirated Avengers merch. (Much more on that in the random thoughts below.) This isn’t the kind of clothing Nikki was talking about, so after some back-and-forth, she and Pug end up at the door of a guy named Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews). . Luke is the MCU equivalent of Edna Mode by Pixar The Incredibles and after some negotiation, he agrees to make Jen new outfits that Titania says don’t make her look like “Shrek”.

Speaking of Titania, Jen has the perfect strategy for her and Mallory. Jen realizes that she used the name “She-Hulk” on her dating profile long before the lawsuit, and lists all the men She-Hulk dated in the previous episode to prove that she was the used names. It’s a very awkward, very awkward move, but it works. She-Hulk gets her name back, and Titania isn’t too pleased.

After a post-victory relationship with Mallory, where the two lament that so many average men think they can do better than a literal superhero, Jen goes back to Luke to see her new clothes. We’ll have to wait until next week to see her, but we do learn about another of Luke’s clients: none other than that fellow MCU lawyer superhero, Matt Murdock himself. daredevil.

What does all of this have to do with what I said in the beginning about She-Hulk revealing his purpose? Well, it’s becoming pretty clear that while we’re sure Jen will (at the very least) be appearing with Titania, this show isn’t about her as a superhero. It’s about her as a person. A person trying to find out who they are. Whether that means training with your cousin, dealing with fame, looking for a significant other, or just settling for a name you end up not liking She-Hulk: Lawyer, the balance of power in the MCU is unlikely to change, but a fully formed, confident superhero will have emerged – at least we hope. There are still a few weeks left.

Random Thoughts

• For real? No credits scene this week? How do you build up a pattern of fun end credits scenes over several weeks and then just stop? I hope Jen addresses this head on next week.
• But while this week’s end credits were missing an extra scene, the illustrations upped their game significantly. We’ve seen that Pug got his sneakers and that Mr. Holliway (Steve Coulter) might not want She-Hulk’s name on Booty Boost, but he’ll try some himself.
• i loved that She Hulk from Titania Things. The flashy commercials, the labels, the episode’s title card, it was all so damn fun.
• What’s up with that Todd played by Jon Bass? I called last week that he would come back but now he seems less obsessed with Titania and more a rich asshole. Is he a rich asshole looking for a superhero to defeat to prove himself? I don’t know, but something along those lines seems possible.
• Finally, the “Avongers” and “Avingers” merch was created by the artist 100% soft, also known as Truck Torrancewho we have interviewed in the past. he is engaged She Hulk Showrunner Jessica Gao, so not only did he show up as one of Jen’s matches in the previous episode, but his famous Dumpster Fire toy has a cameo this week, and he designed that She Hulk logo too. I’m wondering if any of this Avongers merch might be available sometime in the future… hmm. Keep following him Twitter and Instagram just in case.

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