She-Hulk S01E08 Review: The Frog and the Devil

She-Hulk, Season 1, Episode 8: Ribbit and Rip It

Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil

Yeah, no disrespect to She-Hulk, but man, I really like Matt Murdock. Specifically, Charlie Cox's portrayal of everyone's favourite Man Without Fear. The Netflix Marvel side of their gargantuan media universe did not always deliver in the crossovers, and I did have certain thoughts about Daredevil's second season... but overall? That show instantly catapulted Daredevil from one of the weirder superhero concepts ever into one of my unabashed favourite superheroes of all time. The fact that season one of Daredevil was also when I first started reviewing a lot of these superhero shows regularly on this blog is probably a huge factor, too. 

So yeah, when Daredevil and his supporting characters started to appear outside of their little Netflix-TV bubble and into shows like Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home, I am jubilant. JUBILANT, I say!

And, of course, this is still She-Hulk: Attorney at Law so the story still ultimately focuses on Jen. And the tone is still a lot more comedic than anything the Daredevil show ever did, but I'm just happy to see my favourite blind lawyer devil back! 

After several rather slow She-Hulk episodes, this one fires on all cylinders both on the superheroing side and the lawyer side. Our client this episode is Leapfrog, a.k.a. Eugene Patilio, who goes around trying to be a hero. Or, more accurately, being the shittiest adaptation of Batman ever possible. He has terrible catchphrases, hires a bunch of goons he calls 'tadpoles', and dresses up with frogs as a basis. And his superpowers basically involves hiring Luke Jacobson, throwing daddy's money at him, and commissioning him for a super-powered suit. So Eugene demands Jen's lawyer firm to sure Luke for the allegedly fraudulent suit. 

This puts Jen at massive odds with Luke, of course, who immediately destroys a dress she pre-paid for and calls his own lawyer... who, of course, is everyone's favourite blind lawyer, Matt Murdock. Matt very quickly puts a kibosh on Jen's case, though we do get some nice nods that Jen herself is already not very happy to represent the spoiled twat that is Eugene Patilio. There's some actually interesting superhero-lawyer stuff involving the court demanding Luke's client list, which Matt goes to talk about how protecting a superhero's secret identity is immensely crucial not just to Luke's career and credibility, but also to the safety of the superhero and those around him. 

Eugene, of course, is a complete dumbass, and basically admits to putting jet fuel into his rocket boots -- which Matt sniffs out. There's a particularly funny line where Matt goes "he's lying, don't ask me how I know. I just know" and the judge dryly telling Matt that, yes, everyone present can see that.  

Of course, Matt and Jen kind of make it up by hanging out at the local lawyer bar, and Matt does the 'I've been doing the superhero thing' coy bit, with Matt encouraging Jen to use her She-Hulk powers to do some good when Jen can't do it. There is, of course, some flirting, which, honestly, both actors exhibit reasonably well. After a brief distraction with a douche that tries to creep on Jen, she gets a call from Eugene, who is being attacked by an initially unseen assailant. 

So of course Jen suits up in her superhero outfit for, I think, the first time since the original training with Bruce. She takes up on Matt's initial advice and decides to rescue Eugene from his assailant... which, of course, unfortunately for Matt, is Matt himself in his Daredevil guise. And, yes, I do agree with Jen's later assessment that the ketchup-and-mustard look is nowhere as flattering as his original armoured Daredevil suit, but can we just appreciate how cool it was for the show to finally give us a decent action scene and have Daredevil and She-Hulk fight each other?

I do like how the show handles the fight, too. The far more experienced Matt manages to run circles around Jen, even surviving that bit when she caused the whole floor to crack into a fissure, and Matt's completely focused on taking down Eugene. But She-Hulk is, well, a goddamn Hulk, and all it takes is a well-placed thunderclap to bring the devil down to his knees. A bit cheating, yes, since Daredevil is super-sensitive to anything involving his hearing, but the misunderstanding is cleared up pretty quickly. 

There are some great lines in the meeting between the two, and I do appreciate them keeping the blind jokes to non-offensive ones. "Do you pretend to be blind? Because this is really problematic!" is a very, very fair complaint from Jen, and I loved her little pissy note that she thought the guy dressed as a devil is the villain. Turns out that Eugene has kidnapped Luke to force him to build a new supersuit for him, but... also isn't very smart, because he is hiding in his Lilypad. His secret frog-themed super-base, with a giant 'LILYPAD' in neon lights above the roof. 

There's a fun bit of banter as Matt and Jen argue the differences between 'henchmen' and 'goons', and we get a classic Daredevil corridor fight -- even if it's not anywhere as elaborate as his own show. Also, She-Hulk smashes in, taking out a second wave, and the two basically team up to fuck up Leapfrog and his tadpoles. There's more fun banter about the insanity plea so commonly seen in this comic book, but then Leapfrog kind of decides to run away, jumping out of the window... and, well, breaking his legs in the process. Ha! Very fun. 

The two have a nice, cute moment decompressing on the rooftop about the superhero and lawyer life, and they hook up afterwards, because of course they do. Not much to say here, although I do find that this is probably She-Hulk's fourth-wall joke that actually landed for me. The episode should have closed at this point, right? She-Hulk had a superhero's night out with another superhero lawyer, gets some nice pointers about stuff like balancing lawyerhood and superheroing... 

Until, of course, Jen lampshades that this is the penultimate episode... and there's the whole best female lawyer gala to attend to, and the overarching Intelligencia subplot to talk about. Intelligencia hacks the ceremony to ruin She-Hulk's speech and showing the sex-tape on-screen. Apparently Jen doesn't deserve to be called a Hulk cause "she's a slut", and... uh... it's a dumb plot point that kinda makes me roll my eyes, but I can actually get behind Jen's reaction of reacting with righteous rage and bashing the monitor and going all berserker in trying to get the other guy who's obviously recording her. The episode ends with the cliffhanger of the whole world watching her break down after keeping her cool for practically the entire series. Again, I do like this, even if I am not particularly invested in the sex tape storyline being taken as one of the main drivers of the show -- having one of the moments so dear t Jen's heart be stolen from her and turned into a moment of ridicule by people who have nothing better to do but to be dicks to her is... a pretty valid reason to unleash the mean, green savage monster within you. It's a powerful moment, even if I'm not entirely sure that the faceless Intelligencia is going to be a paritcularly engaging final villain. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 
  Daredevil last appeared in the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• His Netflix show's theme song plays in the background as he enters the court room. Matt also makes mentions to how he works in Hell's Kitchen, as well as how he works mostly pro bono cases. 
• Matt discusses how people misusing a super-suit could make someone look bad, undoubtedly inspired by the climax of Daredevil's final season, where Bullseye stole his armoured costume and committed crimes as Daredevil. 
• Daredevil's costume in this show is inspired on the very first costume he wore in his first couple of appearances before the full-red suit stuck. 
• Leapfrog (Vincent Patilio) is a Daredevil enemy. An inventor prior to his career as a supervillain, Vincent was a low-achieving novelty toy inventor whose inventions never got it past the patent office. When he finally made something that works -- a leaping coil technology -- he went to a life of crime and was swiftly defeated by Daredevil. In contrast to him, his son Eugene Patilio would become a superhero (if an equally bumbling one) as the Fabulous Frog-Man.
• MCU's version of the character keeps the Leapfrog name and the more villain-leaning tendencies, but gives him Eugene's name. 
• During the trial, Matt mentions the Sokovia Accords from Captain America: Civil War, citing that it has been repealed and the restrictions it causes on superheroes no longer exist.
• When Jen and Matt are talking after the fight, a billboard for Rogers: the Musical (from Hawkeye) can be seen in the background.
• She-Hulk makes a joke about how she might fight 'another Hulk who's red'... a reference to the Red Hulk (Thunderbolt Ross) and later Red She-Hulk from the comics. 
• The 'fridged' bit is a reference to the infamous practice in comic-books of killing (usually female) love interests, particularly in reference to how DC's Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, had his girlfriend unceremoniously killed offscreen and stuffed into the fridge for cheap shock value. 
• More of a nod to Batman, but Leapfrog's goons in the background seem to be working on a Frog-Signal. 
• The creep that hits on Jen buys a Wakanda spear and says the iconic "Wakanda Forever" line.