She-Hulk: Attorney at Law continues on the Disney+ scene with episode 3! With some cameo appearances and nods to other areas of the MCU, She-Hulk is setting up something that we can’t quite piece together yet. Let’s check in and see how are things going for our new favorite Hulk?
Recap of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1E3: “The People vs. Emil Blonsky“
Despite Emil Blonsky’s escape from maximum security prison, we immediately find out that he is back behind bars. And it’s not that anybody caught him; he turned himself in willingly. Jen heads to the prison to find this out directly from Emil himself, and learns that Wong was behind it all. Of course, MCU fans already knew this.
Throughout the episode, the media has a field day with She-Hulk, spouting off wild theories about her origins. We also get to hear some of the public’s social media opinions on She-Hulk, and apparently there’s a large population of people who are against her representation of Abomination.
While waiting to hear back from Wong, Jen gets involved in a meeting with Dennis Bukowski from the DA’s office. He is suing Megan Thee Stallion for $175,000 of damages from their fake relationship. Well, he’s actually suing a shapeshifter who posed as Megan Thee Stallion, which I guess wasn’t something that Mr. Bukowski questioned. He’s that much of a narcissist.
Wong interrupts this meeting and informs Jen about the circumstances of Blonsky’s escape, and how he facilitated the whole thing. This is good because Jen needs him to make the same statement at the parole hearing coming up. Breaking out of prison isn’t going to anger the parole hearing if it was forced, right?
Back on the other case, Bukowski leaves the office before seemingly coming back in again wanting to cancel the entire litigation process, chalking it up as a misunderstanding. We know something is off when the real Dennis calls on the phone, revealing that this other Dennis is really the shapeshifter from New Asgard!
It’s time for Emil’s parole hearing, and the parole board is about the shut the whole thing down before learning about Wong. He’s late, of course, and in the meantime we hear about Emil’s plans to open a meditation center with funding from his pen pals. Wong then shows up and testifies that he orchestrated Emil’s escape and that even when offered freedom, Emil chose to come back to prison. This is ultimately the testimony that
In a wild display of control and risk-taking, Emil turns into the Abomination. This scares pretty much everybody in the room, but Emil was merely demonstrating that he has the Abomination under control at all times. He turns back to his human form and awaits the verdict.
Back in the courtroom for the Bukowski case, the arguments are heard and the judge rules that this can go to trial. However, he comes back into the courtroom and says that he wants to reverse the verdict. Obviously this is the shapeshifter again, and impersonating a judge isn’t something the judiciary system takes lightly.
After that we get to the verdict for Emil. The parole board awards parole to Emil, but also turns to Wong and charges him with breaking Emil out of prison. Being the Sorcerer Supreme has its perks, however, and Wong just teleports out of there before anything can be done.
We cut to a bar where Jen gets roped into testifying on behalf of Bukowski, despite her not caring for him much. At the trial, she goes on the stand to say that Dennis was so much of a entitled person and so delusional, that he actually would have believed that he was dating the real Megan Thee Stallion. That’s enough to seal the deal and win him his $175,000 back, and the New Asgardian shapeshifter gets 60 days for impersonating a judge. Seems fairly light.
The episode ends with She-Hulk getting jumped by four guys on the street at night. They’re all using some strange Asgardian artifacts, but they’re ultimately no match for She-Hulk. As they lick their wounds, it’s revealed that one of them is named Thunderball, and that they were trying to get She-Hulk’s blood.
Thoughts on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1E3: “The People vs. Emil Blonsky”
This episode features two courtroom scenarios that eventually cross paths. It’s also funny that Jen breaks the 4th wall to talk about cameos and then who else but Megan Thee Stallion shows up in the back of the courtroom towards the end of the episode. She-Hulk doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s wonderful.
The subplot with the shapeshifter seems to overstay its welcome just a little bit, mostly because we don’t really understand why she’s there or what she’s doing. Does she have some end-goal? I doubt that we’ve seen the last of her, but the impersonation gimmick was done to trick us THREE times in the episode, which was a bit much.
On the other side of the coin, finally introducing Thunderball and the rest of his crew is finally giving us a glimpse of some of some much-needed villainy. Right now the series is suffering from lack of action, and hopefully this gives us some.
Marvel aficionados will recognize Thunderball as a member of the Wrecking Crew. This is a Marvel villain group that crops up frequently throughout the comics. At one point they’re even working with Doctor Doom – hint hint – which means that they might not just be in this series. With the Fantastic Four on the horizon, the odds of a Doctor Doom sighting are getting higher by the day.
Thunderball is also a physicist specializing in gamma radition. She-Hulk was exposed to gamma radiation, and they’re looking for a sample of her blood. Clearly they have a goal in mind that might involve making a Hulk army? The Wrecking Crew also has a boss to report to, so we will be hearing more about that in the future.
I did have to suspend my disbelief during one of the parole-hearing scenes, where everybody was freaking about when Emil turned into Abomination. The panic was very over-the-top for something that I would have assumed the prison was designed to withstand. Would they really put Abomination in a cell that he could easily break? I doubt it. But everybody was going wild and it was detracting from the scene because of my preconceived standards for DoDC engineering standards.
A lot of this stuff has to be connected, but as audience members I don’t think we have enough evidence to connect some of the dots. We’ve spent so much time on Abomination at this point, that something needs to happen to him once he’s on the other side of the bars. Will Wrecking Crew go after his blood instead? Time will tell.
Once again there’s a mid-credit scene that is already making rounds on the internet as a new meme. Love it or hate it, She-Hulk hasn’t shied away from anything yet and I wouldn’t expect them to start now.