She-Hulk: Attorney at Law continues on the Disney+ scene with She-Hulk episode 8! This is a BIG episode with lots of future MCU implications as the show builds to the finale! Let’s check in and see how are things going for our new favorite Hulk!
Recap of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1E8: “Ribbit and Rip It“
She-Hulk Episode 8 opens up in a wholesale store parking lot where some thieves are loading a tv into a van. That’s when Leap-Frog shows up to try and thwart them, but things go terribly wrong when his plan backfires. To escape, he activates some rockets on his shoes which malfunction, sending him plummeting to the ground and leaving him with burns on his legs.
Cut over to the law office where She-Hulk is hearing Leap-Frog’s story and determining whether there was manufacturer defect, breach of contract, etc. Turns out that Leap-Frog appears to have a case, since the suit was sold to him and advertised as inflammable. Yes, I don’t think that Leap-Frog knows that inflammable doesn’t actually mean that it can’t be set on fire, but I’m not the lawyer here to argue semantics. The main problem with the case is that his suit was made by Luke Jacobson…She-Hulk’s tailor.
She-Hulk can’t leave the case so instead she heads to Luke to see if they can handle this outside of the courtroom. This doesn’t fly over well and Luke says he’s never working with She-Hulk again. Great, where is she going to get all of her custom-fitted suits?
In the courtroom, the opposing lawyer shows up…it’s Matt Murdock! And dang is he a good lawyer or what? He eventually uses his super nose to sniff out jet fuel that Leap-Frog used in his boots, which closes the case right then and there because Leap-Frog didn’t follow the instructions. Unfortunately, Luke still won’t take back She-Hulk as a client.
Back at the bar, Matt Murdock buys Jen a drink and they start talking and hitting it off. Unfortunately, Matt gets pulled off in a direction and so does Jen; she needs to meet with Mr. Phelps who basically just wants to flex about his Wakandan spear that he got for a milly.
Jen then gets a call from Leap-Frog, who thinks he’s being attacked. Jen heads to the parking garage as She-Hulk where she encounters the assailant – a man dressed as a devil! Of course, we all recognize him as Daredevil and we get a nice little battle between the two supes. Eventually Jen uses her sonic clap which overwhelms Daredevil, who gets unmasked. Oh yay! They have more to bond over!
Plus Leap-Frog kidnapped Luke, so he’s really the bad dude in this scenario. Daredevil and She-Hulk decide to team up and take him down. They head over to his lair, the Lily Pad, and start to plan out their attack. Obviously, Daredevil wants to use stealth while She-Hulk wants to go in there smashing.
Daredevil heads in first and we get a CLASSIC Daredevil hallway fight scene! How I missed these! More reinforcements round the corner after Daredevil takes out the first batch of baddies, but She-Hulk thunders in from the ceiling to assist.
They make their way to the interior and start fighting more goons while She-Hulk and Daredevil start talking about legal advice for Leap-Frog. But Leap-Frog doesn’t really like his options and jumps out the window which is enough to incapacitate them. And in return for saving him, She-Hulk gets her gala dress from Luke!
We’ll skip ahead to the part where Daredevil and She-Hulk spend the night together, ending with Daredevil taking the walk of shame the next morning. Just when we think the episode is over, She-Hulk heads over to the gala to accept her award. Everything is going great until she finds out that the Female Lawyer of the Year award is actually given out to a multitude of women, not just her.
While speaking on the stage, the screen behind them gets hacked by Intelligencia and the Hulkking. They start showing Jen’s private images and dating profile content, along with video footage from her night with Josh. That scumbag! It’s enough to make She-Hulk lose her control, and she smashes the back screens.
As the lights flash red and the people run away screaming in terror, Jen tries to chase down one of the cohorts who was filming the whole thing, she gets faced down by DoDC agents. She was set-up! And it’s clear that maybe Jen doesn’t have quite the control over She-Hulk that she thought she did.
Thoughts on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law S1E8: “Ribbit and Rip It”
Wow, what an episode! We finally get to see Charlie Cox reprise his role as Daredevil! The relationship-building between the two was really fun to see and their chemistry on-screen was more than palpable. Matt Murdock has always been a bit of a charmer, but there’s so much for him and Jen to bond over.
Add Leap-Frog to the list of super-humans that are just a shade incompetent. I honestly thought the entire schtick of his character, including the Ribbit and Rip It catch-prase, the Lily Pad lair, and the Frogger machine was just over-the-top enough to make it land. I’m also totally here for more of these obscure Marvel properties.
This also isn’t the first time that Leap-Frog has been beaten up by Daredevil. In the comics, Leap-Frog was originally broken out of prison by Electro and then joined the Emissaries of Evil before Daredevil took care of them. Interestingly enough, the Matador was another character in that group, with a distinct connection to Man-Bull. And trust me, Matador didn’t only do some light matador-ing in college.
This whole season we’ve seen the build-up to a potential Red Hulk reveal, when in reality the flashing red lights of this episode’s climax reveal that perhaps She-Hulk was the Red Hulk all along! If you remember the reactions that the people had when Abomination changed in prison, this was the exact same reaction. The public still isn’t ready for a Hulk.
Once again, She-Hulk made a commentary on the treatment of women in society, this time about women lawyers. The ‘joke’ about wearing heels was just the icing on the cake because some people in this world honestly believe and talk like that. I’m glad that She-Hulk is shedding some like on all of these things that women go through on a daily basis. With a show in the MCU having such a large following, it’s commentary that deserves to get the exposure that it’s getting.
All in all, I’m not quite sure where She-Hulk is going to wrap up! Jen’s tried to live in society and was able to hold it together for awhile, but at the end of the day, superheroes just have different problems to deal with. Have we seen the last of Wong? What about all these other characters that she’s help (and who have helped her)? Lots to wrap up!