After a series low last week, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is back in fine form, and this week Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany) is not the only superhero — or attorney — on the block. Yes, after weeks of teasing and speculating, and messing with viewers by cutting to his helmet and then leaving it unaddressed, Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil (Charlie Cox) has finally made his debut on the show.
Following the customary "previously on" — where Jen makes it clear once again that this is her show — the episode opens with two thieves stealing TV sets and arguing about the quality until a green superhero comes to stop them. No, it isn't Jen, or even Bruce (Mark Ruffalo), but rather... Leap-Frog (Brandon Stanley), better known as Eugene Patilio, a spoiled rich kid who fancies himself a superhero. After a suit malfunction leaves him with severe burns on his legs, Eugene turns to Jen to represent him in court against his tailor. The only problem is, the tailor in question is Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews), who is also the person who makes all of Jen's clothes for her.
Jen attempts to settle things with Luke before they have to go to court, but Luke is having none of it. He dismisses everything she says, and in revenge for the perceived offense, tears right through the dress he was making Jen for the gala she was scheduled to attend. A dress she prepaid for. Now, Jen might have been hesitant to upset Luke because he's the only tailor who can make clothes for both her bodies, but I would like to point out that if the dress tears in half that easily, it wasn't that great a dress, to begin with. It might be time for Jen to wonder if the constant body-shaming microdosing from her tailor is actually worth it or not.
Luke ends up facing Jen and Eugene in court, but he doesn't come alone. Representing him is none other than the Man Without Fear — or in this case the man with a license to practice law in both New York and California — Matt Murdock. For the first time all season, Jen finds herself equally matched in the courtroom, with the two of them volleying back and forth on whether Luke should disclose his client list so Jen can determine if others have also sustained injuries from the designs. Matt is understandably worried about this, being on that client list himself, and though the judge agrees with him, it all winds up being a moot point when Eugene happily discloses that he used jet fuel in his suit's rocket boosters, against Luke's instructions.
Having lost the case, Jen drowns her sorrows at her usual bar, where Matt eventually joins her. The two bond over work, with Jen lamenting that Eugene is only an important client because his father is also an important client of her firm. Matt explains that while his practice back home is largely pro bono, he does take the occasional high-profile case in order to pay the bills: "one for them, one for us." When Jen counters that she spends so much time on the high-profile "them" she doesn't have time for the pro bono "us," Matt points out that being She-Hulk puts her in a unique position to help people out a different way.
Their somewhat flirty conversation comes to an end when both of them get calls that cannot be ignored. While Matt disappears to parts unknown, Jen is forced to meet with Todd Phelps (Jon Bass), one of her failed dates with a bit of a She-Hulk fetish. The two meet at a restaurant where it's shockingly clear that he thinks this is a date and a business meeting rolled into one. He tries to get her assistance in keeping a Wakandan spear he recently purchased, but which Wakanda is requesting be returned as it was stolen from them. Jen writes off the crass, lecherous, and carelessly racist Todd, storming out after refusing to help him. But her night is far from over when Eugene calls to say he's being pursued.
The pursuer in question? Daredevil, naturally. He and Jen fight it out until she realizes just who it is she's fighting, and Matt explains that he was in pursuit because Eugene has kidnapped Luke and is forcing him to make him a new suit. The two of them team up and take on Eugene's headquarters together, before spending — in Jen's words — a very satisfying evening back at her place.
I will admit, I was a little nervous about seeing Matt Murdock appear in this series, or really in the MCU in any significant capacity. It's one thing for him to cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but to actually play a significant role? While I am entirely caught up on the MCU, I admit I still haven't seen any of the Netflix Marvel shows — the downside to the golden age of TV is that there is simply too much out there to watch. How, then, would I react to a character I am supposed to already be very familiar with? Either the writers of She-Hulk anticipated others in my position, or Matt Murdock is just that accessible. Cox's performance is understated and utterly charming. It's easy to see why his presence made Jen's heart beat as fast as he said it did.
While his "walk of shame" in full Daredevil costume would have been a funny note to end things on, with the finale coming up next week, the stakes needed to skyrocket. Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) arrives to help get Jen ready for the gala, where she is nominated for Female Lawyer of the Year. Things seem to be going well, if a bit confusingly, when all the nominees are called up to accept the award. As the mic gets passed to Jen, her comments are interrupted by hackers from Intelligencia, who throw up on-screen all the information that Josh (Trevor Salter) cloned from her phone, including her online dating history and other personal information. The hackers, as a further means of discrediting her, then go on to call her a slut, and "prove their point" by showing a recording of her and Josh in bed together — because the picture Josh took of her last week somehow wasn't violating enough.
It's not as though the show paints them as being in the moral right, but I must once again ask what place something as real as revenge porn has in a show like this. It's not as if any of the male heroes are asked to exemplify the real-world horrors that men face.
Jen reacts in a manner I personally believe appropriate to the situation, though the characters onscreen seem to disagree. When the event coordinators are unable to end the broadcast, she punches through the screen, taking care of things that way. Her Hulk rage does not go unwitnessed, as several men in very conspicuous black clothing and balaclavas at the back of the room record the whole thing. She rightly chases them outside and manages to grab one of them, but is forced to let him go when a group of people holding very scary guns point them all her way.
It's inevitable that we'd reach the end of the season without Jen going full, monstrous Hulk, though I will admit I found the story to be compelling enough without retreading that familiar path. At least it wasn't a nothing reason that provoked such a reaction. I do hope that as things wind down next week, the moral of the story isn't that in this case she was wrong for her anger, and that she must forgive and move on. Unrealistic as it may be, I think the most satisfying conclusion to the real-life horrors Jen has had to endure would be a (sadly) unrealistic turn of events where the men behind Intelligencia actually face a consequence or two.
Rating: A-
The first eight episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are streaming now on Disney+.