Warning! This review contains spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law episode 6.
The newest episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law follows the annoying trend of Marvel’s streaming shows not following up on their tantalizing cliffhangers right away. The final shot of last week’s episode saw superhero fashion designer Luke Jacobson putting the finishing touches on a new Daredevil mask. But this week, Matt Murdock is still nowhere to be seen. But, as far as TV episodes that don’t feature Daredevil go, “Just Jen” is a pretty entertaining ride.
With its comical tale of Jen going to her childhood friend Lulu’s wedding and filling the role of a waitress, bar-back, and custodian in her duties as a bridesmaid, “Just Jen” continues the series’ focus on sitcom shenanigans over superhero action. For the second time in She-Hulk’s run (after the fourth episode, “Is This Not Real Magic?”), the A-plot and B-plot both click as the writers wring laughs out of relatable insecurities and frustrations within the context of a world full of superheroes.
The destination wedding A-plot gives the audience (and Jen) a nice break from the courtroom. While she packs for the trip in the opening scene, Jen pointedly tells the audience, “If you think this is happening at an inconvenient time in the season, you’re right. ‘Cause that’s how weddings always are.” Fans will undoubtedly be disappointed that Daredevil’s debut is being put off by at least another week, but Jen is just as disappointed to have to put her law career on hold to stroke Lulu’s ego. As soon as she arrives at the wedding in She-Hulk form, wearing a dress that Luke specially designed for her, the insecure bride requests that she attend the wedding as “just Jen” to avoid upstaging her. This scene works as both a satire of bridezillas and a hint of foreshadowing. From that moment on, it’s just a matter of time before unforeseen circumstances will force Jen to once again turn mean, green, and straight poured into these jeans.
In a fourth wall break at the beginning, Jen describes the episode as “self-contained,” but it has more to do with the overarching narrative than most of the series’ previous installments. Initially, it does seem like an adventure-of-the-week kind of episode – but then Titania shows up at the wedding as an invited guest.
In the B-plot, Mallory Book and Nikki Ramos represent the many simultaneous divorce settlements of Mr. Immortal, an unkillable superhuman who simply takes his own life and resurrects with a new identity whenever he gets into an argument with one of his multitude of spouses. He demonstrates this tactic when Mal and Nikki question his method of conflict resolution – and his assertion that he’s “a nice guy” – and he simply stands up, hurls himself through the window, and plummets to his death before picking himself up, dusting himself off, and going about his day. After the antics of Runa the Asgardian Light Elf and Donny Blaze the showoff sorcerer, this is another great example of the show using superpowers for comedic effect. As a side note, the fact that one of Mr. Immortal’s former spouses is a man is actually some of the most substantial LGBTQ representation in the MCU to date.
Scripted by Kara Brown, “Just Jen” is one of the funniest episodes of the show so far. It’s full of great gags, from freestanding bits like Jen’s cousin Ched DJing the wedding under the name “DJ Inchedible Hulk” to story-serving bits like a drunken Jen forgetting how to turn into She-Hulk and trying to fight Titania in her human form.
In her second of three episodes, director Anu Valia continues to prove that her strength is directing actors. Jen’s feud with Titania intensifies throughout the episode, Mal and Nikki develop an easy chemistry right from the offset, and Lulu is a spot-on parody of selfish brides-to-be. But, aside from a fun montage cutting between Jen tearing up the dancefloor at the wedding reception and slamming down bills at a cash bar, this episode lacks the stylish visuals that original helmer Kat Coiro brought to the first four installments.
“Just Jen” ends with whoever is after Jen’s gamma-radiated blood creating a syringe that will be able to penetrate her superpowered She-Hulk skin. This is yet another cliffhanger teasing big things for the future without providing any answers or real closure in the present. But the season is well past its midpoint now, so those developments should come to fruition soon. Hopefully, within the next three episodes, the nefarious dark-web villains trying to extract Jen’s blood will finally reveal themselves, the conflict with Titania will finally come to a head, and the Man Without Fear will finally fight court cases and superhero scuffles alongside She-Hulk.
The mid-credits tags have been absent from the past couple of episodes, and they’re sorely missed because these standalone gags were one of the highlights of the early episodes. Fortunately, the main storyline of “Just Jen” packs in enough laughs to make up for a tag-free credits sequence.