She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Season 1), Episode 1 Recap & Ending Explained: The most unfortunate thing about “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” is probably its lead actress. Tatiana Maslany is a fantastic actress and her casting is one of the best casting choices Marvel has ever made. But unfortunately, the majority of the audience is actually looking forward to the show to see Charlie Cox as Daredevil. Considering Cox’s turn as Daredevil (in the Netflix series) was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon when it comes to Superhero shows, the audience can’t be blamed either. However, this is still She-Hulk and the show belongs to her. Hopefully, by the end of the season, Maslany will be able to make her mark.
She-Hulk also stars Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk in a mentor kind of role to She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters and Tim Roth, who played Abomination in the 2009 MCU movie “The Incredible Hulk,” playing the same character here. One of the most interesting things about the show is the title and Marvel boss Kevin Feige’s repeated indication to present it as primarily a law show instead of a straight-up Superhero show. Created by Emmy-winning writer Jessica Gao, it also heavily uses the fourth-wall break format which is also a first for MCU (although Wandavision did use that a bit in an episode).
In another unfortunate turn of events, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is getting review bombed on IMDB by angry comic book fans who are either finding it hard to accept a woman Hulk or the original Hulk not angry anymore or for some other inexplicable reasons. However, if the RT score of 94 is anything to go by, this show is off to a promising start.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Season 1), Episode 1 “A Normal Amount of Rage” Recap:
The camera zooms in and Jennifer Walters starts to talk about a case. It seems like she is actually looking at the camera and talking directly to the audience but two other people are actually there and Jen is actually presenting her mock argument to them, before the actual case. Among the two people, the man who seems to be a lawyer doubts Jen’s ability to win the case and wants to do it himself; but the woman Nikki, a paralegal, seems very encouraging.
Nikki also happens to be Jen’s best friend. Jen pretty much ignores the man and pays attention to Nikki and they all leave the room. Right before leaving Nikki casually asks Jen to bring the “Hulk” if that is needed and Jen replies that she absolutely does not intend to do that. Jen now turns to the camera and speaks directly to the audience and reveals that she is actually a “Hulk”.
The story goes into flashback mode.
Jen starts to narrate again. Three months ago she was on a road trip with her cousin Bruce Banner. We see Bruce in his human form wearing a device in his hand. Bruce explains to Jen that the function of that device is to keep him in his human form, instead of the integrated smart-hulk form (as shown in the Avengers: Endgame movie; this also clears the doubt over Bruce appearing in human form in the Shang Chi movie post-credit scene).
Suddenly a spaceship arrives out of nowhere and Jen, busy with her conversation with Bruce crashes the car. Both of them survive the accident with minor scratches but Bruce starts to bleed, his device gets destroyed and his gamma radiation affects Jen and she sees a blurry reflection of her “Hulk” self on the body of their car.
Jen soon rushes into a local pub and enters the toilet, still unsure about what has happened to her. Several other women suddenly come inside and they think a man has done something to Jen. She soon gets out and gets teased by some regular creepy men outside the pub. Then she loses her temper, her “Hulk” form emerges for a while and the scene goes black indicating Jen has blacked out.
She wakes up in a beach house and soon it is revealed that Bruce has taken her to his place in Mexico, a secluded house, a bar with a laboratory underneath. Bruce reveals it was actually the property of Tony Stark, who gave it to him. Bruce takes Jen to the lab and explains that she has turned into a Hulk because of lethal exposure to Gamma radiation that came from Bruce. Jen seems confused, frustrated, and angry after hearing this. However, Bruce also reveals that there is something strange about Jen’s blood and how the gamma radiation has changed it. Bruce has healed his injured hand with it, indicating Jen might actually be superior to him in terms of power and ability.
Bruce asks Jen to stay and train with him in order to learn how to control her Hulk form. He keeps mentioning his struggle with it for so many years and seems visibly guilty and concerned about Jen. But it is soon revealed that when Jen turns into her Hulk form, she still remains her original self inside her head and can actually control her hulk self. Bruce is surprised to see this but still continues to train her.
After a while, Jen wants to go back to her regular lawyer life and she has a huge fight with Bruce regarding it. Bruce keeps indicating now that she is a Superhero she can’t go back to her life before while Jen remains adamant about staying a lawyer and continuing her life exactly like before. She also taunts Bruce about how he does not have a life of his own, no friends or family that he actually visits, and does not deal with all the trauma caused by the life he had as an Avenger. This escalates the fight further as both of them get very angry and a huge, gigantic physical fight takes place where Bruce’s bar gets completely thrashed.
They soon make up and Jen helps Bruce fix his bar which was originally made by Bruce and Tony back in the days. Jen says she feels about saying all the harsh things to Bruce but she is her own person and actually wishes to go back. Bruce does not stop her this time and promises that he will always help her no matter what in any situation if she asks for it.
We get back to the present.
Jen finishes her story and also tells us that she hasn’t been Hulk ever since coming back and Nikkie is the only person who knows her truth. In the court, we see Jen presenting her closing argument to the jury and suddenly a gigantic woman wearing a very flashy black and gold costume storms into the court breaking the world from nowhere.
Everyone gets really scared and Nikkie urges Jen to handle the situation with her Hulk persona as it falls under her civic duties. Seeing no other option Jen turns into Hulk and the woman gets surprised and asks her who “the hell” is she, to which Jen replies “Jennifer Walters, attorney at law” and then punches the woman with her superstrength and beats her easily. As the officers go to capture the unconscious woman; Jen slips back into her human form, adjusts her clothes as if nothing happened, and confidently declares that she is ready to give her closing argument.
In a post-credit scene, it is revealed by Bruce that Steve Rogers/Captain America did not die a virgin.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Season 1), Episode 1 “A Normal Amount of Rage” Ending, Explained:
First the post-credit scene. MCU has the habit of joking by putting things that are absolutely not relevant/going to matter as post-credit scenes at times (remember Bruce Campbell from Multiverse of Madness?) which sometimes land. Given the reaction on the internet, this one can be considered a good landing – although it doesn’t have anything to do with the story, hopefully.
Now, the real ending. Even though she has not been officially introduced, the mysterious woman from the ending ( played by the very talented Jameela Jamil from “The Good Place”) happens to be a character called Titania which we know from the show’s origin comic. Titania happens to be a nemesis of She-Hulk and considering that Jamil’s introduction has been good enough, the future episodes will surely explore the rivalry more.
There was no sign of either Abomination or Daredevil so as of now we can’t speculate what their roles will be. Bruce is most likely going to appear in the show to help Jen, in future episodes. We will find out more next week.