She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Season 1 Finale) Episode 9, Recap and Ending Explained: Last week, after Charlie Cox finally made his grand entry in the show, speculations were going on about whether Daredevil would appear in the season finale or not. Well, he does appear but instead of participating in any big action sequence he just appears as this guy Jen is casually seeing, which further establishes the fact that this is not a Daredevil but a She-Hulk show.
In Daredevil’s defense, there was no fight sequence to get into because the episode had no fight sequence whatsoever. In the season finale, the show decides to go beyond its usual fourth-wall breaking which works in parts but mostly disappoints. Tim Roth, Jameela Jamil, Benedict Wong, and Mark Ruffalo all appear along with Cox but that could not exactly save the finale from being a wreck.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Season 1 Finale), Episode 9 Recap:
Thanks to her enraged activities at the gala, Jen is now locked-up in the maximum security prison. However, her stay inside the prison doesn’t last long as Mallory, Nikki, and Pug manage to convince her to take the plea deal and get out of prison.
Jen agrees with the deal that she can never turn into She-Hulk again and gets released. However, her life completely seems to fall down as she loses her job at the GLK&H and ends up having to move back with her parents.
Despite her situation, Jen seems to be determined enough to punish the Intelligencia group in a proper way with the support of the law. To help her with that, Nikki fakes her identity on the internet and posts an embarrassing video of Jen that she got from Jen’s mother. The video gets Intelligencia’s attention and Nikki eventually gets an invite to some event organized by this hate-mongering group. She takes Pug who poses as a She-Hulk hater to blend in with the toxic male group. Soon, both Pug and Nikki are shocked to find out that the mastermind behind all of Jen’s trouble is actually Todd (), one of the guys she dated as She-Hulk and eventually rejected.
Meanwhile, a mentally down Jen goes to visit Emil for some emotional support as it worked surprisingly well for her the last time when she visited him. It is soon revealed that Emil is actually a huge part of Todd’s event and that too as the Abomination.
As every key character gathers in the same place for the sake of the usual chaotic situation expected from a season finale, Todd takes the serum made by Intelligencia with the help of Jen’s blood and turns into a Hulk. However, Titania and Bruce appear out of thin air and that works in Jen’s favor.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Season 1 Finale) Episode 9 Ending, Explained:
Whose show was this?
Right when the chaos breaks out, Jen, unhappy with the flow of the finale, transforms into She-Hulk and literally pauses the show to land herself into a fictional version of the Marvel Studios office.
Upon reaching the writer’s room she questions the writers about the decisions they have been making about her character and the show. Then she demands to meet Kevin (presented as K.E.V.I.N), a fictional version of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige (and also the producer of the show), and is met with mocking and laughter by the group. It is revealed that the writers hold a comically extreme loyalty towards Kevin and would even welcome Hulk’s wrath to protect his identity. However, Jen eventually smashes her way into Kevin’s office.
But in the form of another “shocking” twist in this tale, the fictional version of Kevin turns out to be an Artificial Intelligence. Jen complains to Kevin about ruining her show with terrible plotlines and an impending bad ending. Kevin does give her an opportunity to present an argument in her favor and after going through that, Kevin eliminates Bruce from the scene, takes Todd’s powers away, transforms Abomination into Emil, adds Daredevil into the mixture, and changes the nighttime setting of the scene to broad daylight.
After destroying the original “bad ending”, Jen goes back to the world of her show and legally wins the battle against Todd and Intelligencia. Matt is seen hanging out with her family with them making suggestive jokes about the two of them being together and then Bruce arrives from Sakaar with a surprise, his son Skaar.
Also, in a post-credit scene, Wong appears out of a portal, breaks out Emil from the maximum security prison, and takes him to Kamar Taj.
Now, as the show always had a recurring “what the plot is about” thing going on, deciding to play meta with the character accusing the writers was indeed a bold move. Especially considering the fact that out of every possible person in the show, Todd turns out to be the finale’s villain.
The moment Jen breaks out of the linear storyline, the story of the show becomes absolutely insignificant and it becomes about her. Kevin on the other hand, being the fictional version of Kevin Feige himself, starts to talk about other Marvel shows and movies in the pipeline as an attempt to set up future MCU projects. But it ultimately comes to the point where Jen snatches away the power and regains her position as the lead.
But did it actually work?
The agenda of the creator of the show was probably to make it spoof-like but also a feminist show that actually triggers problematic people; namely incels and that is where the show succeeded if the IMDB rating is any indication. But to make a proper kind of spoof the primary requirements are being completely wild and obnoxious; something that American Vandal was (that was proper, one of the greatest mockumentaries ever). She-Hulk was unable to go that way because it had its shackles; being on Disney Plus, the PG-13 rating, and also the responsibility of setting up different MCU stories.
Hence, despite having good actors and writers (Jessica Gao has shows like Rick and Morty and Silicon Valley to her credit) the result has been underwhelming. It is not funny enough, not raw enough, and definitely not engaging enough. However, in the finale, the show does go all out and actually manages to break free of the shackles but the gamble comes too late and couldn’t save it from falling.
Jennifer Walters does manage to establish the fact that IT’S HER SHOW. Sure it is, except just not a good one.
