She-Hulk: Attorney at Law 1×07 Review: “The Retreat”

Jennifer takes a fun and rejuvenating detour to Blonsky’s retreat, meeting a quirky cast of potential new friends in “The Retreat.”

Though Jennifer (Tatiana Maslany) seemingly found the perfect guy in “Just Jen,” Josh (Trevor Salter) turns out to be too good to be true in “The Retreat.” The episode opens with a hopeful montage of a series of dates, but Jennifer is frustrated by a lack of response to her text after their night together.

Jennifer finds herself constantly checking her phone, despite Nikki’s (Ginger Gonzaga) urging to be patient. She gets a much-needed distraction when a parole officer calls to inform her that Blonsky’s (Tim Roth) inhibitor is malfunctioning. He asks She-Hulk to accompany him in case Blonsky has turned into the Abomination.

There is no issue at the retreat, as Blonsky cooperates with them and tells them the inhibitor was affected by an electric shock. It appears that Blonsky has successfully created a new life after prison, which surprisingly came together rather quickly. Jennifer ends up stuck at the retreat when two dueling residents, Man-Bull (Nathan Hurd) and El Aguila (Joseph Castillo-Midyett) crash into her car and force her to wait for a tow truck.

Much to Jennifer’s dismay, the retreat doesn’t have cell phone service. The episode starts to become more engaging as she walks around, looking for service, and ends up in a room where Blonsky is hosting a support group for his residents. Though not enthused by the idea, Jennifer decides to stay in the room as she waits for a text from Josh.

The support group of reformed villains, all minor characters pulled from the vast Marvel comic universe, are all quirky and charming. In addition to the aforementioned Man-Bull and El Aguila, there is supposed vampire Saracen (Terrence Clowe) and Porcupine (Jordan Aaron Ford), a man who refuses to take his mask off for most of the meeting.  There are some genuinely funny moments as the group attempts to work out their issues with each other.

The final member of the group, Wrecker (Nick Gomez) arrives, and Jennifer recognizes him as one of the men who attacked her earlier in the season. She hilariously breaks the fourth wall to ask why he wasn’t part of the “Previously On” package before showing the clip of her attack again. Jennifer turns into She-Hulk and attacks Wrecker. Blonsky deescalates the fight and Wrecker apologizes for attacking her. Whether Wrecker is sincere in his apology or not, it’s strange that Jennifer doesn’t seem to want to know more about why he tried to attack her or who his boss is.

The rest of the group tells her to put her phone down and join them, and Jennifer reluctantly does. She tells them about her Josh dilemma and her struggle with finding someone who likes both Jennifer and She-Hulk. It’s endearing that the other support group members are instantly protective of Jennifer and want to kill Josh. Once Blonsky puts a stop to that, the group helps Jennifer work through her identity issues and the retreat turns out to be a successful one.

Thankfully, Jennifer’s new friends convince her to let Josh go. A flashback reveals that Josh is working for the mysterious villain and texts his boss that he has Jennifer’s blood after their night together. To make things even more creepy, Josh takes a photo of Jennifer sleeping before leaving. Though the reveal is not too shocking, it’s still heartbreaking to see Josh violate Jennifer and her trust.

“The Retreat” once again concludes without a post-credit scene. The episode is fun, even though we still don’t know the identity of the series’ main villain. It feels like hyping up the reveal for so long will allow no middle ground between the reveal being either epic or a letdown. I’m hoping for the former, combined with Jennifer finally fully embracing her potential as She-Hulk.

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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