Jennifer Walters breaks the fourth wall in frustration about how the story is going before breaking out of Disney+ and into Marvel Studios itself in a bonkers season finale.
Let’s see Deadpool do that! She-Hulk just broke the fourth wall so hard in her season finale, she busted right out of the Disney+ menu screen and into another show — but with a purpose.
In one of the most meta things Marvel has ever done, “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” just broke down the superhero formula, criticizing the very machine that made this show and the mastermind behind it all, Kevin Feige … or is that K.E.V.I.N.?
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It’s a bold statement to make to suggest that the man who has created the most successful film franchise in movie history is nothing more than an advanced artificial intelligence following entertainment algorithms.
The machine proudly proclaimed that all of his products are nearly perfect. But, as Jen pointed out, they all follow basically the same formula. And then she sat down and asked about all the daddy issues in Marvel’s superheroes before getting to what all the fans really want.
“Oh, and when are we getting the X-Men?”
Okay, let’s set the stage and see how we got to this totally bizarre turn of events, and what came after. It all started after last week’s penultimate episode where She-Hulk lost her cool and control of her temper.
We adored the opening sequence created for this episode, a lovingly recreated take on the 1978 “Incredible Hulk” television series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. It was just a hint of the shenanigans to come.
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The story picked up with Jen in a familiar holding cell, as it’s the one where we first reconnected with Emil Blonsky aka Tim Roth’s Abomination. Basically, this was the part of the story where Jen was finally finding some happiness, so it’s time for all of that to fall apart.
As part of a plea deal with the DA’s office, she’s also equipped with a monitoring device, and forbidden to transform into She-Hulk. She loses her job and subsequently her home, forcing her to move back home with her parents.
It’s at this point that she starts to ask the audience if this is what they want to see? She’s not doing the brooding, reluctant superhero thing, it’s all just falling apart around her.
But then, it starts to get really weird as the show does that thing where all these disparate characters and plotlines from the whole season converge in an unlikely way to set up a wild finish.
So, her work colleagues Nikki and Pug use a twerking video from Jen’s college days to gain an invite to the Intelligencia group that hacked Jen’s phone and shared her hookup video publicly last week. While there, they discover that “bro” Todd is there and — because plot — he’s the head of Intelligencia, HulkKing.
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Oh, and this facility just happens to be taking place at the retreat compound Jen visited previously that Emil now runs. Did we mention that her life fell apart? Well after failing to get a hold of him, she crashes the retreat.
After failing to find him, she discovers where he’s at, and you’ll never guess. He’s the special guest speaker for this group of incels who refer to women as “females” and speak what you mostly read from horrible men on social media.
And, because this is the finale, he does his speaking engagements as the Abomination. So, when Jen drops in to commiserate, she finds him as Abomination in this room with Intelligencia and Todd. Then, Nikki comes in to rescue Pug.
But it gets even more cliche as Titania shows up for no reason at all followed by Bruce, also for no reason. And, because Abomination picked up Jen to save her from Titania’s attack, Bruce misunderstands the situation and attacks him. It’s all just too much … which is why Jen shuts it down.
“This can’t possibly be where this season was going?” she asks. Again, she asks viewers if this is what they really want, and suddenly we find ourselves back on the main menu for Disney+.
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But, it’s not a glitch and Jen isn’t going to let the show out of it that easily. So, like a Looney Tunes cartoon, she busts the title screen off of her box and looks for another show. Ultimately, she decides that “Marvel Assembled” will get her where she needs to go.
The reality show about the making of various Marvel projects allows her onto the studio lots where she literally confronts the “She-Hulk” writers room about this ridiculous ending.
“There are certain things that are supposed to happen in a superhero story,” they tell her. When she pushes, they tell her it’s what K.E.V.I.N. wants, and she makes her way to him, dramatically taking out security guards (after signing an NDA, of course) on the way.
Honestly, the conversation between Jen and K.E.V.I.N. is one of the most fascinating things we’ve seen yet, as it really does break down both the successes and shortcomings of the Marvel machine over these past two decades.
Jen calls him out for rehashing old plotlines, like when Todd injected himself with synthesized Hulk blood to Hulk out (this happened during that melee we talked about), wasn’t this just a rehash of the Super Soldier serum storyline?
She asked what Titania was doing there, and why Bruce suddenly dropped in from outer space. When K.E.V.I.N. explained that this was to explain where he’s been and introduce– Jen interrupts him and tells him to “save it for the movie.”
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She’d rather have a little more facetime with Matt Murdock. Honestly, so would the fans, who were thrilled to have Charlie Cox back in the role. For Jen, though, it’s because “a woman has needs.”
“Historically, we’ve been light in that department,” K.E.V.I.N. acknowledged, owning up to the lack of gender parity and representation and perspective in the MCU to this point.
Jen then corrected all the ridiculous things going on in her own finale. For one thing, Todd didn’t need to be a Hulk to be a villain, he’s a bad dude just as Todd. Titania and Bruce showing up made zero sense, and Abomination just needs to own up to his mistakes and take accountability.
And so, she finally stepped back into her show for the dramatic finish, which wasn’t a fists-flying blowout superhero battle. It was Abomination accepting that he violated parole and accepting ten more years in prison.
It was Todd, as just plain Todd, getting arrested for violating Jen’s privacy and a whole list of other things she can get him on. Then, just for Jen, Daredevil literally dropped out of the sky to save the day. He was too late, of course, but that’s not why she wanted him there.
In the epilogue, K.E.V.I.N. did get to have his cake and eat it, too, because Bruce did actually show up to the family barbecue. He explained that he’d been on the planet Sakaar and then introduced his son, Skaar.
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In other words, the entire epic and incredible “Planet Hulk” storyline had just played out and we missed it! Could that and “World War Hulk” — or an amalgamation of the two — be on the horizon? Why else introduce Sakaar and Skaar?
Oh, and of course there was a post-credits scene, though it may not lead to anything. Apparently, breaking the fourth wall this much stretched the reality of the MCU just a bit too much this week, as suddenly both Emil and Wong were doing it.
Emil was back in his cell chilling when Wong showed up with his portal magic. Emil asked him what took so long, suggesting he’d gotten pulled into another show. Wong acknowledge it really is peak TV and then took Emil to Kamar-Taj.
As for whether or not there will be a Season 2, this hasn’t been confirmed. But with all the fourth-wall breaking, it was discussed, including by the supposed writers of the show.
K.E.V.I.N. even cracked a cruel joke at Jennifer that he’d see her on the big screen, but when she asked him if he meant it, he shot back, “No.” But maybe again on the small one?
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