The highs and lows of She-Hulk culminated in the season finale.

I say season because I think we got a weird form of confirmation that we are going to be getting a second season of She-Hulk. But more importantly, we got one of the most interesting season finales for Marvel TV that I think if you stare at too long you may just start to like a little less than you did before. I’m here for the risks it took, but we also have to look at it as a whole finale and what it did and didn’t bring to the table. Before I get into the details of it all, make sure you listen to the podcast episode, either by clicking the button below to find your listening platform of choice or by listening live by hitting play on the link provided.

Before the episode even officially began we got a little treat for those who know the OG Hulk show. Thanks to my dad who watched the old Hulk show regularly, I immediately recognized the entrance to the show. I theorize that the OG-Hulk entrance might be a way of showing the direction the Hulk family may be going after this show. I’m not saying the original Hulk actor will return, but the entrance might be a way of showing that Marvel isn’t worried about bringing back some old friends.

Moving to the meat of the episode, I’m going to split this into before the field trip, the field trip, and after the field trip, just to make it as easy as possible to follow. So let’s get into the part of the episode prior to our little adventure with Jen. I wasn’t surprised for a second that Jen was in jail, but I think it’s widely unfair considering she didn’t actually harm anyone, even if that is me just being a Jen apologist. Either way, we see once again what not having the Avengers and Tony Stark behind you looks like in this post-Endgame world and the repercussions for the enhanced. Yet beyond all this, what got me heated was that Jen lost everything once again because she is She-Hulk, bringing the show full circle. Poor girl seems to be one of the few heroes that society does not put on a platform when it comes to consequences.

Everything culminates to the point where we learn that Todd (aka the loser dude Jen went on a date with) is Hulkking, Abomination and Hulk start their rematch and Titania crashes in for her 5 seconds of fame. All sounds good, right? Not at all. I’m really glad we end up on the field trip, which we’ll get to in a moment because this finale was not doing it for me. But in reality, even with the field trip, I’m still disappointed in how things went. I thought Todd being the Hulkking was extremely disappointing, and not just because we theorized something entirely different. I just think we finally could’ve had some huge repercussions from a show and instead had a write-off. Todd being Hulkking just felt so blah, like we were going up a rollercoaster, getting ready for the big fall, and then we never actually have a drop. Hulk coming in to save the day, as Jen even points out, felt so random and him facing Abomination after what seemed to be a round of forgiveness on both ends was just awkward. Then lastly, I have been pretty vocal about how I felt Titania was wasted in this show, and this final episode really solidified that in my opinion.

Let’s get into probably one of the most iconic moments in MCU TV history (and what I think saved this finale), which was our field trip into the metaverse. She-Hulk quite literally broke the fourth wall so hard that she popped out of her show, traveled through Disney+, and went into real-time to fix how wonky her show was getting. And I think we can all agree one of the best parts of it was the fact that they had a droid named K.E.V.I.N. calling all the shots. But because of this very fact, this means that even the Assembled universe can’t be ours, right? Obviously Kevin Feige the person exists in our universe, not an AI version. I don’t want to cause any headaches but I think this confirmed a whole other universe altogether writes the Marvel content…but jeez I can feel the headache coming on from thinking too much about this.

What was really great about the field trip and the conversation Jen had with K.E.V.I.N was that she called out the Marvel formula that we have all discussed in length, especially these past few months. Jen wasn’t going to stand to have her show fall to the same thing, which is extremely cool at how self-aware she is, and stressful that I have to think what half of that means. But she also sat and asked some great questions, like when the X-Men might come, which proves that the sole purpose was truly to show how aware Marvel is of everything we do and say about them. That sounded way more ominous than I anticipated, but it’s true. Time and time again this series proved Marvel listens to us a lot more than I think we realized and now they’re throwing that right back to us.

Returning to the show (literally), I was pretty upset that everything was sort of wrapped up. I describe to Taylor on the podcast that it felt like someone forgot to tell me the commercial was over and now I missed a whole section of the show. It didn’t feel like we really got a conclusion or climax to the story, which really sucked. That’s why for me this finale was definitely not my favorite, even with the fourth wall break, because beyond that there wasn’t really much of a finale.

Besides the fact we got Daredevil to come back in this episode and it seems the relationship he shares with Jen will be just solid enough to give her a guest spot on his future show, the last big thing we have to cover is Bruce’s return with, ah, his son. As promised in the podcast, here’s the history of Skaar. Hulk, as we know spent time on Sakaar battling his way around. While there, at least in the comics we aren’t positive of the whole background in the MCU, he falls for a woman named Caiera and she becomes pregnant. She is killed and Hulk returns to Earth, not aware that his child lived. The child grows up fatherless until he eventually makes his way to Earth for revenge on the father who he thought left him. Obviously, we know this doesn’t seem to be exactly where the MCU is going, as the two of them are on some father/son adventure and meeting the family. It is important to note, however, that Skaar, like his father, can return to a human form, so it will be interesting to see if this holds true for the MCU Skaar.

The final piece of this puzzle is that with Skaar’s arrival and the recasting of General Ross (later to become Red Hulk) by Harrison Ford, it seems pretty possible our future lies either in Planet Hulk or World War Hulk. We are talking about roughly 5 (since Red Hulk is still rumored) gamma-effected beings on the table, so these storylines shouldn’t be too surprising to hear being rumored. Keep an eye out for more Hulk-related Marvel announcements, which I think we will be seeing come in the next few months.

That’s all I’ve got about She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. As the show seemingly confirmed, we may be seeing the second season of this character and I can say I wouldn’t be against that at all. It definitely went in a new direction, even if I didn’t always love what we were getting. She-Hulk is still a pretty solid MCU show and I am excited for her future in the MCU and where she will fit among other heroes. We are hoping you guys kept up with She-Hulk and stayed along for the ride since this is our last MCU show of this year already. But don’t worry, we will be spending three weeks covering Black Panther: Wakanda Forever so get your tickets and get ready, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “She-Hulk Episode 9”, Darren Mooney, The Escapist