The return of Tim Roth‘s Emil Blonsky and a therapy session of sorts helps carry The Retreat, which is an otherwise pleasant, somewhat forgettable episode.
Blonsky’s parole officer asks Jen to check on Blonsky with him. Jen finds Blonsky at his retreat where he counsels villains. The Retreat does a great job of establishing the dynamics between the group, which allows the important therapy scene with Jen to land so well.
Throughout the season, Jennifer Walters has struggled with She-Hulk’s popularity. Everybody seems to gravitate to She-Hulk. Unfortunately, this has left Jen feeling justifiably underappreciated. She’s an awesome attorney, a loyal friend and is played by the endlessly charming Tatiana Maslany. Yet men treat Jen horribly and her face as She-Hulk is valued more than her skills as a lawyer. Jen finally deals with those issues in Maslany’s best scene of the series.
She’s angry and hurt over people overlooking Jen. Josh, the nice guy who was into Jen in last week’s wedding episode, is not a good guy. The early sitcom, romantic montage tries to camouflage a predictable outcome but doesn’t succeed. Turning Josh into another guy who is out to use She-Hulk for his own purposes was the lazy choice here. Josh’s actions are more reprehensible than the doctor in episode four.
The other element holding The Retreat back is Nikki’s brief appearance. I’m interested in seeing where the series ends up as Daredevil seems set to make his awaited MCU debut in next week’s episode.
With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the elements that stood out in The Retreat. There may be some minor spoilers. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is available to stream on Disney Plus.
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Ghosting before The Retreat
After hitting it off at her friend’s wedding, Jen and Josh are beginning what looks like a fun romance. Quirky dates, awkward handshakes and the customary 3rd date sexploration (yes, I made that up) take place. Josh leaves before Jen wakes up.
Jen sends a text message later but doesn’t hear anything back. She’s impatiently waiting for Josh to text back but doesn’t hear anything.
She sends a few text messages. The customary “I just want to make sure you’re ok” is one of them which even the villains during the retreat shake their heads and horns at in response.
Early Sunday morning, she gets a call from Blonsky’s parole officer and heads off to the retreat. The end of The Retreat flashes back to show Josh taking a photo, uploading data and potentially extracting Jen’s blood.
Outside of Maslany’s charm, the romances and the reveal of evil Josh didn’t do much for me.
The Blonsky Method
When Jen arrives at Blonsky’s compound, he’s not alone. Blonsky is hosting a retreat for several villains. The lineup includes the venerable Man-Bull, El-Aguila, Saracen, Porcupine and last but not least Wrecker.
Man-Bull is well a man with horns on his head. El-Aguila hates being called a Matador, especially by Man-Bull, even though he admits he has Matador-like tendencies. Everybody in the group treats Man-Bull and El-Aguila as being in an overly codependent relationship to hilarious effect. Saracen believes he’s a vampire and has some great one-liners. Porcupine is a man in a porcupine costume who has never taken it off. Wrecker was one of the criminals who tried to mug Jen.
Jen wants nothing to do with this group. Unfortunately, a fight between Man-Bull and El-Aguila damages her car, so she’s stuck. She spends her time at the compound trying to get a signal on her cell. She finds some reception in the therapy area, where Blonsky is about to start a session.
Roth is terrific with this version of Blonsky. He’s totally sincere, but you don’t know if another anvil is going to drop.
Therapy Session
Jen is alarmed by Wrecker’s involvement in the retreat. She attacks Wrecker, but Blonsky convinces Jen to stop and sit in the calming chair.
Jen finally has a breakthrough. She compares She-Hulk to a popular friend in high school. Everyone wants to be that cool, confident person. By turning into She-Hulk, Jen can be a cool person anytime she wants. However, She-Hulk feels like a cheat for Jen and she wants people to recognize how awesome she is as just Jen.
The men in the group all respond by wanting to kill Josh, which was sweet and concerning. Jen leaves the retreat feeling more confident.
Everything about this scene was tremendous. Even under heavy CGI, Maslany crushed the therapy scene.
The Retreat Final Thoughts
Once Jen arrives at the retreat, the episode is a blast. Unfortunately, The Retreat takes too much time to get to that point. On its surface, the romance is sweet, but there’s a shallow approach, which makes connecting with their romance difficult. For instance, Josh doesn’t say a single line in the entire episode.
Luckily, Maslany and Roth make The Retreat a worthwhile episode all-in-all.
The Review
The Retreat
PROS
- Tatiana Maslany's performance during Jen's breakthrough was outstanding.
- Tim Roth's earnest performance as Emil Blonsky.
- The group therapy scene was hilarious and the way the guys rallied around Jen was sweet.
CONS
- Predictable romance story for Josh and Jen slows down the beginning of the episode.
- Not enough Nikki.
