Main cast: Tatiana Maslany (Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk), Ginger Gonzaga (Nikki Ramos), and Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky/Abomination)
Director: Anu Valia
Jessica Gao’s OC stand-in for herself may have finally found a chance at romance with Josh Miller from the previous episode, so she does what every narcissist twat does best as a response to that: whines about it in therapy.
That’s right, in The Retreat, she hauls her entitled, whiny ass to Emil Blonsky’s meditation retreat—remember that subplot?—because this is the freaking seventh episode of the season, so why not just drag things out in the adventures of let’s watch Jessica and her sisterhood of diversity hires whine incessantly about how hard it is to be a first world woman in an overpaid job she isn’t qualified for, because she still hasn’t had enough nice things handed to her on a silver platter.
If you always have this problem of enjoying a good time with someone you have great chemistry with, but frets because that person still has a parent or a pet and hence you aren’t the one and only in his heart and focus like you deserve to be, and that person isn’t always at your beck and call like oh my god, does this mean you are not the fullest, most special-est person that they will devote every nanosecond of their existence into worshiping and nodding enthusiastically all the time—well, you will definitely relate to Green-Hag here.
Anyway, under the excuse to check that Blonsky isn’t breaking his parole or anything, she goes over to his new place, only to join a bunch of other dispossessed cape-wearing losers in group therapy sessions led by Blonsky himself.
I’m pleasantly surprised to find this episode actually decent and even chuckle-out-loud at times. Since the writer for this episode is Zeb Wells, and the whole shtick of this show is that it is written by and for narcissists strong empowered women that consoom everything that has the MCU brand, I suppose this means that once again, a man rises to the challenge to demonstrate that men make the best types of strong empowered women.
A big reason for this is that Tim Roth takes the wheel for most of this episode, and he’s as expected awesome at it. He plays off well against the rest of the cast that don’t warrant even a mention on the main billing, and these guys don’t take Jessica Gao’s whiny me-me-me act seriously like that wretch’s enablers.
Instead, they poke fun at her and accept her as one of their own like some kids being moved to let the dumb weirdo play with them once in a while because they pity that weirdo and are a bit fascinated by how the weirdos can swallow a handful of worms in one gulp.
I have hopes that these caped losers will turn on Jessica in a hilarious way in the end but alas, there are still some shackles of toxic patriarchy that a strong empowered woman like Zeb Wells still need to break before she is emancipated to do whatever she wants without being held accountable in any way, just like how the world should be.
Oh, and the boyfriend turns out to be a meanie, but then again, why would any sane, nice bloke want to do anything with a bland, personality-free narcissist anyway? It makes sense that she only attracts creeps that think it’s fun to stick it into crazy. That and we know Jessica Gao is saving herself for Le Cox anyway, so…
Three oogies for an unexpectedly entertaining episode in this snoozefest of a show. A big bravo to Zeb Wells for restoring the faith of humanity in the ability of strong, liberated, feminist women to make entertaining Disney+ shows!
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