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S01.E07: The Retreat


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I really want to like this show, but the cameos have been the best part. I need a Wongers and Madisynn show to happen.
 

Jen is just unlikeable and annoying. The “law” on the show is laughably bad. Night Court was more realistic.  And funnier. I miss Night Court. Roz is a comedian now and she’s quite funny.

Seven episodes in and still waiting on an actual plot other than Jen and friends win by the end of every episode while nefarious forces lurk behind the scenes to get her.

Jen is supposed to be a grown-up, right? And was a prosecutor no less. Yet somehow she is totally trusting and naive and stupid. “Bad guys jumped me outside my apt trying to get my blood, my nemesis showed up at a friend’s wedding which means everyone knew I would be there, and there’s an entire community online devoted to taking me down. Def nothing shady when a rando appears out of nowhere trying to get in my pants.”

Also who doesn’t bother to investigate the electric fence and trapped chicken? Let’s completely trust what the supervillain is saying, guys. 

It’s really annoying when a show has post-credit scenes for half a season and then decides to do away with them. Then you have to check just in case they have them again.

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That "three days earlier" closing scene coulda just been a post-credits scene and then all us post-credits-scenes fans would have been happy. 🤷‍♂️ I guess there's an argument to be made that the post-credits scenes should be bonus material and not integral to the story.

I was afraid when Jen let her guard down at the retreat that they'd betray her. I'm glad they didn't. Also, wow, I was super duper not expecting a such a comics-accurate Porcupine.

I'm not sure what to think about Josh being supervillain-adjacent evil and not just regular bad-guy-ghosts-someone-right-after-sleeping-with-them. He's still a bad guy either way, but one way makes him more integral to the plot while somehow also making that whole situation less relatable than if he were just a crappy guy. Also, I kinda figured he hadn't stolen Jen's blood because wouldn't she have felt the shot and woken up and hulked out? Or at least felt the wound in the morning and realized something was up?

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4 minutes ago, arc said:

Also, wow, I was super duper not expecting a such a comics-accurate Porcupine.

If Saracen was a real vampire, Blade would have killed him... Porcupine has no obvious superpowers... When did Lalo Salamanca learn to harness bio-electricity??

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5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Godammit Josh.

I am so sick of these surprise villains.

Was he really a surprise? I didn't think so. 

Then again, I feel like the odds on Jen Walters meeting a nice normal guy is about as likely as Matt Murdock meeting a nice normal lady. Slim to none. Not saying it can't happen but the outlook isn't great.

Jen was already having trouble meeting decent guys as Jen... once she became a hulk that opened the window to a whole new pool of assholes. Should she be aware of that? I guess, but at the same time this show seems more about the learning curve of what being a hulk really means in all facets of her life because that's where she's at. Bruce had to deal with a completely different personality taking over his life when he couldn't control his emotions and Jen naively thought that having control over her emotions meant she wouldn't have to deal with the rest of it.

She's been compartmentalizing and actually the group stuff today also drove home that she felt that the hulk part of her helping with success is cheating. I feel that's about as realistic as a show about getting gamma radiated blood in your system and it changing everything can be with that sort of thing. Kamala Khan was thrilled about becoming a super hero which Jen is not but Jen just hasn't quite reached the 'no normal' part of the realization yet.

And I really loved the going back to "Previously about that guy..."

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1 hour ago, Dandesun said:

Was he really a surprise? I didn't think so. 

You’re right, it wasn’t. I should have put the “surprise” in quotation marks because they’ve become so predictable.

I’m rooting for the support group to kick his ass.

Edited by Spartan Girl
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I knew Josh was up to no good.  Did he actually get her blood? He must have drugged Jen in order to stick her with that hardcore needle that they didn't show us in this episode... Or was the dates the setup to gain her personal information?

Blonsky and his Retreat group are awesome. His parole officer was so freaked out despite having Jen there to back him up.  I'll bet that he wouldn't have bothered to go check on Blonsky if the inhibitor hadn't malfunctioned.

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Wish I could say that Josh's betrayal was surprising, but I had a feeling that was where this was all heading.  Definitely hurt having shorter episodes than norm, because I feel like we really needed to see more of the relationship to fully buy into Jen being so head over heels for him that she would be consistently checking the phone and freaking out over him ghosting her.  I get that a lot of it is due to her own insecurities and the idea of finally finding someone who actually like Jen for being Jen, but it was going a bit into teen drama territory there.

Never would have predicted that the main villain from The Incredible Hulk would end up sincerely leading a spiritual retreat for D-list comic book characters to meet up and work on their personal issues!  Really hope it stays this way because Emil is actually really fun in this role and Tim Roth has been to blast to watch.  Do hope El Aguila and Man-Bull work out their issues!

The "Previously about that guy!" segment midway about the return of Wrecker was hilarious.

Tatiana Maslany did a great job with the speech in the group circle.

So, I guess Josh stole by Jen's info and maybe her blood somehow, but what's with the picture?  Is he going to post it on that anti-She-Hulk forum to try and slut shame her or something?  I guess this will be the final obstacle for the last two episodes.  Also wonder if Titana will somehow get back into the picture as well.  

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15 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

So, I guess Josh stole by Jen's info and maybe her blood somehow, but what's with the picture?  Is he going to post it on that anti-She-Hulk forum to try and slut shame her or something?  I guess this will be the final obstacle for the last two episodes.  Also wonder if Titana will somehow get back into the picture as well.  

I bet Josh is like a free agent and putting the goods up for the highest bidder rather than henchmen commissioned for the job like the wrecking crew were.

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8 hours ago, arc said:

Also, I kinda figured he hadn't stolen Jen's blood because wouldn't she have felt the shot and woken up and hulked out? Or at least felt the wound in the morning and realized something was up?

1 hour ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Did he actually get her blood? He must have drugged Jen in order to stick her with that hardcore needle that they didn't show us in this episode...

....checks note regarding human biology specifically something special about human females in a certain age range....

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So the villian group turned out to be better guys then the nice guy who turned out to the be the villian. She met Josh at the wedding of her high school friend. Does that mean the husband we never saw is involved in this too? How else would he just happen to be at the same wedding she was at. 

I'm enjoying this show because it's an a day in the life of a super hero and not a constant threat after threat show. It nice to just see powered people going about their day or being in therapy. People complain about the MCU just doing the same thing over and over, then when they try something different they are like why aren't they doing the same thing anymore. This show like Ms Marvel isn't for everyone, but they are for me and I love it. 

Also adding that the beginning with  all the Jen's appearing in different parts of her apartment was giving me Orphan Black flashbacks. Lol

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1 hour ago, diebartdie said:

....checks note regarding human biology specifically something special about human females in a certain age range....

I actually did think about that, but then again Hulk King's goons coulda just gone through her trash for that. No need to catfish her.

1 hour ago, Sakura12 said:

She met Josh at the wedding of her high school friend. Does that mean the husband we never saw is involved in this too? How else would he just happen to be at the same wedding she was at. 

It's possible Hulk King recruited a wedding guest rather than insert a ringer, in which case Josh coulda come from Lulu's guest side. Lulu might have invited friends from post high school, and it seemed like she and Jen weren't that close lately.

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Jen calling for a "previously on" was great. I'm surprised that Blonsky's group really did help Jen because I thought for sure one of them would end up trying something, but no, they all actually wanted to help her. Love how excited they were for her when she came out of the yurt. 

Josh betraying Jen isn't really a surprise, but it sucks because she was so happy that someone liked her as Jen and then, nope, Josh was just using her. Copying all her phone data and stealing her blood is so violating and creepy. No idea how he managed to use a needle without Jen feeling it and waking up, unless he drugged her. Wouldn't be surprised if he's posting that picture to the incel site, too. 

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From what I saw on another site, all those d-list retreat villians are villians for the Defenders. Man-Bull was a Daredevil villian, Porcupine fought Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, El Aguila fought Luke Cage and Iron Fist and the "vampire" was a Punisher bad guy. Marvel is really playing hard with their Easter eggs that turn out to be nothing. This show should really have one the bad guys screen name be Mephisto. Lol

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14 hours ago, oldCJ said:

The “law” on the show is laughably bad. Night Court was more realistic.  And funnier. I miss Night Court. Roz is a comedian now and she’s quite funny.

FYI- NBC is rebooting (continuing) Night Court as a mid-season show. The judge is Harry’s Daughter.

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1 minute ago, paigow said:

Frank Castle should have killed this guy within 5 minutes... How did this guy get an ARC on Punisher????

Frank wouldn't know that he needed a wood stake or silver bullets.

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2 hours ago, paigow said:

He is a REAL vampire??? Frank could call Blade

Now see you made me google him. By wasting a possible future asset it seems like the MCU is signaling that even if Daredevil and Kingpin have been seen that Punisher has to be a different guy from the Netflix version.

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9 minutes ago, Raja said:

Now see you made me google him. By wasting a possible future asset it seems like the MCU is signaling that even if Daredevil and Kingpin have been seen that Punisher has to be a different guy from the Netflix version.

And upon further review it seems Blade had a same name, different person character in his gallery.

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I think this was my favorite episode so far. Josh being a bad guy was obvious and a disappointment but I loved the rest. 

7 hours ago, diebartdie said:

....checks note regarding human biology specifically something special about human females in a certain age range....

I am a human female and don’t get how that would make a difference, be a viable option or less noticeable to Jen than a needle. 

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I think I like this show more than most. But that's probably because I love Tatiana Maslany.

This was the first episode I would have enjoyed if it was a different actress in the lead role.

Although I did not appreaciate how everybody ganged up on manbull and his not-matador friend. Can't two guys just be good friends, or a little more, without it being codependant? I didn't see anything that egregious between them.

19 hours ago, oldCJ said:

And funnier. I miss Night Court.

Maybe you should hire two VCR repair men, to repair your VCR, so you can watch your old night court tapes.

19 hours ago, oldCJ said:

Jen is supposed to be a grown-up, right? And was a prosecutor no less. Yet somehow she is totally trusting and naive and stupid. “Bad guys jumped me outside my apt trying to get my blood, my nemesis showed up at a friend’s wedding which means everyone knew I would be there, and there’s an entire community online devoted to taking me down. Def nothing shady when a rando appears out of nowhere trying to get in my pants.”

You'd think she would have at least asked the bad guy why he jumped her. Nope, not a single word. Now that's great writing! /s

18 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I am so sick of these “surprise” villains.

Then you are going to be even more sick in the next episodes.

9 hours ago, Raja said:

I bet Josh is like a free agent and putting the goods up for the highest bidder rather than henchmen commissioned for the job like the wrecking crew were.

Doubt it. He texted "HulkKing": 💉🧪👍🏼

Seems like he is specifically working for somebody.

Spoiler

and that somebody is Todd. The credits of the press screeners for episode 4 list him as "Todd / Hulk-Todd". Changed for the final release, because they noticed what a massive spoiler it was.

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12 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

The "Previously about that guy!" segment midway about the return of Wrecker was hilarious.

Why didn't she ask him who had hired his crew to attack her?

12 hours ago, Raja said:

I bet Josh is like a free agent and putting the goods up for the highest bidder rather than henchmen commissioned for the job like the wrecking crew were.

Whose henches, though?

2 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

You'd think she would have at least asked the bad guy why he jumped her. Nope, not a single word.

Exactly!

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All the guys in group jumping onto the idea of violence to defend Jen was so sweet. I loved Emil's "Jen's hurting and all we can offer her is violence?"  I love how quickly they became Team Jen and made her a card. 

I admit it, I thought the guy was dead or kidnapped, not a villain. The photo was the creepiest part. God, Jen's a sound sleeper.

"You 'previously on'd' that guy, right?" may have been my favorite 4th wall breakage yet. 

I want Daredevil to show up in his shiny new suit. Stop dragging this out. And then let him hang out with Wongers and Madisynn. 

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31 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

She has no reason to think they were for hire. She thinks they jumped her because they resent She-Hulk.

She should still have asked: "Why did you jump me? What specifically do you have against me?" And then he probably would have answered that he was hired.

Or he should have just volunteered it, when she was angry at him "It was nothing personal, I just needed the money! Please don't hurt me!"

Nobody bringing it up is very contrived writing.

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I sort of expected that Josh was obtaining a DNA sample from the outside of a used condom, but I suppose the writers don't want to get quite that risque. I wasn't really here for the meet-cute story anyway, so good riddance to that part of the storyline.

Loved the D-list vilain retreat. Even the wall signs in the background were funny. "Abomaste," "Today is Today," I love the cheesiness.

The camera man was off his game this week. He forgot to give us his traditional gratuitous shot of Nikki's legs.

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6 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

She should still have asked: "Why did you jump me? What specifically do you have against me?" And then he probably would have answered that he was hired.

Or he should have just volunteered it, when she was angry at him "It was nothing personal, I just needed the money! Please don't hurt me!"

Nobody bringing it up is very contrived writing.

She doesn't really have any particular reason to believe that someone hired them to jump her. 

She knows that they jumped her, talking shit about how if she was going to flaunt herself as She-Hulk she needed to back up that action. (And she did.)

She knows, thanks to Nikki, that there's a bunch of incels who talk trash about her and muse about her death.

What did she experience that would make her think that there was someone else behind the attack on her?

Now it's more like Wrecker should have volunteered that they were hired by someone to get her blood if the therapy that Emil had organized was working. Instead, he obscured that they were working for someone by essentially blaming the attack on the Asgardian construction tools that they had. Which might make someone only knowing what Jen knows more convinced that they were just acting on their own.

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15 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Now it's more like Wrecker should have volunteered that they were hired by someone to get her blood if the therapy that Emil had organized was working. Instead, he obscured that they were working for someone by essentially blaming the attack on the Asgardian construction tools that they had. Which might make someone only knowing what Jen knows more convinced that they were just acting on their own.

I suppose "Wrecker" (his name?) might actually remember it like that——due to some mind-wiping or mind-manipulating technology——that the attack was a result of them encountering "Asgardian construction tools."

But I was also left wondering if Blonsky really is on the up-and-up, or if he's part of the group that stole Jen's blood. When she went into the Yurt, I was worried for her. 

At least when Jen left she said she wouldn't be back until they got Wi-Fi, which implies she hasn't joined a cult, if Blonsky's retreat group turns out to be a cult.

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5 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I suppose "Wrecker" (his name?) might actually remember it like that——due to some mind-wiping or mind-manipulating technology——that the attack was a result of them encountering "Asgardian construction tools."

But I was also left wondering if Blonsky really is on the up-and-up, or if he's part of the group that stole Jen's blood. When she went into the Yurt, I was worried for her. 

At least when Jen left she said she wouldn't be back until they got Wi-Fi, which implies she hasn't joined a cult, if Blonsky's retreat group turns out to be a cult.

The four who attacked Jen are longtime D-list villains who originally were Thor foes called the Wrecking Crew. Wrecker is the guy with a magic crowbar, and they referenced Thunderball by supervillain nickname in whichever episode that they first appeared. The other two, Piledriver and Bulldozer, were not explicitly referenced.

I would imagine that Blonsky has no need for Jen's blood. He's got his own gamma-irradiated blood, after all.

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From a 'Everything in the MCU is interconnected and you need to watch everything to see the linkage and to understand the bigger story being told' She Hulk is disappointing. But as a standard 'random story of the week' show I find She-Hulk very appealing. It's a nice little 30-minute diversion form the world.

I've also discovered I prefer She-Hulk to be sitting or standing from a VFX point of view, when she has to walk it becomes very obvious, she is being produced in a computer for a TV show.

I learnt this episode I have no idea what a yurt is. Even after googling I have no idea why I would go to a retreat to sit in a yurt. The internet just tells me it's a 'tent that serves as a house as opposed to a camping tent'.

While I'm not shocked that Josh ended up being one a villain, I was hoping he was maybe abducted by the aliens who flew that ship into Jen's car.

10 hours ago, bettername2come said:

"You 'previously on'd' that guy, right?" may have been my favorite 4th wall breakage yet.

That moment may have been my favourite 4th wall breakage of all time. And I'm glad she did it, because I didn't remember him at all.

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3 hours ago, Bill1978 said:

I learnt this episode I have no idea what a yurt is. Even after googling I have no idea why I would go to a retreat to sit in a yurt. The internet just tells me it's a 'tent that serves as a house as opposed to a camping tent'.

I assumed the Yurt was being used as a low-tech sauna or sweat lodge. 
But then I was a hippie in the 70s. 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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On 9/29/2022 at 3:28 PM, diebartdie said:

....checks note regarding human biology specifically something special about human females in a certain age range....

Explain please? As a human female I don’t get it 🤷🏻‍♀️

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11 hours ago, CletusMusashi said:

I sort of expected that Josh was obtaining a DNA sample from the outside of a used condom, but I suppose the writers don't want to get quite that risque. I wasn't really here for the meet-cute story anyway, so good riddance to that part of the storyline.

Loved the D-list vilain retreat. Even the wall signs in the background were funny. "Abomaste," "Today is Today," I love the cheesiness.

The camera man was off his game this week. He forgot to give us his traditional gratuitous shot of Nikki's legs.

That’s where my mind went.  I’m glad it wasn’t just me!  I was like does he need blood or would… that… work?  Probably blood although I don’t see how he poked her (hehe) and she didn’t wake up or hulk out. 

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15 hours ago, arc said:

@diebartdie is saying Josh coulda stolen a tampon/pad rather than extract blood from a vein.

That’s really not how tampons, pads or periods work though. 

Quote

That’s where my mind went.  I’m glad it wasn’t just me!  I was like does he need blood or would… that… work?  Probably blood although I don’t see how he poked her (hehe) and she didn’t wake up or hulk out. 

I’m guessing blood specifically. If it was just DNA there are a lot easier ways to get it. Yeah, it doesn’t seem plausible to me either unless he drugged her but that an even more disturbing place to go. 
I think I would prefer if they just let the show be completely episodic. The bigger mystery isn’t really holding my attention. 

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There is audience perception. A couple of generations ago we would think a criminal mastermind would need a full vial of blood, like the last Steve Rogers' blood vial that Peggy Carter poured into the Hudson River at the season one end of her show. To a post CSI audience thinking that a transfer of any cell is good enough and if there was a market for hulk "blood"  then cells transferred on to sanitary products or a condom are good enough even if lab rat character doesn't say that or shows us his skills..

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1 hour ago, Raja said:

There is audience perception. A couple of generations ago we would think a criminal mastermind would need a full vial of blood, like the last Steve Rogers' blood vial that Peggy Carter poured into the Hudson River at the season one end of her show. To a post CSI audience thinking that a transfer of any cell is good enough and if there was a market for hulk "blood"  then cells transferred on to sanitary products or a condom are good enough even if lab rat character doesn't say that or shows us his skills..

I assumed the show's graphics people were specifically told what Josh's text emojis should look like——including the syringe with a drop of blood dripping off of it——to literally and figuratively represent Josh's accomplishments.

image.png.97d2a3e29718b7d695ff4085a274815f.png

But when I search "Blood" on my iPhone, it does show both a syringe and a drop of blood, so maybe the image requests for the scene weren't that specific?

image.thumb.png.63913de0ad016a6bdd92ad3093d9c19b.png

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I'm still hung up on motives of the peripheral characters involved with Jen in the last 2 episodes, and I am completely unspoiled.

Maybe I watch too many non-scifi crime shows, but I'm expecting to learn that Josh, Blonsky, Wrecker, and even Blonsky's parole officer have all been intimidated or enticed into working for whomever wants Jen's blood.

Josh took 3 dates to get her blood. This could mean he didn't want to do it, but perhaps he needed money or a family member was being threatened.

And it just seems a little fishy to me that Blonsky's inhibitor monitor went haywire for no discernable reason other than, perhaps: "Come to think of it, I did get a jolt from an electric fence earlier, but it was worth it because my favorite chicken, Princess Silk Feather, was stuck."

And in this episode, Wrecker (who was involved in the earlier attack and attempt to get Jen's blood) is the one who seems to suggest Jen delete Josh's number, which effectively makes it harder to find Josh if/when Jen discovers Josh likely stole her blood, and Jen wants to track down who has her blood:

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[Wrecker] You know, Jen. If Josh isn't spending time on Jen, then Jen doesn't need to be spending time on Josh.

Delete Josh's number is what he's saying.

Oh.

Delete it.
Delete it.
Delete it.
Come on. Delete it.

[Jen] Really?

[All: ( Chanting )] Delete it. Delete it. Delete it. Delete it. Delete it. Delete it. Delete it. Delete it.

[Jen laughs]

Okay. How do you feel?

[Jen] So much growth.

Maybe Blonsky and the guys at the retreat were paid to get Jen there and delete Josh's number since she was obviously not forgetting about it. 
Maybe they even just thought they were being paid to help Josh not get in trouble with his main squeeze (wife, gf, bf, etc.).
Wrecker's original introduction in the earlier episode as a She-Hulk, wannabe-blood-stealer is suspect to me, so maybe Wrecker is the one who offered the Retreat Gang ("not a real gang") a reward to get Jen to delete the number.

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1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm still hung up on motives of the peripheral characters involved with Jen in the last 2 episodes, and I am completely unspoiled.

Maybe I watch too many non-scifi crime shows, but I'm expecting to learn that Josh, Blonsky, Wrecker, and even Blonsky's parole officer have all been intimidated or enticed into working for whomever wants Jen's blood.

Josh took 3 dates to get her blood. This could mean he didn't want to do it, but perhaps he needed money or a family member was being threatened.

I think it has more to do with an increasing social norm, outside of the abstain until marriage crowd, that the third date is the appropriate time to begin a more intimate relationship.

29 minutes ago, paigow said:

Who built the inhibitor technology? Would it work on Banner?

With no word from Hammer since Iron Man 2 and Pym Corp being shrunk in Ant-Man and with the base system perhaps coming from Bruce's leaking inhibitor I would guess from Stark tech over the Wakandans or Roxxon of Cloak & Dagger being the existing high tech players introduced to the MCU 

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