Here’s showrunner Jac Schaeffer talking to EW about it:
“There were early conversations [about Hulkling],” Schaeffer said. “[Eddie] was originally called Teddy because we were looking at the artwork and thinking about that. That was a Marvel decision to not have him be Hulkling for the purposes of our show. Within our show, he is not Hulkling…but we pivoted to Eddie because he is named after a person that is important to the writers’ room. It wasn’t sort of teasing the fans, it was one of those lovely tributes to somebody who matters to us.”
Debra Jo-Rupp really was underutilized.
Episode 8 spoilers
Her death, in hindsight once we know Billy created The Road, is huge for both Agatha and Billy.
Agatha gets to understand that Billy, intentionally or not, will kill people while on The Road. It’s clearly unintentional since when Billy is looking for Tommy he asks if he’s purposefully killing “new Tommy” or if “new Tommy” is already dead.
I think a moment where Billy reflects and really gets to understand that he killed Mrs. Heart/Sharon would have been helpful.
(Although maybe they can throw that into the future. Billy will be tasked by Agatha with needing to kill someone. Billy will be torn, stating that he’s never killed anyone before. Agatha can just nonchalantly mention that he killed Mrs. Heart, causing Billy further distress. Although for that to happen Agatha has to remember her, so that’s less likely.)
Totally agreed about Debra Jo-Rupp. I was pretty sure her death was a fake out and that we would be seeing her again.