A Farewell to #Grimm

I discovered Grimm back in November 2011.  I remember it very distinctly.  I had seen the promotions for the show before it aired and thought it looked interesting, but I missed the first two episodes.  One of my friends recommended to me (he called it “awesome”).  So I had a mini-marathon of the first two episodes and was instantly hooked by Grimm‘s premise and large cast of characters (and–not gonna lie–David Giuntoli).

I started watching the show live with “BeeWare” (remember the Mellifers?).

Almost six years later, I’ve now seen every episode, watching most when they’ve premiered.  This niche drama was so much more than people transforming into monsters and terrorizing Portland, Oregon.  Grimm was a staple in my Friday nights during the regular TV season.  I kept [most of] my Fridays free so I could watch Grimm.  Everyone I know understood how important Grimm was to me.

Somehow, this little show–this strange, wholly original show–stuck on a television night notoriously known for low viewership, beat the odds.  We, the Grimmsters, have so much to do with this for remaining loyal to Grimm for so long.  Staying on air for six years in the current television landscape, which is trying to compete with the increasing popularity of streaming services, is something to be proud of.  While we Grimmsters may always crave for more episodes, we got a complete series.  So many shows now aren’t lucky enough to say that.

Grimm, this show I have loved for six years, was by no means perfect–and there should never be an expectation that any thing will be perfect–or can be.  But what a good show should do is spark conversation–and Grimm definitely did plenty of that, especially in the latter half of the show’s tenure as big storylines played out.  Another one of Grimm‘s biggest strengths was its cast, both on- and off-screen: we bonded with each and every one of the so-called Scooby Gang in our own ways; and the cast, too, always grateful to us as fans, have remained connected with us over the past six years.

Thanks to Grimm, I have connected with you, fellow Grimmsters, from all around the world.  We have live-tweeted together and shared in sometimes tumultuous emotional states.  We bonded over Sean Renard’s #ShirtlessRage, laughed at Wu’s constant snark, and debated whether we liked Juliette (even when it seemed no one cared for her, I always liked Juliette).  We celebrated every Monrosalee moment; we struggled to pronounce and spell Wesen names; and we watched as the show revealed not one, not two, but three separate pregnancies.  Oh, and how could I forget that we watched the evolution of Nick’s hairstyles?

Thanks to Grimm, I had the pleasure of meeting David Giuntoli and Bitsie Tulloch almost two-and-a-half years ago (back then, I learned that David had an interest in directing an episode of the show–and it ended up happening!).  Cast and crew alike noticed this little fan-run blog via Twitter.  This little blog project-turned-hobby became bigger than I ever expected.

To the cast and crew, I say: Good luck to you all with your future projects–I’ll be watching out for them.  And to my fellow fans, I say: the past several years watching, live-tweeting and writing about Grimm with and for you all have been a ton of fun. 

But for now, it’s time to say goodbye to Grimm. And perhaps, to borrow from a fairy tale cliché, it is happily ever after.

 

The End Begins: “Fugitive” Recap

It’s been far too long, Grimmsters, but Grimm (and this blog) are back for the final 13 episodes–and it looks like we’re in for a whopper of a season.

Last May’s finale left us off with some interesting developments: Renard was named mayor, Nick came back form the dead (thanks, magic stick!), Black Claw leader Bonaparte was killed by Renard (who was being controlled by Diana), and Eve was saved with the magic stick (and she may be Juliette again).

So let’s hop right into “Fugitive,” shall we?

“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”

As is customary in the world of Grimm, we picked up right where we left off–Nick is miraculously alive, thanks to the magic stick in his pocket, and Renard, under his daughter’s spell, kills Bonaparte.  Nick and Renard, now enemies, stare at each other for a moment, Renard wondering how Nick is alive and Nick wondering why Renard killed Bonaparte. Instead of a standoff between the two men, Renard leaves in a daze.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Scooby gang, unaware that Nick is alive, looks for a way out of the tunnels.  Monroe finds out, but Nick quickly joins them, but not before Trubel almost beheads him accidentally.

There’s an extremely tense scene between Adalind and Renard.  Renard returns home, still dazed by the night’s events, but with a keen awareness of what happened to him.  He suspects Diana’s involvement almost immediately…but how can you discipline a child who has complete control over you?

So, when Renard leaves, what does he do?  Immediately frame Nick for Bonaparte’s death, of course, and for the deaths in the precinct (which were actually Wu’s doing).  He orders the Portland PD to search for Nick.

We fell in love with Renard for his complexity to blur the distinctions between good and evil. He has always acted in his own best interests, but now he is pure evil, driven almost blindly by the will of Black Claw.  Until he perceives blood on his hands–a straightforward motif that may suggest a bit of morality exists within him.  But whose blood, even though it is not actual blood, is on his hands? Is it that of Nick’s or Bonaparte’s?  Does he regret his attempts to frame Nick for Bonaparte’s death or does he regret putting a damper in Black Claw’s plans in Portland?

Unbeknownst to Renard, his decision to scope out Nick’s whereabouts is met with some resistance by his department.  Officer Franco, who’s been in many episodes over the years, has always played a small role.  But he warns Hank and Wu about Renard’s plans, and encourages them to keep Nick safe.  “I don’t want to have anything to do with taking out one of our own,” he says, suggesting his support for Nick.

So where does this leave Nick?  After a call from a stressed Adalind calls him and says she needs him, he runs to her–literally, stopping by the house she and Renard share.  There is a genuine, tender Nadalind moment as they practically leap into each other’s arms and kiss.  Adalind is truly frightened and wants to keep her family safe and together.  Nick holds baby Kelly, if only for a moment.

Nadalind shippers everywhere are rejoicing.

Adalind mentions the cursed ring and how its magic can survive even though Bonaparte is dead–and I sat on the couch wondering why, of all the things happening in Portland right now, she’s concerned about that ring.  We’ll figure it out later, Adalind–I know it’s a symbol of an “engagement” you don’t want, but it’s not like Nick is particularly upset about it.

After learning about Renard’s plans, Nick, not officially on the run, goes to one location he believes he’s sure to stay safe–Wurstner’s Refrigerator Repair.  I personally enjoy any excuse to see Bud in an episode, even though I know, given his nervous nature, he isn’t the best person to hide a fugitive.  And, eventually, the Portland PD learns that Nick is [likely] hiding out at Bud’s shop.

Nick is also rather lucky that Hank and Wu are working in the precinct, because they can tell him when things go awry.  Renard attempts to threaten Hank and Wu, but Hank is ready for it.

The Scooby gang meets to plan some sort of diversion.  Their plan?  Have Bud transport a refrigerator that is large enough to fit a man in it and make it seem like Nick is inside it.  But when you’ve got cops chasing cops, you can’t really get much of a head start against your opponent.  Renard and other officers surround Bud’s shop.

“Take them down,” Renard says, and the screen fades to black.

Other notes:

I don’t know if we’ll fully understand the powers of the magic stick (though I think we’d all like to).  We definitely did get some hints about the extent of its power, though.

As we know, it saved both Nick and Eve.  But it seems to have some lingering effects on Eve.  For one, she seems to be getting some of her emotion back, but this is probably part of a larger issue.  Back at the spice shop, she touches a dead Black Claw member–and the dead man grips her arm.  In a very odd scene, the man has her in a literal “death grip” in a dark, smoky area, and it’s not until Rosalee cuts off the dead man’s arm that Eve is freed from this.  It turns out that the “death grip,” as it is officially called, sent her “pure soul” to the Underworld.

It may be worth your while to watch the scene for yourself.

It’s worthy to note that the dead Black Claw member had patterns on his face.  It becomes a plot point when Trubel shows the mysterious cloth to Eve, who, somehow, is able to decipher the faded patterns, as seen on the Black Claw member, on the cloth itself.  So it seems that trip to the Underworld was rather helpful…

Rachel Wood was found dead in her apartment.  And guess what…Renard’s fingerprints are all over it.  While we know Renard didn’t kill her (it was Diana), Renard may need to find a way to cover himself.  Or maybe he deserves to be falsely accused of her murder, just as he falsely accused Nick.  It would make for some interesting karma.

Next week, Nick becomes Renard!  Yeah, because we haven’t seen any weird side effects from that spell before.  (Also, #ShirtlessRage.)

 

 

#GrimmFinale Part 1 Recap

How do you sum up two hours of intense Grimm action?  Death, destruction, a couple of arrests, and some plot twists.  Technically, we saw two different episodes, so I’ll break both of them down individually.

Part I: “Set Up”

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

We pick back up at Hadrian’s Wall headquarters with a furious Nick who wants nothing more than to ruin Renard. The HW crew explains that controlling Portland is just the beginning for Black Claw–their plan is to move up in all forms of government.  The team adds Conrad Bonaparte to the top of their Black Claw hierarchy, as he’s the one controlling the Portland movement.

The conversation is stopped, though, when Hank gets a call about two dead bodies in his own home.

The show cuts to Monroe and Rosalee, who are cooped up at home because two Black Claw members are staked outside of their home.  What’s most important from this scene is Monroe’s impulsive instincts to take out the Black Claw members himself and Rosalee’s sudden ill health.

Meanwhile, behind closed doors, Renard and Adalind don’t hide their dislike for each other so that even Diana picks up on it.  Adalind rejects all of Renard’s advances–she has truly made a great transformation this season.

Throughout most of the finale, Diana is a creepy child.  She has two Tim Burton-esque dolls that she uses as a sort of voodoo power to control her parents’ actions.  She forces them to kiss, but Adalind realizes that Diana is controlling her and Renard (who is more willing to accept this than Adalind).

Later on, Adalind tells Diana that she cannot force two people together, especially not mommy and daddy.  Diana also voices her dislike of Rachel (who she ends up killing later.  Someone please tell this child that murder is not ok).

The first set up of the finale involves Hank.  The dead men in his house are the two Black Claw members that Nick killed.  Two detectives from the Portland North precinct claim that they had a witness to the crime, so they arrest Hank to take him in for questioning.

Nick and Wu know that something is wrong here, though, so they start and investigation and learn that Hank’s neighbor was forced by Black Claw to be a witness to Hank’s crime.  But Hank isn’t listed in the North Precinct’s records.  The detectives who took Hank are actually members of Black Claw (no surprises there), so they kidnap him and take him to a house and not the precinct.

Bonaparte and Adalind have a great scene together, mainly because Adalind throws a couple of zingers at him.  Despite leaving Nick and taking Kelly with her, she has been amazing this season.  Bonaparte threatens Adalind by woging into a full Zauerbiest, which is equally as creepy as a Hexenbiest.

He turns her into stone to show her the kind of power he possesses.  He places a ring on her finger–an engagement ring intended to be from Renard–that he warns she can never take off if she wants to keep her children safe.

Back at Portland PD, Nick and Wu make a plan to try to get information out of Tony Talomoti, since he was involved in framing Hank.  They know that they’ll never get information out of him by speaking to him alone, so they bring in Monroe and Rosalee to talk to him. Nick and Wu break all ethical codes by allowing Monroe to “speak” to Tony himself.  Monroe beats the address where hank is being kept out of Tony (521 Skyline Drive–and it’s episode 5×21).

Nick and Renard share a tender moment in the precinct.  Portland PD officers congratulate Renard on his election victory.  Renard catches Nick’s glance, and the two stare longingly into each other’s eyes.  You can see just how proud Nick is that his police captain will become the mayor of Portland.

The episode cuts back to 521 Skyline Drive, where Hank is being snarky with the detectives who kidnapped him.  Oh, Hank, you are so underappreciated.

Our heroes and HW head out to rescue Hank, which they successfully do.  But they soon learn that Black Claw traced Zuri’s whereabouts to HW headquarters, so Hank’s set up was just a diversion for another set up to infiltrate HW.

Black Claw storms in on HW, destroying every thing and every person in sight.  Even our poor dear Meisner, who has worked tirelessly to learn about Black Claw, study their members, and keep Portland safe with an underground militia, falls victim to Conrad Bonaparte.  Renard watches his former friend suffer and fires the shot that kills him.

Was it out of spite or mercy?   We may never know.  But Renard is starting to learn at this point that he is no more than a pawn in Bonaparte’s game of power.

Our heroes return to HW headquarters to find everything trashed and Meisner dead.  It’s unfortunate that our heroes didn’t have the magical healing stick.  If anything, though, Meisner’s death has given everyone a reason to fight.

At the end of the episode, an even more furious Nick acts impulsively in the middle of the day at the precinct.  He storms into Renard’s office, tells him about Meisner’s death, and assaults him.  Renard woges and an all-out brawl ensues, which ends with Renard shoving Nick through a window.

The episode ends with Nick being arrested.  Wow, Nick, good one, there.

Stay tuned for another blog post about part II of the season finale.  Double the episodes means double the writing!

 

Episode title speaks for itself: “Bad Night” Recap

“We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.”

Vengeance and betrayal were the key themes of “Bad Night,” the penultimate episode of season 5.  It’s hard to believe that Friday May 20 is the season finale.

Here are the key events of “Bad Night”:

• “I can’t stand by and do nothing. He’s my son.”

The episode begins with a furious Nick, who attempts to call Hank about Adalind leaving with Kelly.  But when hank doesn’t pick up the phone, Nick acts on his impulses by going after Renard.  He breaks into Renard’s old home in an attempt to confront him, but little does he know that Renard is in an extravagant home provided to him by Black Claw.

Throughout the episode he blames Renard for taking his family away from him, not Adalind.  he doesn’t believe that Adalind was given much of a choice in joining Renard.  But his ultimate goal is to protect his son.

• “Like it or not, we’re a family.”

Adalind arrives at Renard’s new home–and technically her home, too.  All she wants to do is see Diana, but Black Claw keeps her daughter from her until she agrees to stay with Renard.  He attempts to make advances on her, but Adalind makes it clear to him that this is not what she wants.

I must say, I am proud of Adalind.  Her character transformation remains intact–she feels trapped by Renard and Black Claw.  She doesn’t want to align herself with them, but she feels as if it’s the only way she can reunite with Diana.  Her priority is her family, and she does want to protect her children and Nick.

• “Don’t underestimate little girls.”

Diana is a creepy child.  She meets Kelly and “plays” with him, but her idea of playing with her brother is making him levitate in the air and almost give her poor mother a heart attack.

She also wants her parents together.  Apparently Diana is conscientious of her parents’ relative dislike of each other, so she uses her powers to force them to hold hands.  And based upon next week’s promo, it looks like Renard and Adalind ma be forced to do even more…

So what is the extent of Diana’s powers? And how is she able to control an adult half-Zauerbiest and adult Hexenbiest?

• “Revolutions are forged in blood.”

Nick and Renard have a late-night meeting in Renard’s office that, surprisingly, does not lead to a fight.  We learn that Renard has fully engrossed himself in the beliefs of Black Claw–he truly believes that Wesen should have power in Portland and not have to hide themselves any more.  He has proven that he is no different from the power-hungry Royals before him.  Any question of Renard’s loyalty has now been answered: he is Nick’s enemy.

Despite this, Renard tries to recruit Nick into joining Black Claw.  Yeah, like that would ever happen.  We’d need a complete subversion of Hadrian’s Wall’s goals in order to even toy with that idea.

Renard does make an important observation for Nick, though.  Nick addresses his anger for having his son taken away from him.  Renard draws a parallel for Nick, reminding him that he agreed to have Kelly Burkhardt raise Diana for the greater good.  Renard believes that sacrifices must be made in his game of power.  But Nick doesn’t see it that way.

• “It’s not Pandora’s box…”

Nick gets deeper and deeper into working with Hadrian’s Wall.  They show him a hierarchy chart for Black Claw to give him an idea of the power structure of the organization.  They took his son, and now they’re going down.

Because Nick knows that he may be sacrificing his own life to remove Black Claw from Portland, he takes Trubel into the tunnel in his home and shows her the magical healing stick that he and Monroe found in Germany.  His logic for showing her: she’s a Grimm, and if anything were to happen to him, she would have this available to her, if needed.  Trubel observes that it looks like “it broke off of something.”  Foreshadowing?

• Hanks learns the truth about Zuri.

Hank spends a night with Zuri, who gets help from Tony (the man Rosalee knew) to steal Hank’s phone, download all of his data, and then return it as if he never had it.  But Hank is skeptical–how could Zuri think that she could outsmart a detective anyway?  Zuri claims that Black Claw threatened her, but she is actually allied with them.  She is taken into HW headquarters for “questioning” by Eve and Trubel.

• Wu learns self-control.

Once again, we visit Wu’s apartment.  This time, we basically resolve his lycanthrope subplot.  He forces himself to become angry (like he’s the Hulk or something) and morph into his wolf form, and then he exercises incredible control of himself by returning to his human state.  It’s almost as if his lycanthropia is a woge, even though we’ve learned that it is a virus.

• “You’re dead.”

The new mayor of Portland is…Sean Renard, of course.  After all, we do need to advance the plot.  And Black Claw can’t lose the election!  The polls before the election made it seem as if it was a close race, but exit polls predicted a landslide.

When Renard heads to thee stage to thank the voters and speak about his victory, he calls upon Adalind and his children to come to the stage.  His children!  This bastard is calling Kelly his own child!  Adalind does not want to join him on stage at all, but she puts a fake smile on her face.

Such a happy family.

 

And, watching from a TV, a furious Nick forewarns Renard: “You’re dead.”

Prepare yourselves for an epic two-hour finale, Grimmsters.  This is gonna get ugly.

Plot threads in action: “Taming of the Wu” Recap

Throughout the second half of season 5, our heroes have spent most of their time on our usual cases of the week, leaving the Black Claw plotline on the sidelines.  But now, with the season ending in just a few short weeks, plot threads are finally starting to come together.

Let’s break down the major events of the “Taming of the Wu”:

Wu finally learns what is happening to him.

The episode opens in the hospital with Wu, who seems to be recovering well from last week’s near-death experience with a Barbatus Ossifrage.  Nick and Hank visit him to see how he’s doing.

Once Nick and Hank leave the hospital, an unknown man stops outside of Wu’s room and calls someone on the phone, telling them that Wu is in the hospital.  Now, why is someone stalking Wu?

Not creepy at all.

 

Later that night, while a nurse is checking up on Wu, he morphs (I am not referring to it as a woge since he is technically not Wesen) in front of her, and, like most people, she freaks out and runs out of the room to tell the doctors what she has seen.  By the time the nurse returns to Wu’s room with doctors, though, he is back to normal (and doesn’t have any recollection of what happened).

The next day, Wu is discharged from the hospital, and Nick and Hank take him back to his apartment.  He tells Nick and Hank that he has been having strange dreams and dreaming of red meat, and Nick tells him to visit Rosalee if he feels as if he needs anything.

Don’t you hate when you’re trying to make a sandwich and watch your boss’ political ad and you wolf out?

When did Renard have the time to film this? Also, where was Rachel in this episode?

 

Well, this happens to Wu as he’s trying to open a jar of mustard.  He breaks the jar, cuts his hand, and goes to the sink to wash the cut, but his arm wolfs out.  Once his arm returns to normal, though, his cut has started to heal.  And, to make matters worse, he notices that an old pickup truck has been sitting outside his apartment building all day long.

Wu calls Rosalee and tells her that he’s going to come to the spice shop.  Before he does that, though, he coyly investigates who’s inside the pickup truck.  The man following him is Theo Delano, who has been arrested Wu three times.

Theo follows Wu to an alley, where Wu confronts him.  Theo woges into a Skalengeck, and then the two fight.  But since we are following Wu’s perspective, we don’t see the fight.

After Nick and Hank are called in to see Theo’s dead body, they visit Wu, who is unconscious–and covered in blood–on his bed.  Though he does not remember what happened, he realizes that he killed Theo.

Trubel find Theo in the Black Claw database, so none of our heroes are too concerned that Wu killed a member of Black Claw.

Worried for Wu, Nick and Hank take him to the spice shop.  Rosalee gives revocare tenebris to Wu, which is a potion that forces Wu into a deep sleep and forces him to remember the deepest, darkest memories in his mind.  And, because it’s convenient for the plot, revocare tenebris induces sleep-talking.  Wu recalls the fight with Theo and confirms that he killed him.  He also morphs in his sleep, which is recorded by Monroe.

Our heroes confirm what we all know-that Wu is a lycanthrope, contracting the virus from the scratch he’s had for several episodes now.  Rosalee says that Wu’s morph is an emotional response that forces him into a survival mode.  While they have no cure for it, he must find a way to stay calm and avoid stress.

Wu is okay with this, just as long as he isn’t crazy.

Diana has powers beyond what anyone can fully comprehend.

Early in the episode, Meisner returns.  He trespasses into a home, searching in the dark.  He finds two dead bodies and walks through a child’s room.

Subtle.

 

While in the child’s room, he discovers the Black Claw symbol marked on a wall.

He starts to fight a Hundjager that is ultimately killed by Trubel (welcome back, Trubel!)  This home was the safe house where Diana was kept.

When Diana sees her mother, she does not want her to leave.  But Renard is giving Adalind the choice on whether to stay with them (and effectively join Black Claw).  Diana begs her mother to stay with them, but Adalind can’t give an answer to Diana immediately.  In the only way a young witch can throw a temper tantrum, she expresses her power to her parents.  And the only way Adalind can get her to calm down is to tell her that she needs more time to make a decision.

Why do her eyes change color?  Is this because she can’t woge yet?

 

Diana, however, has powers that can’t be matched.  Several times throughout the episode, she reaches out to Adalind telepathically, asking her where she is.  And with each connection, Adalind feels worse and worse about being away from her daughter.

Diana can even mimic voices.  She calls her mother in the voice of Renard, urging Adalind to make a decision.

At one point, Eve even hears Diana reaching out to Adalind.  She thinks this is because Adalind turned into Juliette, who also turned into Adalind.  Because of this, the two women are connected.  And it certainly helps with HW’s investigation of Black Claw and Diana.

Badasses.

 

Eve warns Nick not to trust Adalind.  Both Nick and Eve are determined to keep Kelly safe.

New character alert: meet Conrad Bonaparte.

Conrad Bonaparte is most likely a leader of Black Claw.  We see him in three key scenes during the episode.

We first meet him when he meets Renard.  Bonaparte claims that Adalind should join Black Claw, and Nick should, too, because they think they are the ones doing good for Portland.

We see Bonaparte again when he meets Adalind at her office and tells her that she has to make a decision on whether to join Black Claw by the end of the day.  So much pressure is placed on Adalind throughout the episode.

Bonaparte shows up on screen a third time with Zuri.  Remember Zuri, Hank’s Wesen physical therapist?  Remember how we speculated whether she was with Black Claw?  Well, it seems like she is conspiring against Hank for whatever reason.  Come on, Zuri.  Hank is a great guy–he doesn’t deserve this.

Adalind makes hard choices.

This entire season has offered a chance for redemption for Adalind Schade.  And, mostly, she has done an excellent job of redeeming herself…except for the poor communication that she has had with Nick.

She finally reveals to him that she has her powers back, though she doesn’t tell him–she summons her phone to her.  Nick, unsurprised, tells her that he will not hurt her.  His reasoning is mostly for his son: he lost his mother twice, and he never wants Kelly to face that.

She does not tell him, however, about meeting Renard and Diana.  If she confided in Nick about this, though, I’m sure he would find a way to help her make a choice about what to do.

Inside Adalind’s mini-crisis.

 

Instead, though, Adalind wrestles with the dilemma on her own.  She does not want Kelly to be separated from Nick, but she also wants Diana back.  So she takes Kelly with her, leaving Nick on his own.

This is so sad.

 

She leaves this note behind:

How sorry is she, though?  If she really loved Nick, would she have told him about meeting up with Renard and Diana?  Or is the situation

With the power of magic, most of the words disappear from the letter, leaving this behind:

Is Adalind doing the right thing?  I don’t know myself.  What’s your take on it, Grimmsters?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regurgitating bones: “Good to the Bone” Recap

“The evil that men do lives after them; it is oft interred with their bones.”

Hasenfussige Schnecke, Musasat Alsh-Shabab, and now the new Wesen, the Barbatus Ossifrage.  It seems as if the entire Grimm production crew’s whole goal for season 5 is to gross us out as much as possible.

Note to Grimm execs: It’s working.

The Barbatus Ossifrage, the Wesen of the week, is a vulture-like Wesen that preys on the wounded who are facing inevitable death.  This week, a man named Charlie is our vulture, going after the wounded.

But he has to hurt his victims even more before he can consume them.  Politely, of course, he tells his victims that he regrets what he must do.  And then he runs them over with his car…twice.  But this is all part of the process, you see.  He has to crush his victim’s bones before he can digest them internally.

So what’s the end goal in all of this?  Well, Charlie has some pretty terrible parents.  And he has to feed them because they’re always so hungry.  And how does he feed them?  By regurgitating the bones of the victims he’s consumed, after all.

Ugh.

Thankfully, though, the case of the week portion of the episode doesn’t take itself too seriously (how could you with this subject matter?).  When Nick, Hank, and Wu find a victim who’s been de-boned, Nick says, “Well, this guy just got boned.”  (Look, Nick, we get that you’re a father now, but you really don’t have to start with the dad jokes.)

The best running joke of the night has to do with Monroe and a “perfume” concocted by Rosalee.  The Barbatus Ossifrage, as a vulture, is attracted to the scent of death.  In order to get Charlie to our heroes, they decide that someone needs to be offered as fake bait to the Barbatus Ossifrage.  They call agree on Monroe, because he’s always the sacrifice.  Rosalee makes the death perfume and Monroe wears it (but it doesn’t even end up working anyway because the Barbatus Ossifrage goes after Wu).  Needless to say, everyone has a hilarious reaction to the “perfume” and jokes about Monroe’s stench throughout the episode.  And at the end, once the case is finished, Nick and Hank joke that Monroe won’t be going home with them because of the scent he’d leave in their cars.

Karma is also a factor in this episode.  Charlie is killed by being hit by a car.  And, when Nick and Hank take Charlie’s parents to the morgue to see their dead son, they consume his bones because they’re such great parents.

Let’s spend more time talking about what happened outside of the case of the week.

Hank reconnects with Zuri, his former physical therapist.

Oh, look, a nice break from Nadalind!  While shopping in the frozen food section of the grocery store, Hank runs into Zuri.  They have a dinner date at her house.  Zuri likes that Hank isn’t bothered that she is Wesen.

I don’t know what will come out of this.  Is she with Black Claw?  Will Hank really find love?  Only time will tell.

We’ve got ourselves a WuWolf.

We witnessed a full transformation of Wu.

Next week’s episode is, “The Taming of the Wu.”  Now, there’s no cure for lycanthropia, as we’ve learned.

So how exactly are we going to tame Wu?  Lock him up monthly?

Renard is back to his old self again.

Oh, Renard.  You are the least trustworthy character, but you are also the most compelling.  Renard calls Adalind and tells her to meet with him, alone, at a designated location.  Not sketchy at all.

And despite her reservations about his motivations, Adalind drops off Kelly with aunt Rosalee (I really want a scene of Rosalee babysitting) and goes off to meet Renard in a dark parking garage.

This is going to end well.

Renard, who knows that Adalind does not trust him, kidnaps her (always the answer!) and takes her to an undisclosed location.  Adalind calls him a bastard.  I agree with her (and so does he).

Renard brings Diana to Adalind, and, like his reunion with his daughter last week, Diana runs to her mother and gives her a warm embrace.  And, just like that, Adalind is probably sucked in to Renard’s scheme.

And somehow, Diana recognizes her parents.

The big question is, who will be hurt because of this?

Next week *seems* to be all about Diana, which is actually pretty exciting.  Maybe we’ll find out where she has been this whole time?

 

Ghost Dog: “Inugami” Recap

There was A LOT going on in “Inugami,”so let’s break down all of the important events.

“Revenge us an act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice.”

Another week, another Wesen tradition.  This time, it’s the Inugami, a Japanese spirit dog that protects and seeks vengeance for a family it serves.

The case of the week starts with two teenagers.  One named Roger is trying to call his friend Brian, who refuses to talk to him and locks himself in a basement, playing video games for hours on end.  Brian’s parents, who are going out for the night, try to tell Brian that he should speak to Roger.

Once his parents leave, Brian is kidnapped, taken to a river, and buried up to his neck next to the river.  He is then decapitated with a katana, and his head is placed under a bridge.

After our heroes begin their investigation and ID Brian’s body, they question his parents.  And then the case starts to get a bit more interesting.

According to Brian’s parents, Brian and Roger were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide three weeks prior to Brian’s death.  Last year, they said, Brian, Roger, and their other friend Kuma were drinking and found a loaded gun.  Then the gun accidentally went off and Kuma was shot and killed.  Ever since that day, Brian had fallen into a deep depression, isolating himself from his family and friends.

Brian’s father claimed that Jin Akagi, Kuma’s father, said that Brian and Roger deserved to die for what they did to Kuma.  So Brian’s father believed that Jin killed Brian.

Nick and Hank visit the Akagi home, but they are unwilling to speak with detectives without their lawyer.  The Akagis are not responsible for Brian’s murder because they were at a fundraiser for the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital (which is the hospital that is helped and supported by the Grimmster Endowment).

Roger’s account later in the story gave even more information.  Kuma had showed them one of his family’s swords, and Roger said he had an even better weapon to show them.  He found an old gun in his home, and Brian picked up the gun.  it accidentally went off, which scared Kuma, who woged in front of his friends.  Brian then dropped the gun, which went off again.  Then Kuma was shot and killed.

This is a gorgeous Wesen.

 

At this point, Nick and Hank know that Wesen are involved.  They visit the Akagis again, who tell Nick and Hank about the legend of the Inugami, which acts as a guardian for a family. Their lawyer, Takeshi, is the Inugami who protects the Akagi family and is seeking vengeance for Kuma’s death.

Our heroes find and catch Takeshi as he is about to kill Roger.  And thus closes another case of the week.

Here are the other big moments from “Inugami”:

Adalind has a job interview at her old law firm.

Wesen law firm, I should say.  She brings Kelly along with her, and her old boss, who woges into a Lausenschlange, is glad that Adalind wants to return to work.  She woges, too, but baby Kelly doesn’t seem to mind.  In fact, he smiles when he sees his mama woge.  It’s actually very cute, because he sees his mom, not a monster.

*attempts to contain uncontrollable laughter that comes as a result of seeing an adorable baby smile*

 

Were-Wu.

If we see Wu in his apartment, then something bad is probably going to happen.  Either Wu is having some weird dreams or we saw his first outing as a lycanthrope.  There were no dead bodies aside from Brian’s that would have suggested that Wu hurt anyone, but he did leave behind some leaf clutter in his apartment.

This is not good.

 

“If you hurt Nick, I will come for you.”

As part of her brainwashing by HW, no doubt, Eve was rather protective over Nick in this episode, particularly when it came to Adalind.  In the beginning of the episode, Eve met Nick in his car and warned him about Renard’s collaboration with Black Claw.

But she also reminded him that the suppressant Adalind took would not last much longer.  And once Adalind became a full Hexenbiest again, she would not be the same.  Nick, slightly wary, reminds Eve that he’s been there, done that with a Hexenbiest transformation before.

Later, Rosalee tells Nick and Monroe about the incident with Tony and Adalind in the spice shop while they were in Germany.  Once Nick realizes that Adalind has been keeping her slow transformation back into a Hexenbiest a secret from him for some time, he becomes wary–almost distrusting.

Rosalee, ever the voice of reason, tells Nick that Adalind is scared.  But Nick, who’s been heartbroken once by a very similar situation, is understandably uneasy.  I can understand why both Adalind and Nick are keeping secrets, but it would be better for both of them–but great for their son–if they communicated with each other.  Then again, this is a television drama we’re watching.

Later, while Nick is out working the case of the week, Eve visits Adalind at the fome, armed with two warnings.  One: Black Claw will try to approach Adalind and draw her in (which Adalind has some idea of, considering her conversation with Renard about Diana a few episodes ago).  Two: If Adalind hurts Nick, Eve will come for her.

I guess Eve is trying to make up for all of the deplorable things she did to Nick while she was still Juliette.

“I’m not spending the night down here.  And I have to pee.”

Nick desperately wants to know what exactly the tunnels at the fome lead to.  While he’s busy with the case and Adalind is at a job interview at her old law firm, he enlists the help of Monroe and Rosalee to investigate the tunnels themselves.  He wanted them to look at the tunnels while Adalind was not home, because he can’t even trust the mother of his son.

I’m not quite sure how long they were down in the tunnels, but they did manage to find a new friend.

Should we give him/her a name?

 

And they also managed to get stuck in the tunnels after they heard Adalind come back home from her job interview.  Fun times.

“Diana?”

Ah, yes, you read that correctly.  Rachel Wood has done her job well, hasn’t she?  At the end of the episode, Renard comes home, but Rachel is already waiting for him at the top of the stairs.  And, somehow, she has Diana with her.

Someone please explain her rapid aging to me.

 

The last time we saw Diana, she was a toddler in a helicopter being taken by Meisner to who-knows-where.  And now both Meisner and Diana are in Portland and we don’t really know how either of them got there.  unless that helicopter never did get very far.

Renard seems genuinely surprised and happy to see his daughter, though whether it’s because he really wanted to see her or it’s for his power grab is yet to be determined.  And, despite being separated from him for her entire life, Diana runs into her father’s arms (ok, but it’s kinda cute).

Because I’m skeptical of Renard’s motivations, I can’t tell if this is a truly tender moment. 

 

Well, Renard has the daughter, but now he needs the wife to complete that happy family.  And I think we know just the person to fill that role.

 

Releasing the Devil within: “The Believer” Recap

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”

This week’s Grimm featured a reversal of our normal case of the week format: there was no true evil character.

The episode started with Nick and Hank briefing Monroe and Rosalee on Renard’s involvement with Andrew Dixon’s death.  Monroe says he never really trusted Renard.  The consensus here is that they won’t wholly trust Renard, because they do not know the extent of his involvement in Dixon’s murder.

Monroe gets a call from Ian Krieger, his professor friend, and sets up an appointment so Ian can help them analyze the cloth that was wrapped around the magical healing stick.

Not too much later, Eve visits the spice shop, looking fabulous.

I like this black wig.

 

She tells everyone that she is using that morphing potion to turn into Renard, and she asks for Nick and Hank’s help to make sure that, whenever she is Renard, she is nowhere near where he is.  She thinks that morphing into Renard is the best way to get the information she needs about his role in Dixon’s death and his mayoral candidacy.

Later, we witness a large church service led by Dwight Eleazar, a traveling priest whose entire mantra is that there is great evil in the world that we must confront.  He gathers a group of passionate followers who all come to see him take all of their sins and become possessed by the Devil himself.

But we viewers know that Dwight is not actually possessed by Satan.  He is simply a new Wesen called the Furis Rubian.  He woges for the crowd, then compels the “Devil” to leave his body.

During this entire scene, a man named Benjamin McCullogh is taking a super secret iPhone video of Dwight (which is prohibited at his services).

Super sneaky.

 

A guard notices Benjamin taking the video and attempts to stop him, which results in a fight outside of the tent.  Benjamin accidentally kills the guard and runs off before other guards can catch up to him.  Now is the time to cue our heroes on the scene.

Nick and Hank meet Dwight Eleazar himself, who claims to our heroes that he is not a performer.  He is invested in casting out the Devil.

But Nick and Hank don’t buy it.

Meanwhile, Benjamin takes the video back to his own church, the Church of the Word of God.  The leader of this church, Joan Vark, wants to “save” Dwight and cast the Devil out of his body.  Hmmmm, I wonder why she is so interested in helping him?

We have to wait a little while to get the answer to that question.  Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank learn that all of Dwight’s guards had previous criminal histories that suddenly stopped (most likely when they found religion).  Benjamin, too, had his own criminal past that also stopped.

During this time, Wu gets a random muscle strain in his neck.  This is definitely a side effect of that lycanthrope scratch he received two episodes ago.

Nick and Hank learn from Monroe and Rosalee that Dwight is definitely a Furis Rubian.  This type of Wesen has been mistaken for the Devil for hundreds of years, but is not usually a violent species.

Wu does some more research on his own at the precinct and stumbles upon an interesting piece of information: Dwight Eleazar and Joan Vark were married for 15 months.

During this scene, Wu’s sense are heightened.  Hmmm, another side effect of that lycanthrope scratch, I see.

It turns out that Joan Vark wants to save Dwight–in her own scheming way.  Mark, one of Dwight’s guards, betrays him and conspires with the Church of the Word of God to “save” Dwight.  In exchange, he is intended to receive gold coins worth thousands of dollars.

Nick, Hank, Monroe, and Rosalee go to the second night of Dwight’s Portland services and see him woge in public.  Everyone in the tent except for them is shocked by Dwight’s performance.

Afterward, Nick and Hank visit Dwight’s trailer and talk to him about his work.  Nick tells him that he is a Grimm, and, for a moment, Dwight tries to deny that he knows what Nick is talking about.  But when he does woge, he seems almost indifferent to Nick’s “duty” as a Grimm to kill him.

“I have a gift, and I use it to help people,” Dwight says.  This is a Wesen who has no desire to harm people.  He actually believes that he is doing more harm than good.

That’s why the end of Dwight’s story is so tragic.  The Church of the Word of God does end up kidnapping him in order to cast the Devil out of his body.  Mark, his guard, disgusted by his betrayal of Dwight, hangs himself.

Back at Joan’s church, each member takes a turn sticking a hot poker in Dwight’s body.  Now, I’ve never performed an exorcism, but usually there’s a lot of chanting in Latin on Supernatural.  These people, unaware that Dwight is Wesen, are the ones who are doing more harm than good.

Our heroes arrive (and Renard, too) just before Dwight dies.  It’s a sad end to the story of a Wesen who believed that he was helping people.  But the only justice is that the people of Joan’s church are all arrested.

Here are some other important notes from “The Believer”:

• Renard participates in his first debate.

Gun control was the big topic of the mayoral debate between Renard and his challenger.  And, while Renard wasn’t horrible at the debate, he did not perform as well as he could have, given his usual strong demeanor.

• Eve becomes Renard for a few hours.

Eve takes on the form of Renard and visits his home.  Rachel shows up, and Eve attempts to ask questions to her in order to get some vital information.  But all Rachel wants to do is have sex, which leads to disaster and hilarity.  I don’t think Eve was quite expecting her first outing as Renard to go so horribly.

Sasha Roiz deserves big praise for his portrayal of Eve, though.  He nailed her cadences, vocal tone, and deadpan facial expressions.  He was so much fun to watch and I can’t wait to see more of it.

• Ian Krieger studies the cloth.

At the end of the episode, Nick, Hank, Monroe, and Rosalee visit Ian Krieger’s lab.  He runs a thermal imaging test on the cloth and fins text in Aramaic and Latin.  Thermal imaging also shows the silhouette of the stick itself, and Monroe has to make up a story that his uncle Felix had had the cloth in his attic for many years.

Back at the Spice Shop, our heroes start decoding the Latin.  They decipher two words: miraculum (miracle) and periculosum (hazardous, dangerous).  So, it looks like our magical healing stick is a dangerous miracle.  That doesn’t sound like something we don’t already know.

Next week, Adalind’s Hexenbiest powers come back in full force.  And it seems like we could have another possible #BiestFight on our hands.

And, as you probably know by now, Grimm has been renewed for a sixth season!

 

 

 

Another gross Wesen: “Skin Deep” Recap

Sometimes on Grimm, we see Wesen that look awesome (like the Mauvais Dentes or Balam).  Other times, they’re pretty, like the Fuschbau.

And then sometimes there are abominations, like the Lebensauger and Hassenfussige Schnecke.

The Musasat Alsh-Shabab was one of those abominations.

The episode starts with a young woman named Summer Blake (who looks a lot like Zoey Deschanel).  She meets a charming Australian photographer med Malcolm Caulfield, who tells her that she has the perfect look for modeling.  She goes to his studio, has a lovely photo shoot, and for a minute I forget that I’m watching Grimm.

All goes well until she takes a break from the flashing lights and Malcolm offers her some water.  Since this is Grimm we’re watching, he drugs her and waits until she is unconscious to woge into a disgusting beetle-like Wesen, mandibles and all, and sucks out her youth.  He even has face sacks that enlarge as he sucks out the youth of his victims.

His young victims become old and withered.  It’s hyper-aging that ends up killing them.

Back at Nick and Adalind’s home, Nick has an adorable moment with this son.  It speaks for itself.

I wonder how much David was really acting here.

Of course, this great moment that I could have watched for an entire episode was interrupted by a call from Eve.

Nick is at HW headquarters for a very short scene.  Eve tells Nick about everything that she has learned with the Renard subplot.  Now Nick is suspicious of Renard’s motives.

Once Nick gets to the Portland PD precinct to work on this week’s case, he tells Hank about his conversation with Eve.  So now neither of our detectives are sure what to think about Renard.

Ironically, though, Renard arrives to the precinct and wants to talk to Nick and Hank.  He asks them what they think about the idea of him running for mayor.  He acts like his mayoral race isn’t for his own personal gain, but we all know better.  Nick and Hank tell Renard that they will support him.

Let’s see how long it takes before they’re adversaries.

Later, at HW headquarters, Eve is laying in bed, contemplating life.  Instead of being told that she has all of Juliette’s memories, she has a flashback of when Juliette used that potion with that witch’s hat to turn into Adalind to help Nick get his Grimm back.

It turns out that Eve still has this hat, and it’s stored in her closet.  Hmmm…wonder if that will become important.

All right, now back to our beetle photographer friend.  Malcolm’s got a job on the side selling the youth he sucks out of young people to a doctor named Eugene Forbes, who markets it into a cream he calls the Foy Cream (FOY stands for “fountain of youth.”)  Malcolm tells Eugene Forbes that he should never use that cream, ever, but Forbes doesn’t listen, of course!  If Malcom really had a problem with it, he wouldn’t sell it, right?

Forbes’ Foy Cream becomes a great sensation among superficial women–and it works!  Forbes ends up using all of the supply he has, and he even uses some (ok, more like a lot) on himself.  He demands more from Malcolm, who tries to tell him that the youth serum is not too easy to get.

But Malcolm manages to use that Australian charm again on another unsuspecting young person.  And we get see him woge again (yayyyy).

But Forbes gets more of the youth serum for his Foy Cream, so it’s a win for him, right?  And he becomes so obsessed with it that he covers his face with it, which is great for him right?

Nick and Hank do meet Malcolm and ask him questions about his photoshoots with the victims, but he denies any involvement in their murders.  But we know better.

When our detectives visit Monroe and Rosalee to learn about the Musasat Alsh-Shabab, they decide to have Rosalee go undercover and visit Forbes’ office.  Of course, Rosalee doesn’t need the cream. but she’s doing important work for us here!

When she meets Forbes, he looks like this:

Malcolm warned you.

Crazed by his obsession with looking young, Forbes tries to get Rosalee to use some of the Foy Cream, but she really just wants this visit to be a consultation.  When he tries to force her to use some of the cream, Monroe, Nick and Hank step in.  Oh, and Malcolm shows up, too, because we have a show to end here.

Like every week, the case is solved, the Musasat Alsh-Shabab is found, and our heroes can sleep a little better at night knowing that they have removed yet another Wesen from Portland.

But the most important scene of the night happens with Eve.  She makes that human transformation potion and takes it, then morphs into…….

Renard!

Eve, despite knowing that she has taken this potion before and had unforeseen consequences, does it again.

The question is, how long will this last?  Does she have to repeatedly take the potion to maintain her form?

Here’s a promo for next week’s show:

 

 

 

 

“A Blutbad on Steroids”: “Lycanthropia” Recap

“Lycanthropia” brought us the Grimm version of a werewolf story.

The episode starts with a young man named Doyle Bask, who’s driving alone in the woods in his BMW to his mom’s house.  Doyle, however, drives his car into a tree and, slightly disoriented, tries to run the rest of the way to his mom’s house.

Grimm or BMW commercial?

But that doesn’t work out too well for Doyle.  He’s attacked and left in the middle of the road.

Our detectives come in and ask him about the attack, but Doyle doesn’t want to give much detail.  He says he was attacked by two people and their dog, but doesn’t say much else.  He visits his mom monthly, and he wants to go see her.

Needless to say, our detectives aren’t convinced that something else is wrong here.  They suspect that a Wesen, not a dog, is responsible for attacking Doyle, so they get Monroe and Rosalee to help them scope out the forest for a Wesen scent. Monroe discovers the scent of a Lycanthrope.

And, while on their lovely hike through the woods, they discover the bodies of two mauled hikers.

A Lycanthrope, according to Grimm mythology, is a genetic mutation found only in Blutbaden.  Every full moon cycle, a Blutbad afflicted by this recessive trat suffers an uncontrollable woge.  Although this “lycanthropia” cannot be cured, a Lycanthrope can be sedated.

These books are starting to come in handy again.

The Scoobies suspect that Doyle is a lycanthrope, so they bring him into the police station to keep him locked up.  Needless to say, Doyle isn’t happy about this.  He wants to stay with his mother, but won’t explain why he needs to be with her.

Rosalee gets a sedative ready to use on Doyle.  When the Scoobies return with a crossbow, ready to sedate hi, he has been bailed out of the station.  It turns out that Doyle is not a lycanthrope–it’s his mother.

In a Remus Lupin in the Shrieking Shack kind of way, Doyle’s mother keeps herself locked in a padded cell in her house to make sure that she cannot escape and attack anyone while she is a lycanthrope.  Without Doyle there, though, she cannot fully lock the door to the cell.

She escapes just as the Scooby gang returns to her house to sedate her.  They rush out into the woods to find her, but she ends up attacking (and scratching) Wu.  Doyle’s mom is shot and then she dies in his arms.

At the end of the episode, we go to Wu’s apartment, which is never a good sign (remember that one time he ate carpet?).  We see the scratch given to him by Doyle’s mom (ominous foreshadowing).

And to make matters worse, Wu is sweaty and clammy while he’s sleeping.  The camera pans over to his bedroom window, where the moonlight cascades into the room.

Well, it looks like Wu may suffer a bit from Lycanthropia.

Or it’s just a mild fever and he’ll be better soon.

 

There’s some other plot-related information that happens this week.  And since we’ve got quite a few plot threads to follow, let’s break down the important points this week.

1. Nick hides the healing stick.

Early in the episode, Nick investigates the tunnel system within the fome (shirtless, of course.  Because what is Grimm without a little fanservice?).  Like his ancestors before him, he hides the chest containing the magical healing stick.

No complaints here.

Honestly, this is a little frustrating, because we just discovered the thing, but now we’re shoving it away like it doesn’t even exist.  I want to find out what else it can do, Grimm!

2.  Eve stalks Rachel.

Rachel deserves to be caughtfor Andrew Dixon’s assassination, though.  Eve finds Rachel’s home and breaks in.  She finds Renard’s possible campaign poster, snaps a picture, and leaves.  Eve also determines from the shipping date on the poster’s packaging that it was printed before Dixon’s assassination.  She can confirm that Rachel Wood played a part in Dixon’s assassination, but she can’t tell how much Renard knows.

Oh, nothing to see here. Just a bit of casual stalking.

3. Adalind and Renard meet up.

When Adalind and Renard meet to discuss Diana, their conversation reminds me of their interactions in season one when they were both working toward the same goal.  But the Adalind in season five has changed in that she thinks with her own mind.  Renard doesn’t have the same influence over her now.

Next week’s Wesen looks just plain gross.