#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!

 

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!

 

 

 

Balam facemask: “Silence of the Slams” Recap

This week’s Grimm brought us back into our normal procedural format–a huge departure from all of the plot threads that we have started within the past few episodes.

The very beginning of the episode takes us back to the magical healing stick wand thing.  The Scooby gang, much like the Grimm crusaders of the past, agree that they cannot tell anyone about what they have found.  They do not fully understand the magnitude of its power.  I would have liked to have seen them delve into deciphering what was written on the cloth.  For another episode, I suppose.

In “Silence of the Slams,” our usual heroes take on supporting roles.  The case-of-the-week format does not follow the “short conflict leads to murder, which our heroes investigate and solve,” structure.  Instead, we follow a different formula.

We meet a young man named Goyo, who is an aspiring professional wrestler.  He is the protagonist of this episode.  He has the drive and determination to become a great name in wrestling, but there is one particular obstacle blocking him from his goal: He gets paid to lose matches to make his opponent look good.

Goyo is fed up with losing, and he is willing to do anything to make himself better (including signing a contract in blood.  You could argue that he’s just really dedicated to his job.).  He enlists the help of a man named Benito, who can create a mask for him that will make Goyo feel powerful.

Of course, this involves Benito forcing a stranger to woge, paralyzing him, then flaying his Balam face off (cue the “Silence of the Lambs” reference).

Benito is a Vibora Dorada, a new Aztec snake-like Wesen that paralyzes its victims with a neurotoxin.

This may be grim to say, but a Balam does make a nice face mask.  It’s one of my favorite Wesen, along with the Mauvais Dentes.

Nick and Hank start their normal investigation of the week when they find the former Balam man dead in an alley.  But the focus of the episode doesn’t stay with them.

Benito tells Goyo that he should not wear the mask outside of the ring.  And Goyo, the young man that he is, has a deficiency in his frontal lob development.

Goyo uses the Balam mask against his rival El Mayordomo and emerges victorious, now that he has the power of a Balam.

And this is where our Goyo begins to take a dark turn.  He feels immense power with this new mask (and tells Benito, too.)

Benito tells Goyo that he should not wear the mask outside of the ring.

Goyo’s rival is not happy that Goyo went against his planned loss, even though the audience didn’t seem to care.  They loved Goyo.

Of course, the only way to solve the problem between these two men is to fight.  Goyo puts on the mask outside of the ring, and, overcome with the power of the mask, kills the great El Mayordomo.

If he had not worn that mask, perhaps this would not have happened.  Remember what Benito said, Goyo?

Meanwhile,  our Scooby gang learns about the Aztec face mask ritual, thanks to the guidance of Monroe and Rosalee.

Later, at home, Goyo puts on the mask outside of the ring again, but this time, it becomes embedded on his face.

Benito did tell him not to wear the mask outside of the ring.

Things get worse for Goyo–he ends up killing Benito.  But lucky for him, our Scooby gang has figured out how to help him.  Rosalee makes a potion that helps unseal the mask from Goyo’s face, and along with a Spanish chant, saves him from his pseudo-Balam self.

Other notes from Silence of the Slams:

• Nick and Adalind evade important conversations. 

Nick dodges answering Adalind about what happened in Germany (then again, the Scoobies did agree to not tell anyone about what they found).  Adalind does not tell Nick that her Hexenbiest self is beginning to resurface.  Instead, she asks what would happen if her powers came back.  Nick says that they would deal with it once that time came, but he recognized that Adalind had changed.

• Renard’s personal brand of morality is an enigma.

Sean Renard’s questionable morality is what makes him such a compelling character.  He is neither good nor evil and has no binding allegiance to any cause.  And he still has not lost any sense of that.  He meets with Rachel Wood about a possible mayoral run.  She says that he needs to have a family, and, somehow, she knows about Diana.  She also has a plan Renard to get his daughter back.

It’s nice to actually hear Diana mentioned, because I’ve sometimes wondered if everyone forgot she existed.

Toward the end of the episode, Renard calls Adalind and tells him that he may have a way to get Diana back.  Knowing that Renard has manipulated her in the past, will Adalind join forces with him willingly?

Next week: Werewolves.