Grimm is back! And what an episode to come back on. From Monroe's parents attacking Nick to the world's most awkward dinner party, high emotions, great fight sequences, castle intrigue, and a whole lot of Monroe permeated throughout. This is easily one of the best episodes of the season. While there is much to love here, there is also much to discuss. Instead of doing a typical review for Grimm, I decided to narrow things down to 5 topics, which will vary in scope, importance, and length. They are in no particular order and there's really no rhyme or reason to what I'm picking. It's just 5 things that struck me during the episode. As always, I love discussion so if there are other topics you'd like to address or if you have a different opinion, please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Ideally this weekly article will appear on Sundays, but it will depend on how many shows I am covering that week for Last Week in TV. So let's jump right in:
In this episode, Monroe had a lot of great interactions with a variety of characters, but for me it's all about Nick and Monroe. They are the foundation of Grimm, the first partnership I rooted for on the show. While I am not a fan of the recapitation trend, I do love how they reminded us that this Wesen - Grimm relationship started out rocky and has had its share of problems. That really hit home when it came to Monroe's parents' reactions. I had gotten so used to Nick and Monroe being a team that the shock value of it had worn off. To see his parents freak out over a Grimm reminded me that this really is a unique friendship. I also liked the opening scene because I do often think Nick takes advantage of Monroe's friendship. Sometimes my favorite moments are the two of them hanging out without the threat of a case hanging over them. It was one reason why them being roommates for awhile appealed to me. Sometimes the small moments say as much about a friendship as the big, life threatening ones. We've had enough of the catastrophes. Next season I hope they remember to throw the fun in a little more too.
I admit it. I haven't liked Adalind since her first hexenbiest flash. Her Vienna side trip with Stefania has mostly been fast forward worthy for me. However Bart made the whole Adalind issue more interesting. Bart: "He told us kids if wildesheers ever came back, it meant something really bad was going to come next." Monroe: "How really bad?" Bart: "I don't know. Just something somewhere is going to happen that will change the world." This isn't exactly surprising given that the baby took out a Verrat with a pen to the eye from the womb, but it still intrigues me with all the possibilities. Will it really be the baby that is the danger or will Adalind's new powers bought with Frau Pech's life somehow warp her into something even more toxic? What are Renard's plans for his own child and is Viktor's interest solely about the line of succession or is there more at play here? So many questions and so many ways they can go. For the first time, I'm glad Adalind is on the screen, if only to see where this takes us.
The one thing that really isn't working for me right now though is Juliette. Granted this season is a vast improvement over her stints as Coma and Amnesia Girl, don't get me wrong. It's just that they still don't know what to do with Juliette and so it feels like they shoehorn in unnecessary places. The biggest one of course is her sole devotion to research for most of this season. At first I was delighted because they finally told Juliette the truth and she was on board. Now she feels like a plot device. Can no one else on the show click Google? I do like her burgeoning relationship with Rosalee and I have great hopes for Nick's mom returning and meeting Juliette for real this time. I think it will be an interesting dynamic. Another problem I have with Juliette is that they have suddenly decided she's socially inept this season. She never came off that way before, but now she's bumbling and has foot-in-mouth disease. A great example of this is the dinner party scene. Season 1 Juliette would have been able to read the tension in the room, especially since she knows the issues, and not caused a flare up. This Juliette comes off as less competent and more awkward than the season 1 version. That's the opposite of character development.
I like the idea of getting a more worldwide view of the Grimm and Wesen world, so Meisner is intriguing to me. He is still mostly a shadow figure as far as his background and interests go and I look forward to them fleshing him out more. Mostly though I like that we are getting a clearer view of the interplay between the Royals, Verrat, and Resistance. I wish we knew more about each of their endgames but I can be patient for that since the main players are compelling. What really made me like Meisner this week though is that he didn't coddle Adalind at all. He was perfunctory and more concerned about the plan, which made me laugh. It gave the Adalind-Meisner interaction more bite, since Adalind's reactions were fabulous. So far he's the character I like her with the most. I also like that they clearly do not trust each other but they are forced to work together.
Originally I was going to use this space to write about the fantastic fight scene in this episode, but I already wrote about that in Last Week in TV. Therefore I switched to Castle Spy, aka Sebastien. I have long been a fan of his because of how badly everyone treats him. Would it kill you to thank him, Renard? He's been the backbone of the Resistance movement, keeping everyone in the loop about Renard and the castle affairs. Now I am really worried that it will come back to haunt him. Prince Viktor is no fool and now that he knows there's a mole in his midst, I fear he will die by the season finale. While it would be a shame to kill off such an intriguing character, it is even worse to kill off the biggest single source of answers. He and Wu are the two characters I want to have more time on. It's not time to put a red shirt on yet.
Screencaps by Living in a Fairy Tale,ScienceFiction.com, and Grimm Wikia.
