Grimm - 3.14 - Mommy Dearest - Top 5 Review

Sorry this is so late. In Grimm 3.14, Mommy Dearest, we finally get a Wu-centric episode. As a huge fan of the character, I have been waiting for this since season 1. Perhaps I went in with too high expectations or maybe it's how frustrated I was with the Grimm Gang at the end, but I didn't care for this one like I usually do. While there was plenty of good, the episode was slow and the ending so horrible it knocked the show down an entire letter grade by itself. Right now I am calling for a Wu redo.

1. The ending - I haven't been this frustrated with an episode since last year's Supernatural. I cannot believe that they did not tell Wu about Wesen when he brought up the Aswang. From that point on, everything in this episode went downhill rapidly. Then when he is actively freaking out about watching the Aswang change into his friend's mother-in-law, I wanted to go through the screen to Gibbs slap Nick. What the heck was he thinking? He had the answers and he let his friend believe he was going crazy! Argh! I don't think anything excuses the Grimm Gang in this one. They made a selfish choice and Wu is suffering unnecessarily because of it. The Powers That Be better fix it quickly or I'm going to be rooting for the Wesen villains to smack some sense into our "heroes" and soon. I also hope Wu punches both Nick and Hank when he does find out the truth.


2. Wu - Wu is one of my favorite characters because he always brings the snark. I expected this episode to be one of my favorites, but instead it was a big disappointment. Snark-less Wu breaks my heart. I do love the back story we got on him though. I never really thought of Wu as pining over a forbidden, unrequited love. I'm not sure why unless it was all those times he was trying to get Hank to be his wingman at a bar in season 1. Still this development fleshes out his character well and makes me wonder if we will see Dana anymore. I doubt it but she would make an interesting drop-in character like Bud does. (Whom I miss by the way.) Here's hoping that Wu is back soon and in his right mind, ready for more screen time than he currently has.

3. Wesen - Grimm does a phenomenal job of mixing up the Wesen of the week, and this one was particularly effective. From the first glance of the Aswang, it creeped me out far more that the scalpers before it. The way it moved, its physical features, and that hideously long tongue were enough to give me chills before I found out it wanted to slurp up an unborn baby. Yikes! That's one scary Wesen. It also surprised me because I didn't expect there to be a back story on this monster. The idea that sons gave their mothers their firstborn in order to prolong their mom's life is particularly horrifying. Add in the son questioning old traditions and it was a not only a nice touch of continuity, but it also made Sam far more sympathetic than I thought he would be. One of my favorite things about Grimm is it doesn't get bogged down into just one kind of monster, which keeps it interesting and allows it to pull from a wide variety of myths and legends. I've yet to grow tired of a particular Wesen and that is a hard thing to do for genre shows.

4. Exposition / Research - While I love the Wesen, I am getting tired of the research. Big thumbs up to Monroe and Hank in this episode for cutting the exposition off at the beginning to focus on the main points. I was more than ready to skip to the beheading part, mostly because unlike a typical episode, we got the exposition at least 4 times here. This broke up the pace and made me wonder why we were covering the same ground at slightly different angles throughout. Yes, the back story was interesting but did we really need the nightmares and the trailer and Wu recapping? I thought the son and mother scene did an adequate job at giving the details so the other scenes felt like filler. In fact the entire trailer scene would have been better if it would have just concentrated on the debate about whether to tell Wu or not. Make it a dinner party and add some disgusting photos for flow. My main issue though is why Juliette, who seems to be a lock as a future Google trainer since she apparently no longer has a vet business, doesn't start digitizing those books. A good catalog and indexing system would save a lot of time.

5. Hank - While this was definitely a Wu-centric episode, it is also the first time Hank has had meaty scenes in awhile. We normally get Hank in the exposition or the action, but in this episode we also got Hank's viewpoint. He is the only one who has been in Wu's shoes, and I wish they would have listened to him or at least considered what he was saying before shutting him down. We rarely hear how Hank feels in any situation so when he is the expert, it would be nice to give him time to expand on his thoughts.  In fact, it would be nice to get more Hank period.




Screencaps by Grimm Wikia, 3 if by Space, Manicomioseries, and Shallow Graves.

About the Author - Dahne

One part teacher librarian - one part avid TV fan, Dahne is a contributing writer for SpoilerTV, where she recaps, reviews, and creates polls for Sleepy Hollow, Arrow, White Collar, Grimm, Teen Wolf, and others. She's addicted to Twitter, live tweets a multitude of shows each week, and co-hosts the Warehouse 13, Sleepy Hollow "Headless," and Teen Wolf "Welcome to Beacon Hills" podcasts for Southgate Media Group. Currently she writes a Last Week in TV column for her blog and SpoilerTV. ~ "I speak TV."