Grimm review – 3×21: ‘The Inheritance’

Grimm reintroduces some old-timey mythology and ditches the case-of-the-week format. Hurray for serial narratives!

Let’s bitch it out…I’m going to go ahead and speak for all of us and suggest that when Grimm gets its shit together in time for sweeps, this show is a well-oiled machine. After what appeared to be a return to woh-woh one-off cases last week, the mythology narrative kicks back in for ‘The Inheritance’ as we meet yet another new Grimm and a second key is thrown into the mix. It’s like Christmas, I tell ya!

At times over the last three seasons, it has felt like Grimm has been holding back on us. But in the last batch of episodes, that’s all changed. We’ve learned things like how Wesen can recognize a Grimm, which is a key piece of the lore for this show but something that the writers didn’t think had to be explained until Nick (David Giuntoli) nearly bowed out of his best friend’s wedding. With Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) now a regular fixture on the show, we have a character who doesn’t know the rules acting as the audience’s proxy and as a result the information keeps rolling in.

Tonight’s unspoken question is about the hereditary nature of Grimms. For the second time in three episodes, we meet a new Grimm – this time it’s an old man named Rolek Porter (Sam Anderson) who desperately wants to pass his chest of relics on to Nick before he dies. That’s because his son, Josh (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) isn’t a Grimm and doesn’t have a clue what’s going, despite the fact that it’s hinted that the family was in a Grimm way for several generations back. So is being a Grimm a hereditary element, or not? Nick’s mother and Aunt suggest it is, but Josh suggests otherwise.

Unfortunately Trubel is of no help here because she grew up with foster parents. Her sad upbringing is a parallel ‘The Inheritance’ draws with Josh several times; his perception of his father and the way Trubel was treated growing up are quite similar. It’s a fairly simple technique for reiterating how different Trubel’s experiences have been to Nick’s and why she’s still resistant of getting attached to him and the rest of the group. At one point she even tells Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) that she doesn’t want to get used to things. It’s a wee bit heavy-handed, but it gets the job done.

Thankfully Josh’s skepticism isn’t too overplayed (although his reaction to being attacked by a member of the Verrat in the hotel room borders on the moronic). In another episode his attempt to deal with what’s happening might have made Josh a guest-star of the week, but ‘The Inheritance’ has other priorities this close to the finale and Nick, Hank (Russell Hornsby) and Trubel have their hands full. It turns out that there’s a lovely group of Verrat and the recurring character of Agent Steward (C. Thomas Howell) to contend with – they appear to have been tracking the Porters, likely in the hopes of stealing the second key.

The reappearance of the key offers some hope that the larger role for the Royal family this season will lead to a broader storytelling scope for the series moving into S4. Whether or not this will actually occur is unclear; Grimm has a tendency to start into serialized, mythology-heavy directions before panicking and returning to the narrative safety of “Wesen of the week” cases. The introduction of Prince Viktor (an unseen Alexis Denisof) earlier this season is a good example: despite a suggestion that he would become the Big Bad, his character never really amounted to anything and aside from Adalind’s (Claire Coffee) increasingly desperate actions to please him, both the Royals and her very special baby have been more or less put to bed for the foreseeable future.

By the end of ‘The Inheritance’ there’s a temporary feeling of elation because not only did Team Grimm kick the Verrat’s ass, but they were able to retrieve the key. As we head into the finale next week, however, the odds already seem stacked against them. In addition to Steward, there’s still Adalind to contend with, on top of a very special wedding that’s already marked by an ominous prediction. It sounds like bad news for Team Grimm, which means good news for us viewers. Can’t wait!

Other Observations:

• I haven’t been overly wowed by Toboni since her debut, but this episode marks her best outing yet. In addition to providing some great action in the hospital parking lot, Toboni does some lovely emotive work as Trubel talks about her first Wesen encounter during the family dinner that opens the episode.
• Oh Adalind…so much time has been spent rescuing this character, but it all appears for naught. The Hexenbiest breaks into Nick and Juliette’s home, steals the ingredients for her potion and eventually unveils her plans to impersonate Juliette to get to Nick. So much for liking her again!
• Also: I particularly like that Adalind’s spell involves taking the sorting hat from Harry Potter, filling it with green smoke and getting high by taking hits off the tip. What a weird ritual…
• Let’s take a moment to commemorate the passing of Renard’s (Sasha Roiz) brain. He has enough sense to be suspicious of his former fling, but still sleeps with her? He has her followed, but let’s her get the drop on him (with a telekinetic vase attack no less)? He puts out an APB to Wu (Reggie Lee) to find Adalind, but doesn’t call Nick to warn him? What are you thinking, man?!
• P.S. You just know that Juliette’s comment about the vase – broken during Adalind and Renard’s skirmish – is directed at Trubel. Juliette’s all “That dumb brat totally broke my mom’s vase!”
• Rosalee (Bree Turner) having a panic attack over the wedding details totally brings back my wedding planning nightmares. Say it with me, Rosalee: elope, elope, elope. When you tell your fiancé (Silas Weir Mitchell) that you think something terrible is going to happen that doesn’t portend well for your special day.
• Finally, my favourite moment of the episode occurs when Josh comments how happy he is that his father wasn’t crazy. Then he wonders aloud if they’re actually the crazy ones and everyone looks up and takes a long pregnant pause. It’s absolutely hilarious; a perfectly timed moment by the entire cast.

Best Lines:

• Nick (pretending not to know when the wedding is): “This Saturday?…Nobody’s gets me.”
• Renard (to Adalind): “If I didn’t know you better, I’d be in love with you.” What a nob.
• Juliette (after the keys indicate the treasure is located the Black Forest in Germany): “Yeah, it always seems to go back to Germany.”

Your turn: Are you happy that we’re getting more mythology? Are you enjoying Trubel’s guest run? Is your sympathy for Adalind gone? Has Renard lost his mind? Should Rosalee and Monroe plan for the worst? And what will happen at the wedding? Someone’s got to find out that Nick is a Grimm, right? Speculate away below.

Grimm airs its third season finale next Friday at 9pm EST on NBC