Courtesy of NBC
Grimm continues to juggle multiple storylines without advancing any of them as we near the fall finale.
Let’s bitch it out…
Case of the week: Paging The Wicker Man. The case of the week is mostly unexceptional aside from the atmospheric climactic location in the scrap yard with the giant burning statue. The case itself – couples kidnapped and sacrificed in holes every three years – feels pretty lightweight aside from the fact that Nick (David Giuntoli) recovers his powers at the absolute best/worst moment and a potential new love interest for Hank (Russell Hornsby) ends up in one of the holes. There’s never any fear that Nick won’t save the day, though, and listening to Hank and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) screaming from their respective pits for five minutes is a wee bit annoying. At this point I’m back to wishing the cases would take the backseat to the other interesting storylines, or that they would disappear for a while entirely.
Meanwhile in Austria: Very little happens in Austria this week with Viktor (Alexis Denisof) and Adalind (Claire Coffee) that we don’t already know. The result, unfortunately, ends up feeling like a lot of recap designed to catch up inattentive viewers who weren’t paying attention last season. At least the emphasis on Kelly Burkhardt and the baby suggests that we’ll be seeing her in the near future.
Meanwhile in Portland: The much anticipated moment teased in last week‘s closing moments arrives as Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) downs Elizabeth’s (Louise Lombard) Sorting Hat potion and morphs into Adalind. There’s sufficient discomfort (resulting in quite a bit of comedy from Monroe and Bree Turner’s Rosalee) as well as awkwardness as Juliette-as-Adalind and Nick get it on. No disrespect to Tulloch, but it is super fun to see Claire Coffee escape from her “Austria” narrative to interact with Giuntoli – the pair have a surprising amount of chemistry. I have some suspicions about Juliette’s recovery – she gasps in pain and clutches her stomach – but for now, baby speculation is only speculation.
The Spice Shop: Thankfully there’s a bit more Monroe and Rosalee this week in the aftermath of the burning stake. We rehash the details about the Order of the Wesen, which frowns on inter-sex marriages because it dilutes the blood line, but – like many of the other storylines – this one simply doesn’t get the air time it needs to move beyond a B or even C-storyline. At least more Monroe & Rosalee means that there is an increase in the show’s humour quotient.
The trouble with Trubel: Finally, Josh Porter (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) makes his way to Portland to connect with Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) after going on the run. Trubel’s words that “There’s a lot going on” could be the tag for the episode itself as little else happens here aside from Josh’s arrival at Nick’s house. At this point the Key, Monroe & Rosalee’s marriage, Trubel’s recruitment into some secret order and the Royal baby are all in play, but because there are so many storylines being juggled, nothing significant happens in any of them. One can only hope that Grimm will double down on one of them in the near future because so far S4 has felt like it is stuck in a holding pattern. Let’s hope that now that Nick is Grimm’d up, we can get back to business.
Other Observations:
- Nothing new to report on Wu (Reggie Lee) aside from the fact that he continues to exist in the world of the show. Le sigh.
- Elizabeth bids adieu to Renard (Sasha Roiz) because apparently she only turned up the save his life and administer a spell. She leaves him with a promise to return once Kelly reaches out and advises him to guard the Sorting Hat, which I guess means we’ll see it back in play sometime later this season.
Best Lines:
- Viktor (reassuring Adalind with food): “Not to worry – it’s all organic.”
- All (when Elizabeth asks if Juliette wants to be Adalind full time): “No!”
- Juliette-as-Adalind (telling Nick to enjoy the “extra martial affair”): “I’m going to have at it.”
Your turn: are you happy that Nick is back to normal? Did you enjoy the humour surrounding the Juliette-as-Adalind spell? Are you impatient for all of these stagnant storylines to kick into gear? Hoping to see Kelly Burkhardt before the holiday break? Sound off below.
Grimm airs its fall finale next Friday at 9pm EST on NBC
Long-time reader, first time commenter here– really enjoy your recaps. Maybe I’m missing some nuance but when Viktor spoke to Adalind about retrieving “their” baby, am I to understand that he’s also a possible baby daddy, in addition to Prince Eric (played by James Frain, much missed) and Renard? Or is it more of the “royal we”– Viktor isn’t a possible father, but this baby is of royal blood and needs to be rescued and brought up as a prince? If the former is true, This kind of makes Adalind some sort of royal family groupie– as if we need more reasons to dislike the character.
By the way, living in Portland Oregon, I believe can shed some light as to why they *really* moved Aunt Marie’s trailer: the empty lot they filmed on (which was not a storage yard; all that stuff was moved in specifically for filming) is being prepped for construction of high-rise apartments, and is currently a parking lot and staging area for an adjacent construction project. As a direct result, the writers had to move the trailer in the script to accommodate the reality of their not being able to film in that location any longer.
@Hal_French Ahh, that makes sense now why they moved the trailer! It was somewhat clumsily done in the script so I wondered if there was a reason for it in real life.
I’ve gone back and forth about Juliette since the beginning, waffling between dislike and indifference, briefly landing in “hmm, she’s actually useful for once” land, but now back to indifference. She really adds nothing, including chemistry with Nick (I agree, he looks like he’s having fun with Adalind – both real and fake – that he never seems to experience with Juliette), so I hope if she does end up preggers, it ends her life. Probably a little harsh, but there is only room for one baby mama drama and it sure as hell can’t be her!
I’m glad to see Nick back to form, though it actually was nice seeing him living in the aftermath without powers to really make him appreciate what being a Grimm means. I agree wholeheartedly that I wish the “cop” part of him took a backseat and we were fully immersed in the more compelling part of his life. Everyone – save Wu – is fully integrated in both aspects of his identity, so it wouldn’t be a huge problem if we only focused on the Grim-side because viewers are savvy enough to understand real life continues on no matter what we personally are focused on.
Interesting. I love that you have the inside scoop!