Courtesy of NBC
In its post-Wesenrein outing Grimm loses steam with a generic case of the week.
Let’s bitch it out…
Case of the Week: Let’s make this quick. This is a complete stock standard case of the week – it’s perfectly adequate and mostly watchable (deducting points for including a played out “Ghost Seekers” bit and not even having the sense to make it a parody like Supernatural did…five years ago). The problem is that this case of the week is inherently unimportant. I know that Grimm will never abandon procedural episodes to become a serialized, mythology heavy series because procedural episodes A) repeat better and B) allow viewers to jump in with minimal problems, but come on! The infidelity square within the deserted Donovan home is just so plain jane, I can’t even be bothered to recap it. Stuff happened, it got recorded (via horror movie shaky cam in the closet) and uploaded to the Interwebs. The only possible take-away from any of this is that the video may cause problems for Nick (David Giuntoli) and company in the future (or not – who knows?!). The end.
So I Married a Hexenbiest: One of the reasons I’m frustrated by ‘Death Do Us Part’ is because this episode should be all about Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) and her new Hexenbiest powers. NBC marketing deserves a lot of the blame for running ads suggesting that she was the focus (including the bit where Nick supposedly discovers the truth. Naturally this ends up being a fake-out dream sequence. Shocker). I kept waiting for some kind of connection between the case of the week and how the lies in the Donovan marriage bring ruin to everyone and what is happening with Nick and Juliette, but it just never really clicks. Instead all we get is Juliette confessing the truth to Renard (Sasha Roiz) and he sets her up with some kind of psychic named Henrietta (Garcelle Beauvais), but even their meeting is withheld until next week (natch). Even in its fourth season, Grimm still hasn’t learned how to dole out its big moments. To say that the episode fails because of a lack of narrative progression in Juliette’s story line is an understatement.
The Wu in Team: The best part of the episode hands down has to be Wu’s (Reggie Lee) inclusion in the case. You can practically see his eyes light up when Nick and Hank (Russell Hornsby, completely underused) ask him to tag along. Hell, Wu even partially identifies what kind of Wesen they’re dealing with. The Sergeant’s presence also provides one of the episode’s most interesting visual moments as Nick confronts jilted victim Lily at the dine. We always see Nick’s perspective when Wesen woge, so it’s fascinating to see things from Hank and Wu’s point of view as normal people suddenly look like they want to bolt. It’s a very simple visual, but these kinds of moments continue to flesh out Grimm‘s mythology.
Fake Honeymoon: Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) turn up very briefly on their honeymoon via Skype. Clearly their contribution to the episode is relatively insignificant, but it would have been nice if their beach honeymoon wasn’t the fakest looking green screen this side of Once Upon A Time. I will admit to a chuckle, however, when Monroe suspiciously inquires if everything is okay and Rosalee immediately shuts things down. These kids deserve some r’n’r, so kudos to her for ensuring they get it.
Best Lines:
- Wu (after Lily confirms the name of the Wesen): “I told you it was something like that.”
- Wu (when Nick informs him that Wu ate carpet because of Adalind): “Oh”
Sooo…yeah. This is another episode that I feel more frustration than enjoyable at Grimm because it seems to have deliberately hit the brakes on advancing the narrative. At this point we’re halfway through S4 and there’s been so much needless stalling. What do you think, though? Am I off base? Did you enjoy the Ghost Seekers/ghostly flashback case of the week? Is Juliette’s story line tantalizing or inert? Were you duped by NBC’s ads? And where do things go from here? Sound off below
Grimm airs Fridays at 9pm EST on NBC. Next week Arnold Vosloo guest stars as a bounty hunter in pursuit of Nick. Maybe Juliette can make his head explode, too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubB0ZYVkfrg