“Tell me O’ Muse,
from whatever source you may know them.”
Juliette is reliving memories of her and Nick still –
this may take her a while. This time she’s looking at the cat scratch scar on
her hand and reliving talking to Nick about Adalind.
Nick and Monroe just get more and more domestic even if
Monroe’s cooking sounds more and more scary. And Hank is back off holiday! Time
for a meet at the coffee shop, Hank on crutches (makes me wonder if the actor
injured himself which lead to the break) from a holiday accent- and a gunshot.
See, this is why I couldn’t be a policeman, because I don’t care if someone’s shooting heavy artillery, I am not interrupting my morning coffee.
In a bookshop across the street a man who was doing a
book signing is dead with a hole in his head. Upstairs he finds Anton, a Wesen,
grabbing hold of a woman called Chloe and declaring that she’s his while she
tries to get away. Seeing Nick, Anton runs, - diving into the river to escape.
The dead author is Evan, Chloe is his current girlfriend (well was, given the
deadness thing) and Anton was the ex. Simple motivations!
Like it’s ever that simple.
Interviewing Chloe she tells them that men just fall for
her so easy and they always get intense – and she thanks Nick profusely for
saving her life and even kisses his hand (which Hank finds all kinds of
amusing).
Wu, Hank and Nick search Anton’s home, his landlady
describing him as a talented artist who called Chloe his inspiration. Inside,
the loft is full of paintings of Chloe (Wu maintains a snarking commentary) and
he has a painting of the murder of Evan from before it happened. There’s a
confession for you. Which is when Juliette rings inviting Nick to dinner – which
rather surprises him given the fact she recently told him to stay away. But hey,
he escapes Monroe’s veggie steaks! But when he hangs up he becomes transfixed
by Chloe’s photo.
That night Nick goes to check on Chloe… not telling
Monroe or Juliette. Juliette calls Monroe – while they’re both cooking dinner
for Nick – trying to get any indication of what Nick has been saying about her
before he arrives, learning he’s still eager to reconcile.
At Chloe’s she tells Nick she’s a model for artists,
which is why her flat is full of artwork, and she continues to touch Nick. She
says she inspires people – and kisses Nick and Nick plays enthralled well. She
says she finds talent (which she can sense – and also senses in Nick) and
inspires people like that – though it rarely ends well for them. Lots of
flirting and closeness – and she woges into a blue skinned elf – and notices
Nick noticing. She backs off in fear, says it was a mistake, asks him to leave
but he moves close to her, assuring her that he will keep her safe. He snaps
out of it when Monroe calls, a little testy about the food he prepared that
Nick isn’t going to eat. It does remind him that Juliette is waiting and he
leaves Chloe to go see her.
Juliette starts to talk to Nick, recognising she hasn’t
been treating him well lately – but he hears Chloe’s voice in his head and
stares vacantly out the window. She keeps trying to talk to him and he gets more
and more distracted by thoughts of Chloe, her voice, her imagined reflection.
Juliette pours her heart out to him and he… leaves.
Nick goes to Monroe looking zonked. Monroe is confused by
Nick and wants to know what happened with Juliette but Nick is snappish and won’t
talk, lashing out instead (verbally that is). Full blown argument and Nick leaves,
(“you need to get your own life,” “you need to get your own house.” Good come
back) in a huff, leaving Monroe in another huff.
Time for a phone tree – Juliette calls Monroe and asks if
Nick’s ok, Monroe calls Hank to ask the same thing and Hank calls Nick to
check. To the bar, where Hank finds Nick sketching Chloe’s woge. He tells Nick
about Chloe – and some random guy at the bar starts rhapsodising about the
picture (convoluted story hook time!) and Nick reacts angrily, slapping his
hand away and getting out of his chair ready to fight, hank quickly intervenes
though the guy is angry that he’s threated with arrest for Nick’s arsehole
behaviour. Nick leaves
Hank goes to see Rosalie and Monroe with the picture. But
neither Rosalie nor Monroe know what the picture is – so to Aunt Marie’s
trailer and it’s Rosalie’s first time there. She’s pretty awed and impressed by
all the shinies, until Monroe reminds her that all this shiny stuff is
dedicated to hunting and killing people like them. As they begin researching,
she’s also exposed to some of the awful things in the books – and Monroe finds
Chloe. She’s a Musai; the entry is in German but Monroe translates – the book tells of Van Gogh
attacking another artist with a razor out of jealousy over a Musai. Her
influence brought great inspiration – but also great pain and lead to him
cutting of his ear. The book says the Musai’s kiss is highly addictive and the
relationship always ends in madness, destruction and death. Rosalie points out
Nick is missing
We cut to someone breaking in to Chloe’s flat – though it
could be Anton since he’s on a painting frenzy.
At the police station the next day nick arrives in the
same clothes he was wearing still awfully grumpy. Hank shows Captain Renard
CCTV of Anton breaking into a paint store, confirming he got out of the river
alive. Hank also has a list of previous artists attacking each other over Chloe
and even killing themselves. And Wu
reports there’s a major case of vandalism that needs them all.
Cut to Rosalie telling Monroe that there’s no way to break the Musai’s kiss. But since it feels like love she thinks the only way to break it would be with the real thing – true love. Ok I suppose shows based on fairy tales are allowed to use the twee true love’s kiss solution. And Juliette arrives – she needs to go back to the Grimm trailer to help her remember even if she does get overwhelmed. And she wants to go alone – and Rosalie supports her (and Monroe knows better than to argue).
To the vandalism – Anton has painted Chloe’s face in day
glow colours under a bridge – and it’s HUUUUGE and really well done. And Nick
vanishes. Wu goes looking for him and Hank has the chance to tell Renard about
the… problem.
In the Trailer, Juliette starts to re-experience her
memory of Nick telling her about Wesen and being able to see them. After that
memory, Juliette leaves rather quickly. Juliette arrives at the spice shop and
tells Rosalie and Monroe what happened – but that she didn’t believe Nick.
Monroe asks if she believes him now and she hesitates, asking if Monroe and
Rosalie believe him; and Rosalie confirms that they do. Of course, she wants to
see Nick and tell him she believes – not the best time.
Because Nick has just arrived to see Chloe – the policeman
outside the house is told by Hank not to let Nick leave until Renard arrives.
Nick goes in and kisses Chloe. She knows he’s a Grimm, he says it doesn’t
matter – but she says he has to prove it – because Anton is there. He goes into
the house and Anton attacks Nick and they fight – Chloe looking on with glee.
Nick knocks him down and returns to Chloe but she tells him no, not while Anton’s
alive. More fighting – and the cop outside and Renard arrive, the cop
handcuffing Anton. But Nick keeps attacking and Renard has to physically hold
him back.
meanwhile in the spice shop, Monroe explains why Nick is acting out of character to Juliette. Because he’s under the influence of a… and Juliette fills in the gap with “wesen?” tense music, yes Juliette knows the word! Juliette connects Nick’s mind being messed with with what happened to her – but this time Rosalie says Juliette is the cure.
Hank and Renard take Chloe in for questioning and tell
her they know what she is. She says they know then that it’s not her fault but
Hank points out she encourages it. She sees nothing wrong with it, sure she
kills them but she inspires them to greatness first, making them memorable. She
also says it’s happening faster with Nick because he’s a Grimm and has much
more power than the others she’s kissed; and she can’t stop it.
Outside the interview room, one of the police officers tells Nick that Anton is in the cell – off her goes. Renard and Hank come out to find Nick has just drawn a picture of Anton, in a prison cell, dead, which is when Rosalie, Monroe and Juliette arrive.
They find him by the cells pointing a gun at Anton –
Juliette talks to him. She touches him and makes him look at her. The touch
breaks the spell (in the background Anton reaches for the dropped gun but
Renard stops him) Nick hugs Juliette in tears.
Renard goes to the interview room and tells Chloe that
she can leave – and she better leave Portland. And if she doesn’t, there’s a
part of him that doesn’t wear a badge; and he purposefully woges into his Zauberbiest.
I think that’s the first time he’s done it on purpose.
So a lot of good here! Juliette in on the secret means
she can finally be a more active participant in the show and be in on all the
secrets. I hope this means she will grow considerably as a character.
She was certainly more present this episode – but even in saving Nick it was through her role as love interest, more than anything for Juliette I want her to become more than that.
I’m also looking forward to the new learning curve for
Juliette, when the show did that with Hank they did it really well
The Musai storyline I didn’t like though on two fronts –
first of all, a lot of those suicidal artist folks are mentally ill, not
magically messed with, but also the whole underlying way the interactions
panned out. These men were extremely possessive, jealous and violent – towards her
and each other – even murderous. And it was her fault – it was the woman in the
midst of the violent, possessive men who was at fault for their behaviour, she
who encouraged it, who asked for it, who lead them on who played with them.
That supports both a lot of tropes and also a lot of
shaming and attacks thrown at women who are victims of this kind of abusive behaviour
when the truth is far different.
