“Still, after a
short time the family’s distress
again worsened,
and
there was no
relief anywhere in sight.”
We pick up exactly where
we left off – with Monroe’s parents trying to eat Nick having already let
their nastiness drive Rosalee out and now poor Monroe trying to stop the
fighting breaking out in his house. Poor Monroe. And this is why surprises and
parents are a bad combination
He manages to calm his parents down before anyone has to
have their arm ripped off (remember when Monroe was capable of that? I kind of
miss the Monroe who was extremely dangerous but desperately tries not to be).
Nick quickly apologises for hitting Monroe’s dad but the whole “tried to eat me”
is a pretty good excuse. Of course, his parents who don’t accept a fuchsbau are
not exactly thrilled about a Grimm either. His dad starts to woge and Monroe
puts his foot down – not in his house. So his dad offers to take it outside and
Monroe intercedes again – Nick will kill him, he’s seen it. His mother is
horrified that he works with a Grimm – and they both leave.
Nick tries to make nice with Monroe who doesn’t want to
hear it - suggesting that Nick only wants him when he needs help. Nick protests
it isn’t true but leaves to give Monroe some space. Rosalie has fled to the
Spice shop where she cries bitterly. Monroe looks all sad alone in his house
Nick goes back to Juliette with his own doubts about how
he’s relied on Monroe but Juliette rather accurately recognises that that’s not
the issue (though, to be fair, Nick does call on Monroe when he needs help a
lot).
Monroe goes to the Spice shop to see Rosalie and
apologise, but Rosalie is worried. As someone who was
estranged from her parents she knows how it hurts – she doesn’t want to be
the cause of a rift between Monroe and his parents and then have him come to
resent her. Monroe is firm – it’s their fault and their beliefs that he does
not share, he’s not going to have them ruin his life. Besides, there’s also
Nick, he reflects that he’s probably a disappointment to his parents. Yup, but
sometimes disappointing your parents is a very very good thing.
The next day Monroe resolves to call his parents, say
goodbye so he and Rosalie can get on with their lives. Monroe meets with them
and his dad is not very open to discussion, going all red eyed and accusing
Monroe of being ashamed of what he is with his friends, Rosalie and his
vegetarianism; which provokes Monroe to go red eyed as well before his mother
stepping forward snaps him out of it. A tearful Monroe explains to them he
loves Rosalie and he will be with her – if they let that destroy the family
then so be it; and he leaves. His father remains resolute – his mother wavers.
Meanwhile there’s still a wesen out there, a wildesheer killing people for their scalps and now eating something glowy and hot which is probably not a good thing. The case continues and Wu and Hank manage to find some footage showing part of his face – he can now be identified.
A ranger in the woods finds the wildesheer’s campsite and
calls in the numberplates of both cars at the scene. He gets the report back that’s
basically “oh shit, get away” and runs into the wildesheer carrying a deer.
That’s one very dead ranger – especially since there are two wildesheer
Juliette has joined Nick in researching the scalping and
gives Nick a long history of scalping but, in essence, basically recaps what
they already researched last week ( take scalps, steal power of victims, profit).
We also have a repeat of how perfect Nick’s hair would be to add to the
collection before he gets a call about the latest murder.
They arrive at the very messy crime scene with Wu
assuming animals got to the body, not realising how messy the wildesheer were.
With two cars reported, it doesn’t take a genius to realise there are 2
killers.
Juliette drops in on Rosalie to commiserate – which would
have worked better if she didn’t then discuss the scalp murders with Rosalie
before realising it’s really not the best topic at the moment. Monroe comes in,
regretting how he spoke to Nick but Juliette understands. Monroe arrives and
says how he regrets how he spoke to Nick which Juliette understands. When he
hears about the scalping though he gets very worried about the “Catcha Morta” and
hurries off to find Nick. In the car he calls Nick and arranges to meet to
discuss it – without Hank. It’s too dangerous for a human.
Meanwhile with his parents – his dad leaves, but his mum
refuses to go with him. She won’t give up on Monroe. She goes to see Rosalie at
her shop. She wants Monroe to be happy and she doesn’t agree with his decision
but think it’s Rosalie and Monroe’s choice to make the mistake and fail (not
the most supportive) but it is their choice. She wants to see if Rosalie is
open to a… vertriheiten (?). Rosalie is surprised at the suggestion but goes
ahead: they both woge and press their cheeks together, sniffing behind the ear
(where scent glands would be on a canine).
Monroe heads home – and runs into his dad lurking on his
doorstep looking for his mother. Which is great because Nick is due. Which
turns into a huge argument about Grimms and how you can know them where Monroe
makes his position clear. His dad is appalled at him helping Nick kill Wesen,
no matter what kind (even Bauerschwein, who Blutbad hate) he finds it wrong.
But disgust turns to worry when he learns Monroe is going against the wildesheer.
Nick arrives and his dad leaves – but outside he woges and howls (mourning?).
Monroe links the wildesheer to the Wild Hunt, heralded by
storms and thunder apparently – and how they love to hunt down powerful
warriors with Grimm being the favourite. In fact, they may be in Portland
expressly for Nick. Which means they can set a trap (moment of love: Nick wants
to know if Monroe’s book has tips on how to fight them; Monroe says no, it’s a
Wesen storybook. The Grimm are supposed to lose). They drive off to get more
weapons, watched by Monroe’s father.
In the Grimm trailer they get weapons and Nick consults
more research: the cloaks apparently make them nearly invulnerable but if you
cut their hair it may weaken them. But before they can head to their ambush
spot, they hear wind and thunder.
They attack – Nick’s gun does nothing and he doesn’t seem
to do well in the beginning of the battle (as far as I can tell with the damn
shoddy, shaky camera effect. Have a word with yourself, cameraman!). Firearms
discarded, Nick gets one, Monroe gets the other. It’s a long fight without them
having much advantage – when a third one joins them. Things don’t go well, so
of course Hank’s dad has to show up to help (who didn’t see this coming?) and
Nick manages to slice off one’s hair – apparently killing him
I think their hair would be a bit longer if haircuts were lethal.
The other 2 quickly go down after that because it was
time to win so their fighting skills get turned off. Monroe’s dad has a huge
moment about fighting alongside Grimm and how seeing it has made him a believer.
He adds just how utterly scary the wildesheer are – apparently because they’re
harbingers of something even worse to follow. Something world changing
And we have to turn to Austria, where Prince Viktor is
spying on Adalind still – and apparently Stefania is working with Viktor which
is probably not a good thing. But luckily Sebastien, Viktor’s servant, is
working for Renard (Viktor’s cousin). After learning about them working
together, Renard orders Sebastien to get Adalind to Meisner (Renard’s ally) at
all cost. Are we confused yet? They certainly have the plotting down.
That night Renard calls Adalind and tells her it’s time
to choose. Him or Viktor – since Stefania is working for Viktor. Meisner and
Sebastien arrive ahead of the Verrat sent to collect her – but only a little
and they knock while Meisner’s inside. His plan is to strip off his shirt and
get in the bed hiding a gun under the covers while Adalind protests she’s not
alone.
They follow the plan, and one of the Verrat hits Adalind
in the stomach when Meisner is unco-operative. She gasps in pain and when
Meisner shoots one of them a pen flies across the room and stabs the other in
the eye. The Hexenbiest is back, it seems (though she never did anything like
that before) confirmed by Adalind who isn’t entirely sure that was her. Magic
baby?
They drive off, with Sebastien telling Adalind that he’s
with the resistance and he won’t let anyone sell her baby to the royals as Frau
Schade planned (not very reassuring to Adalind since she was very much in those
plans). Meisner has Sebastien drop them in the middle of nowhere so Sebastien
doesn’t know where they are – he’s not very sympathetic to the pregnant lady.
And she’s not impressed – especially since the run down cottage he has them
hide in hardly has all mod-cons.
An angry Viktor has Stefania frog-marched to him,
accusing her of betrayal and tipping Adalind off – she throws the accusation
back to his own household.
And just as Nick is told that a world changing bad thing
is happening, Adalind goes into labour
Time for uber-awkward family dinner with Juliette trying
to make small talk, everyone wogeing and Nick having to threaten the dinner
table with a knife – but progress, no-one tries to kill anyone.
Like the last episode, I think the crime was completely
unnecessary. Yes it would have sidelined Nick – so what? He’s hardly going to
lose his place as protagonist if we have 2 episodes focusing on Austria and
Monroe. The crime got in the way – and it wasn’t especially intriguing or
important to require this level of attention. Have a few episodes with Hank and
Nick solving normal crime (we know they have to do some) and let Monroe and
Rosalie’s story have the attention it deserves
While there’s a lot of emotion around, Monroe has a point
about Nick dropping round when he needs something. This is another reason why I
think this episode – these 2 episodes – didn’t need the crime. We’ve seen Nick
rely on Monroe a lot, not just for Wesen-ness but Monroe let Nick stay with him
when Juliette had her memory loss as well. Monroe has very much been there for
him – it would have been nice for Nick to be there for Monroe and not have the
case as a motivation. Even Juliette going to comfort Rosalie ended up with them
discussing the case.
This is always a difficult balance when stories focus on a protagonist – everything is about them. But you can’t build a one-way friendship – especially when the friend is in trouble and it isn’t being given the attention it deserves.
I also think the story was clumsy – maybe because it was
a two part separated by a hiatus – but there was a lot of repetition of what
the wildesheer were, what they did and everyone repeatedly saying that they would
target Nick. The wildesheer were never built up to be a super threat – not compared
to the Reapers or the Mauvais Dentes – though there was a belated attempt after
death. And I don’t get why Monroe’s dad had a big revelation fighting next to
Nick – what he saw Nick could fight? He knew that – he’s a Grimm. Because he
saw Nick and Monroe could fight side by side without killing each other? What,
was Nick supposed to lose control? I don’t get it – if there’s any qualms about
Grimm in Wesen society it’s that they kill Wesen – often indiscriminately.
Monroe’s dad made it clear he hated the idea of a Grimm killing any Wesen – no matter
how much he personally hates them – so, what, seeing Nick kill Wesen makes him
a believer?
Also, wildesheer appearing in Portland is a portent for
Adalind giving birth in Austria? That’s…. a really dubious portent. COMETS are
more specific. And what do the wildesheer do in less portentous times? I picture them working in garden centres for some reason.
