"It is not down on any map;
true places never are."
With plans set, it's time to say their goodbyes. Nick tells Adalind about heading to Germany with Monroe and she is adamant that she doesn't want Nick to go because she feels that it's too dangerous. I was really hoping that Adalind's fears were about her absolute economic dependency on Nick and the possibility of being a single mother. When Grimm did delve into this earlier this season, I found it interesting, especially given that this is something all women must consider if they decide to give up work. Unfortunately, Adalind's issue is because she has fallen in love with Nick. Let me say that again, Adalind has fallen in love with Nick. Adalind decides to throw caution to the wind after declaring her love, claiming to no longer care about how complicated this will make things and kisses Nick. Complicated? At this point, Grimm could have scored points by having Nick reject Adalind because she did after all rape him but instead, Grimm actually had these two have sex. Nick willingly consented to sex with his rapist.
In the afterglow, Nick lay with Adalind in his arms thinking about her various bad acts but never once did he think about the rape. Since the rape occurred in season four, Grimm has run screaming from the label of rape. It's ridiculous given that Nick is a cop and would damn well know that what happened to him is rape by deception. Perhaps this is about society's determination that all rape must be violent, with a stranger jumping out of the bushes. Perhaps it's because society too often refuses to accept that a woman can indeed a rape a man. The absolute denial about what happened between Nick and Adalind, is a very good example of how our rape culture works. Grimm then doubles down by once again having Monroe refer to the rape as Nick sleeping with Adalind. Nick says that when he slept with Adalind, he thought he was having sex with Juliette, and therefore even by their own definition, this was rape by deception.
A lot of work has been done to rehabilitate Adalind's character in order to make a relationship between her and Nick supposedly believable. The very idea that a rapist can be redeemed in this way is beyond problematic. As part of this redemption train, Adalind has been depowered and made absolutely dependent upon Nick. This is no coming together of equals.
The mystery man Marwan Hanano, whom Hadrian's Wall has been looking for has arrived in town. His first stop is to see the local Black Claw leader Lucien Petrovich, to get a sniper rifle and a silencer. Hanano is so good, that he doesn't even need the scope which comes with his gun to get his target. Hanano sets his sites on Andrew Dixon, the candidate which Renard has been supporting for Mayor of Portland. It's about time Grimm brought Renard more into the story. It seems as though this an attempt by Black Claw to bring chaos to Portland, in the same manner that it has brought chaos to other areas around the globe. Hadrian's Wall sends in Eve to deal with what is going on and Truble is assigned to Singapore.
As for Nick and Monroe, when they arrive in Germany, they head straight for the church they have picked out as the possible location. After talking to a priest, who is clearly skeevy, they learn that the church is not old enough to be the one they are looking for. They decide that the map really does mean x marks the spot, as Truble hinted earlier and head to a secondary location. It's dark when Nick and Monroe start digging and what they don't know is that the Priest, along with several men, are now on the hunt for them. Some kind of trap door is tricked and Nick and Monroe find themselves dropped into what appears to be a long hole.
