"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
With only two episodes left, it's clear the writers have decided to stop messing around and move the meta to warp speed. This is the episode that we've been waiting all season to see. How are Diana and the sigils and the stick connected? What does the bone creature want with Eve? What are the sigils counting down to? These are some of the questions answered in this episode. And then what did the writers do? Well they ended the whole bloody mess on a cliffhanger leaving me screaming at the television in frustration.
As we saw at the end of Blood Magic, Eve entered the mirror determined to kill the creature that has been trying to draw her in. Eve being Eve, didn't even think about leaving a note behind for the scoobies. Monroe and Rosealee figure out that Eve is missing when they arrive home and find the mirror uncovered and the spell book opened to a page on blood magic.
Nick returns home to find Adalind waiting for him. Adalind decides that it's time to come clean about Diana's abilities. Adalind tells Nick about Diana killing both Rachel Wood and Bonaparte. How the hell does Nick barely blink an eye at this? Because of the things that Diana can do and can see, Adalind suggests that they bring Renard into the loop. The scoobies may not find Renard to be trustworthy but Adalind is certain that they can trust Renard to act in the best interests of his daughter. The conversation is cut short when Nick gets a call about the missing Eve.
Nick, Adalind and the kids head over to Monroe and Rosealee's. Adalind woges for the first time in front of Diana, after warning her daughter that her face would change. Adalind skims through the book and finds the spell that Eve used to cross into the other dimension. Adalind prepares to head into the mirror to rescue Eve and Rosealee is quick to remind Adalind that she has two children to think of. After all, Eve chose to go into this new dimension without telling anyone what she was doing. Adalind's blood will only allow her to go through the mirror, so Nick uses the magic stick to open the dimension to join Eve. When he gets to the other side, Nick finds himself in an alternate version of the Black Forest and completely cut off from the other dimension. Has anyone noticed that they didn't even bother to do any kind of research before leaping into the mirror? They don't even have a way to bring Nick back. Unfortunately for Nick, the stick may have opened the dimension but it didn't follow through with him.
Nick makes his way cautiously through the forest but it's not long before he's attacked by a Blutbad. Nick tries to communicate with the Blutbad to no avail. When Nick runs out of options, he pulls out his gun and shoots the Blutbad dead. It's the sound of the gunshot that gets Eve's attention and the two finally meet up. Nick is not at all impressed that Eve decided to go on this little adventure on her own and suggests that Eve is trying to prove something. Eve however is adamant that she's not trying to prove anything. Someone needs to tell me why the hell Eve decided to crawl through the mirror other than her desire to fight the skeleton creature. For whatever reason they decide to follow a path that Eve found earlier.
It's not long before the Blutbad's comrades find him and after sniffing his body, decide to go on a hunt for some man meat. As Nick and Eve walk through this world with no idea where they are going, or how to get the hell home, Eve reveals that thus far she's seen: Hundjägers, Klaustreich, two Schakals, a Coyotl. It's quite the motley collection of Wesen. Nick points out that the Blutbad that he killed didn't return to a human form when he died. Could this be a world ruled by woged Wesen? Some sort of Wesen home world? Things become even more complicated when they realise that Eve is starting to Woge against her will. To Nick, this is enough to suggest that they need to get the hell out of there post haste but Eve is determined to stay until they kill the skull creature.
With Eve and Nick now in a new dimension and Diana saying that they are in a dangerous place, things are looking grim. Adalind suggests that it's time to bring Renard into the loop. Monroe isn't certain about this because Renard hasn't exactly been team scooby recently but Adalind points out that Renard has connections and can be counted on to act in defense of his daughter.
Along with bringing Renard into the loop, they finally decide that maybe giving Wu and Hank a heads up about what is going on is a good idea. As much as Adalind is certain that Renard will act in Diana's best interests, she still doesn't want to be alone in the tunnel with Renard. When Renard shows up, the tension is thick in the air. When they reveal the tunnel, Renard is shocked that it has been this close all along. Trust Monroe to come up with a handy quip about the many uses of the tunnel.
Renard's mind gets absolutely blown after seeing the sigils on the tunnel walls that Eve drew. To ensure he sees them clearly, Diana makes the sigils glow for Renard, thus reinforcing her connection to what is going on. After seeing the tunnel, Renard is then shown the cloth and the stick. It's Monroe who explains that this is what they found from the map on the keys. To say that Renard is a touch gobsmacked is understating his expression. Now that Renard is completely in the know, Adalind asks him to reach out to his contacts to help them figure out what the hell is going on.
Some time has passed in the alternate dimension and it's now night time. The Blutbad are still in hot pursuit of Nick and Eve. Nick and Eve race towards a crude human settlement and Nick is forced to shoot two of the tree Blutbads that are chasing them. One of the humans leaves the settlement to check and see if the Blutbad are indeed dead. When they are certain that the Blutbad are dead, the humans stream out of the settlement and drag the dead Blutbad inside. Nick is hailed as the conquering hero. Nick and Eve are forced to communicate through gestures because the humans only speak German. Right about now, I bet Nick is a bit disappointed that he didn't at least as Rosetta Stone course on German. Eve does her best to hide her hands because they would reveal her as a Hexenbiest.
Everyone gathers around the fire and Nick is forced to show them his gun because they are fascinated with it. Nick tries to explain that he only uses it to kill bad things and of course the humans list of the names of various Wesen. They may not really be able to understand each other but they seem to agree that Wesen are bad. As befitting being a conquering hero, Nick is offered some food. Unfortunately, the food is Blutbad meat, causing Eve to snark about being a vegetarian. With no real way to communicate, Nick is forced to eat the meat.
After ascertaining that Eve didn't think to bring a pencil and some paper with her into this new dimension, Nick uses a charred stick from the fire to draw an image of the skull beast on a slate rock. Luckily for Nick and Eve, the humans seem to recognise the figure from his crude drawing. Nick points his gun at the drawing to indicate that he intends to kill the beast. The humans are quick to pick up on Nick's intentions and start to chant, "Kill the Zerstörer" The humans point to the Black Forest, so it seems that Nick and Eve must go back the way they came.
With a human as a guide, Eve and Nick head out to find the Zerstörer. The guide leads them right back to the stonehenge where they entered this world. In German, their guide tells them that this is Wesen territory and no walking meat comes out alive. The guide makes a hasty retreat after noticing how much Eve has shifted into her hexenbiest form.
Renard gets in touch with Dasha to see if she can put the pieces together for them. Dasha warns that the other place is like Shrödinger’s cat and extremely dangerous. Of course, Monroe is the only one who has a clue what she's talking about. It seems that two dimensions can exist simultaneously as long as they both stay closed. Unfortunately, by going to the other world Nick and Eve have opened the box. Nick and Eve are in some sort of afterlife/ prelife place.
Diana however blows away any kind of calm about the situation by announcing that someone really bad is in the other dimension. This is when they describe the skull thing that Eve and Nick have crossed over to kill. This sets Dasha's nerves off and she switches to Russian, after first ensuring that Diana won't be able to understand her. It seems that Diana is the Shapat - the devil's bride. Zerstörer wants to get with Diana and have 100 babies with her. Renard asks for a way to stop this from happening and Dasha simply tells him to prepare for the worst.
It's now bedtime for Diana and after she's tucked in, Renard breaks down the conversation he had with Dasha. He's clearly worried because he doesn't even think about holding back any information from the scoobies. Renard explains that Diana might be a Shapat - a child bride. With somewhere to start now, the scoobies decide to split up and so some research.
Eve and Nick enter the henge but instead of being attacked by the Zerstörer, they are attacked by the surviving Blutbad. Eve ends up with a few cuts and bruises before Nick manages to shoot the Blutbad dead. Nick now only has three bullets left and no idea if they will take out the Zerstörer. Eve suggests that maybe Nick should try to find a way home and then it happens - the long overdue talk about the status of their relationship. Nick feels responsible for everything that has happened to Eve because she would have been fine had they not been in a relationship. Eve however responds by saying that Juliette was scared and angry and did some unforgivable things. This effectively separates Eve from Juliette, whom Eve says that she can never forgive. Eve makes it clear that she is not Juliette and doesn't want to be. Eve reminds Nick that he cannot change anything nor does she want anything changed because she is powerful now. Eve isn't particularly interested in happiness and asserts that there's a reason why they're standing where they are.
The ground shakes as the Zerstörer makes his appearance. The Zerstörer smashes his staff on the ground, creating a shockwave which knocks Eve and Nick off of their feet. Nick manages to stand and shoot his final three bullets but they don't seem to bother the Zerstörer in the least. Did he really think it was going to be that easy? The Zerstörer responds by turning his staff green and Eve woges. It's battle time and so of course, to be continued flashes across the screen. Cue frustrated growling.
For awhile now, Grimm has been playing with a sort of love triangle between Eve, Nick and Adalind. Eve and Nick do indeed have some unfinished business; however, as someone who was never invested in these two as a couple, Eve's declaration about liking her power and not seeking happiness absolutely worked for me. How could Nick even consider being with Eve when she killed Kelly. I don't give a shit that Eve makes a distinction between herself and Juliette because to me she will always be the murderer of Mommy Grimm and the destroyer of the Grimm trailer. It's also really worth noting that Eve makes a point of embracing the strength she now possesses as a hexebiest because Juliette existed without power. It really drives home the fact that to be Nick's love interest one has to be powerless or weak in some way.
Renard is finally in the loop. How I've missed him this season. They haven't really given us a good reason for Renard's walk on the dark side however. I suppose they just plan on dropping it because there certainly isn't time left in the series to make that decision make sense. Given that Diana is at risk, I'm certain that Reneard is going to be at his most bad ass to save his daughter.
So this week, Grimm introduced another dimension. We still don't know what the stick has to do with it at all. My worry with this is that there are only two episodes left in the series and so I'm not sure that there's enough time left to do justice to this awesome world which they have just introduced. Similarly, I'm also not certain if they can do justice to the Zerstörer. If they hadn't spent so much damn time on Wesen of the week, they really could have built this into something rather than rushing through it. It all feels so slap dash, I cannot help but wonder if this is what the writers had in mind when they first introduced the keys so many seasons ago.
The fact that Dasha had to connect the dots for us was a nasty of breaking the rule regarding showing rather than telling. Grimm wouldn't have been in the situation of having to read the audience in to the other dimension and the Zerstörer intentions, if they had just given the meta a little bit more attention before now. It's absolutely a failure in storytelling.
