Come To Mess Me Up Grimm S2E12 Season of the Hexenbiest

Previously on Grimm: procedure, what's that? That wendigo must have a fascinating digestive system and Kitty and I are still not writing a treatise on theoretical Wesen biology. (K: At least not until halfway into the hiatus maybe.) Everybody was stressed and bad at communication, for understandable reasons except for the part where I still want to smack Nick with a cluebat. Studded, maybe, like the one from this ep? Renard tries to find an actual cure for him and Juliette, and I question why he hasn't had his people in Portland stalking following Nick to find out who his Wesen contacts are what with the surprise!discovery by Monroe.

This week on Grimm: Adalind's back! Nobody seems to remember what they knew at the beginning of this season. I consider smacking people with cluebats, preferably Nick's nail-studded one, rather than the usual dead fish, which should tell you something about my tone for this ep right there. Infinite cliffhangers are infinite!

Before we begin, let's review the things that each character knows at the beginning of this episode, because that's going to come in handy when I reach my notes that are nothing but capslocking and illustrating the diversity of the word 'fuck.' Nick: knows that Juliette is still suffering the effects of the spell designed to make her forget him. Knows that there's a Royal in Portland who was the only one who could wake her, QED the Royal must have woken her or Catherine lied. (He seems to have picked the latter with no consideration for the former.) Everyone wants that key from him, and he knows it's a map that leads to super-awesome conquer the world treasure, but not where the treasure might be or what it is. He does not know that Juliette's increasingly erratic behavior is also tied into the potion, but it would be a logical leap for him to make. Monroe: knows that Renard is a police captain who's under a compulsion spell to be in love with someone he doesn't want. Now knows that that person is Juliette. Given this and Juliette's reaction to him in the spice shop, should be able to make the assumption that Juliette doesn't want it either. (Has still not called Rosalee. What the fuck is WRONG with you, Monroe.) Poor Rosalee, speaking of, is out of the loop. Hank, who regains his title of 'the best' this ep, knows about Grimming and either Nick's told him about Adalind off-camera or he's managed to put most of it together on his own, because he's not stupid. Is, much to our dismay, sidelined from the love potion action, because I bet he'd have some fascinating things to say about it. Adalind: knows pretty much everything except where the damn key is. Renard: ditto, except apparently he doesn't know that Nick's been working with Monroe for the past almost-year. Juliette: is goddamn sick of being left in the dark. A-fucking-men, honey.

RIGHT. Our quote this ep is taken from Town Musicians of Bremen, which leaves me facepalming for oh so many reasons. I mean, we'll start with the literal meaning of it, Adalind has indeed "spewed her poison over [them] and scratched [them] with her long fingernails." But we also have the theme of misfits finding a chosen family and sticking together (hasn't happened yet but if they're going to send all our main characters in that direction I will do a jig of joy), plus the implication that the witch really isn't a witch but a cat. Remember all the cat figurines in Adalind's place? Yeah. And on top of that, there's the fact that the animals scare off robbers from the cottage they inhabit. Now, on the one hand, they've aligned Adalind with the animals. On the other hand, she does rather want to rob Nick. On the gripping hand, she has Hundjager to fill the role of the Dog. Mostly I think this was picked because you can read whatever you want into it. Which irks me. It's irksome, and I'm going to spend the rest of this recaplysis with that churning in my backbrain until I make some more associations.

Now that I've spent a few hundred words just on the damn setup, the actual ep! We pick up right where we left off, with the quote appearing over Juliette's car/the spice shop, which is of course not at all significant. A wild Monroe appears! Juliette looks horrified and flustered and runs the hell out of the shop which, although I don't approve, I can kind of understand, since she has no idea about all the supernatural crap happening to her and going on around her. Though I'm kind of annoyed about the lack of consistency in her trying to hunt down answers about what little she's aware of. Renard makes a sort of half-apology to Monroe and then rushes out after her, like you do when your bespelled other half is acting funny even for the potion's effects. Unfortunately he's busy going to his car and the camera's busy following Juliette's tail, so it's hard to say for sure if he caught that motorcycle peeling off after her. I'm going with no, though, simply because he has no reason to suspect Adalind's back this soon or that he was followed here. 'cause we damn well didn't see a tail last episode. And a motorcycle for Renard! Leading me to ruin not one but two perfectly good childhood rhymes by muttering one Verrat two Verrat everywhere Verrat Verrat under my breath and making Kitty fall off her chair laughing. Oh look, it's the Hotel Deluxe, also known as home to all the scheming plots ever. (Speculation: it's owned/operated by the Verrat or the Royals or both.) A woman in red peep-toe heels appears, I can't possibly think who that is. AND she has Verrat with her. Let's review, briefly: the Verrat at some point had a closer relationship with the Royals than it currently does. There are two primary branches therein, the Reapers and the Hundjagers, who have not yet been shown working together. The Hundjagers seem to be the section with the most Royal ties, as is borne out by Adalind having an escort of them this episode.

Meanwhile back at the precinct, we get Renard coming into the office in a nice little callback to at least a couple walk-and-talks where he had Nick and Hank at his side. Not so much the case right now. I pause to figure out the timeline and then realize that the events of this ep/end of last/at least the beginning of next are probably contained within three days. And then I require Monroe's mallet. Ooh ooh, a nice shot of the old school style directory at the department! Burglary, robbery-homicide, special deployment, operations, cyber crimes, and tactical unit are all on the third floor, with records, mounted patrol, and something that's too blurry for me to make out on the second. (Excuse me, I need a moment for the mental image of horses stabled on the second floor.) Renard's harried, hurried, and generally hunching as he walks in, complete with the by-now-familiar tic of touching his face whenever he's fighting with the potion. More than usual, anyway, since I have to assume he's fighting it most of the time. His "Nick" is strained and guilty, not our usual polite Captain; fortunately Wu is there to break the tension. Or try. Even Wu's cheery manner of "hi I bring you paperwork" can't penetrate Renard's doom and gloom and it is not normal for him to brush people off like this. At all. Not at the precinct, where he gets to put aside some of the cares of being a Prince and focus on being the Captain who gets to do good and help people. I do think the operative phrase is gets to, yes; he's the sort of person who wants to make up for all the crap he's done while recognizing that he's in a position where he'll have to do more bad/evil/violent things in order to reach his goals. So the day job is normally a refuge for him, one that's been taken away both because of his obsessive behavior and because said obsessive behavior, at least at the precinct, probably involves a whole lot of trying not to punch Nick in the face/sneer at him that Renard is a better option for Juliette than Nick ever could be/something equally stupid and revealing. Wu would like to know what's eating him, I wince at the sideways reference to the wendigo from last ep, and cue awkward phone call time!

Juliette's in a panic, because this thing she's been trying to keep a lid on, trying to at least keep private and preferably keep from acting on at all just got blown wide open. We pan up from one of the many pictures in the house of her and Nick being happy and couple-y together, yes, thank you, I needed those toes. Nick, meanwhile, is framed against the wall of pictures in the PD, matching where his concerns currently lie. Yes, they need to talk; no, she's not going to tell him one of his friends caught her making out with another man over the phone while he's at work, and we leave Juliette to stew in her own misery until she talks to Renard again. Monroe is the most awkward ever, which since he already tends to be pretty awkward is damn impressive. I giggle sadly at his mallet, almost no information is exchanged except now Nick's even warier about what the fuck is going on and if Monroe's call and Juliette's call are related.

Back at the hotel, now with the two remaining Hundjagers from the motorcycles, and I pause a second to go HEY THAT'S A WOMAN. We have evidence of a bigendered species on this one! And since there are some species (full-blooded Hexen comes to mind, as do Ziegvolk, Wildermann, and Hasslich) for whom we only have one gender, that actually matters. I'm about 90% certain that the doormen at this hotel are Verrat by now, given their long black trenchcoats and the way they're carrying themselves. Can't tell if they're carrying weapons (mostly because if they are, I don't know that the props department was informed), but I wouldn't be surprised. Apparently the motorcycle Hundjager aren't known to Adalind's driver and bodyguard from earlier, since they show their palms to get in. That, or the Verrat tattoo is harder to fake than a zaubertrank to magic up the appearance of someone else. (K: Polyjuice zaubertrank!) (A: And now I want Adalind to fuck one up and end up half-cat, thank you for that.) They present their palms to her as well, somewhat more in a gesture of fealty than identification, and she turns her back on them rather pointedly. Doylistically this is to give us a shot of her face for the creepy evil smile she gets going, and to confirm what we already know from previous episodes/body/voice. From a Watsonian perspective, though, it's a gesture of contempt and/or confidence. Though she's no longer a Hexenbiest in full possession of her powers, though the Hundjager could rip her apart, Adalind has every reason to believe they won't, that they're fully under her control. She'd like to know everything about Renard and Juliette, and I continue to find it fascinating that though she's known he's a Prince since the beginning, she keeps calling him the Captain.

Roll credits which we are still not analyzing the changes in we swear. At least not until halfway through the hiatus. And back to Monroe's place, where he hates this like burning to the point that he requires liquid courage to spit it out. At least it's only beer. Monroe. Tell him that she's under a spell. Tell him that the other guy is under a spell, too, it's not like client confidentiality matters to you in this case. MONROE. Oh for fuck's sake. This couple who came in for some guidance is not the same as telling him flat out what you know to be true. Especially with the comment about not knowing anything more which is a GODDAMN LIE. "Than what I haven't told you" is an interesting construction which I assume is intended to say please don't tell Juliette I told you rather than that Monroe's holding something back. WHICH HE IS. No, seriously, someone explain to me how the fuck Monroe forgets the big fuckoff guy who's been in the spice shop three times in recent days/weeks looking for a cure to his obsessive love potion behavior. Renard is not that forgettable AS WE FIND OUT AT THE END OF THE EP. I know he's surprised from having it be Juliette, I know Monroe wants to put all the bloodletting and politicking (but I repeat myself) of the old country behind him, but that does not excuse the utter idiocy of this scene. Especially since he's had the day to turn it over in his head and start making some logical connections. Monroe, you're smarter than this. Please go hit the writers with that mallet until THEY remember that. I mean, he tries to save it at the end with the talk about the spell Adalind put on Juliette, but it would be FAR more believable if he mentioned why Renard had been there TOO. Argh argh argh killing you all with my brain. Nick is unmoved and apparently going to go do something inadvisable. As usual. My desire to smack him with his own bat continues to rise.

Renard, now that he's given them both some time to cool down from whatever that was that he's still not aware of and now that his duties are done for the day, calls Juliette. And can I just pause here to note that oh Renard, you're still managing to focus on clearing your paperwork and doing your job despite everything? I mean, it makes a good distraction from the fuckmuppetry that is his life right now, but that speaks once again to the ridiculous amount of control he has. Naturally this happens right around the same time Nick goes home for the evening, so it's not a long call. Again with the Dutch angles on Renard's office and he actually looks as relaxed as he's been in a long time in this scene, probably because he's talking to Juliette. Even though she's giving him some really bad news. There's the thumb-to-forehead tic we know and hate as he gets himself under enough control not to be a lovesick boy for the phone call; that hand goes straight into his pocket when she picks up both because he's concealing the supernatural parts from her and because he's extremely uncomfortable these days. He looks mostly Captain rather than Prince, which given the potion makes me think that his Captain persona is at least closer to the real Renard once you get past all the formalities and titles. Brows raised and furrowed, a normal expression of worry/concern/asserting authority for him. Juliette paces, as well she might. Paces and talks with her hands even though she's on the phone, which may be an actress tic as well as a Juliette tic. Renard's voice is soft and I want to say gentle, which is (apart from the call itself) the primary indication we have of how the potion's affecting his behavior in this scene. He cares about her for her, doesn't know what's the potion and what's himself, but despite the fact that he's trying to dictate terms to Juliette he's not being anywhere near as authoritative as he normally gets in such situations. Eyes moving side to side fairly consistently throughout the conversation, indicating restlessness and fear of discovery, which I wouldn't notice so much but for the fact that they're shooting Roiz to lighten his eye color again. This seems to be one of their codes for Whammied Out Of His Gourd. Juliette doesn't know what she's going to tell Nick, I wish people would take advantage of the hours in a day they apparently have to think about what they're telling him instead of acting like this is happening within minutes. Because clearly it's not quite that rushed and I don't know about you, but when I have a big upsetting emotional thing to think about, I go on autopilot with my daily routines as much as possible and shift processing power to trying to deal with the pile of shit being dropped on my head. I will grant that carefully planned speeches often fall out of people's head when confronted with the person they need to speechify at, but even given that I would like to spend all my time facepalming. I'm even at the RENARD TELL NICK WHAT'S GOING ON BEFORE SOMEONE DOES IT FOR YOU point. Our dear Captain is good at spin and could probably manage to manipulate Nick out of punching him, but no, nobody is thinking clearly these days.

For all that I feel terrible for both of them in this scene, I also would like to smack them both. Juliette has a funny definition of nothing having happened yet; Nick knows DAMN well what's going on and keeps pushing her for the sort of information that he hasn't been willing to give her. The only saving grace to the characters in this scene is that Juliette looks ready to tell him, Nick decides it's none of his business (because in some ways it isn't, Nick, if this weren't potion-influenced love whammy you would have no say since she DOESN'T REMEMBER YOU), and he finally stops himself from victim blaming her. Out loud, at least, I'm not at all certain what's going on in his tiny little mind right now. Nick, honey, I know you've got a lot on your plate but I really miss the days when you thought things through at least a little before leaping to conclusions. Nick heads off and though I want to punch him for moving out later I understand his basic need to get out of there and clear his head for awhile. For him, at least, this has all happened really fast. So I have some sympathy for a little while! Meanwhile Juliette goes over to Monroe's, either having guessed that Nick saw him first or just needing to talk to someone who's more or less fully in the loop. Comforting!Monroe and him and Juliette being good friends is amazing, and I wish the circumstances weren't so dire. And then I snicker sadly, because I know that kind of dry delivery where you can't lie to someone so you're trying to make them laugh instead. Intimately.

On to more Renard! In an elevator. With a cross-stylized halo thing above his head that really looks like the aura of sanctity in Renaissance paintings. (K: ... I was thinking crosshairs on his face, myself.) (A: Both at once, because they're efficient that way.) Excuse me, I need to go see a man about some set designers and their sense of snark. But wait! It's the Verrat! He looks so tired, and he has this look of 'yeah yeah get on with it' as they stalk in and push the buttons on the elevator. Which is of course not code at all for Adalind pushing Renard's buttons. They would never. I love the dry delivery on "now what," and then I have to back up and scream for awhile because Monseigneur is a French or Italian honorific which may be royalty (specifically addressed to a prince, in France) or may be religious in nature. Given the imagery and the Catholic associations from last season (remember the pet priest in Last Grimm Standing?), I wouldn't lay odds against it being both at once. See previous note about efficiency. It's roughly equivalent to HRH in English-speaking countries, and I find it very interesting that for all that Renard's fucked off to Portland and doesn't seem to want much to do with most of the Royals, the Verrat, at least, accords him the courtesy of what's probably his true formal title. Or possibly his title within the Verrat; given the Florence/Firenze connection we pulled off the deleted scene in Game Ogre and his conversation with Waltz, this strengthens the likelihood of Renard having past ties to the Verrat. If they're setting up the Church and the Crown analogy between the Verrat and the Royals I might have to hurt something. Also, those tattoos must hurt like fuck to get, given the scarification that appears to accompany them as well as the location.

Over to Hank, who eats like a bachelor much to absolutely nobody's surprise. I bet he's got a few dishes he can put together for company and has no idea how to downsize them to single servings. Hey, Hank, you could get Adalind in to cook for you! No? I somehow thought not. That's a very, very wary look he gives her through the door before he opens it, just in case we were in any doubt about who's on the other side. (Side note, I really wonder if they're going to do anything with threshold magic in this series. I kind of hope so, because it'd be nice to have some kind of a Wesen that can't just crash into people's homes uninvited and fuck their shit up. We have far too many of the other kind right now.) Presumably the Hundjagers are being sneaky fucks around back while she plays the distraction, and that's one hell of a distraction with that cleavage. Seriously, I don't think we've seen Adalind vamped out like this before, it's a classic Hi I Am Evil Femme Fatale Now And Not Hiding It costume design. Sigh. We can take the brief feminism rant as read, yes? Adalind is trying hard to play innocent and sweet and woe is me my mommy died, and Hank is not having any of it, because he's not stupid, Adalind, quit simpering. What I would dearly love to know, and what Hank of course doesn't reveal during this scene, is whether or not Nick ever told Hank about what Adalind did to him and they just never showed us those bits. After all, there's a lot from last season that Nick should have been working on catching Hank up on, and that should have been top of the list. Regardless of whether Nick told him or he figured it out on his own, Hank damn well knows the cookies were a mind-whammy thing. And then Adalind tries to pull out the but-my-mom-died card, which is unconvincing at best and considering that happened after you roofied him, darlin, you're not fooling anyone with your poor unstable little rich girl act. Hank's 'sorry' is perfunctory and social grace reflexes, and then Adalind tries to weave this completely flimsy story about being afraid Nick was going to hurt her. Which Hank is just kind of staring at her going uh-huh-yeah-right to, to the point where I can just about hear him thinking he's seen better liars in interrogation who were high/drunk/otherwise impaired at the time. Because wow this is a terrible fabrication. Hank's poker face is pretty good, he barely twitches even though he thinks it's possible Nick did have something to do with Catherine's death. She finishes up her little lying-through-her-teeth speech of an ex who's done wrong and is trying to repent, mostly for her own peace of mind (and at least that much she's not lying about, the self-interest) and Hank doesn't say a word. What can you say to that, anyway? Sure, I forgive you for roofieing me and leaving me to die and involving me in your crazyass plans that led to me thinking I was going insane for a few weeks there? Yeah. No. Hank goes straight for his phone to inform Nick that Adalind and her batshittery have returned to town, which means either Nick did tell him about Adalind to some degree or he's being smart enough to realize that he needs to talk to Nick since Adalind brought him up. Alas, Hank, she has henchjagers this time.

Kitty and I recover from keyboardmashing about LEAVE OUR HANK ALONE just in time to start keyboardmashing about how this is not going to end well and isn't that Renard's original condo? Which, yes, it looks like the one from season 1 again, meaning either there's a section that he was living in while cleanup happening during The Kiss that has lower ceilings or he did indeed take up temporary quarters for same. Regardless, he's being a stubborn bastard and staying put, as indeed everyone in this show has been despite repeated home invasions. I suppose since most cops are listed in the phone book (or the digital equivalent thereof) it's a waste of time, money, and effort to try and make it harder for people like the Royals or the Verrat to find you. (Also cheaper for production.) But it still says something about their characters that nobody's been scared out of their home by a break-in, both in terms of sheer stubborn and in terms of high tolerance for hypervigilance. The henchjagers have cleared the condo for Adalind, and now she comes clacking in all business and calling him Sean as she never has before, a clear indication of where she believes the power lies. In fact, I don't think she ever called him by any name or title to his face until this episode. They start out with sniping in the vein of mentor to protegee, sort of. "So good to see you." "You say that almost as if you meant it." And then that's dropped in favor of jabbing him hard about the potion, which he doesn't react to except for a very, very faint tightening around his jaw. Kudos to Roiz for the microexpressions, my god. Why yes, she's slept with Eric, and that's such a hopeful almost kittenish "all of him," as though she thinks maybe now Renard would be jealous. To me that says she's still halfway in love/infatuation with the younger Renard, that she's still looking to get a sexual response out of him even if it's only predicated on his brother getting something he never wanted in the first place. Renard comes back with a glorious twofer of a jab at Eric's promiscuity and I think that's a size joke in there. I will now go fall over laughing at the dignity with which Sean Renard manages to make penis size jokes, because oh my god that was epic. Adalind delivers Eric's ultimatum, Renard double-checks what the blackmail is, and I continue to grumble at my screen about how the easiest way to deal with blackmail is to make it no longer blackmail. By telling people things. I mean, there's other fallout from that to deal with, but I daresay Renard (and perhaps Monroe?) could talk Nick down from his YOU'RE DOING WHAT WITH MY WHO long enough to wreak havoc on Adalind's plans. But no. Adalind does a whole bunch of creepy touching that doesn't set Renard off nearly the same way her mother's creepy touching did back in Love Sick, but it's clearly out of the same school of touch and sexuality as control. Yeah, that would work better if he weren't whammied for another woman right now. This is a nice visual callback to the last time the Verrat was in Renard's condo, too; from staring out his window with a brandy snifter murmuring in Latin to staring balefully after Adalind with a glass of red wine. At least it's not scotch.

At the trailer in question, Nick apparently slept there last night! I would like to reiterate for the UMPTEEN MILLIONTH TIME that a) that house must have a spare bedroom and b) Nick has at least two friends he could be staying over with if he didn't want to go home at all, regardless of the couch. But no, he's a stubborn shit who refuses to admit he needs help in his personal life, even though his personal and professional lives have been crashing into each other for a long time now, to say nothing of his cop job and his Grimm job. Goddammit, Nick, you just can't buy a clue. Wu wakes him from what looks like the kind of sleep you get when you toss and turn in an unfamiliar sleeping place and finally pass out around dawn with the news of Hank in the hospital. And now he is very awake. Wu's lost his usual jovial air and is serious, so Nick knows how bad off Hank must be. Nick is going straight to the hospital and grabbing his gun (which they really shouldn't let him bring with), most likely because his Grimmstincts are going off. Also, if anyone has any sense remaining, they shouldn't let Nick work this case.

Juliette crashed at Monroe's place and now I'm curious to know if one of the (apparently many; word on Twitter was that the director's cut was 17 minutes too long) deleted scenes from this ep involved Nick trying to crash at Monroe's place and getting told no, he was hosting Juliette. Maybe along with trying to crash at Hank's and not getting any answer, because hospital. That would make me a lot happier about him having slept in the trailer, even though you'd think he could crash in a spare bedroom my god. No, writers, nobody is letting this go anytime soon, because it makes no logical sense to have no spare bedrooms in a house that size. We will hound you for a damn explanation. And now Juliette's starting to ask some of the right questions and Kitty and I are back to keyboardmashing about TELL HER ALREADY. NO. JUST TELL HER. She has the right to know, she's asking the right questions, and Nick is being the biggest dipshit on the planet trying to keep her out of the loop. Maybe in the solar system. Oy vey. And you know, this opening to try to explain what it is that Nick does isn't a bad one, at least as regards her coma. He just can't quite reach for the supernatural explanation when Juliette's sitting there giving him rational normal-world explanations. I think if she'd pushed a little bit harder, been a little more forceful, Monroe would've cracked, but she's trying to be a good person and do the right thing and not put him in the middle of things, so no, she'll just leave.

I finish swearing in all my languages as we come up on Hank looking like hell in the hospital with Nick half-dozing half-guarding him in the chair by the window, which leads me to another round of swearing in all the languages. This episode is rife with that, I'm afraid. That looks like... cracked or strained ribs, dislocated left shoulder, black eye, possible concussion. Ow. This is also our first clue that Hank really doesn't know a damn thing about Kelly being alive, the key, Catherine's death, or possibly even Nick and his Wesen scoobies' role in getting him back on his feet after Adalind. Which means I'm going to hit Nick with his own bat some more now, you tell your partner when he's been roofied and raped. Not that the show's called it that second directly, but that's damn well what happened. Several lines of exposition later, Nick continues to refuse to tell Hank anything on the unstated grounds that it'll endanger him further. Um. He's already in the hospital, and Adalind has bigger fish to fry. Like Nick says, all she wants is Hank out of the way, but that shouldn't preclude Nick from using his partner's brain to get a second take on things. In fact, I'd say Hank really wishes Nick would do just that, but he's in too much pain to argue the point. And that's all we see of Hank this episode, and there was much lamentation.

Hey, they've given me a reason for language dorking this episode! Excellent. Less excellent, the guy playing the Parisian is a true Frenchman and swallows his words a lot, so I'm having a hard time with transcribing it. What we could get follows, for those of you who like to dork along with us; if any of the native speakers would like to chime in to fill in the gaps that would be lovely. "Ils veulent que je livre la clé. Et ils ont menacé que de dire au Grimm si je ne le fait pas." "Tu sois très prudent, Sean. Ils ont arrêté Gustavo, la police vient retrouvé au fond du Danube, ce qui se resté de son corps." "Eric passe electe. Et c'est le Verrat qui est derrier ça." "C'est compréhensif. C'est Danilov qui gère maintenant. J'appellerai dès que j'aurai plus d'information." (Edit: Reader sarah sere has provided additions, which are now included in the translation!) Which, even though I can't quite get all of that as solid as I'd like because certain people really are French and they swallow their words, is the subtitles editorializing again, I think. Less so for Renard's lines than for the Parisian's, but the Parisian is also using more idiomatic language (hence some of my issues with the transcription), making it more difficult for the subtitlers to translate word-for-word. Most notably, Kitty and I are both pretty sure that's a tu-construction on his first line, which means the Parisian is providing the reassurance of a father figure rather than the structure of formality, a role we were reasonably certain he played from the visual cues in Three Coins but had nothing concrete to back it up with. I'm not at all certain he says repêché, for fishing Gustavo's body out. I'm pretty sure that he says arrêté, which is more stopped or arrested rather than caught as the subtitles translate it. And then at the end I can forgive them for glossing "I'll call as soon as I have more information" to "I'll call as soon as I know more." French is, after all, just that damn wordy a lot of the time. And now the part the rest of you were waiting patiently through the language geekery for!

We have, now, three conspirators in Europe. There's Duvall from a couple eps ago, who we believe to be the person Eric was torturing at the beginning of the season. There's Gustavo, who we believe to be the canary in Eric's castle. And there's the Parisian, now presumed dead unless he's way more badass than we've been led to believe. (But we didn't see a body, so there's always a chance!) By the way, four people makes up about the most I'd want in a cell of conspirators, for minimal damage done should they give up information under interrogation. We still don't know who these people are relative to anyone else; the Parisian wears no Royals ring (though he has some kind of pinky ring on his left hand) but if Gustavo is the canary he does. So it's not solely Royals, unless there's some reason for the Parisian not to wear a ring like the others. Whatever this group is, they've been working together for awhile, and the Parisian is probably the leader. Certainly he's the European leader, being the first person Renard calls when he's in immediate danger as opposed to needing information on something. The news that the Verrat is backing Eric seems to be new to him. Let's see, what else. Danilov is a Russian name, which ties in with Renard speaking Russian in the deleted scene of Game Ogre, which also dealt with the Verrat. He's also a he, much to absolutely nobody's surprise, and has recently taken control of same. Recent events have upset the Parisian enough that he's pacing; before he certainly gave the air of a man whom little could shock or distress. Gustavo was probably Italian, given the other references on the show, but possibly Spanish or Portuguese, in order of likelihood. Given the nature of conspiracies, and given that Renard's actually good at keeping secrets, I can't figure how likely it is that the Parisian knows about the love potion on top of all the rest. On the one hand I'm sure he'd like the reassurance the Parisian could provide; on the other I very much doubt that he'd want to place his concerns in even more hands, since he doesn't know if anyone beyond Eric and Adalind and their henchjagers know about recent events. Our Royals page and murderboards need updating, we know, we know, we'll get to it after the recaplyses go up today.

Nick barges on in! Renard knows why Nick wants to find Adalind so badly, but the reverse, not so much the case. He does a pretty good job of modulating his concern into the Captain being pissed off if Adalind did have anything to do with getting Hank beat up, but whatever it takes indicates that he's assuming guilt rather than offering alternate lines of inquiry, something Renard more usually does on a real case. Not that Nick's paying any attention to his Captain's tells; why should this time be different from all the others. Nick gets Wu on the logistics of finding Adalind, no, Nick, he does not have to be told that the cop who got beaten into the hospital takes priority, the cops know that. They'll also forgive you being snappish over your partner being in the hospital, though. Monroe is keeping Nick up to date and you'll forgive me but honestly I think Nick could do with a little less of that right now. Both in terms of, guy has too much on his plate as it is, and in terms of, guy seems to make better decisions when he runs on instinct instead of gobs of information. Which is kind of a sad commentary on his brains, but sure, okay, we'll sit here and listen to infinite repetitions of "tell her" until we hope it sinks in as a subliminal command. Monroe proceeds to be the MOST NAIVE EVER. Yes, Monroe, Adalind will come after everyone again. Including you, if she gets a whiff of how useful you are to Nick. Which isn't very right now, but fine.

Now it's time for epic miscommunication, lying, and misdirection! Yay! No, wait, the other thing. Nick tries to call Juliette to warn her, Juliette for obvious reasons doesn't want to talk to him right now, enter Adalind! The startlement is at least real, and then it's straight back to simpering before the commercial break. You know, I know Claire Coffee has a real smile, I've seen it in candids on Twitter and on her IMDB page, and she doesn't pull it out once this episode. Which is a damn impressive job of evil-villain acting. Nick comes on over to make sure nothing's happened to Juliette a la Hank, only no, on this one Adalind's going more subtle than that. He also nearly shoots Monroe, who's worried enough to show up presumably willing and inclined to Blutbad out to protect Juliette from whatever might be going on. (Randomly, there's a guitar there that I suspect is Juliette's. Aww!) And thank you, Monroe, for the 'try her again,' now please apply that common sense stick to the rest of the crazy shit going down, please. Meanwhile at Portland Java the women are trying to pry information out of each other, Adalind with somewhat greater success because she knows what it is she's looking for whereas Juliette's still entirely in the dark. I think Juliette starts out disbelieving most of Adalind's oh look aren't I innocent act, but then she starts getting a little better at lying with the truth about the relationship with Hank not working out and Catherine's death and Juliette really has no reason to believe that someone is this manipulative and nasty. She has no evidence to support her instincts, so she ignores them and, I would guess, tells herself that there's no reason to be so suspicious of this person when Nick is the one acting erratic and scaring her. I stop to take note of the cities Adalind's been in, since it doesn't look like she's lying about where, just why: Paris, Berlin, Vienna. The last, we knew already at least. Adalind begins pressing Juliette for more information, and now Juliette really isn't going to be paying attention to the direction this interrogation is taking because she hates thinking about this and she's horribly confused and traumatized. Well done. We close out of the coffee shop and go back to the precinct on Adalind saying she's been there in a way that strikes me as truthful and makes me wonder if she has experienced a love potion for herself. I wouldn't be surprised; Catherine strikes me as the kind of person who insisted that her daughter learn what each zaubertrank felt like for herself. Because it helps you manipulate the people better, dear, not because your mother was a sadistic fuckhead. Of course not.

Back at the precinct, Wu has data! We like data. Adalind flew out of Frankfurt, which isn't really surprising as it's a major Lufthansa hub. (In this case I'm a font of useless trivia because I've flown Lufthansa. Yay!) But she's at a hotel under either an assumed name or one of her henchjager's names. No surprise there, either; she wants the nervousness inspired by her return to Portland without the inconvenience of people being able to track her down. Nick thinks they should track Juliette's phone and, okay, I can understand why he's making these leaps of logic but there's a whole sackful of "because it's convenient for the plot for it to happen this way" this episode, and I'm beginning to have my credulity strained. Just a wee bit. I think I'd prefer it if this were like the s1 finale, where it was an ep of action followed by two eps of cleanup, whereas it sounds like this is going to be two eps of very sloppy action followed by maybe the whole rest of the season for cleanup. Meanwhile Renard would like to see Nick in his office and I start trying to slide down the chair to hide under the desk from the embarrassment squick of next scene. Despite all of the probing to determine what Juliette did tell Nick (and Renard, I know you're panicking but Nick has TONS of tells, his tells have tells, you would know by now), somehow Nick doesn't clue in that Renard has a more than Captainly interest in this. Granted that's partly because Renard's fucking good at his job, but oh god I am so tired of Nick being a moron about the Royal in Portland. I mean, at the very least he could've had Rosalee check that story before she went off to tend to her relative, as far as potions that require a Royal to fix them go. If x exists then y is plausible; if x does not exist then y is most likely a lie. It's not rocket science, dude. Anyway, Renard gets out of Nick that he knows there's someone else but not who it is, and that Nick really, really could use a sympathetic ear right about now. Under normal circumstances, I'm sure Renard would even provide it, but sweet fuck are these not normal circumstances. Poor everyone. As usual, Renard is tense, there's a jawclench out of Nick's line of sight and then he keeps his left hand in his pocket throughout the scene. A single handswipe over his chin before Nick gets fully into the office (which is closed, as usual for this season) but no other instances of touching his face, which I'd say is a better sign except he's fidgeting with the fingers of his right hand instead. And smoothing his tie as he sits. I do like the attempt at reassurance that doesn't actually come out and say "so I'm working on a cure for this stupid unprintable potion" but clearly we're supposed to pick up on it.

Wu, thank you, please do feel free to interrupt this with a location and now Renard looks even more awkward and young, not that Nick's noticing in his urgency to get out the door and back on the case. Because he can guess as well as Nick can that Adalind's with Juliette right now, pumping her for information and taking some time to gloat privately about how well things are working out for her. Back over to the twitch-inducing twosome where Adalind is not at all smoothly working the conversation around to Aunt Marie and what she might have given Nick. That was sloppy and again, the only reason this is working is because Juliette will chase any line of thinking in an effort to get her memory back. I do like the slightly snippy "well  yes, that would make sense" from Juliette. Please feel free to show us more of sarcastic, biting, happy to rip your throat out if you cross her Juliette in the future, people. But Adalind doesn't get to find out about the trailer just yet! First Nick has to fail to come up with any plausible reason that he's so worried about her having tea with Adalind. Nick, honey, you could say EITHER of two things here and it would be more believable than your bumbling. One, that you need to talk to Adalind regarding her mother's death. Two, that she was the last person Hank saw before he wound up in the hospital last night (a list of injuries would be even more usefully manipulative here!) and she's wanted for questioning on that. But no. Instead, he fumbles through being an authoritative little shit who's acting like he has some kind of claim on Juliette, who turns to Adalind and informs her that the cops are looking for her. Adalind cheerfully sets herself up to get taken into custody, because where better to carry out your machinations from than the inside of a jail cell? After all, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition people to keep scheming after they've been arrested on paper-thin charges. Back to pressing Juliette about the trailer, and we get some clips of her memory in flashback format minus Nick. Which is at least interesting in that it shows us how completely he's been removed from her memory, and this is just barely enough time for Adalind to get the information she wants before the cop crew shows up! Minus Hank. We haven't forgotten you, Hank! Come back to us and provide a much-needed voice of reason, please. Nick and Renard come rushing in the door, Renard a bit slower because he's not supposed to be this concerned, not in public, and we get a glimpse of Juliette being furious at Nick and then scared/hurting/confused as Renard turns up behind him before we cut to commercial.

We pick back up with Juliette having opted for pissed over the other emotions she's feeling right now. Yes, Nick, you did use her. Not using her would have looked like telling her ANY of the mundane world plausible reasons you had to be concerned. Using her is treating her like a child who can't be trusted to understand the implications of what she's told, which is what you did. Again with the need for the studded bat. We all hold our breaths as Renard and Juliette approach each other after she storms off, but apparently they've both got good enough control in public that we just get the barest hesitation. Not even touching. Renard wants to come chew on Adalind some more, anyway, for all the good that's going to do. But she fucked with his lady-love, and now he has to loom and threaten her. The potion demands it, as well see from the way he touches his face again. And no, it really wouldn't look good if she were killed in custody. Nobody cares about a random Japanese gangster type who clearly caused direct harm. But a pretty white woman who's never gotten her hands dirty in mundane world terms? Political death knell. Not to mention the part where she's better connected than Kimura was. We can almost get a look at that goddamn ring and I can see some kind of a triple patterns something or another, maybe? And then Adalind calls him a good little Prince and I want to rip her throat out again. Oh Claire Coffee, you do evil so well. I fully expect Renard to have some epic payback for that comment at some later point. Do not disappoint me, writers.

Monroe's going and scenting Hank's place! Aww who's a good bloodhound Blutbad, then. He'll tell Nick all about it in a bit; first Adalind has to just about out Nick in front of his supposedly-vanilla-human boss. Complete with a whole lot of jabbing about how she thinks Nick had something to do with her mother's murder, which she is at least smart enough not to say in an interrogation room, not knowing who's in the observation room with Renard (since she obviously expects him to be there) or if she's being recorded. She then proceeds to jab, clumsily but effectively, about Juliette. Fake shock and concern about Hank is not a good look on you, Adalind. Oh look, she's working for Eric's front company that sent the Mauvais Dentes. Eric, you should listen to your brother and get more shell companies. That's just offensively sloppy. Though I'm still stuck on the notion of GQR standing for GQ Renard, because it makes me giggle. I need all the laughs I can get, this episode. At this point I don't think Adalind gives a shit who can put the pieces together about her work for the Families. She probably even hopes that a forensic accountant can eventually track GQR Industries back to Eric Renard, which will land Nick at the Captain regardless of whether or not he fetches the key for her. And now she's more or less outed him! I would like to know what happened to that cat after it got hit by the car too, as a matter of fact, which is perhaps the only thing I agree with her on. Demon!cat may well have survived that; we just don't know anything yet. One of the many, many loose threads still dangling. Back in observation, Adalind examines her hair for split ends in the background while Nick and Renard discuss how extremely poorly that went. Renard tries to nudge Nick into confessing everything to him which is just laughable considering NOBODY is telling ANYONE any of the things they actually need to know this ep. Protip, guys, if I'm actively wanting to hit several of your main characters, your ostensible protag most of all, for being dumbass douchebags? You, uh, might wanna rethink how you're writing them. I'm just saying. I do not doubt that all the actors are doing an amazing job with what's in their scripts, but I'm at the point of wishing Nick off the screen every time he's there, and while indifference isn't the goal, I don't think outright hatred is either. Conflict works better when it's not 90% rooted in the characters not talking to each other and 10% rooted in the Big Bad.

I get off my soapbox, Nick starts checking Adalind's story, and Monroe had a gut feeling that Hank was attacked by Wesen. I want to know what makes him think that, unless he was picking up very very faint traces of smell that he couldn't identify. At any rate, he's letting Nick know there are Hundjagers in town! Good. At least we get some asskicking in this episode to make up for all the soap opera crap. Nick makes the connection from Hundjagers to Verrat to Royals and say that a little louder in the precinct, why don't you. I do wonder at the rapidity of that leap; the Hasslich we've seen working solo so I don't see a reason the Hundjagers can't do the same. But apparently that's less likely and now I'm going to stop before I get off onto tangents about Royal breeding programs for the perfect henchhounds. I facepalm because characters will inevitably be staying at the Hotel Deluxe in the room number that corresponds to the episode number, thanks guys, if you get enough seasons to run out of floors are you going to start converting them to hex or binary or something? Nick sends Monroe off to the hotel to check it out and I wish for some red-eyed woge but alas, not so much. Monroe, much to my surprise, retains his control this entire ep and simply badasses his way through. Though I think that little growl at the end about the time for being careful being over? Is old!Monroe, pre-wider days. I'm very, very curious to know if they draw that one out.

Renard comes to poke Adalind some more and, well, no. She's got a point, they're all very knowledgeable here and it doesn't hurt to ask just to see the reaction. I am, by the way, also very curious about the timeline. It seems like it's not just Adalind putting Renard under a deadline, but Eric putting her under the same. Presumably pressure to prove herself, or maybe events in Europe are drawing to enough of a head that he does actually need the thing sooner rather than later. Insufficient data, out of cheese error, grumble mutter give us your murderboards, take a drink. We get confirmation that all those assassins, the Nuckelavee and the Mauvais Dentes in particular, were sent to test Nick's mettle, which is nice but not strictly required, and Adalind passes along what she learned from Juliette. She does, after all, have a vested interest in Renard succeeding in the mission she's laid out for him. He kind of manages a half-smile at that, more along the lines of reluctant respect at her machinations and annoyance at her gloating. And yes, I think he blames himself for pretty much all his current issues, as well he might in some respects. In others... well, no. He should've asked, but Catherine shouldn't have gone and made him a whammy potion, and Adalind sure as fuck shouldn't have done what she did. Still want to know who the hell this person Renard has on his payroll is who can find all these things for him, and suddenly I have this mental image of him picking out a random Wesen who works at the DMV. Because honestly? That'd be an excellent low-level position to pull someone from to play henchman. Anyway, he's still tense, but now he's got a focus for all that nervous energy and he can do paperwork or whatever while he waits for his research minion to come back with an answer about the trailer. One of these days they'll even tell us if he has anyone working for him in Portland who knows his true goals! Oh I crack myself up. Answers, what are those.

Monroe plays the bumbling idiot! Have you been taking lessons from Nick, Monroe? With the name Leroy all I can think of is Leeroy Jenkins and Kitty and I have declared Monroe the WoW gamer as headcanon now, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Or at the very least Monroe's genre savvy enough to have picked that one up from the great geek hivemind in the sky.

Nick goes to the trailer, checks to be sure he's not been followed (why he doesn't make a point of doing that every time I will never know other than lapsing into sloppy habits after a few weeks or months of paranoia), and hey, that's a familiar pattern of open boxes! Apparently now he's keeping the key in there. Good hiding spot, I will say, but a much better one is indeed on your person where they have to fight you for it. The downside to that is that if a bargain gets dangled in front of him (say, Juliette's memories returned to her) that seems too good to pass up, he's not then forced to make the trip to get the key and think about whether or not this is too good to be true. Because with Hexenbiests and Royals it usually is. If they're taking it that direction, they're saving it until post-hiatus, anyway. He shoves it in a pocket and answers the phone! A wild Monroe is not as far away from that hotel room as I would advise, given that they could plausibly have super-hearing, and confirms that the two Hundjagers he smelled at Hank's are in there, along with a couple others. Nick readies his bat-tle gear, yes, I had to, and marches off to kick some henchjager ass. Who are not smart enough to recognize the trap Monroe's setting for them when he knocks again and is a more intrusive bumbling idiot! Their French accents are also bad enough that I'm not sure what the one nominally in charge says other than "he/it is [something] there." And then a rude version of get out of here, yes, in both French and English. The subtitles on this little scene are accurate as far as the literal meaning goes, with the added nuances of "qu'est-ce que tu fait," the informal/superior-to-inferior tone. I have to say, dude, if you're the pack alpha you do a shit job of it.

Out in the parking lot with the food trucks all around in a circle, a nice nod to Portland culture, Nick confirms that he is, indeed, or-whatting the Hundjagers. Where or-what is code for beat them at least unconscious and probably to death. I can't tell through the Foley effects on the Hundjager's voice if that's meant to be "the Grimm" with a French accent or "he's a Grimm," either way I have to assume Adalind didn't tell them very much and nor did Eric. Or mostly their fanaticism outweighs any fear of death or dismemberment, because if they've been keeping track of Nick's exploits they have to know this fight is gonna suck for them. As indeed it does, including Monroe clotheslining the last one which makes me bounce in my seat. All this violence has at least a nominal point beyond making Nick feel better about Hank being in the hospital, which is to say he'd like to know what Royal they're working for. But no, the supposed alpha (or at least I think? it's hard to tell with him woged out) will rip her throat out rather than let her talk! Cyanide pills are faster and more reliable, you know. Whether everyone else is dead or unconscious doesn't make much difference in the short term, since they do, in fact, need to get the hell out of there before someone notices what's going on and calls the cops. I love Monroe's sarcasm at the end of this scene; I do not love Nick sending his friend off with all the evidence. He should be the one to dispose of it, he probably has a better clue of how to get around police procedures than Monroe does. And though before there wasn't enough of an obvious connection between the two of them for any suspicion to fall on Monroe by association with Nick, now that he's staying there as of the end of this ep? Nooot so much.

Nick has to go rant at Adalind some more because yes, ranting at the woman who's got one over on you right now and letting your lack of control show is a great plan. (Protip, Nick: this only works if you're Natasha Romanoff.) Adalind vamps at him a bunch and taunts him with knowing the name of her employer during her previous sojourn in Portland, but that's not good enough bait to get him to fork over the key right then and there. Juliette back? Probably would be another story entirely. Yeah, somehow I don't buy the out of your life forever line either, Nick. At least that much he has the sense to doubt her on, though apparently the fact that Adalind is a lying liar who lies (badly, but still) doesn't make him doubt all the rest of her story.

And then we get the scene wherein I want to punch Nick most of all. We don't know for sure that all the Hundjagers are dead rather than incapacitated, we do know that Adalind can have more there in a jiffy, Nick moving out is not actually going to make Adalind stop trying to use Juliette against him. Not only that, but he comes barging into her bedroom while she's ostensibly asleep (is really eying the other side of the bed and trying to imagine what Nick was like there or wishing Renard was there, or both) with his Grimm face on. Yeah, I'd try and decide whether looking vulnerable or pissed off was the way most likely to get this scary man out of my bedroom without setting him off and being violent at me, under those circumstances. Nick, you fail. You fail at boyfriending, you fail at being a decent human, and you appear to fail at having a spare bedroom which will never stop bothering me. So, fine, he goes and packs and Juliette looks less worried about him and more worried about how her life's falling apart and she doesn't know why.

Nick is staying at Monroe's, which is at least a step up from staying in that damn trailer. No, Monroe, I don't think Juliette's anywhere near safe and WOULD YOU TELL HIM ABOUT THE REASON RENARD CAME INTO THE SPICE SHOP YET? HOW ABOUT NOW. No, instead we'll have some awkward pauses and the grand reveal of Renard as Juliette's mystery man. Kitty would like you all to know that she so very called it, that Monroe recognized Renard because of the press conference with the missing girl from Hour of Death. Though why he can't make the connection that Renard and Nick work together we still do not understand. Nick clearly recognizes the voice before Monroe steps aside from the TV, with a sort of pause and then a here-goes-nothing, which is impressive to convey using nothing but body language and no facial expression. He will also not be saying anything about knowing Renard until next year's eps start airing, but jawclenching to remind us that he's all out of bubblegum. Nick, I'm sorry your friend is being such a dipshit about explaining the spellwork that's going on. I truly am. But you're also being a dipshit. And we close on Renard pulling up to Aunt Marie's trailer. Though there's no key in there anymore, we may assume, there's still quite a lot that could be useful and fascinating to an out-of-favor Prince.

Next YEAR on Grimm: Renard and Juliette doing ill-advised things in the bedroom! Nick trying to kick Renard's ass! Adalind's still around! Rosalee comes back YES PLEASE FIX ALL THIS POTION BULLSHIT. You may have kisses from Monroe as your reward.

But don't think Murderboarding's going away! We've cleverly developed an immense backlog of posts that should at least distract us from the lack of resolution to this plotline for a few weeks. And by posts I do mean post ideas, not fully-written post; you'll have to bear with us as we clatter away at our keyboards. Still, we've got a good half dozen posts and a good 8-9 weeks to new Grimm. We'll do our best to keep you entertained in the hiatus.