There Is A Hole In Your Mind Grimm S2E14 Natural Born Wesen

Previously on Grimm: a whole shitpile of plot was dropped, Nick turned fuschia, and our heads exploded to the tune of 17K. Or so. Look, if you wanted the long version, you've got last week's recapalypse. Still love the delivery of "No. *beat* That's it."

This week on Grimm: a major new political player! INFINITE SWEARING. Things that are not answers. Those are more fucking questions. Also, some of the most annoying and arguably worst Wesen-of-the-week ever, but that could be my natural dislike for NBK references coming out to play. Also, Bremen musicians again really? We JUST did that in Season of the Hexenbiest. Also, Bremen ruins where Adalind and Nick had their showdown. I have so much side-eye now. My best guess is this is a way of keeping Adalind's presence within the series without having her actually in the episode, and now I would really like to know what fucking connection hexenbiests have with the Council, or the Royals with the Council. In short: YOUR MURDERBOARD WE WANTS THEM. At any rate, Nick's turning lobster pink on the floor in the back room of the spice shop, and Juliette would like some damn explanations right this second. Or at least an ambulance. An ambulance would be good. SOME EXPLANATIONS WOULD BE BETTER oh my god would you fuckers, someone, anyone, please tell her? Which at least confirms that Renard and Nick hustled her off without doing the reveal off-screen. And I realize that the full reveal is likely to take up the better part of an episode. I'm just very, very tired of it not happening. I'm also kind of amused that they blocked this so that Renard is looming protectively over Juliette but not helping anyone, partly I think because he doesn't trust himself to not touch her or say anything stupid even in public, and partly because he's gone to lurk and watch and incorporate new data mode when confronted with all these social dynamics of which he's not a part. Monroe manages at least a halfway credible explanation for Juliette's science-minded self which would be more useful if he were capable of babbling science in a way that anyone with actual knowledge bought. Still, she's desperate enough for explanations that she'll accept them at face value, especially since Nick's waking up! Yay! (This also gives us a marginally better timeline for Renard's own purification potion black smoke fest, though presumably his took a little longer.) This is also a marked, marked contrast to that same scene, Renard the loner who had to do it all himself with nobody he trusted around and Nick who's made friends and allies aplenty. Oh honey.

Meantime, Juliette would like to be done with this now! Please? No, sorry, there's a part two to this whole thing. She would also respond better if people didn't just give her meaningful looks and instead used their words, Rosalee, I want you two to have badass team-ups? But that is not making this more likely. Nor is the part where Rosalee's turned into a really bad liar all of a sudden, though admittedly the camera focus on her hand covering the vial of Nick's blood is for our benefit and it's pretty clear that Juliette, at least, isn't paying attention to it. I would guess Renard knows and doesn't care, or can make an educated guess based on having known Catherine and Adalind. Speaking of which, we can see all the similarities to the blood cookies and all of that? I'm just spelling the anviliciousness of this out because my god the parallels. Also why the fuck is the not-a-wedding-ring suddenly on Renard's right hand? Please tell me that's a mis-set and not meaningful. Fortunately, the second half of the potion doesn't knock them both on their asses the way the purification part does, though clearly Juliette at least is braced for something like that. Rosalee delivers some standard Potions Mistress expospeak about waiting and seeing and Juliette is not having any more of this shit. Good night, all, I love the little point to both of the boys when she says "alone." That's the same facial expression we have when we're fed up with our menfolk and declare we're running away to Tibet. Thank you, Monroe, for breaking the tension, even if Nick's not having any of that either. Renard would like to argue this but can't, and oh look, they're casting him half in shadow and half in light again, at least implicitly. THANKS GUYS. He's also, in classic Renard fashion, asking the hard question of what next if this doesn't work. Well, probably Rosalee will invent something from her magic plot box! But right now she doesn't have any answers.

Nick stop being a creeper. Nick. STOPPIT. Nice bit of continuity there, with Juliette getting a cab since she rode with one of the boys to the spice shop. Meantime Nick's truck is not at all shot, lit, or soundtracked like Renard's battlewagon lurking in front of the house. Why would you think that. And those are some really shitty hallucinations Juliette's having! Oh this is gonna suck. Poor honey. We don't get to see more of the hole in Juliette's mind just yet (yes, you guys are very clever, and someone's been watching too much Babylon 5), because roll credits!

After credits Monroe is making a deposit to a bank where apparently they know him well enough to know him by name and profession, which pleases me in my little smallish town heart. This also sets up a nice, homey contrast for the chaos that's about to happen! He's just in the middle of filling out or signing a deposit slip when the robbers come in shooting rapid fire weapons, apparently weapons that either have no short burst fire settings or that they've left off short burst fire settings because those are longer than 3-round bursts and that's just unnecessary. So as everyone ducks down we know that these robbers a) are unprofessional (for more professional see our Person of Interest recap on Mission Creep, heh.) and b) give no fucks for potential lives lost and therefore c) highly violent, manic, and possibly sociopathic. Or at the very least disregarding of humans as being fellow sentient beings worthy of respect, since we know from the previews these are Wesen robbers. They unload about 30-50 rounds into the air spewing casings everywhere which underlines the unprofessional and veers into fucking stupid territory, jumping all over counters and rather than telling everyone to get down, pretty much either shouting or stunning people into dropping to the floor with the noise and the woge. Honestly, at this point, I think more people are dropping to the floor because robbers with machine guns than are dropping because holy shit animal people; the robbers don't get up close and personal with too many bank staff or clients. Again, not that that matters to the robbers.

One of them confronts Monroe to get on the floor, and misses the fact that Monroe's surprised look is one of recognition rather than uncomprehending terror. After that we have some fairly standard bank robbery going on, everyone grabbing cash out of whatever drawers they can open and someone must be running a mental countdown to cop arrival because shortly thereafter one of them starts yelling at the others to go go go. They're not even smart enough to know where the panic button is and prevent it from being hit, though. SIGH. They are, I will say, at least smart enough to glove up for opening things and touching everything in order to steal what isn't nailed down. But that's about all I can say for them. The final point of interest in this otherwise standard bank robbery scene is that this may be the first time the opening theme has been so aggressively sampled in the entire second season. It works, because it's quick and syncopated and suits the frenetic mood of the scene, but it's also an interesting choice and after 14 episodes worth of opening theme, very recognizable. So, they're gone, people in the bank start picking themselves up off the floor, Monroe has a very darkly oh-no-you-didn't look on his face. Honestly, I'm impressed by the amount of control it took him not to woge out right there, and would almost assume that he fell back on his meditation or pilates or whatever techniques to retain control.

The robbers don't seem to have far to run; they head to an old beat up truck parked under a bridge somewhere nearby before de-woge-ing. Some more standard exclamations of glee to establish that these are uncaring bad people who take pleasure in fucking everyone else over to get what they want and none too stable. We also establish that two of them are in as much of a relationship as they're inclined to put the effort into and the other one has third-wheel issues and did I mention the MotW plot is boring? Because it is. It serves, largely, as a framework for all the regulars to get into the rhythm of working together and to introduce yet another goddamn player to the murderboard, and other than that it just needs to exist and be loud and frantic enough to take their attention off Juliette's problems.

Over to more interesting things, like Nick and Hank having breakfast together. Nick is showing Hank the key aww, Nick! You're communicating. That's adorable, have a cookie. Not a zaubertrank-laced cookie. Nick brings Hank up to speed on the key and how it works with making a map. Hank has about the right amount of initial "...." face that I would expect, poor guy. Then, more exposition, this time from Hank and in very abbreviated form and entirely so that we know what Hank knows, which is that Renard's a royal and part-hexen. (And here I quibble a bit on, how exactly did Nick know he isn't full-blooded hexen? The easiest explanation here, though, is that there was some discussion of this in the car or at the spice shop in order to get all the cures straight, especially given that Renard's woge isn't normal hexen woge, so we'll let that part slide. Mostly. I'm giving you writers some side-eye on this, I know you're enthusiastic to get everyone on the same page so you can further whatever plot you have going, but let's not drop details here, okay?) And apparently not only does Hank know that Adalind's a hexenbiest, he knows that Nick de-powered her, which means he also likely knows why Nick did that, which means he also likely knows what happened to him. FIFTY POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR. And about fucking time. And this is the nutshell, which Hank turns into a quip about that being where they're headed for if this goes on much longer, aww. Apart from the nuthouse implication I like to believe that's a king-of-infinite-space type reference, largely for my own amusement. Nick then proclaims he's going to keep the key on his person at all times. To which I facepalm on several levels, one, because I know we've already seen him keep it on a necklace around his neck at one point last season and two because seriously, Nick? This is just now occurring to you? Fifty points to Gryffindor for communication, okay, but minus fifteen of them for seriously delayed good thinking. And Nick, don't say that the next person who wants the key will have to take it off your dead body. Just. Don't do that. I know you're the main character, but Hank is rightfully wary of you saying that because genre savvy people know that words like that tempt fate and court death. You're not Thanos. Don't do that. (There was a good question on Tumblr about why the fuck haven't the Grimms melted their key down, to which I can only assume the answer is because they're just as power-hungry and grabbing as the Families. Exhibit A: Kelly Burkhardt and her Gollum face.) A brief touch on Juliette with Nick trying to give her some space, that's cute, if a bit late. Hey, speaking of Juliette, let's go back to her hole in the floor. Not only is there a hole in the floor, her stairs seem to have ascended into some atmosphere-level hell. Poor baby. I wonder if no one told her about this side effect because of stupid reasons, or because no one knew. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, except people have been not explaining things to Juliette for stupid reasons for a really fucking long time now.

Back over to the scene of the crime, Detective Bonnano Officer Franco (no, I'm never getting over that) is taking witness testimony from the poor teller who was chatting with Monroe. She describes the "masks" the robbers wore as being real, real hair, real teeth, we know why but Franco and later Wu assume this just means high quality which means traceable. In any other procedural show, it would. Right now, Franco's just going to take it to the detectives who are, surprise surprise, Nick and Hank! Making use of the "robbery" portion of the sign on their door that reads "Robbery/Homicide." Nick gets briefed by Franco, Hank spots Monroe and catches Nick's attention, and off they go for the Grimm portion of the briefing. Have I mentioned yet how much I love that everybody's in on everything? Because I really do. Except Wu, and we're still clinging to our pet theory. Anyway, Monroe's being babysat by a uni until Nick gives him the nod to go handle something else, probably evidence by the gloves he has on. At which point Monroe stops the impatient I-have-to-tell-you-guys-something-important dance, which I am grateful for because it strongly resembles the I-have-to-potty dance. Also for which I am grateful, Monroe just drops it for once rather than indulging in several sentences of preamble. The robbers were woge'd, two Blutbaden and a Skalengeck which of course Monroe takes as personally offensive, the Blutbaden anyway. And Monroe points out that they broke the unwritten? (we don't actually know that it's unwritten) code of the Wesen which he refers to as the Gesetzbuchehrencodex. Or Gesetz-Buch-Ehren-Codex. Or as I first typed it, the Gesetzbuch Ehrencodex and however you pronounce it, what they broke amounts to the laws of the Masquerade. (And roughly translates to law-book-honor-code, or less mangled, probably laws of honorable conduct.) First among them in whatever fiction you're reading or watching is always Thou Shalt Not Break The Masquerade. You don't do magic in front of Muggles, you don't fang out or fur out in front of humans, and you do not fucking rob a goddamn bank full of humans in full woge in broad daylight! Really, this is the first rule of anything that involves a hidden world underneath "our" world, so we don't need a pile of exposition on what rules are contained in the Gesetz or how they're phrased. Basically, the robbers are breaking all the laws of man and Wesen and are going to be in the shit for it. It's also apparently known as the Code of Schsomething, which sounds like the Code of Schwaben but which the NBC site exposits as the Code of Swabia. (Which is the English translation of Schwaben, so, go our ear for German.) I'm not sure what that means in terms of the world-building, but Schwaben/Swabia was a region in Germany dating back to the Holy Roman Empire. You know who came out of Schwaben? Charlemagne. Also the Hapsburgs. All those of you who know any bit of European history can join us in planting our faces into the nearest hard surfaces. Currently Schwaben is a part of Bavaria, in case it becomes relevant later. Aren't you glad we're history majors?

Ahem. Yes, the metaplot and world history is still more complex and interesting than the MotW, so off to the trailer to investigate the Gesetz/Code of Schwaben. And for a brief moment we are derailed again by squeeing about EVERYONE IN THE TRAILER. HANK, NICK, AND MONROE IN THE TRAILER. All of the happy dancing. All of it. Ahem. Nick's found something that sounds like it dates from the council of Wollenstadt? Wallenstadt? Wollenstadt would be woolen city, Wallenstadt might be more likely as wallen means flow and therefore, trouble in River City. Either it's a sly reference or it's a real city that a quick look around the internet hasn't told me about, because I got nothing. The suffix 'stadt' does mean city, though, which indicates that it's one of those Council Of [Placename] type things. 1521 isn't quite 400 years ago, but close enough for someone with a historical bent but no formal historical training to approximate a year without having memorized the details. Anyway again, we reiterate the Masquerade and reference the witch hunts and the secular effects of the Inquisition, I stop reaching for my Malleus Maleficarum when it doesn't go any further than that, and Nick, Hank, and Monroe speed up the discussion of how bad this gets. Wesen running around in woge, thus people freaking out about monsters and demons and evil, thus people getting out the pitchforks and torches, thus bad for everyone. Even in the modern day, bad for everyone. This all comes accompanied by the camera action speeding up and getting herky-jerky, just to emphasize how upsetting this is. Monroe is convinced (and has possibly been reading too many murder mysteries) that there's going to be somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows something, and he's going to start rattling cages until he finds out who. Oh honey. It's cute that you think you're a private investigator type detective. But sure, why not.

Meanwhile, Juliette loses her only tie to the outside world to the hole in her mind, your metaphors are not even a little bit subtle you guys. And this whole C plot got a bit cramped with all the other shit going on, though I will say it was a) not as backloaded as last week's and b) at least we're not bored? We should also note that we're pretty sure this is a Juliette thing related more to the initial cat-induced potion rather than anything related to Renard, which is why he has no holes in his mind. That we know of. Back at the precinct Nick and Hank are engaging in some good old geographical profiling and map-staring and aww, they're adorable. I can't even argue their preference for paper over computer; there are some things for which pointing and flailing at a computer screen isn't as satisfying. Wu! We love you Wu. Please be a Wesen? Or at least in on it? Yes, we're going to keep hammering on this until it comes true, what. He also has information about the previous robberies which were not nearly so high-profile, so yes, they're engaging in standard spree violence escalation, and we all know where this leads! Someone's gonna get dead before this is all over, probably several someones, and there's not a damn thing the cops can do about it even though they have a general "who" to be looking for. One lampshade hung over the not-masks later, thank you, Wu, you do that so well, and Renard would like to see Nick in his office. Well, this is going nowhere good. Probably. At the very least it's going to be Chinese-curse levels of interesting.

Nick looks like nothing so much as a sullen teenager confronting the school bully or possibly his father. I'm going with the former because it gives me fewer urges to take a steel wool shower. Both of them with their hands in their pockets, and I think in this case it's as much because Renard is being somewhat aggressive in response to Nick's posturing (while stomping on some of his crankier responses) as because he's hiding things. Which of course he is, because Renard, but still and nonetheless. Nick does want to go to the feelings for Juliette first, because he's kind of target-fixed right now as far as Renard is concerned. I can understand this to an extent, but KEY. PRINCE. ENTIRE WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE. Can we target-fix on those now, please? There's definitely some part of Renard's response that's a lie, but in what direction I don't know. Either the feelings are entirely gone and he's stringing Nick out, or the feelings aren't as gone as he'd like and he's unwilling to show that vulnerability. Difficult to say for sure. At any rate, Nick continues to be sulky and broody about he's trying not to take this personally and has no intention of leaving, and now Renard will wrongfoot him most thoroughly and I will giggle into my keyboard. At least Nick correctly identifies the reason Renard wouldn't want him to leave the precinct, halfway: he's more useful when Renard can keep an eye on him. (Also not dead, because of Renard's protection, I'm not sure how many times over at this point but the way Renard talks suggests it's several.) Apparently we're all being knowledgeable now! I think this is the most supposedly-open we've seen Renard be, though note that he's not actually telling Nick very much other than making ominous pronouncements with his Prince face on. Interestingly, Nick is responding to the Princely aspects of Renard, though it's as much in the manner of an adult who never knew a father figure and wishes he had as in the manner of a Grimm not sure he likes where the Royal is leading him. This whole scene feels very, very paternalistic and/or headmaster-student, and I'm sure it'll launch a thousand fics. I would love to know what history they're going to make, but alas, we don't get a flowchart of Renard's Plans For World Domination. Dammit, Renard, I know you have them, now show them to us. No, instead we get a subject change and more wrongfooting Nick, because Renard approves of Hank knowing everything if he's on board with the whole Wesen-verse thing. That's because Hank is the best! (Drink.) More seriously, Hank is a damn good officer and a damn good partner for Nick, and I'm sure Renard is relieved to have someone else riding herd on Nick's worse impulses in the field. Hey, what about Adalind? That's a nice job of just barely flinching there on Roiz's part, and we get a line about how Renard trusts Nick more than he trusts his family. NOT THAT THIS WOULD TAKE MUCH. Is the supertext. I don't think that qualifies as subtext. We do, at least, get an implication that the Families don't have all six of the other keys, which is good, and some separation at least in Renard's mind between Adalind and Eric on the one hand and the Families on the other. Which is interesting, but doesn't tell us where the point of divergence lies. Any further details are interrupted by Nick's convenient phone call of the episode, and we pout. I cannot wait for more of Renard Hitting Nick With A Cluebat. These scenes are highly giggle-worthy and might eventually lead to proper information.

The phone call of the moment combines Grimm work with police work! Hi Monroe. Monroe has a Wesen bar named Junkyard Dog (really? sigh) for his friendly local officers to check out, and he's already there. Hoo boy. Then we cut over to Juliette again for a few seconds, where the yawning chasm has abruptly developed bright sparks. Which are still not at all like B5 or the more general ssssymbolism of neurons firing. Ahem. And something that sounds like it might eventually become a distorted voice but for right now is animalistic moaning/yowling/something. Which is also not at all symbolic of Wesen-Grimm-human as a split. Nuh-uh. They would never. Anyway, we get a passage-of-time montage indicating that this was mid to late afternoon and now it's full dark, either because the bar is that fucking far out of Portland proper, or it took the boys that long to get out of the precinct, or both. Most likely a combination of both.

We are treated to the sight of Monroe sneaking out of his yellow bug and into their car for all the world like he thinks he's in a spy movie and there might be people watching his every move. It's adorable. Nick opens up with questioning Monroe's faith in the plan, which Monroe returns with utter faith that the people in this bar are just like him and will therefore want the code to be adhered to. Oh honey. By this, in a way, we learn how sheltered Monroe is from at least a diversity of Wesen life if not a diversity of life or class or something in general. The people we see around that bar, not just the main characters of the episode but in general, appear to take a very look-out-for-number-one, deaf dumb and blind when necessary approach to life. In general, people who hang around dive bars (at least in television, not having frequented many bars like the Junkyard Dog in my lifetime I can't speak for the real thing) don't have the best sense of forward planning, don't put themselves in the shoes of others, don't have a general regard for the laws that don't affect them directly, and wouldn't give a Reinigen's ass if someone walked into a bar and openly proclaimed to be looking for information on the woge-ing bank robbers. Most of them would probably immediately ask what was in it for them. And Monroe's convinced that they'll do this out of honor and Wesen spirit. Oh honey. He does, however, have the presence of mind not to let the humans in on it. Well, human and Grimm, since the line's been pretty clearly drawn between humans and Grimms. (We have theories on that too, but we're not sharing till we get some more information one way or another.) Though it would be interesting to know just what would happen if a Grimm walked up to the bouncer, in light of those theories. Not that we get to find out.

Inside the bar we have pounding Rammstein, which is not what I'd expect from the local beer decor and the gold-tone lighting rather than blue or other cool color tone. Also the conspicuous lack of industrial rock type dress and, look, let's just say this kind of bar looks more country and classic rock than German industrial. I mean, I get why they used Rammstein, I just facepalm. That said, it's at least sort of thematically appropriate. Both to this episode and to shenanigans in the last one, so someone was at least paying attention to the lyrics. For those of you who don't care to google, it's very Island of Doctor Moreau in one interpretation. Monroe will then proceed to demonstrate the antonym of subtlety by loudly proclaiming he's there to talk about the bank robbery. Not sports, human or otherwise, not beer, not picking up chicks, not pool, not any of the other usual things one would talk about in a place like this, the freaking bank robbery. He could possibly have a bigger sign that says I don't belong here, but only if he hung it around himself like a sandwich board and maybe grabbed some of the bar's neon to decorate it with. Of course, the robbers are in here tonight, and of course this gets their attention, causing Monroe to have to do some even less subtle and more frantic babbling to try and get in with them. Culminating in such a halfassed blackmail attempt, Monroe, you are pushing most of my embarrassment squick buttons. Don't do that.

After the break we have the obligatory contrast cut, opening with Nick and Hank debating in the car as to whether or not they should intervene because Monroe's been an awfully long time, and cutting over to Monroe and the robbers tossing shit around. We don't get to see how anyone acquits themselves, though Monroe does get a good shot in, mostly it's just chairs and glasses flying, tables getting upended, and then a bunch of people running out of the bar. Which is Nick and Hank's first clue that something's going on inside they might want to intervene in, oops. When they burst in Monroe continues to acquit himself well and the music is much more what I'd expect from a place like this. They do their good cop thing, separating all combatants and getting the music shut off and trying to figure out who did what to whom and how many charges are being brought up. Interestingly, Nick and Hank both make a point of inviting anyone to press charges against anyone, including the bar owner for damages and a general call afterwards. This place being what it is, no one wants to go down to the police station and press charges, including Monroe for whole other reasons, but it's noteworthy that they asked. It's also a good way to get a glance at people's IDs for later looking up of the bank robbers, so, points for taking advantage of the opportunities that are there? It doesn't look like the girl robber recognizes Nick for what he is, either, presumably because she doesn't woge out at him, though she'll take the opportunity that's there to hit on him, which he will very coolly decline. It doesn't seem to bother her boyfriend any, though that's more than likely because they both perceive Nick as human and therefore only worth playing with a bit. And now that Monroe's out he can call Nick and identify the robbers, to which Nick responds with ambiguous dialogue that could mean anything, assuming the robbers were at all paying attention to him for that. Still, good habits and all, so, good Nick. Have a cookie.

Another cut over to Juliette, and by this point I have to question their timeline and how they're explaining how much time she's spent here, if they're explaining it. Assuming she came back the same night she left to go to the spice shop with the boys, she's spent almost a full twenty four hours in that small space by her door. Shouldn't she be hungry by now? Thirsty? How has she gone to the bathroom? None of these are, of course, convenient to the narrative and there hasn't been much time spent on her anyway considering she hasn't been doing much but staring into the hole in her mind (look, we're not even pretending it's subtle anymore, okay?) and twitching. Like you do. So probably we're meant to handwave it all away. For once, I agree.

Back over to the spice shop where Monroe is saying that these are bad times, people are stressed, and all they need is that little push to go further over the edge and then there's more Wesen disregarding the Masq, going off and doing things that hurt people and have consequences for all Wesen in town, etc. Thus mobs, thus pitchforks and torches. We have an exchange here that sounds like a throwaway but at the same time has lasting implications: "You sound just like my brother," says Rosalee to Monroe, meaning the part where his socio-political awareness makes him doom and gloom current events. However, at this point, Monroe still only knows Freddy has some vague connection with the Resistance/Lauffeuer, and a much more concrete connection with the Geier who were kidnapping street kids and butchering them to sell their organs. This mirrors the dichotomy we're getting from the show about Freddy that we're maybe not supposed to reconcile, but at least deal with. We, the audience, know that Freddy was at one remove but still complicit in a whole lot of deaths, by buying and retailing the products that came out of these deaths. But we also know that he helped a lot of Wesen people escape a lot of really bad fates. So, here in these two sentences, we have a reminder that there is on this show a posthumous character who represents in a lot of ways the dichotomy we struggle with both in TV with our feelings about TV characters, and in the real world with our feelings about our fellow human beings. Freddy being posthumous for all of these revelations, we don't have any new mannerisms or attributes to get attached to. All we have are his deeds, which are at the moment somewhat balanced between heinous and lifesaving. It's a much more stark contrast than we get in, say, Renard, whose facets are regularly shifted to present several different ones within the same episode (e.g. tenderness to Juliette, paternalistic concern to Nick, snippy aggression to Adalind, etc). Even Nick, who is ostensibly the protagonist and thus in a lot of works whould be the most clear example of morality, is shown as doing things which are not entirely to be approved of. Freddy's circumstances and the information we're learning about him starts from the simple question of "can we like and consider good, people who do bad things, or are people who do bad things automatically all bad" and takes us out of that and into the complex character that he will eventually become. Even if, dead.

Okay, digression over. We get some more good qualities of Freddy's, which is that he tried to do what was best for the Wesen community and, okay, digression not over. Because this gives us another clue as to Freddy's personality, namely that he might well have fallen into the trap of othering humans at the expense of their lives. If dealing with the Geier, and I'm sure we've mentioned this before, was the cost of keeping peace or keeping open the underground Wesen railroad, I'm sure by this description from Rosalee that he would have done it, and soothed his conscience by saying that it wasn't his people, and his people would die otherwise. Especially with Rosalee telling us that Freddy's philosophy was "Above all, our job is to protect each other." While I'm at it, a friend of ours has started expressing concern that this is the start of an arc which takes Rosalee into a much more dark, ruthless place. I'm holding off on predicting that for her just yet, but I do think that both her greater attention to her brother and his mistakes/motivations as well as the hard choices this episode forces her to make mean that a lot more attention and focus is going to be paid to Rosalee's choices, where she places her values on human life vs Wesen life vs all life of sentient beings, etc. Are the humans she cares about different from humans in general? Important questions that require answers. I don't think we've seen enough to definitively say one way or another, though.

Digression really over now, because in come Nick and Hank. Monroe's all gung ho about arresting them, another indication that he was raised in a very good guys win bad guys lose type environment (which given what we've seen of his childhood environment is also interesting) and either isn't familiar with or doesn't reflexively take into account the trickiness of due process, proper evidentiary procedures, and sometimes the bad guys get away just because loopholes and legal process. The robbers were the ones who robbed the bank, Monroe was an eyewitness and can identify them, but that will get into all kinds of sticky issues considering the cameras only have the robbers on film with their "masks" in place. The issue of how reliable one witness can be against a conspicuous lack of evidence will skewer that case to the acquitting point. But they do have names and addresses, and can pursue it that way. Hey, speaking of morals, values, and how people make their decisions? Nick here is firmly choosing to  be a cop over a Grimm. He's taking the robbers down for the human laws they broke, and in the way of human legalities, not putting his Grimm hat on and hunting them down despite evidence that even he, Nick, probably wouldn't argue with if he was Grimming. Monroe will hang a lampshade on that for us now, thank you Monroe. Hank doesn't look too pleased that Nick's being encouraged to go rogue, Nick doesn't look too pleased at being put into this position, having his judgement questioned, or both. Nick, if it makes you feel any better, this may be the one time all season where I'm not questioning your judgement. Okay, maybe not the one time, but it feels like it. I would guess, among other things, that Nick is feeling the effects of having killed four Wesen with no consequences in recent days, which THANK YOU even if it's a sideways reference. Nick's going to keep on trying to take them down as cops, and the cops leave. At which point Rosalee gives Monroe a very 'SIGH' look and introduces another player by namechecking the Council that Monroe didn't tell him about. To which Monroe adds a layer of ominous frosting with his "god, no! I'm hoping it doesn't come to THAT." You guys, this looks suspiciously like more questions. I explicitly ordered answers. Argh.

Back over to the den of iniquity that is the robbers' lair, they gloat over trouncing Monroe, lying successfully (so they think) to the cops (at least they think they're cops). The younger couple who I will call Mickey and Mallory for lack of remembering their actual names are much more interested in beer and sex; Mickey only takes a glance at two of the photos of the next bank they're going to hit, while Gus (hey, I remembered one of their names!) is trying to at least do a proper job of planning it. Sorry, Gus, you've been way overruled. This also serves to underscore the fact that Gus is the odd criminal out, the one with half a brain and a sense of planning. Which naturally means he's going to get murdered by the other two for not going along and potentially being a snitch. Sigh. Predictable MotW plot is predictable. Some timelapse sunrise sunset photography later and we get the next day, Nick and Hank pulling up to Mickey's alleged address. It's an industrial building that looks like no one's worked at it for at least three or four years, and probably more. I have to assume that with the rainfall in Portland plant growth is more accelerated than here, but the level of exterior decrepitude is about right for my house, which stood empty for about four years before I bought it.  It does turn out to be an industrial building with the required drums full of toxic green shit. We know it's toxic because it's green and burbling on the ground. Really, I have no idea what it practically could be, if anyone who works in chemical engineering or some similar field would like to weigh in for shits and giggles, feel free? But mostly, like the rest of the MotW part of the plot, it's made of trope. 50 gallon drums of Liquid Trope. But what's that? A noise! Someone's here! Someone turns out to be a huddling bum named Tropey. He exists here for the purposes of identifying that at least two and probably all of the robbers come here regularly to be nefarious and threaten Tropey with cutting his tongue out. This also manages to give us a brief overview of the layout of the abandoned building, which will come in handy later when they have their shootout! Also that Gus the Third Robber is named Gus. I will now have Cats stuck in my head all afternoon. This is also noteworthy for being a tacit example of what likely would have happened to Hank if Nick hadn't shook him and explained things to him, because Tropey is obviously in the grip of the Delirium or whatever the Grimm term is for human who has seen woge repeatedly till his mind snaps. Poor bastard. This is followed by more cop dialogue in which they lay out the steps by which they get their next move, check out the known associates of the guy whose name they do have for a 'Gus.' Yay standard cop show!

Back over to Juliette, curled up sleeping on the stairs. Oh honey, and also, timey wimey wibbly wobbly. Her phone is ringing from the hole in her mind where she dropped it, and probably this reinforcement of the idea that she is cut off from everyone in the world is what forces her to try and explore the edge of the pit with her foot. Thereby causing several planks of the flooring to slide into place. And as she keeps walking on the newly reappeared flooring the rest of it falls into place, until her home is back the way it was and there's her phone on the floor. Yay! We will not comment too much on the fact that she has to walk across the hole in her mind to reach Nick. Mostly because we're too busy facedesking and dodging anvils. We get a brief glimpse of Nick's face on the phone, so we know he's calling her to check up on her, aww. And at this point I have to go back and check Nick's clothing as he's talking to her on the phone to make sure they haven't pulled a serious wibbly wobbly timey wimey on us and made it so that he's calling her the previous day, and she's lagging behind the rest of them. No? No, but it's hard to tell, because Nick's in dark blue and dark gray for most of the episode. Which is interesting, but not really probative; we'll go with the handwave solution for how long Juliette's been stuck on those stairs. And she's deeply relieved to hear his voice, both because he's much more comforting when he isn't being upset and angry at her and because it's human contact which she's been deprived of for at least a day and a half! And there was a freaky hole in the floor, and as weird as it is to have a boyfriend who is the only thing in your life you don't remember, it's also deeply reassuring and reinforces their connection that little bit to have him just call, touch base, and be willing to back off and hang up when she doesn't offer anything to grab onto for longer. It's a really lovely moment of communication between them, the sort I've missed since last season. Nick sighs, clearly missing her, but also clearly staying at Monroe's still as he locks the door and heads offscreen. Juliette heaves a sigh, visibly putting the weird hole in the floor behind her. I have no idea what excuse she's making to herself for it, but she's very definitely making some kind of excuse because if she doesn't, by the look on her face, she'd break down into tears and incoherence for who knows how long, and Juliette seems like a woman after our own heart, take a bit of time to have the hysterics, then put it back in its box and get back to work, and she's already lost enough time to the hysterics, so back to work it is.

Hey, speaking of back to work, or maybe not, the bank robbers are at it again. We go to commercial on the backdrop of gunfire and muzzle flash within the bank, and we come back as the robber trio is bolting out, one of them dropping a brick of cash. Gus shouts at him to leave it, which of course he doesn't do, which of course delays him long enough for a security guard to come out and get blasted, along with a civilian. Because of course this couldn't go on that long without invoking some civilian fatalities, oh yay. Everyone's going to love that and, Doylistically speaking, it's going to force the issue on Nick's separating his Grimm duties from his cop duties. Wheeefun. They continue to aggressively sample from the credits theme music for this bit, just as a note.

For now Nick's biggest problem is finding a way to back out of eating Monroe's quinoa-blueberry pancakes with a spinach basil walnut puree maple syrup. Quinoa-blueberry pancakes I will accept, but spinach basil walnut puree maple syrup? What the hell, Monroe, is this the culinary equivalent of laundry day, shit all this is going bad might as well throw it in a blender and call it breakfast? In what world does spinach and basil go with walnut maple syrup? Augh. Monroe even admits it tastes at least funky, with his comment about that being a small price to pay for good health. Um, no. I like to live, thanks. Nick will make apprehensive faces and go for the coffee, which is French press Honduran mountain roast. Which would probably sound very good if I drank coffee. And with coffee, Nick, comes your complimentary bigger problem! Enjoy. Apparently Nick hasn't gotten to the part about the Wesen council in his reading from the trailer, oops. Breaking the news to him about the Wesen council likely taking these bank robbery shenanigans lethally poorly makes Monroe nervous, as we get from his increasingly informal idiom and the cracking of his voice. Right on time as Monroe's saying "if this thing should escalate..." Nick's getting the call about the robbers hitting another bank, which is probably good because it doesn't seem like Nick heard that 'pain of death' part, or at least if he did it doesn't seem like he comprehended it. Monroe will now sigh at his fears coming true as Nick runs off to be a good cop. And then get a distracting phone call of his own! From Rosalee, it sounds like. We don't hear what her side of the conversation entails, but that "What. WHAT?" sounds a lot like the noises we make as we watch the latest episodes of Grimm. Or, really, anything. I'm just saying. Nothing good can come of this.

Another truck pulls up to the industrial building, this one the robbers rather than Nick's car. Apparently this is where they stash their money! We linger on this long enough to see them enter with bags of cash and threaten Tropey (at this point they don't even bother to woge at him), then we go to the bank with evidence markers around shell casings and two yellow tarps covering the bodies of the security guard and the bystander, poor bastards. Wu recaps that this was all the same deal except for the murdering part, that's new, and we get a very clear shout of "get that news van out of here," just so we know that it's going to be on the news later. Judging by the response Bud and several other Wesen had to Intern Chekhov the Lebensauger's little antics, this probably means the Wesen community will shit a two-story house's worth of bricks. Cut back over to the industrial building where we see them storing their money this time, and Mallory sounds drunk or stoned or both. Actually these two remind me of the Skalengecks on J (Island of Dreams), which makes me wonder if that was intended to be continuity and cut for time. We're definitely being rushed along here either to give the impression of urgency with the quick scene changes back and forth or because things were cut for time, or both.

This next one will take somewhat more time. Over to the spice shop for not so much a community meeting as an indoor mob scene, Rosalee is trying to cash someone out while representatives of half the Wesen population of Portland, it seems like, is trying to crowd into her shop demanding to know what she's going to do about what's going on. We love this scene for several reasons, the first apparent being the conservation of actors because I'm pretty sure that's an Eisbieber telling Monroe "they did it again!" Not entirely sure, but I'm sure we've seen him before in some capacity or another. We also see a Seelengut and a Mausherz from previous episodes, Monroe tries to convince them that the Portland PD has this under control which, sadly, won't work since they don't know that a Grimm is working within the police. Hell, it might not even work if they did know a Grimm was working within the police, depending on whether or not they were aware of that particular Grimm. The Eisbiebers may or may not have spread about Nick's reputation as being a Grimm on the side of harmony and community, and if not, they're going to have the same reaction as half the other Wesen, pleasedon'tkillmeniceGrimm. And too, taking the Delirium into account, the Mausherz is right. This isn't a job for the police, because the last thing you want is Delirium-frenzied cops running around with guns because they saw the robbers in full woge. So, more cries for the Council, a lot of invoking Freddy's name on both sides, and Monroe being surprised that Rosalee knows who to talk to on the Council. Hey, look, Nick's not the only one withholding information. Though to be fair, it's highly unlikely Rosalee thought this would be pertinent and, as we're about to see, it's not information she knows specifically. More like information she knows where to look for, if it's written down anywhere. Still and nonetheless, that implies a lot closer ties to the Council than she previously discussed, so Monroe's going to give her side-eye and follow her to the back room as she tells him she needs his help. Well, at least she's more likely to say that and follow it up with information than Nick is?

Meanwhile! Back at the precinct. Renard is showing them surveillance footage of wogeing robbers on his laptop, at least one of which does NOT look like our original wogeing robbers. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say that looks like an Eisbieber from the face fur or a Lebensauger from the mouth. Maybe. It's hard to tell exactly, but the point is, inevitable escalation. The laptop usage might be significant in that he's being more visible about keeping the Wesen cases private (I know that sounds paradoxical, but go with it) or might only be that that's what he's using right now, since the computer on his desk does tend to go from desktop to laptop periodically. The robbers are escalating, and we have three lines of dialogue between Renard and Hank to establish that Hank has been read in, which is terse and efficient and have I mentioned how much I love these two and that Hank is in on everything and with Renard's approval and everything about this? Because I do. It's the police world equivalent of Hank, Monroe, and Nick in the trailer. About the only thing this tells us, though, is that Renard is rapidly losing patience with the robbers and most likely, given what happened the last time he had Wesen going out of control on his streets, intending to resort to lethal measures. Do we get the priest again? Sadly, we do not.

We do, however, get some more Rosalee backstory that induces us to want the entire fucking Calvert family history please and now thank you good night. The things that caused this? She was very young the last time it happened, her whole family was panicked, neither she nor Freddy were allowed to even go near the windows let alone outside, but her father kept his calm and a week later it was mysteriously over. Because this doesn't sound historically precedented at all. Rosalee will now open a chest that it seems she had Monroe carry over from whatever closet it was stored in, looks like it had papers and official documents and other things. Hey, I keep my official documents in a Jack Sparrow folder, I can't judge. She pulls out a black folder as she talks about how her father passed down family secrets to Freddy when Freddy turned 18; the black folder is embossed with gold border and a gold coat of arms, lion or is that a monkey? rampant wielding a sword on a shield with three what look like triquetras above and one pointed downwards below. Which is a lot of three ssssymbolism. And traditionally that should be a lion but whether it's a lion or a monkey, I fucking want to know why and what it's doing there. The sword behind the shield implies nothing good, secret knight orders, that kind of thing, but it's also too general to make a statement about. Moving on, the fact that Papa Calvert had an uneasy alliance with the Council implies that Papa Calvert also had enough power to be a force in his own right near-equal to the Council, certainly above most other Wesen, which, what the hell. The hell is going on? He also apparently served on the Council at one point; odd as it sounds, this is much more expected. In general, though, we would like to know what the fuck the Council is as far as a power and how the fuck you get to be allied with them on semi-equal footing. And Freddy took over for Papa Calvert, and Rosalee was supposed to take over for Freddy if anything happened to him because of lack of issue, implying either primogeniture or salic law or both. No mention of their mother here, which is interesting since mother and father were both mentioned the last time her past came up. (Cat and Mouse, 1x18) And Rosalee never thought anything would come up that would require her to take on this mantle actively, thereby explaining why she didn't tell anyone anything. (Probably also because she is the member of the family who tried to keep her head down and avoid joining the Resistance and so on, so there might be some head-in-sand action going on there.) All right, we will allow that. This time.

The letter Rosalee pulls the phone number for the Council contact from is all kinds of interesting in and of itself. It's a letter from a Peter deGroot, which translates to Peter the Great, which, go look at Russian history. Just, go do that. Then come join us in slamming our faces into solid flat objects. Secondly, that stationary it's on? Is from de Haag. Which translates to The Hague. Which is the seat of government in the Netherlands (not the capital, which is Amsterdam, but the seat of government) and also not coincidentally the seat of the International Criminal Court. You know, the place where they keep the permanent tribunal for genocide and other war crimes?  I cannot stress this enough, this puts Grimm, Wesen, and Royal politics on the geopolitical scale so large it makes my head explode. I also have to point out that the placement of deHaag on the stationary means either the Council has a presence in both Amsterdam and the Hague, which again is its own city, or someone fucked up and thinks the Hague is a place in Amsterdam (protip: it's not). I'm going to go with the former, because it would seem to make sense and because that makes me less inclined to hit people with rolled up maps. So, um. Yes. There's a letter. From a Council member in the fucking Hague. Wiping bits of froth from my mouth, the contents of the letter are fairly standard formal, a bit of a superior to inferior tone as might be expected, and expressing condolences to Freddy for his father's death and respect for his father's works, as well as giving the phone number to contact if infractions happen. Which of course they have. Apparently Papa Calvert's name is George, as she gives her bona fides to the poor Council member she's waking up in the middle of the night. Who looks oddly like our archaeology teacher. I'll be in the corner rocking and whimpering now. Meanwhile, not that it takes very long, but we have a clip of Renard emailing the pictures of the suspects to DeGroot. And, of course, not telling anyone. Goddammit Renard. I appreciate that you're trying to be both a good cop and a good Prince, and also the delicacy of telling Nick what you're doing here because Nick probably would take it very poorly, but would it kill you to ... well, no. There really is no way for him to safely say "Hey, I've gone over your head and invoked the rules of the/a governing Wesen body, giving them names and photos so they can send someone down to deal with the problem, good job you can deal with your other cases now." But still. This is the kind of thing that could come back to bite him in the ass. His redeeming feature of this scene is that he doesn't look happy doing it; he looks the same kind of resigned, in fact, that he did when tampering with evidence and replacing the SIM card in the phone. (Love Sick 1x17)

From the official pictures Renard's attaching to the email to the official pictures in Gus and Mickey/Cole's files. They now have a last name and a connection between the two men, as well as an address! Yay! Over at that address we have... more manic violence and pleasure in violence, yay. I think the part that irritates me most about these two as villains of the week is the utter lack of depth to them. They exist to be wantonly sexual as an expression of rebellion and immorality, kill and steal things, and propel the plot by doing so. And that's it. And that's boring. Every moment they're on screen by themselves I find myself going to get a snack or something. Fortunately they're rarely on screen long. In this case, the scene escalates their psychosis to the point where Mallory/whatever her name is bites Gus's throat out for being worried about the cops and wanting to lay low rather than keep the crime spree going. In other words, for being the one rational person in the room and therefore being less dominant than the frenzied Blutbaden. Whee.

When we come back from commercial Nick and Hank are doing the gun-and-flashlight walk down the hall to Gus's apartment and subsequently tripping over his body just inside the door. Poor Gus. We get some standard police dialogue here, advancing them back to the industrial building site by the green Trope on the bottom of his shoes, la.

Meanwhile in either Amsterdam or the fucking Hague, Councilman Attenborough (look, it's easier than using my archaeology teacher's name, since they haven't given the Councilman a name yet, just go look up David Attenborough) is looking at the pictures Renard sent him and being reported to by a lackey. The lackey reports that the video has gone viral and the infection is spreading, hah hah, but it's an apt metaphor. Obviously he's implying the violence and lawbreaking committed by Wesen in woge, the same sort that Renard showed us/Nick and Hank from his laptop. Possibly the exact same, if Renard later forwarded the video. Councilman Attenborough waxes cynical and ominous with a bit of an overdone accent about every generation requiring a reminder while I try and figure out why his little round end table has swords. Then he tells the lackey to go deal with it. Somehow I don't think he means with arrests and due process of any country's law.

Back over to the industrial building of gallon drums of trope, Mickey and Mallory are retrieving their ill-gotten gains as Nick and Hank close in on the building. I do appreciate the drama of a good shoot-em-up in the dark (less so the number of wasted rounds our idiots of the week use), but there's nothing terribly significant about the choreography or cinematography of this scene except that towards the end, one of the robbers finally figures out that Nick's a Grimm while Mallory tries to woge and freak out Hank. It doesn't work, of course, and as tumblr says, he punches the woge out of her. Hey, if it works (the Coyotl in Bad Moon Rising 2x3) it works. Mickey is surprised that Nick's a Grimm, but then gloats about how he's also a cop and can't kill him, he's gotta arrest him. I have to say, that's an interesting reaction from a Wesen, who up until now haven't considered Nick being a cop to at all get in the way of him potentially murderizing Wesen he finds offensive. Either that's a sign of how uninformed Mickey is or how much Nick's reputation has spread; possibly both but I somehow doubt it. He is, however, right. About that and about the fact that they don't have an overabundance of direct evidence. They do have enough, though, which is to say the money and the weapons in their possession. Going by the chain of evidence I don't even think it would get tossed out for fruit of the poisonous tree. In conclusion, stupid criminals are stupid and good only for cracking jokes about "let me know if real power wants a magazine." Or a doggie biscuit.

Renard is giving a press conference in the precinct as they bring Mickey and Mallory in, ostensibly because now that people have been arrested the public should know immediately that they're safe, hence the lack of podium or anything more planned. However, I can't help but suspect him of arranging that the press would be there when the council's assigned lackey took care of things so that the Wesen community could get a good look, too. Because he's a sneaky fuck like that. Also because Renard and press conferences are habitually designed to maximize his gains wherever possible, and usually involve some sleight of hand with the Wesen community. The press is distracted by the suspects coming in after Renard's initial statement, moving the dog and pony show (Blutbad and Grimm show?) out into the hallway just in time for Mickey to start spouting off about how they're just the beginning, and Nick & co. can't stop it now, blah blah blah blah. As ineffectual as these two are, the fact that it also applies to the Royals and their ilk makes it far more ominous, generally applied, than it might otherwise be. However, this culminates in Mickey saying how he'll be out by the end of the night, which must be the equivalent of "I'll be right back" because that's when the Council-hired shooter comes out. With bright red eyes, so apparently, Blutbad. One shot to each of them, center mass, and that's all she wrote for Mickey and Mallory (the movie, by contrast, ended with Mickey and Mallory getting away with it and wandering off into the sunset). The shooter then kneels with his hands up behind his head, he's done what he came here to do and either his devotion to the Council or whatever they paid him or blackmailed him with is apparently enough to keep him from ratting them out for the duration of his imminent prison sentence. Because really. Point blank in a cop shop in front of one to two dozen witnesses. This is a slam dunk. Hank cuffs the shooter, Nick confirms the corpses, Renard looms in the doorway doing a moderate job of not smirking. Renard, put the teeth away and try not to look so self-satisfied.

So, let's tie up the loose ends. Over at the Hague or Amsterdam, Councilman Attenborough sneers that Blutbaden were behind this (telling us some interesting things about the Blutbaden's place on this Council, which is to say, low to nonexistent) and confirms that since the robbers were gunned down live on the news there haven't been any more infractions, then he shreds the pictures. Well, at least he's practicing safe Masquerade? And then over to Juliette, whose phone is ringing with an unknown number. Could be Renard? But no, it's the yowling howling voice from the pit! And more neurons firing. And while she's yelling into the phone to answer her it becomes more obvious, first to the audience and then to her, that the voice isn't coming from her phone. Oh, hey, the hole in her mind is back. And now it's under her bed. Neurons firing again and more than likely rebuilding connections, because the brain is awesome like that. And as she pulls the covers up closer to herself and huddles on the bed the voice clarifies and speeds up to a discernible rate and clarifies some more to, hey, it's Nick! Saying that he just wants her to know the truth. Well, her recent experience ought to put some perspective to the memories of Nick's horrible attempt to tell her the truth. And, hopefully, push her into giving Nick a little more leeway on his explanations, which might calm him down into explaining like a rational adult and less like a fanboy with a sugar rush.

Next week! Insect Wesen. Which remind us of insect spirits and make us wish for the Chicago aka the nuclear solution (semi-obscure reference, that one). Nick goes blind! Temporarily, we assume, but there's a race the clock line reference, so there will inevitably be some dramatic tension. Oh noes!