Previously on Grimm! New Girl came to town and turned out to be a Grimm! Albeit a Grimm who had no idea what the fuck a Grimm was. I will say this for the Rubel arc, it's doing a decent job of portraying how traumatizing that must be within the accelerated timeline constraints of television.
I severely question the relevance and efficacy of this week's epigraph, mostly as it relates to the construct of beauty and how people treat women who effect it, but I also think that's putting more thought into the placement and choice than the people who set them up do, so. We pick up where we left off, in Nick and Juliette's house, with Rubel introducing herself as Trouble in the most awkward display of nicknaming I've seen on television since... I don't know when. Let me tell to you a thing, folks, names on television are an auditory media matter. You nickname characters in television, especially when there's a gap of a week realtime between introduction and nickname, (yes, the nickname was introduced at the end of last episode but this is the first episode where it's had consistent use, which is a week gap), based on the sounds of their name. Theresa becomes Terry, a nice gender neutral name, Callista or Colleen becomes Callie, Kathleen becomes Kitty, what have you. You can nickname a character named Theresa Rubel "Trouble" in a book because it's a textual media, and therefore subject to different rules. But when you take a character introduced as either Theresa or Rubel, you do not nickname her Trouble. Just don't. Not unless you base that nickname on circumstance rather than name, which although plausible at the outside for Rubel, has no grounding in line reference or dialogue, as it should. To summarize: nicknames in film and television should be based on a) circumstance or b) the mouth noises of a person's name, and should be clearly drawn from one to the other when you intend to switch primary form of address for the character. None of that is happening for Rubel. It is fucking clumsy, and I know this show is capable of better, so cut it the fuck out.
Anyway. We start off with the dialogue that switches New Girl's (we can all live with that, yes? at least for a few episodes while I stop twitching at "Trouble") (K: She's not kidding, I screeched every time someone called her that.) name from Theresa to Trouble, Juliette giving that the dubious looks that it deserves. I'm not even talking about the clumsyass awkward nickname here, if my husband brought home someone who claimed the nickname of Trouble to my house without warning, yeah, I'd be dubious too at the very least. Okay, I'd be more than dubious, but Juliette's more restrained than we are. Nick attempts to explain that New Girl is going to have to stay with them for a while to lay low, and Juliette's dubiousness increases! Because didn't we just leave this party! And then the Grimm and okay, time out, conference in the other room. Poor Juliette, this shit does not get any easier or less piling on with the urgency. So, over to the other hallway where Nick summarizes the events of the previous episode for those of us who missed it. Including the gem of "not technically a murder suspect because we know she did it." Nick, this is why you're not allowed to explain anything to anyone ever again. You do not tell your poor long-suffering girlfriend that you brought a murderer into her house and then tell her it was self-defense, and you don't even know that it was self-defense and not trolling for assholes! I mean, we do, but he has no way of knowing that for certain. And either way, you lead with self-defense and the fear and trauma from seeing things that most people don't believe are real, and then go into the part where this got her into a few life and death circumstances. Juliette summarizes the events of the last several episodes with the point of will you quit bringing home strays with problems? Okay, not that exact point, but definitely that a lot's been happening over the past week and please don't expect me to just be okay with this. Fortunately, Nick doesn't seem to. Probably the argument that carries the most weight with Juliette is the one where New Girl thought she was crazy, because Juliette can definitely empathize with that. She's still not happy about it, though, and I love that Bitsie Tulloch's performance is laced through with equal amounce fierce protectiveness for her home and her peace of life and pragmatic compassion for someone she now knows perhaps more viscerally has been through hell. So now for the discussion of how long it'll take for her to get back on her feet and Nick has no idea, which is when Juliette realizes New Girl's missing. The implication here is that she's booked it, especially after the brief shot of her picking up one of Nick and Juliette's adorable pictures and making a face. Couple shots of looking, her bag's still here, no! She's in the kitchen. Eating food out of a chinese food carton with her hands. Which actually also gives her the convenient excuse of not replying such that Nick could hear because her mouth was full. I have no idea if this was deliberate and I'm more inclined to believe it wasn't, but I appreciate it nonetheless. New Girl half apologizes and half defensively points out that it's been a while since she ate with other people. And probably also had access to a table and silverware. Juliette looks like she's torn between exasperation and laughing. Oh honeys. Is this a good time to note that Juliette's also the person who treated the homeless kids in season one with such compassion? Does anyone remember that episode? I do. Despite her well-founded irritation-to-potential-anger at the springing this on her and murderess aspects, she can definitely empathize with a homeless girl who's been seeing things she can't explain by any rational means.
Over to case of the week! I want to note, before we go any further, that I sat and twitched awhile over the writing credits on this one. Because frankly it's a clusterfuck of writing styles. Griffith is the actor they've farmed out a few eps to at this point, Natural Born Wesen and Eyes of the Beholder among them. You may recall that the latter was the one where we flung up our hands in despair and decided to rip the writing on it to shreds and explain how we would choose to fix it because it was so bad. Wright's not bad but he doesn't seem to have a good feel for Portland, and insists on transplanting LA-style jokes and themes into a city that is nothing like LA. Having been to both in the last year, I promise you that, they are NOT ALIKE, and if you visit only the parts of Portland that would make you think it's like LA you are doing it wrong. Hence the weirdass fashion aspects of this, I think. Portland gives no fucks for LA's fashion industry. I would have to look in the Pearl, which is not representative of the rest of the city, for anything like this boutique. And then we've got Calder on the teleplay (which means he wrote the actual script, whereas Griffith and Wright are getting credit for the whiteboard scene-by-scene breakdown, if I understand this correctly), and he tends to have massive themes of self-esteem running through. (Hint: he did the other Lebensauger episode, Hour of Death. It's entirely possible they gave him the whiteboard and told him to go to because he's the resident expert on Lebensaugers, as a matter of fact.) At any rate, it's not a usual writing team, it's a little disjointed as a result, we're not going to do to it what we did to Eyes of the Beholder but there might be some of that fixit explanation going on. Such as the above screed with the nicknames, though that's probably on the writers' room as a whole and not any of the people with names on this ep. You have been warned.
We get a pair of Louboutins, or Louboutin ripoffs at least, and while many people might not have known that shorthand a few years ago, Iron Man and Pepper Potts are enough in the fannish zeitgeist these days to make it an easy leap from that to high-end clothing boutique. Because this can't be a nice quiet day out shopping, we know something's going to happen! Hostage situation? No, mediocre theft ring. None of them are all that incompetent, really, just the one is unlucky! And all of this is played up for dramatic effect; glass cases don't shatter because a hollow, lightweight mannequin falls into them, security is, if I remember correctly, most often instructed not to grab, etc. But that doesn't make for dramatic television. One woman who appears to be the ringleader, three others working the floor in tandem, cause a distraction, get out the bags and the clothes and the anti-theft removal devices. So they plan, they have access to at least some resources, this is an established group even if they're not the most professional. And why are they not the most professional? We'll answer that with the blue filter and an asshole guy running the business end of things. Note that even the woman who's in charge of street ops is a little afraid of him, but she's the one to call it a mistake and he doesn't touch her to establish his dominance. Whether that's because he doesn't need to or because he views her as more of an equal partner is currently left as an exercise for the viewer. I think it ends up along the lines of, she thinks he views her as an equal and he views her as the best of his pawns and most like him. But, y'know. Po-tay-toe po-tah-toe. Kammy didn't make it back! He gives no fucks for how she is, he gives a fuck about if she got caught and if the other girls tried to bring her in, in case she decided to talk to someone. They'll discuss it upstairs! Where someone swapped out the blue filter for something a little warmer and Asshole Lebensauger is being patriarchal at the table saying grace about putting the family first and making sacrifices. Hey, asshole. Do you all get the same how to be an abuser manual? And does Griffith have some kind of fucked up Gorean fetish? Because this is not the first time he's had incredibly fucked up gender dynamics that make me want to punch people. (The charitable answer is that he's trying to display said dynamics as wrong, but I'm not sure he's always successful. This is because he's not actually a very good writer.) Hey, it's Kammy! Who is fucking terrified and crying, just in case we didn't get the memo about how this guy's an abusive dickhead who's going to do something awful. The other women, save our female Lebensauger, are not looking as he pretends to be nice and soothing and hauls Kammy off for privacy so he can do horrible things. Female Lebensauger watches this like it's pay-per-view porn. Hell, for her it might be. Why yes, he will proceed to spout directly from Abusive Cult Leader Handbook 101 and then eat her face. Literally. While the two younger women try not to shriek in the other room and their so-called protector pretends to comfort them. Although it is being played somewhat ambiguously, which I'd appreciate more if they'd ever done anything with that ambiguity. I wonder how many other victims might be out there, because this doesn't look like shock, this looks like well-earned fear. Again: something they completely neglect! Dammit you guys.
Credits this time are the This Is A Filler Ep style, no Renard on the balcony and no Adalind woging, so we know it's conspiracy-light. New Girl is shoveling food into her mouth in a clear demonstration of malnutrition, oh honey. Also institution style, if memory serves. Juliette is still not happy with this situation, and who can blame her, but she's in the habit of feeding strays and definitely has some of that same oh-honey in her tone. No, Nick's normalcy is hard-won, such as it is, and the fact that he has any of it can be attributed in no small part directly to Juliette. Kelly, on the other hand, not normal at all. And eats something like that, which is probably part of why Nick brings her up. The other reason, of course, being that she's the only other live Grimm he knows, and talking about Aunt Marie is one part too painful and one part too pointed an anecdote right now. I think he should beat her over the head with it at some point anyway, like, dude, how about you learn how not to be on the run constantly and settle the fuck down? Note that I don't for a minute buy the story of how they're not related unless you go back a few centuries. That sounds like the kind of breadcrumb they bring up to land on our heads sometime in the finale or early next season, particularly when you throw in appearance, costuming, and stated geography. The option is there! Whether or not they run with it is another matter entirely. I like that she assumes Juliette must be a Grimm, too, in order to put up with all this weird; it both highlights the New Girl as an outsider to the situation and how incredibly weird the situation really is. Most people: not that accepting or easygoing about "oh, hey, everything you thought you knew about the world is wrong." Even after being tossed into a Sleeping Beauty style coma and having entirely too specific amnesia. We'll proceed to highlight her isolation and ostracization from society by having her state that not being married to Nick is smart, because it means she can leave the relationship anytime. Considering that that nearly happened, and that they were just talking around the edges of getting married, ouch. It's very Heat, never get attached to anything you're not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around. I think someone must have been rewatching to get a handle on her character. Maybe actress as well as writers, but at least one of those. After dinner Juliette is giving away clothes for sleeping in! Bright blue and white, it looks like, which are very Juliette colors and not at all Trubel's colors, so of course she refuses them. You can't have her agreeing to stay by wearing the colors of someone happy to be bound to a home and a place in the world juuust yet. And we can see her looking around the guest bedroom and deciding, no, this is too much, this is not for me, I have to go, nobody's this nice without expectation of something in return. For that I just have more oh-honey, because no, she doesn't have any reason to believe that Nick really means it. Not in her recent life experiences, anyway.
Over at the hotel REALLY? No, yeah, really, they are at the Hotel DeLuxe again. I have to go curl up under a desk somewhere. Renard is, at least, keeping her at a hotel rather than letting her crash at his place, since it's unclear at the moment if he has a guest room and he clearly does not intend to sleep with her again in either the literal or euphemistic sense. He intends for her to stay there until he can figure out what to do, which actually shouldn't take long unless more of his resources have been depleted than I think. And I appreciate both that he didn't say "with her," which shows some delicacy and attention to her feelings, and that the "with her" was implied, indicating that she is not a person on his side or within his circle of trust and companionship but outside of it, a situation to be resolved. Sasha Roiz's performance implies both things are true, as we've come to expect many layers of meaning to Renard. And if she needs him, call, and he heads out. Or attempts to. Adalind's attempts to seduce him are not only transparent, they're awkward, as though she expected him to give her more of an opening than he has. Sorry, honey, Renard just isn't that interested in you, as he's demonstrated repeatedly to the audience over the entire course of the show. Not in the way of being personally and intimately interested in her, at least. He's demonstrated a willingness to seduce and use intimacy as a weapon, as with Mia for example and in his early treatment of Adalind, but there is no sign that he wants anything from her other than her usefulness as a resource. She, on the other hand, has continually demonstrated anything from affection to obsessive love for Renard, which actually might also contribute to her expecting him to have feelings for her. His not having feelings for her would be too upsetting, so she doesn't consider it. At any rate, clumsy attempt to be all "I'm scared hold me" and Renard deflecting as politely as he can manage. And also not so politely; that "of course I'm afraid of you" is very curt and a tad snarly. Adalind, honey, saying you're afraid of him too in that tone of voice isn't very convincing, and as an argument for him staying isn't convincing at all short of the "...but you're the bigger monster" ending. Which isn't terribly convincing either since we've already established that he isn't. Okay, no, being more afraid of being alone is something I would buy in most people. Not necessarily in her, but he also hasn't been with her for the past several months, so it's harder for him to judge. Fine, then, he'll sleep on the couch. Except no. Adalind proceeds to deliver an unconvincingly sappy speech which comes across much less effective than when she was using more genuine emotions to manipulate. Honestly, Adalind, sweetie. Renard is not buying this. No one with half a braincell is buying this. She does ask about her child, which is marginally more effective. Renard believes she will be well looked after, and I... snicker. Because it's true! Without giving anything away. See also: layers. Adalind asks if we, dragging Renard into this and further reinforcing the couple-hood (I like this, it's much more subtle than her blatant playacting, and it's easy to dismiss until the mentions stack up), if they'll ever see the child again. Renard doesn't know, which is also true without being specific. And, we may all note, more emotional, because bringing him into the child's circle of connection hits him in the tender places, the idea of being a father evidently being desirable to him if unattainable. We don't get a resolution on where he sleeps, though I think it's meant to imply that he allows her to persuade him into sleeping (and nothing more, we sincerely hope) in a bed with him. Whether or not it's intentional, the writing and directing leave it highly ambiguous.
Over at Chez Burkhardt-Silverton, New Girl is having nightmares! Like you do when your life has been one neverending trauma pileup for a few years. She wakes up (hey, it's the gasp sit halfway upright thing, not the shrieking and flailing! we appreciate such attention to detail), no doubt is not at all comforted by the super-tidy cheerful (if not aggressively so) colored room she's in, which represents order and three squares a day and all the things she hasn't become accustomed to in years. And likely has, in fact, come to expect judgement and denigration from. New Girl wakes up in this situation and, having already been made uncomfortable by the nightmares, is all fuck this I'm outta here. Whether Nick was already awake and waiting for her or wakened by the noises she made while she was dreaming, hard to say. Normally I wouldn't even buy that, except Nick does have his super Grimmstinct sense hearing, and he's even at least dressed in something resembling normal clothes so it's likely he was up talking to Juliette anyway. Or just up thinking. He opens with words like "jail cell," so, a polite threat then. That's not even tacit, that's just polite, not using the actual words of a threat but damn well implying it. New Girl's excuse/justification/reason/pleading off, and it's a little bit of all of those, is that he doesn't owe her anything. The implication being that he will want payment for services rendered which, oh honey. It's an easy and well-used, and therefore easily recognized way of saying here is a person who has not had human kindness in long enough to get out of the habit of expecting it, and does appropriately tug at the heartstrings. Nick points out that he's familiar with the world she's been living in, is how he puts it, and she asks him point blank why he cares. Hey, some people are actually decent people, you know. Nick does attempt to come up with some more tangible reasons why he might be benefiting from this arrangement; neither of them are entirely plausible but they're also not completely ridiculous. Nor does he explicitly say it'd be easier with two Grimms in the city for them to back each other up, which would be what I'd default to. But then again I'm pragmatic like that. Nick is still operating on the basis that people are generally decent, well-meaning folks, which is good if a little puzzling for a homicide cop on a television show; that's not usually part of their package. Nick gives her the black knight by way of indicating that she's free to make her own choices, and symbolically giving her back a piece of her own identity. Leaving the door open is a nice bit of tacit manipulation, too; it forces her to either leave it open (a shitty thing to do to people who've been nice to you) or make an actual choice about which side of it she'd like to be on, and by the time she gets to the doorway she's got an eyeful and faceful of the warmth and hominess of the house. Oh, hey, he was in bed! As the implication in the next shot is that he's climbing back into bed with Juliette, so, sleeping in his clothes then. Which is only practical, since as both a cop and a Grimm there's a chance he might get called out any given night. Juliette is either still awake or woke up when he got out of bed, and asks if New Girl's staying. Given the heavy sigh at the end of the previous scene I'd agree with Nick's assessment that, yes, she's sticking around for now. She's got a lot to learn, though. Juliette, let's all note, doesn't question this or say this is a bad idea or any of that. She just asks, calmly, where Nick intends to start.
Where Nick will start is, evidently, with Monroe and Rosalee, who are the cuddliest Wesen he knows! Or can get ahold of on no notice, Bud's probably cuddlier but Monroe and Rosalee are used to callouts and, should the worst happen, are capable of basic self-defense while Nick hauls New Girl the hell out of there. Bud not so much, though his flight instincts have been well-developed by proximity to Nick! Poor guy. No, Bud was apparently at the Trailblazers game. (I kid. Sort of, Danny Bruno tweeted about it.) Nick gets a good bit of side-eye from both Juliette and Hank over how he wants them to do for Trubel what they did for Juliette, note that he does not say for Hank. I wonder if that's because his first comparison is to another woman as opposed to someone who's explicitly not a civilian, or if he just doesn't think of Grimms as non-civilians (or this Grimm, which is sort of true and sort of really not), or if there was just a longer stretch for Juliette where she thought she was going crazy than there was for Hank, therefore, comparison more apt. Regardless! He wants them to woge in front of her and then not kill her, demonstrating that there are Wesen out there who don't want to attack her and in fact would like to be left alone. I'd say that's actually the majority of them, but the fight-or-flight instinct is very well-honed in most Wesen as relates to Grimms, and she's been hanging around places where she'd be more likely to run into ones who default to fight. Skewed sample size, in other words. Sure, they'll do it, after they get Nick to explain why the fuck he wants this to happen! There will be some twitching over how she has a machete, and some very nice nonverbal communication between Monroe and Rosalee as they confer before agreeing. You guys are the cutest.
Back to the case of the week, there's a dog digging in the park. We and everyone else who's ever seen any procedural ever knows exactly what the dog's going to find. That is a really shallow grave, and stupidly done; sure, wrap the body in plastic wrap to dump it, but then unroll it and dig a deep enough grave that you can get some decomp going to fuck with the forensics. No? No. There's a reason we titled this ep as we did. So we know that this woge-and-tell is going to be interrupted by the case the second Rosalee answers the door, but at least we'll get the important parts out, right? Right. Hank came too! Hank came because he does not trust the New Girl any further than he can throw her, I think, and because he's The Best who's always going to have Nick's back when he's doing stupid shit. Though I will admit that the best way to reinforce what you know is to teach it to someone else, and Nick could use some sorting through what he thinks he knows versus some of the shitty assumptions he's been making. Maybe having a baby Grimm around won't entirely suck. Nick doesn't like her nickname either. Nick, find her a better one. Everyone is trying a little too hard! As you do. Trubel gives no fucks for their names, she cares what they are and how they might be able to kill her. Okay, I know you're traumatized, but a little bit of an effort would be nice, honey. Please? Oh good, clocks, we can talk about clocks! (I am ignoring the flashback. I am going to pretend that never existed, because there's NO REASON for it, not even when this is the ep designed to catch up a new viewing audience with world basics in time for the finale. People: please stop assuming your audience is stupid.) Monroe being awkward turtle over clocks and time, timing, all of that, is probably at least marginally helpful in the sense that he's very harmless when he's awkward turtle. And Rosalee, despite her nervousness, thinks he's adorable when he goes all clockmaker and philosophical about it. Which he is!
Rosalee starts with the very most basics, only to be cut off by the knowledge of having spent time in the trailer. More important, the stages of woge! Particularly since this gives New Girl a layer of understanding about Wesen in general, which will hopefully prove useful in her learning compassion and kindness again, instead of just providing a place from which to better understand her enemies. Understanding: a three-edged sword. As ever. Now for the wogeing, which results in Trubel, Rosalee, and to some extent Monroe all trying not to have anxiety attacks at each other. As you do when you're used to being attacked by the thing in front of you! OH HEY. Trubel is both smarter and blunter than Nick, not that the former takes a lot, and we get the rundown on how a Grimm's eyes turn into dark pits of dark darkness when a Wesen woges. We're given a second where she's reevaluating herself as predator instead of prey, and thinks that's pretty cool. Yeah, um, maybe not say that in front of the people who think they're prey for Grimms? No? No. Oh thank god there's a callout. Hank will smooth things over a little bit, because once again: The Best. It gives Rosalee an opening to build rapport by pointing out that until Nick, all Grimms tried to kill them, which puts them on the same page as Trubel, at least in the sense of everyone wanting to kill you. So this is important! She's also incredibly unused to non-violent physical contact, and clearly expects it to turn violent at any moment, but for a miracle she's not initiating combat, so we'll take that. Rosalee: the cuddliest Fuchsbau, and right now also very maternal. Foreshadowing, or just Bree Turner pulling on personal experience? WHO KNOWS. Not us. (Possibly not the writers, they're not back breaking s4 for a month or so yet.) She will continue to be careful, if by careful we take that to mean flinging herself headlong into risky situations because she doesn't know any better and now that she's got even the vaguest idea of the world she's living in, she'd like to be a fully participating member of society. You know: careful! Ahem. Yes, the guys have a callout; no, Monroe would really not like to babysit the scary Grimm with impulse control issues and no social skills. Adalind was bad enough, let's not impose further. Which Nick seems to recognize, to his credit! They'll, uh, take her on a ride-along. As, uh. And here we have an awkward pause that's a little bit longer than it really needs to be, but nobody here is good with cover stories except Rosalee, and this is somewhat out of her field of expertise. Criminology student it is! Thank you, Hank, you may have The Best hat for the duration of this episode.
Over at a generic lawyer's office a generic lawyer is explaining to Adalind why her mother's estate has no money in it. Because taxes, apparently, and the ones she hadn't paid for seven years. Because seven is a good number? I'm actually mildly annoyed by this, only mildly because it's not a major plot point, annoyed because it's a method of keeping Adalind from having financial resources of her own (as we see later she has other kinds of resources) and because Catherine Schade was not set up as a woman who would just fail to pay her taxes. I would totally buy that she paid someone to set up a complicated scheme of deductions by which she evades taxes and might posthumously gotten caught, and the lawyer may be eliding that here. The first point about Adalind and finances still stands. So, Adalind has a storage unit and the contents therein, and that's it. Well, that could come in handy. The lawyer makes some rote noises about her and her mother being close, and we get yet another flashback, this one showing us that Adalind's mother was, in fact, a manipulative sociopathic bitch. I'll allow this flashback, on the grounds that we have not had Adalind's mother's terrible parenting very much established since her death except by Adalind's demonstration of what she was and wasn't taught by a parental figure, and viewers may have forgotten how explicit that was. Hint: Very. Adalind's "I was everything to her" goes along with the whole conspiracy motif of people telling the truth in ways that are not at all true!
Over at Forest Park Nick, Hank, and now New Girl spill out of the car! Wait, really? No, New Girl, ride-alongs do not customarily go to see dead bodies with cops. Though I will grant that a criminology student might ask for and receive special permissions, that excuse will collapse like a flan in a cupboard once someone attempts to check her paperwork and make sure she did receive said special permissions. Ergo, wait in the goddamn car, Rubel. No? No. This was, I think, originally written as establishing New Girl as a badass, and seems to be played as New Girl trying to establish her cred in order to be useful to Nick. Hank brings the lampshades about how every time they have a crime scene it's Wesen and before they can get into that, oh, hey, Wu! Everyone stop talking about Wesen now. Oddly, Wu either doesn't notice or doesn't register New Girl until she asks what "exsanguinated" means, which I'd argue as being odd for a criminology student not to know that, but I've met some college students who were that either oddly, patchily ignorant or just plain fucking dumb. New Girl is neither, of course, but she's also not a criminology student, and questions like that blow your cover, honey. Wu is already giving her a suspicious look! And then a suspicious explanation, especially after the way she sneers at becoming a cop. Nick attempts to keep her quiet and backgrounded and, no, that's not going to happen, Nick. Sorry. Wu gives them the rundown on the incredibly shoddy dump site (you couldn't have gone out to any of the many less trafficked areas? it takes maybe 15 minutes of driving, I'm just saying), Nick and Hank discuss the possible mode of death, and New Girl blurts out "it's gotta be Wesen!" Shut UP New Girl. She comes back with a not at all plausible explanation, and I'm not just saying that because of the speaking German, her entire attitude screams "I'm lying." Or rather, the specific subset of "I'm badly lying because I don't want you to know something that will embarrass me," in this case something that will make Wu think she's crazy. That's okay, I'm embarrassed enough for all of us. I am in fact attempting to crawl under the couch. This is not what I wanted out of this show, y'all, I'm going to say that right now. This is too much awkward, and to no real purpose, not even to establish New Girl's lack of Masquerade habits or any kind of bonding point between her and Wu. No. Bad. Hank schools her on shut the fuck up about Wesen around normal people, because he is The Best and also because he really doesn't want this to be Wesen. Even though it is. The comment about how young she is clearly draws both a parallel for the audience and a parallel for New Girl herself, this being the exact type of situation she escaped repeatedly and not so long ago. What the hell kind of Wesen makes marks like that? That is a question for the trailer, for which I appreciate the one-word exchange between Nick and Hank. That is the kind of thing I want out of the show: resigned, brusque to the point of being pithy commentary.
We're back in the warehouse of abusive Lebensauger again! With the blue filter of dire circumstance. (I am taking this director's blue filter away from him no really. Organ Grinder and its blue-filtered labs were at least as bad as this.) Abusive Lebensauger continues to be abusive, the girls continue to be terrified, I'm sure no one is convinced by a tearful, frightened "I love our family." That's not freedom love, guys, that's fear. Though speaking of Kammy or whatever her name is, Abusive Cult Leader has decided that they need another one. For strategic calling of quarters, maybe, I have no idea. This is actually really sloppy cult operations here, he should be consolidating and rebuilding dependence, reinforcing routines of obedience, not pushing forward with business as usual and bringing in an unknown variable to fuck things over further. Well, I don't suppose we're rooting for him to succeed anyway, so we don't really care. Donna continues to be ambiguously written and portrayed, I'm pretty sure she's meant to be the complicit lieutenant enabler type but there's a little more genuine fear there than you usually get in such depictions. Which isn't unrealistic, necessarily, just odd.
Over at the trailer, everyone is looking at books and HOLY JESUS NICK HAS SEEN THE LIGHT. He's talking about moving the trailer! I seriously do not understand, as many times as his house has been compromised and given that he's already been attacked there twice, why he hasn't moved the trailer yet. Security, people. Get you some better. They flip through the various Wesen, stopping when they come to a Wendigo so New Girl can describe her encounter. As much as this scene seems like filler and, if there were more material to pack in this episode it would be, I like this scene because it reframes several Wesen we've seen before in a new person's perspective. That new perspective largely reinforces what we've come to see out of Wendigo and Siegbarste, but I'm not sure we could expect anything different given those two Wesen. Oh, hey, there's the Lebensauger! We've seen that one before! Everyone remember Chekhov's Intern? Yes we do, he's the one who had the massive identity crisis and thought he was a superGrimm and, as mentioned above, that was also a Sean Calder episode. Not a bad one, either, though Chekhov's Intern going off in the third episode was kind of a gimme. New Girl gets to read the spiel! She feels like she might be getting the hang of this, which we can safely translate to a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And then a phone call from Wu giving us the details on the vic and a last known address! Next step on the case is therefore to check past robbery reports for her known associates while Nick and Hank go to the halfway house. The last Wesen revisit takes us to the cause of New Girl's vagabondism (shut up it is too a word), which is that a Siegbarste killed her foster parents. So, that's a good reason to be scared out of your mind and on the run, then! It also gives her another point of commonality with Nick, confirming that she didn't have anyone to take care of her and whichever parent was a Grimm either didn't know or couldn't take care of her. Sound familiar? Nick gently suggests that she's had enough for the day and maybe should go home, to which her response is a hearty "fuck that." I like her. Let's also note the parallels between Adalind's very awkward "I'm done crying" and New Girl's "I'm done running," and then let us all wonder what the fuck is with the repetition. Given that it's episode to episode it might just be a coincidence, but it's a decent-ish theme if they'd found it and decided to do anything with it. Fed up chicks kicking ass is one I can get behind, even if one of them is the antagonist.
Adalind at the storage unit as our next cut over isn't helping the theory that this is an intended theme, either. (In which case, does Juliette get fed up? Rosalee? I would not want to stand in either woman's way if they bring us a third fed the fuck up chick kicking ass.) Those shoes also scream fed the fuck up and here to kick ass and stomp ankles. (Ankles are easier to get to than feet, just roll someone off balance and put a heel through the Achilles. What? I never said I was a nice person.) That is a substantial lot of crap in there, not as much as you might expect but presumably all the furniture was sold off to pay the bills, and these are the more personal effects. I'm guessing 90% of that's semi-empty cardboard boxes draped in dust covers, but hey, the props department is allowed to do only what's necessary. Oh look, it's a photo with Catherine and a remarkably good young version of Adalind! I wonder if that's a real photo of each actress they spliced together; the one of Adalind almost looks like it could've been spliced from a school photo. Anyway. There's no real warmth or depth to it, either, but it's the kind of faked family portrait that would pass flimsy observation and thus could be scattered around public places. Adalind takes a moment to smirk at it, then roll her eyes and go digging through the storage unit. Apparently she's looking for a very specific item! Which we will not yet be informed of.
Instead we visit the halfway house looking for girls who might have known Kammy, and information from the caretaker. No, this time Rubel needs to stay in the car. On the one hand I can't blame Nick, because she has diarrhea of the mouth at the most inconvenient times. On the other hand, this is a place where, as she points out, she knows the way things work from an insider's point of view. She could be useful. She might prefer not to be, as she claims, but she could be. Inside, the caretaker has files and very little information of any use; honestly half of this could've been cut or could've gone to establishing something more pertinent. Like state of mind, or isolationist tendencies, or a stranger coming around and taking an interest in her? Anything? Well, there's a roommate! Random Girl Jean will now proceed to look at the cops, attempt to run out the door without any contact, and this caretaker is fucking stupid. When you're dealing with girls who are scared of the authorities, at least with something as serious as a murder case you do not give them enough information to warn each other. Unless she's TRYING for obstruction of justice, however tacitly and walking just barely this side of the letter of the law. Sigh. Which means Rubel gets to sit in the back of the unmarked, sees Megan fear-woge over the cops being here, and hey look, she's been warned! Someone clearly wrote lines for this scene but they decided to go with the new-Grimm POV for most of it, which I think was an excellent choice. Megan will do some planting and a whole lot of evading any and all questions. No, she doesn't know anything. No, she doesn't want to tell you anything. Yes, she's going to toss your card in the trash.
To his credit, Hank's reply to the matter-of-fact "she didn't tell you anything" does not involve not being honest with the cops, just not honest in general. Which is pretty perceptive of him, because as we've noted, New Girl is incapable of shutting off her mouth a lot of the time, and she says whatever the hell she thinks. This is a reasonable characterization of someone who's been on the run and out of human contact a lot, and is just now trying to figure out how to trust people again! I'd like it a little better if it were punctuated with moments of outright lying to get out of trouble, pun not intended, because I'm sure she's learned that skillset too. Wogeing and being warned off by a friend is not reason enough to take her in, sorry kiddo. KID. STOP THAT SHIT. Hank, you have a squad car, surely you have the ability to put the locks on so she can't get out from inside the backseat? That might be a thing you want to do at some point, because fucking hell. Trubel, living up to her asinine nickname, will proceed to scare the poor girl into wogeing and coughing up information by sheer brute force and shaking the answers out of her. Now, while we've bitched about doing that extensively on the blog, you don't DO THAT to people who are civilians and not involved directly in your murder case or conspiracy of secrets or whatthefuckever. Get you some sense, kid. She does get data, which gets her maybe half of a pass from Nick because now they have a location to watch. Shame about them being cops, because if this thing had gone to court there was no way it'd stand up. Oh, hey, Wu has data too! They ID'd the vic on a downtown store that got taken for $17K yesterday. Those're some damn pricy clothes, may I just say.
Jacqueline Toboni will now do an excellent impression of get me the fuck out of here. Rubel is clearly not happy in police stations, which she wouldn't be considering she's likely gotten picked up for vagrancy several times. It's a little overplayed which, again, coming from stage that's to be expected, but still very well done. (K: When I was working security a man actually pointed out that my eyes darted around the room just like that which, apart from being unnerving as hell that someone points that out about you, it's also a sign of someone drawing on real traits of real people who scan rooms for security purposes.) We're not focusing on her quite yet, though, we're heading into Renard's office for the report! I have a question: why haven't they told Renard they have a new Grimm yet? I mean, really. They don't even have to explain that she's a murder suspect, they can just say she freaked out on Monroe. That's not even a lie! ... And that's probably why they haven't told the Captain yet, Nick's a terrible liar even when it's the truth. Never mind. Anyway, so, victim was in a high-end theft ring, trained and dressed to fit in, very superficially I might add, though that doesn't make Renard's modern day Pygmalion as out of place as it might seem; all he's working on is from stills. It does make the My Fair Wesen title a little weird, but, eh. For those of you not drawing the connecting line, Pygmalion is the lesser known title of the play upon which My Fair Lady is based. So, Kammy almost got caught, was then killed to prevent her from becoming a liability, now they're looking for a replacement, so the cop crew will surveille the last known pickup spot and see if they're auditioning replacements. Easy-peasy!
Back out in the main cop shop Wu recognizes New Girl and asks how she's enjoying the ride-along! He's pretty friendly, not quite warning her off homicide but also warning her that you need to be able to handle quite a bit. Though given the context of this show I don't think "weird stuff" means anything as banal as "guy got shot while on the toilet with a banana in an unusual place and reading Handyman magazine." No, in this case it means "I got attacked by an Aswang which hitherto I thought was a fucking fairy tale." Not that he's going to say that. Rubel is all PUH-SHAW I can handle it, except for the nightmares, which is also treated in a sort of a dueling-machismo fashion. And mentioning the nightmares also triggers a Doylistic flashback, because we haven't had enough of those this episode? I would mind this one slightly less if we hadn't already had two of them, and this serves no point except to remind us that Wu has nightmares. About Aswang. This could easily have been replaced with a dialogue of "there was this one case... never mind." and we all would have understood what he was talking about. But no. Flashbacks. Le sigh. I promise, you guys, your audience is not that dumb. I'm not saying our overanalytic selves are typical of your audience, but they are smarter than you give them credit for. Anyway, Wu leaves her with a more subdued attitude and a "good luck," which is sweet of him.
Over in the storage unit Adalind has found her mother's Box O Important Crap! One of, because I'm sure she has more than one in there. We all have those, the one where you keep all your important financial documents, the one where you keep all your sentimental crap you don't know what to do with but don't want to get rid of, etc. In this case, potion and spell accoutrements. The top layer has vials and clanky things, the bottom has a grimoire that... refuses to open. Okay, look, from my long career of watching fantasy and horror movies, I can tell you that after exhausting all the usual incantations my first (or my last, depending on how badly I wanted in) reflex would be to go for bleeding on it. Maybe spit, first. Bodily fluids are your best bet, though! Adalind will not do that. Adalind will hurl it into a mirror in a display of incredible clumsiness. That wasn't necessary, anyone.
Down to the square, where Rubel has just discovered that stakeouts are fucking boring. Just wait 'til you've gotta go pee, kid. At least the boys have a firehose, makes it easier to pee into a bottle. Hank points out that it's part of the job. Yep! The boring part. Also a good opportunity to catch up on paperwork. I'm not even joking, one person should be catching up on paperwork while the other keeps an eye out, and then switch when the person doing the watching gets tired. Oh, hey, there's a possibility! High end clothes, looking for someone. No, the looking for someone looks more like a particular someone, not stalking generalized young girls as prey. Hank as the multiply-divorced cynic declares she's having an affair. Or she's on a date, Hank. Thank you, Nick. The boys exchange some of that adorable partnership snark that makes us love them so, and hey, second option! We will not, for a change, be going with the Rule of Three tonight, which I think means you have to chug the bottle. Trubel is not chugging the bottle. Trubel is fed the fuck up with this watch don't engage policy they have to have, and is going to go charging out of the car again to take matters into her own hands. In this case far more effectively than the last! It's very rudimentary social engineering, but all she has to do is be present enough to be a target, and then it's on Donnasauger to do the work. Plus, she's just barely gotten off the streets, she knows exactly how to do this, including the part where everyone should be ignoring her unless they're a very good person or a predator. Speaking of which! Nick starts to freak out, but Hank has a point: she's done this well so far, and she's not a cop which makes it not entrapment, they didn't suggest it or know about it beforehand which means they couldn't have stopped it. It's a decent place to start! Neither of them's female or young enough to pass, is the thing. Donna yanks on all the usual buttons, pride, desire for a better life, desire for a home, and if Rubel weren't aware of what's going on and a little less streetwise I imagine she would fall for this routine. Which makes it that much more nuanced when she finally agrees to go, no hooking, just shopping. On the one hand I appreciate that nobody's shying away from admitting underage prostitution and pimping is a thing; on the other along with all the other disturbing gender issues and sexual dominance plays in this ep it's making me want a steel wool shower perhaps more than they intended. This leads to the boys running out of the car and Rubel, because for all her foolhardiness she's not entirely stupid, looking back over her shoulder so they have confirmation it's her when she gets into a car with a stranger. Because that's a great idea! No, she's got nothing better to do, is the thing, unless the boys get there in time. Which they don't. Hank gets half the plate, which is better than nothing, but he's visibly pissed with himself that a young woman is now in danger and he's not sure if he can do anything to fix it. Oh Hank. After the ad break he's the one calm and hopeful while Nick freaks out, though, because this is the foundation of their partnership! One BOLO later, and we'll assume they're heading off in the general direction where they saw the car going earlier, because what else are they going to do. Although in Portland, with as many one-way streets as there are, this is not necessarily helpful for narrowing a search at all. I'm just saying.
New Girl pretends not to entirely understand what the setup here is, though the part about her morality being flexible enough to accommodate shoplifting is certainly true. There's some back and forth for Rubel to establish herself as savvy and for Donnasauger to establish herself as "tough." Which is not going to last the second she gets into Abusive Cult Leader's presence, but hey. Also, for all that Donna said "no hooking" earlier, um, a sugar daddy arrangement isn't that much different for someone whose main hangup on the arrangement is the sex (as opposed to the power dynamics in hooking vs long-term patron, which might be a different hangup and a different decision). And when she says "Ken takes care of us," yeah, that's exactly what we're thinking. I'm not sure that's what was intended by the writers, more inclined to think that's what was intended by the actress, and we're totally thinking of a sugar daddy thing. Oh, hey! By contrast to the designer clothes and glamour behavior exhibited by the girls in the beginning, now we have drab, plain clothes and subservient behavior, not to mention domestic chores carried out with a minimum of visible enjoyment or even practical get-it-done-ness. These girls are doing as they're told, beaten down, too subservient even to have so much of a reaction to the domestic chores as disgust or resentment. That's not a good sign. It's also not the best way to introduce someone new to the cult in a way that makes them want to stay so, um, why? You guys are the most incompetent cult leaders ever. The girls evidently sleep dormitory style, which is the only not so bad thing about this, and they do lift their heads when Rubel comes in indicating that they retain some interest in the outside world as to have rudimentary curiosity. Oh, hey, hi Ken. You asshole. There's a minimum of lechery in the performance here, though the dialogue doesn't indicate any one way to play it, so, thanks for that. There's a slight pause before she gives her name, but we and they probably expect that by now, she won't have given her real name to any of the other people trying to pick her up. Even if there's nothing to track, one of the most basic instincts of protecting ourselves is to disguise our true names. Doubly so when you're in a fairy tale based word. Also by way of naming, choosing the name she used before her life as a Grimm is a way of showing that either she's chosen to be a helpless, scared, and alone young woman, or showing that she's ended up in that position again. It's moderately ambiguous, though given the character history thus far I'd pick the former. Anyway, Ken-the-Asshole likes the name, and makes rudimentary introductions without even looking at his other two slave girls. Yes, that's pretty much what they are by now. No, we don't like it terribly much, even as a plot device. Maybe especially as a plot device, since all they are right now is adjuncts to Ken, the antagonist of the week. Ken-the-Cult-Leader checks that she's been briefed on her new circumstance and then picks out a dress for her to wear, because she gets no choices from now on whatsoever. In case that was in any way unclear. Over in the cop car, they've got an address of an apartment belonging to Donna! Whose car was registered in her actual name, you guys are the least competent whatsoever. Which, I mean, is a good thing because it means our heroes can get to Rubel in time, but come the fuck on.
Back at Chez Lebensuckface New Girl is getting a makeover! Is this supposed to be the Pygmalion/My Fair Lady aspect? Because I'm not seeing it. Also the makeup is a tad overdone. She asks some perfectly reasonable questions about the deal, the cut, the arrangement of the place, and the girls just exchange scared looks. Because cult. Oh sweeties. They warn her against talking that way, because that kind of talk gets you face-sucked or something. Actually, the part of me that likes a tightly-written story wants to know just what the fuck it is that Ken does to these girls to keep them in line. Because if they're kehrseite, just wogeing in front of them and showing them his inner Lebensauger might be enough, and then all he'd have to worry about is Donna. It's an interesting potential plot point. That they never ever address. Oh well. Jen(ny?) manages to get out something about the other girls that do this just end up, and then Donna interrupts, because she is of course a lurking thing who enforces discipline among the girls. Pursuant to my earlier idea I wonder how much of her subservience to Ken is faked to get the other girls to go along. Potentially a lot of it. Donna produces a pair of older looking fashionable heels and asks if Rubel can walk in them, and she breaks character long enough to sneer out a 'nope.' That would be my reaction, honestly, but she's supposed to be desperate and wanting nice things. And besides, no choices here, remember? Which is why Donna slips them onto her feet anyway. Oddly, between the three girls and the evil mother figure here, there's a Cinderella vibe going on that is not referenced anywhere else in the show. I'm not even kidding, with the close-up on the feet, shoes, the women. Is there an explanation for this? I didn't think so. Where was this shot when they were doing the actual Cinderella episode, I ask you. (That episode was terrible.)
At said apartment, which is of course number 320, Hank points out that they need a reason to enter. Or a warrant, which requires reasons, same difference, one just takes longer on-screen. Nick has a reason! A lie which they will hopefully not be forced to put into the reports, because seriously, Nick, that is the shoddiest, flimsiest excuse ever. You could just go with "we found signs of forced entry," leaving aside the part where you forced the entry. I'm sort of with Hank, in that yes, Rubel is a bad influence on Nick's sense of policing, but he's always had this penchant. See also: wandering around freaking out Wesen witnesses and demanding answers even when they're plainly more victim or bystander than bad guy. The apartment's not much, looks like a studio in the glimpses we get of it, rumpled bedcovers and an empty bottle of wine and wineglass, make that two empty bottles. Being the semi-willing lieutenant to a shitty cult leader is thirsty work, evidently. Yes, those are stolen clothes.
Ken's expression of approval as to the hotness of Rubel is not at all selling it as sexual interest in her. I have no idea what he's selling. I think he's attempting to give her the praise he thinks she wants, but none of it is coming across as very interested and he is the blandest cult leader ever. He commands her to do a little turn on the catwalk, on the catwalk for him, and she's watching her feet while she walks. Like you do in high heels when you're not used to wearing them, let alone spikes. The dress actually combines with the overdone makeup to give her a slightly, socially acceptable punk look, so I guess they know what they're doing? It's still not the look I would have chosen, maybe something more classic Audrey. Ken likes it! Oh, now Ken will express his liking more, in more creepy terms. And by creepy terms I mean with his hand on her shoulder and literally breathing down her neck. The hilarity here is that Rubel stands taller than Ken, partly because of the at least 3" heels, possibly also because of box tricks? I'm not sure of relative actor heights. But between the actions and the lighting (full on her face, him all in shadow) it's just unnerving. She's standing, once we see her in the mirror, in a very formal receiving pose; if I were them I'd actually question how she learned that one. Not the hunched or defensive posture of someone who's been on the streets at all. But this episode isn't thinking so hard about such things. Ken tells her to smile, one of those microaggressions that women get every goddamn day, as though strangers are owed a smile or good cheer and without regard for her feelings, and since she's still playing nice Rubel complies. Or tries to. It's so awkward and 90% "I'm going to eat your heart in front of these girls you've scared very soon." Ken pronounces his approval anyway, possibly more for the obedience than the smile or anything else.
At the apartment, they have garment bags same as the one Kammy was buried in, which isn't really indicative of much, garment bags have maybe a couple-three very common styles? It's a piece of evidence but not a damning one, and acquired illegally anyway. Pictures aren't helpful, the list of stores they're casing isn't helpful since none of them are going to be open right now and leaving Rubel there for a long undercover op isn't really on their to-do list. Bills! Gas bills for two different addresses, that'll do it, oh my GOD Nick just take a snapshot of the bill with your phone and stop removing evidence you might want later. The procedure in this isn't and makes me want to cry; did you guys either ditch your technical advisor or stop listening to him? EITHER WAY. Bad. Stoppit. Other bad-stoppit things include terrible… I can't even call this Cult 101, this is more like 011 remedial cult leadership. Rubel comes out after changing back, we'll note that she left the makeup on probably because she's not used to caring what she looks like and it serves as a nice balance point between all dolled up for running cons and the Trubel we've come to know over the last couple eps. Now that she's confirmed the setup, it is very much time to book it out of here, which she does with a remarkable degree of aplomb, saying she's got to go get her stuff, she stashed it somewhere. The only telltale of a lie is on the stashing, when she stumbles over the question, which could be passed off as more of a, why is he interested, why does he care. He cares because he wants you to be entirely dependent on him, kiddo, sorry. He will now break out remedial cult leadership and play the whole, no, you can't leave, why would you want to, your whole life is here now! Okay, I get that these are supposed to be girls desperate for anything, any way to keep food on the table and roof over their head, and I buy that this happens in general? But he's just so bad at it that my brain hurts.
After the break he's continuing to drag her and we get more of the eyerolling Gorean bluster, in this case that new girls spend their first night with Ken. I have no idea if this is actually a thing prior to Rubel or if this is something he decided right then and there to "break" her. That is, nonetheless, the implication. I can't begin to tell you how tired I am of abusive men breaking spirited women as an expression of ... of what? Evil? It's the writing equivalent of a four year old banging one to three keys on a piano and calling it music. Get over it already. Griffith, sadly, is not over it. Fortunately whoever choreographed this fight gives us a palm strike to the nose for having to sit through boilerplate dialogue and staging. This, of course, only pisses off Ken-the-Lebensauger more, leading to a knee to the crotch and Rubel escaping... well, that room anyway. Yes, she's a Grimm. Sadly, the moment of yes, she's going to kick your ass is divorced enough from the initial Grimm realization that it loses some of its emphasis. I do, however, love Toboni's "aw fuck" delivery. I do not entirely love how the choreography here is giving her more skill than she had in the previous episode, but, honestly, it makes for a better fight sequence.
Nick and Hank roll up! Nick and Hank determine that this is the place and come charging in, pretty almost literally given that Hank just busted off a bunch of tin roof plating there with the front end of his car. I will be endlessly amused that that was Hank's idea, because apparently kicking down doors wasn't enough for him. We love you, Hank. Never change. Inside, New Girl is acquitting herself really damn well for an untrained fighter but, no, I do not believe someone untrained in physical things as she was choreographed to be last episode could pull off two rolls with accessory combat maneuvers and nary a quiver of balance. Not happening. I mean, maybe you could get lucky, but overall not happening. (K: Having had to do somersaults around a damn dojo, really not happening.) Still a more interesting combat scene, though. Not to mention rumor has it that Toboni did all her own stunts, in which case why are you not using her abilities more, people? Come on, take advantage of your actors. Combat ends not when Rubel pulls a knife (!!!) from her boot and shanks Donna with it, but when Nick and Hank show up and shoot the second offending Lebensauger. As you do. I'd actually have preferred her getting to shank Ken over Donna; if you're going to go with men raping women to establish dominance you might as well take it all the way to the bloody revenge portion of the proceedings, but we don't really expect better from Griffith these days. The best part of this scene, actually (not the combat, though that was second best) is that upon hearing the distressed sobbing of the two now ex-cult-member girls, Rubel immediately drops the knife and goes over to comfort them. That bodes well, at least, for her stability and compassion as a Grimm! Meanwhile Nick intrudes with reality, and the reality is she cannot be caught at this crime scene. Not with three murders under her belt and no plausible way to explain why a criminology student was there.
Third time with trying to find/open the book will be the charm, apparently. Now you can drink for the rule. I have no idea why they insisted on writing Adalind being stupid enough to grab for a shard of mirror instead of is this a dagger I see before me. I understand the mirror resonances here, both in the general (mirror magic) and the specific (Catherine was impaled on a shard of mirror), but there's plenty of Scottish play references you could get, and you can't tell me there's not a working dagger somewhere in there. No, the shard won't work, but slicing her hand open and bleeding on the book will! No, seriously, Adalind is smarter than this and whoever made her be dumb for this episode I do not approve. Don't do that. She could try taking a ceremonial dagger (we call those athames, usually) to the book and then to herself when it doesn't work. She should've learned some degree of having a strong stomach for this by now; it's hardly the worst thing she's done for access to powers. Also why is it always across the damn palm, do you know how many tendons are in there? Stop that shit. All of you. But yes, the book will open now, and Adalind looks relieved, surprised, and full of powerlust all at once. Oh goodie.
Nick, if you don't have a gun safe I suggest you get one as long as you're bringing up baby Grimm in your house. Maybe it wasn't necessary with just Juliette around, now? I would say it's definitely necessary. He's scared she's going to get herself killed. Hey, dumbass, maybe you have a deeper appreciation for Juliette and your friends' concern over you now? Maybe? Let's hope that sinks in over the next couple eps. Juliette suggests that maybe she'll choose a different life, which, while she might, she won't ever be able to avoid seeing Wesen, and that does tend to limit your options. Rubel's come to apologize! I'm actually really pleased with this, it's a definite step forward in her characterization, although the dialogue's a bit shaky. She's starting to accept responsibility for her choices and grow up a little, realizing that if she wants to know all about being a Grimm she at least has to try and be a protegee rather than a loose cannon. I'm not going to hold my breath too long, those are long-ingrained traits there, but it's a start! Nick doesn't want to have this conversation right now. Trubel, stupid nickname or no, is rapidly gaining a place in my heart behind Juliette and Rosalee for her "I need to know more." Data data data, I made it out of clay, yes? Yes. She doesn't seem like she's going to run off this time, so she'll wish Nick the good night's sleep he so badly needs and I'm pretty sure he's having a moment of feeling old. Well, compared to a 21 year old or however old Toboni's supposed to be playing! And aww, she's keeping her very own personal Grimm diary. That's kind of cute. Kind of foreboding, in that now she has all kinds of data and we know that the vast majority of stories in the diaries other than Nick's involve "killed it, decapitated it, committed genocide on the whole lot of them." A lot of Nick's do, too, for that matter, though at least somewhat fewer.
Our stinger comes in the form of someone sick and/or old, by that cough and cane, and thudding ominous music cues. Both, as it turns out, sick and old, probably in his… 60s? At a guess? IMDB informs me that Sam Anderson, sometimes known as That Guy (seriously, he's done a lot, most relevant to the showrunners' own resumes would be Holland Manners from Angel), is 68, so, yeah, older guy for sure. In a plaid button down and an old man sweater, the cane looks rough-carved rather than polished. The room he's in we don't get a lot of detail on other than, there's green, it could be anywhere both geographically in general and personal to the guy. Hotel room, sitting area in a home, those are the most likely bets. I'm guessing hotel room. So, older, sickly… is THIS our Fisher King? HI FISHER KING. If this also turns out to be Nick's dad, or a relative of Trubel's, or both, I'm reserving the right to go Vader all over this metaplot. I'm just saying. Regardless, he has another of the fucking keys, so rest easy, everyone who thought maybe they were gone and forgotten. Gone, yes, but the writers' room has shit they can pull out infinitely, particularly with this show.
Next week on Grimm! Adalind is doing various kinds of magic, none of which can be good news for anyone. Renard is making threats, cut to look like they're at Adalind and indeed that's a safe bet, but I wouldn't rule out other people either. That looks like Nick's hair going into that cauldron oh goodie. Unless it's Rubel's. Black and short, is what I'm saying. Adalind has disappeared! That's my safe bet for who he wants found, anyway. I'd suggest baby Diana, except he looks too menacing for that, and baby Diana would probably entail another guest appearance from Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, which nobody's said boo about. Old guy/maybe Fisher King with the key has a guy we don't know and Trubel over his shoulders, which is lending credence to being someone from her past. Our not so friendly rogue feeb is looming at a severe Dutch angle in a doorway that looks like someone's residence, maybe Renard's? Maybe just a random hotel room or apartment. There will apparently be more somethings coming. Royals? Verrat? Whatever it is, Nick can help them somehow! I don't discount the possibility that he'll be as much help as a hostage or dead as he will alive, though. Combat, a lot of it, including a bloody longsword, Juliette and Renard kissing again no seriously what the fuck. Was the first go-round with mind-whammy not good enough? Or is Adalind playing at being Elaine to Renard's Lancelot? The wedding's coming up, too, and that's some Fuchsbau being very pissed off and doing a flying leap o' death at someone's face, I hope. I sort of hope. Please tell me Trubel doesn't go to the wedding and forget to take sunglasses. Oh, and Renard's getting shot on Nick and Juliette's porch. Twice in this clip, that looks like right lung shot and, what, liver? Spleen maybe? Those are survivable. I suppose in the spirit of full disclosure we heard something completely out of context at the set visit about Renard getting shot, and we've been sitting spinning theories for the last month. Yeah, these next two eps are gonna be fun for everyone. No, I don't think they're killing off Renard, they're not stupid. Full of cliffhangers, but not stupid. Network execs would never go for it. I do wonder if that makes the hospital clip in the on-the-finale people at Renard's bedside, or something else. We'll find out!
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