I am SO ready for this history lesson.

“Whilst he thus gazed before him, he saw a snake creep out of a corner of the vault and approach the dead body.”

The episode opens with some obviously rich person getting off a private plane and, following that quote, all I can think is: THERE BETTER NOT BE ANY MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES ON THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLANE. As far as I can tell there’s not, so I breathe a sigh of relief.

Whew. Alright. Well, I’m going to be honest. This was not my favorite episode of Grimm. Don’t get me wrong – it was very well-written and had some interesting parts. But need I remind you how much I fucking loathed Angelina? And I KNEW she would be back. And I KNEW how pissed off I would be when it happened. I called that shit. Y’all should see how much Angelina-hate peppers my notes for the episode. “Peppers” isn’t a strong enough word. God, just the way she talks. Someone needs to get the cottonballs out of her mouth, pronto. Sorry, maybe that’s mean, and it’s just the way the actress talks, but the accent. I’m so done with living in the Northeast, I can’t even with the accents anymore apparently.

Anyway, so Angelina bad, and I spent a lot of the episode hoping she’d die. I finally did get my wish, and there was much rejoicing. Except that it made Monroe sad, which was no bueno. Wait, let me back up. Read the rest of this entry »

“Dressed in the skin, the Wolf strolled into the pasture with the Sheep. Soon a little lamb was following him about and was quickly led away to slaughter.”

I’m late. I’m so late with this. I suck, and I’m sorry. But, hey. Grimm is back on Friday nights! And we all rejoiced! Woot! Alright, so let’s just get right down to business.

The whole big storyline for Friday’s episode was about money getting stolen from a church and plunked into an offshore account (I feel like I’ve typed this phrase a lot lately…). Of course, we know that the accused was actually dumped into a wood grinder by a hooded guy with glowing red eyes, so God knows who the real culprit is (see what I did there?). Until, of course, he turns up at the police station to report the stolen money himself. Of course it was the church’s reverend. When Nank first meet him, he seems like a standup guy, but I’ve seen too much television to believe that blindly.

Speaking of blindly believing things, one of the species of Wesen this week was the funniest elbow-jabber of a joke on this show in a while. Reverend Calvin, who is a Blutbad, leads a congregation of sheep. No really. They’re Seelengut (which I’m taking to mean “good souls” – gut = good, seelen = souls), and when they folge, they look exactly like sheep. Is that a shot at organized religion, or is that a shot at organized religion? Read the rest of this entry »

D’awwww

“Death stood behind him, and said: ‘Follow me, the hour of your departure from this world has come.’”

Well, last night’s episode was pretty gross, even by my standards, which is saying a lot. While we did get a new Wesen this week (Stangebär, the porcupine-like Parks & Rec guy), the story wasn’t so much about him as it was about THE MOTHERFUCKING PLAGUE. Not the Bubonic Plague, but a yellow one that only affects Wesen (it’s called Fluvus Pestilentia, which is just such an awesome sounding name, eh?. It was pretty gruesome. But as always, our rag-tag gang comes to the rescue, and just in the Nick of time (see what I did there?).

So, we’re introduced to this disgusting disease by this dude Stanton who rear-ends the aforementioned Parks & Recreation guy, Gilco. Gilco gets out of the car to see if Stanton is okay and he’s all boily and bloody and ugh. He barely comes into contact with Gilco, but sure enough, he spreads his grossness. Not to mention that the plague has made Stantonall cray and he tries to attack Gilco (def just typoed that as Bilbo) and Nank when they come to scope out the scene. Nank shoot him as he comes at them, bro, but luckily they don’t get the disease, too (which we find out is because they’re not Wesen).

Later the ME declares that it’s something close to Ebola, but it doesn’t seem to be as catchy. Tell that to Monroe and Rosalee, who are out having an adorable picnic (more on that later) when Gilco (def just typoed that as Wilco) comes upon them and scratches Rosalee. Fucker. Read the rest of this entry »

Thank God Lassie was there to alert them…

“Then she began to weep bitterly, and said ‘What can a poor girl like me do now?’”

Well, shit. Last night’s episode had ALL the feelings. Again. And I loved it. Again. Well, let me qualify. It had ALL the sad/pensive feelings (still awesome). There wasn’t a lot of action (thought it’s Grimm so there’s always action), and I was totally okay with that.

We got more specifics of Juliette’s memory loss, but we also got to see more of Hank dealing with the fuckedupness of all the weird shit he’s witnessed over the past several months (or however long), which we had been missing. They alluded to it in last week’s episode, but I’m so glad we got details. But since that ties in really closely with this week’s Wesen, which we’ll get to, let’s start with Juliette.

God, this. I’ll tell y’all a little something about me. I’m not really a TV crier. I know plenty of people who get moved to actual physical manifestation of the emotion through stories and actors. But my heart froze over and died a long time ago, so it takes a lot of feels for my cockles to give off any warmth of their own. Fucking Nick and his MacBook Air, and his pictures and his showing them to Juliette… MY NOSE FUCKING TINGLED, you guys. And the tears started to well. God, just how heartbreaking was this scene? I don’t know what it is about these two, but they have always made my heart jiggle inside its sheath of ice. This has kind of become a battle cry of sorts for me in my recaps, but NICK’S FACE, YOU GUYS, NICK’S FAAAACE!

David “Holy” Giuntoli, you own me in these scenes. Every. Single. One. Read the rest of this entry »

 “If a man of pure heart were to fall in love with her, that would bring her back to life.”

Just going to throw this out there: this whole Grimm airing on Mondays thing is throwing me off. I’ll be so glad once it goes back to Fridays.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to do my recap a little differently because there was just SO MUCH in this episode that I can’t really wrap my head around it chronologically right now. It was kind of a mythology info dump, amiright? Or maybe I just have a really hard time remembering things that they covered last season (probable). Either way, I was a little bit blown away by how just fucking nonchalant the characters are about mentioning things. Let’s take Renard, for instance, and how he’s “barely human.” UM, WHAT?! Like, before this episode, we were reasonably sure that Renard was a member of one of the Royal Families, and he maybe is some sort of Wesen, right? They kind of hinted at it last season, didn’t they? (I don’t recall this – mind like a sieve — but the Grimm Wiki says so, and y’all know everything written on the internet is true.) But then Nan Flanagan Adalind’s mom goes and just… says it. Whoa.

My head can barely even wrap around that fact. It’s just so… fucking cool. This show and its mythology continually slays me. I’ve been entrenched in shows that have deep mythologies before, but this one blows me away. But I’m getting sidetracked.

So, now after this ep, we know that Renard is a Prince – a fucking prince, yo! AND he’s definitely some sort of Wesen (actually, if Nan’s description of him is indeed accurate – “handsome, charming, and a bastard. And I mean that literally” – then he might be a Hundjager, which the NBC Grimm Guide says eats their way out of their mothers’ wombs. Shit. Edit: Thanks to some sleuthy readers (and an EW article), it’s actually been confirmed that Renard is some weird hybrid half-Hexenbiest thing. Huh. Good to know. Also, apparently that’s what the Wiki says now too. Go figs. That’s what I get for doing my research early!). But it still leaves us/me just as confused as ever (in a good way): IS he really there to protect Nick, or is he there to harm him? The Families need the Grimms, but at what cost? Is he trying to get Nick to trust him so he can kidnap him? (Betray him, dismay or) Enslave him?

Oh, and on top of that, what is with this whole Renard having to be the one to wake Juliette thing? So Nan (whose name is Katherine, but whom I am just going to callNan) makes this clumpy milk potion from the ingredients she got from Rosalee’s shoppe (I like to call it “Milk of Crazy Bitch”) for Renard so that it will make him “pure of heart.” If you check the quote from the beginning of the episode, it’s someone who is pure of heart who needs to fall in love with Sleeping Beauty to wake her. So, I have a few questions and subquestions about that. Read the rest of this entry »

Om nom nom

“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned…”

Um, shit, you guys. That line is as beautiful as it is terrifying. The Season 2 premiere was a continuation of the Sleeping Beauty tale that they started in the Season 1 finale, and they picked right back up where they left off. Like literally. Actually, they began a little before, which was good for a couple reasons: 1) for people like me who need help remembering what we had for breakfast this morning, and 2) it allowed the story to continue at full steam pretty much immediately.

We got the new story/Wesen introduction, or course, which included dead bodies in a cargo container. Def had a Dexter flashback for a moment there. Speaking of mommy issues, this new Wesen required the help of Mama Burkhardt, whom you will recall from the finale, was not really dead. I’m glad she stuck around because I was really scared she was going to go the way of Farley Kolt and disappear after dropping a bomb of info on our poor, sweet Nick. But she stuck around, and even though she tried to kill Eddie the first time she met him, I’m grateful for that. (Bitch, please, you do not fuck with Eddie).

It was a really well put together episode. There was a lot of information crammed in these 48 minutes, I’m not even sure where to begin. I took seven pages of notes. Seven. I can’t give you everything because that would be very boring to read, so I’m going to do my best to sum up and explain why this was such an amazing freaking episode (and it wasn’t just the new badass title sequence).

Okay, so let’s see. So the cops show up to Nick’s house right after the fight with Akira Kimora (the dude who’s trying to get the Three Coins from Nick), and they arrest him before Mama Burkhardt can finish with him. He’s the last person alive who knows who betrayed them (remember the accident that killed Nick’s dad, and who turned out to be Nick’s mom’s friend?), so he’s kind of pivotal for them. So of course he’s taken away. Read the rest of this entry »

IT'S A TRAP! Or it's just his mom. Too soon to tell...

“It shall not be death, but a sleep of a hundred years, into which the princess shall fall.”

Well, there we have it. Not only is the princess/Juliette all weird Wesen-coma-y (or IS she?!), but we also have to hibernate through the summer so Season 2 of Grimm gets here faster! Because, shit, y’all. These writers sure know how to push all the right buttons. The two producers I got to speak to earlier this season, David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf wrote this episode. I was really, really, really hoping it was going to be the “Dirty Dozen” episode they promised, but alas. BUT, it was still a significant episode, and I’ll tell you why.

First of all = Season finale. And they ended it with a pretty decent cliffhanger. The episode-titular (hehe titular) “Woman in Black” who was following Akira Kimora around – and ultimately killed him – turned out to be Nick’s mom. Or is she?! I don’t know. For now, let’s go with, yes. So, she supposedly died 18 years ago, but didn’t, and now she’s here to… help Nick? Presumably, but that’s what next season is for! (I mean, currently, I do have doubts as to whether she IS his mom…) This was an interesting turn for at least two reasons: 1) AK was set up as the baddie a few episodes ago, and he was just a device. I know this happens in TV a lot, but it just felt cool here. He showed up, Wesenness blazing, scary weird snowflake Aegishjalmur tattoo on his face (like the Viking version of a teardrop tat, I guess), all killing people and tying up Renard, to just have the WIB stab him. I mean… THAT was easy, no? 2) Nick’s mom isn’t dead. So… is she a Grimm? Is she higher up like Renard? Where is Nick’s dad? Was it just him in the car accident? Did she set him up? Did she sacrifice him? So many questions. I mean, Nick could have some serious mommy issues here going into Season 2.

Second reason it’s significant: there was no case in this episode. I mean, not really. Not in the conventional Grimm sense, which I think was an interesting step to take. All season long I’ve been talking about how my favorite episodes are the ones that are Nick-centric as opposed to crime-centric. The biggest crime that happened was the murder of the private investigator, but it felt different because we knew it was connected to Nick the entire time. I think this is an important step that the show is taking, and I really hope that they continue it with the next season. Another thing they did differently? Did y’all notice there was NO CHASE IN THIS EPISODE?! I know! WHAT STRANGE WORLD IS THIS?! As silly as it is sometimes, I will miss Nick’s skinny-jeans-wearing ass chasing after a perp this summer. So I hope they continue this in the next season.

Okay, but enough of speculation and fawning. Let’s recap. So, we last left off with Hank freaking the fuck out because he saw Dr. Brinkerhoff folge back into just a regular human. So, like one does with PTSD, he wakes up in the middle of the night with a nightmare. As much as he tries to hide it, Nick knows that he’s upset about it, and he confides in Eddie, who basically tells him this shit ain’t going away. In fact, most people in mental hospitals are there because their brains can’t make sense of weird shit they’ve seen. Thanks, Eddie. That was reassuring. Read the rest of this entry »

Om nom nom

“He stripped off his skin and tossed it into the fire and he was in human form again.”

THAT’S WHAT I’M TAKING ABOUT! Friday’s episode was back in form, and I’m so fucking excited. Not that I had any doubt that it would be, but you guys… when an episode – especially an episode of Grimm – is this good… God, it just makes me so happy. These are my favorite episodes: when the story is about Nick, and throw in some Eddie playing detective for good measure, and then some Wesen just happen to get involved. That’s great. Also, having the psychiatrist say that shit about Nick’s inner self coming out whether he wants it to or not? Awesome. I think we’ve been seeing some of this come through, and honestly, Nick being all Grimm-y is a badass. I’m looking forward to seeing it come out even more.

So the episode. This episode was filled with information. But the interesting thing is that it was information that was really only relevant to this episode and the Wildermänner (I’m assuming this is the plural. It’s fun to say, regardless), but in this recapper’s opinion, it was a damn interesting Wesen, so all information was appreciated. Also, the fairytale that this was based on, “Hans My Hedgehog” is one of my favorite Grimm tales. Mostly because it ends with a really hot dude, but also because Hans is scary and does not fuck around. The Wesen in this episode doesn’t really turn out the way of ol’ Hans, but… still. It was pretty awesome.

So basically, the episode starts like the fucking Blair Witch Project. The two guys and a girl are hunting Bigfoot. And they find him. In a big way. Like, he comes at them bro, and throws one of them at a tree. Luckily, the dude’s handheld recorded the whole thing for posterity. Also, the police. Read the rest of this entry »

“And they lived happily ever after.”

Or, you know... not.

So some BIG IMPORTANT things happened in Friday’s episode, and that was pretty awesome. But I’m going to go ahead and say it: the episode was… strange. Something felt off about it. Maybe it was because the set up felt like I was rereading the first forty pages of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (financials. GOD with the financials already). Or maybe it was because the creature was Spanish this time, and not German, which definitely threw me off a bit. Or maybe it was because I was seriously scared that there was going to be ZERO Eddie in the ep, which panicked me, not gonna lie. Whatever it was, it almost felt like it wasn’t an episode of Grimm. Not as we have come to know and love it.

Friday’s episode, based on the story of Cinderella, felt closer to the first few episodes where Nick was more like a pawn in the overarching story, as opposed to the other way around. Over the course of the season, this show has really learned how to do that well – making it about Nick and the situations he encounters. But this episode felt more about Lucinda, the bat-Wesen Cinderella, and Nick and Hank were the cops. It was kind of Law & Order-y. That’s not to downplay the mythology, though. We still learned a bit there. We also got more information about Nick’s Big Picture, which was great. The episode as a whole was just… not my favorite.

The episode opens with this young guy finding out that the man who’s been taking care of his money and investments killed himself. It was all very Bernie Madoff. The young guy panics and calls his friend, who turns out to be his wife’s godfather, because he needs a way to get his money back. Spencer, the godfather, suggests they talk to the wife’s (Lucinda – the Cinderella in this story) Evil Step-Mother, who flat-out turns them down. Well, that makes someone angry, because next thing we know, the Step-Mother finds herself dead.

The death scene was actually pretty awesome, so it bears specific discussion. It was actually the first time this show has made me scream out loud since the ep where the troll busted through Nick and Juliette’s window.  And y’all know how much I enjoy being scared (I am going to see Chernobyl Diaries when it comes out, y’all. And I sincerely hope it makes me piss myself). You see, while Mavis (the Step-Mother – aren’t you shocked at how many of the characters’ names I actually caught this episode?!) is getting ready for bed, she hears a noise, which sounds to me like an animal being eaten. And then the sound of what I’m imagining is blood dripping on carpet. Maybe I’ve seen too many scary movies and should sit CD out. Naaaah. But, so, she decides to take a peek under her bed, and there is a demon-eyed bat thing that screeches at her and scratches her. It’s at this point that I screamed “OH SHIT!” and had to pause my DVR to catch my breath. Also, my roommate was out in the hallway, so, thanks, show. If he didn’t think I was nuts already (which is likely), he certainly does now. Read the rest of this entry »