Grimm: Cat and Mouse

“This World is on the brink of war”.

This episode, based on the obscure Grimm fairytale, Iron Hans, massively explodes the world of the show and hints at huge international conspiracies. This isn’t our first hint, perhaps: Three Coins and a Fuchsbau showed us the history of, er, three coins which, like The One Ring, exert huge power over people. Nick is now their current Frodo and Hitler was a previous Sauron. Here, though, much bigger things are afoot. Much to the surprise of us real life Europeans, it seems that Europe is a nasty dictatorship, at least as far as Wesen are concerned.

We learn all this from a refugee, an old friend of Rosalie’s, whose presence in Portland causes all sorts of problems for Nick, who is caught between his roles as Grimm and police detective. We don’t see anything happening in this vaguely defined “Europe”, but the device of presenting the baddies, who all work for the “Verat”, as nasty bullying Germans with guns is all the more effective with their being in the normal environment of the show. Plus, our main baddie is a cat-like creature, and the victim getting the most screen time is a mouse.

It seems that the Verat are in some way linked with the Wesen royals, who of course include our very own Captain Reynard. The good captain is not at all pleased with all these goings-on on his turf which further highlights the mystery of exactly what is going on with him. What is exactly the status of Wesen royalty in America?

Nick, through Monroe and especially Rosalie, very firmly ends up choosing a side after initial reluctance. By letting Ian go, he chooses his Grimm values over those as he holds as a police officer. Does this herald other, bigger such choices in the future? How long can he maintain his two roles?