Grimm: The End

"I want the people I love to live again!"

I.m sad to see the back of Grimm, satisfying it is to finally complete a series what with all the different telly shows I'm currently juggling. This is an improvement from last week's awfulness, which is a relief, but in spite of a few nice touches it's hardly a worthy finale for the series, which is a shame.

Hank and Wu are confirmed to have died. And slowly Eve, Monroe, Rosalie and Sean are killed by this great big Zerstorer, a big bad we haven't even known for that long. Then there's some guff about the staff of Moses and the ghosts of Nick's late mum Kelly and Aunt Marie help him Trubel to kill Zerstorer in an epic battle... and then a big red sodding reset button is pushed meaning that no one died, including Wu and Hank, and all that we have seen is rendered meaningless. It's a crashing disappointment, however cool the coda with a young adult Kelly and Diana may be.

Still, the epic blood spell is pretty cool. The deaths are dramatic when they happen. But the fact that we had a final episode like this goes to show that a programme that, episode by episode and arc by arc, was rather good, was perhaps not that great at world building in the end.

Grimm: Zerstorer Shrugged

"And the hitch-hiker didn't need some guide to the galaxy. He just needed a Grimm."

Bloody Ayn Rand references. I hate any references to that stupid crank. This gets the episode- the second-to-last ever, remember- off tp a bad start. And it doesn't get much better.

We begin with a rushed resolution to last week's exciting exploits in the Hell dimension (fircthats what it appears to be, according to Monroe's family Bible, Wesen version) in which Nick, Eve and a far more boring and Aryan-looking Zerstorer are removed back to Portland and said baddie predictably ties amok. Yep. The final two episodes ever are going to focus on an apparently mute and very recently encountered Big Bad which has vague connections with all sorts of end-of-the-world myths and is suddenly linked to that prophecy from several episodes ago.

The episode is talky, entirely composed of exposition for most of its length and, frankly, dull. Even Trubel being back with longer hair struggles to evoke any interest. We get a revelation that the Zerstorer is after Kelly as well as Diana (is it me or have the last few episodes forgotten to show Nick's relationship with his son?), Nick and Diana declare their love to each other- ominous- and then we get a scene in which Hank and Wu are suddenly killed, without warning, in a rubbish episode where they've hardly done anything.

Not happy. Not happy at all. The finale better be a big improvement on this.

Grimm: Trust Me Knot

"Whatever happens to Nick is gonna happen to you!"

Wow. Firstly, that was awesome. Secondly, it was clever, with a last minute twist that upends everything. Thirdly, as I suspected, this final short season is blowing apart the tradition of epic stuff for a season's first two episodes and then the arc plot taking a back seat to stories of the week; this episode's climax utterly blows apart the status quo.

The "previously on", by emphasising the fact that Rachel Wood's room had Renard's fingerprints all over it, sort of gives away what Hank and Wu are going to do; dramatically arrest Renard for her mirder and use him as a bargaining chip for Nick's seemingly inevitable reinstatement into the police, with all charges dropped. That this doesn't happen, and that Renard ends up free, powerful and with everything he wants, is deeply unexpected. And the question of how Hank and Wu can continue to work under him is suddenly answered; they're fired. It seems that Grimm is no longer a police procedural.

There's some interesting stuff about the stick, too, and hints at some unholy origins, whether from the symbols hidden on the cloth or the fact that Nick seemed reluctant, Gollum-like, to part with it. More is clearly set to be revealed about the season's MacGuffin. Diana is scary, too; she may be a sweet little girl but she's powerful, and it's only a matter of time until she surely ends up as the season Big Bad. Oh, and Rosalie ends up publicly announcing her pregnancy, in typical TV fashion, at a moment of high danger.

There's a long way to go, though; Nick is still on the run, Hank and Wu are no longer cops, Trubel has buggered off, and the city's establishment is right behind Renard and Black Claw...

Grimm: Fugitive

"You chose the wrong side, Sean."

Things keep on moving fast with no sign of a new status quo emerging; normally we can expect things to settle down after the first couple of episodes of a new season, but this season is both much shorter than usual and the final season. Anything can happen.

Nick is a fugitive with Sean using the full weight of the Portland police force to "shoot to kill". Things don't look good for Nick, especially after the cliffhanger, and a big question mark hangs over both Hank and Wu; how can they carry on as cold when their boss is such a blatant baddie? And yet... there are signs that Sean isn't really sure that he's on the right side. One thing is sure; Adalind is definitely still with Nick.

There are other curiosities; Eve is still Eve but is losing her powers and seems to be getting more and more Juliette-like. And why did Renard shoot Bonaparte instead of Nick at the end of the finale? Could it have been Diana controlled by her own father? That little girl is getting creepier and creepier. And this is a compelling start to the season.

Although apparently the artist formerly known as Bitsie Tillich is now going by "Elizabeth". That's buggered up all my tagging...

Grimm: The Beginning of the End- Part 2

"Monroe, I'm pregnant!"

We know what Grimm season finales are about by now. Anything goes, the status quo is not safe, some things will be resolved but many won't, there'll be a big cliffhanger and the whole heightened mood will carry over to the first two episodes of the next season n until some kind of status quo is established- although with the much shorter final season to come I suspect we'll be getting a lot of rushed emphasis on the arc stuff, much like the second season of Dollhouse.

Anyway, the quote above gives us what is probably the main bombshell here. But there's so much activity and so many that nag happening; By nap after is desperate to get that book from Prague that Nick has and willing to use his possession of Kelly as leverage, the bastard. There's a big fight between Eve and Bonaparte which leaves Eve seemingly dying, until she's healed by the stick- and, it seems, Juliette again. I can't wait to see how this plays out, with potentially a very awkward love triangle.

The baddies are all coming for the gang at Nick's after finally getting the address from Adalind, but all but Nick manage to escape into the tunnels. And then there's the shock ending- a shootout between Nick and Bonaparte after which Renard shoots Bonaparte to save Nick. Whose side is he on? What's going to happen now? Fortunately, with my inadvertently getting to the second half of the season late (Sky Plus issues back in the Spring), we don't have long to wait...

Grimm: The Beginning of the End- Part 1

"You better get used to it. Because this is a position you can't quit..."

Nearly there now...

I think there's an interesting subtext going on here. Adalind has no choice; she is being forced to undertake the role of trophy wife and mother to show Sean to be a "family values" politician while he carries out whatever policies Black Claw wants him to. This is the episode where the threats get truly explicit; Bonaparte (any relation?) is a very sinister personification of the patriarchy as he makes clear to Adalind that she is to marry Renard and that is that. Men have spoken.

All of this is writ large as Black Claw seek to infiltrate political positions everywhere, a sort of Wesen Militant tendency. And they really are suddenly  everywhere, especially in the previously unseen Portland North Precinct. Much of the episode consists of Hank being framed and set up but this quickly unravels into chaos; none of this is done by the book. The targeting and kidnapping of Hank is done purely to distract Nick, Trubel and especially Eve away from HW so Black Claw can attack and carry out one of their signature massacres, and there are no survivors. Not even Meisner. This is shocking, and clearly means war.

After a clearly miffed Diana has Rachel suffocated to death (what a lovely child!), we end with a furious fight between Nick and Renard which ends up with Nick being arrested. And there are Black Claw marks on his cell...

This is awesome stuff, finally getting to pay off various arcs in a season which has had a particularly good season arc even if some individual episodes have been variable. More please...

Grimm: Bad Night

"You're gonna be the one who's self-winding tonight..."

The end of the season is so close you can almost taste it.

Hank is with Zuri, blissfully unaware that she is working against him. Wu is learning to control his inner beast. Nick is fruitlessly looking for Sean, who is (as usual) in bed with Rachel. But there's a definite feeling that things are moving fast; no more stories of the week now as Nick brings Monroe and Rosalie fully on board. And so we begin a chain of events that I'm certainly not going to try and summarise.

For Hank, of course, it's a trap. And we're back to the old days of tension and mistrust between Nick and Renard; it's fascinating how Renard's character has shifted from sinister to ally to once again being an antagonist. He's complex. I like that.

The stick is interesting, too: the point is made that it's significance is not its healing abilities, not directly, but that it proves (or, as Douglas Adams said with the Babel fish, disproves) the existence of God. That's big. No wonder the crusader Grimms hid it.

As we wait for the election results Adalind won't tell Bonaparte where Nick is; she isn't there of her own free will and still has loyalty. She's in a horrible position but I like her. But Bonaparte holds all the cards as we end with the revelation that Hank was just being used as a distraction so HW could be utterly destroyed and it's people massacred-  including Meisner. A bad night indeed.

And it gets worse. Not only does Renard win in a landslide but he rubs "his" family in Nick's face on television. This episode is awesome and Earth-shaking. On we go to the two part finale...

Grimm: The Taming of the Wu

"Did I kill him?"

I love Wu episodes; he's probably my favourite character. And now he has superpowers. Not because he's a Wesen, but because he got bitten and now has a superpower disease. Cool. And, if the ending is anything to go by, he's going to learn to control it. Awesome.

Meanwhile, we learn the true sinister scariness of Diana and those CGI eyes; this is the "creepy child" trope in all its glory. Adalind, of course, is now being made to choose between her Black Claw captors and "the Grimm". And she at last manages to tell Nick about her He enbeist powers returning after all this time. And through it all there's a constant background of the mayoral contest as we slowly work out what's happening with Wu.

We end with a cliffhanger as Nick finds both Adalind and Kelly missing from his home and Adalind has left a note. The finale is sooo close. This is really getting good and exciting.

Grimm: Key Move

"This is really good. For something completely illegal...!"

At last Watch are showing the episodes I wasn't able to see earlier this year because of Sky Plus issues. Hallelujah. And we jump straight into the first episode after the half-season break where Nick and co have found a map to the mysterious treasure in the Black Forest that was buried by those seven mythical Grimms after the Sack of Constantinople. We get a rather fun sequence where everyone works out the puzzle and decides the treasure must be buried somewhere under an old church. So Nick and Monroe are grabbing a flight to Stuttgart while everyone else has further adventures in Portland.

Meanwhile, Sean loyally and unethically drips on a rival mayoral candidate to his mate Andrew Dixon, and Adalind ends up declaring her love for Nick, they have sex while both knowing whom the other actually is, and it feels right! But the main plan to in Portland is an assassin in Portland,hunted by both HW and the police. Who is his target? From a very early stage it looks to be either Dixon or Sean.

In Baden-Wurttemberg Nick discusses his burgeoning relationship with Adalind but can't answer Monroe's question of whether he loves her. But soon they're deep into their investigation as Wesen priests and churchwardens get wind that there's a Grimm About and whip up a little mob. And in Portland our assassin's bullet finds Dixon. Is he dying?

An eventful and hugely exciting episode ends as Nick and Monroe fall into some ancient catacombs. Is this the treasure? This is a hugely promising start.

Grimm: Map of the Seven Knights

"You killed my uncle. You shouldn't have done that."

Yay for badass Monroe!

This is an exciting and pivotal episode, albeit a pivotal one. Monroe's previously unmentioned uncle, an antiquarian books expert in Leipzig, comes across a load of Grimm books which could entirely replace the contents of Nick's burned-to-oblivion trailer and wants $100,000 for them, but is killed by Occultam Libera before this can happen and thus the priceless artifacts are acquired by the gang. Amongst them is a third of the seven keys to the map, enough for Monroe to work out roughly where X seems to mark the spot. Everybody's off to the Black Forest...

There is character stuff, of course. We begin with the gang all seeing Nick's and Adalind's new fortress home for the first time, and Nick confesses to Monroe his complex feelings towards her.

In other news, Eve's awesomeness continues to be gradually revealed- what's this new levitating power? And her interrogations are.. nasty. Sean shows a similarly dark side as he and his lover persuade their Portland mayoral candidate, Andrew Dixon, to use dirty tricks against his opponent.

It's an exciting episode, though because of the big revelations rather than any inherent brilliance: the beats are predictable. There are also some historical howlers surrounding the 1204 Siefe of Constantinopke and, according to an HW computer screen, there is apparently still a country called "Czechoslovakia". Still, none of that detracts from the general awesomeness.

Grimm: Star-Crossed

"These people are insane!"

This time the story of the week is a disgusting and apparently ancient Wesen ritual involving crucifixion, linked to Occultam Libera and all that, for the purposes of making it rain. It's all a bit by-the-numbers, based in a very Wikipedia view of history and the ending is rushed but it's entertaining enough, I suppose. Disturbingly, the mention of the Greek origins of the "Order of the Golden Dawn" reminds me of today's Greek Nazis.

In arc news HW continue to put pressure on Nick and the gang, while Sean is revealed to be sleeping with Andrew Dixon's campaign manager. And the bloke who's been writing to Rosalee- Tony- rings get this time before getting rebuffed. He'll be back.

Otherwise there's not a lot to say about this episode, filler that it is. It's obvious that big things are poised to happen, but not yet. I couldn't stop noticing, though, that the episode features a highly dangerous demagogue called Donald...

Grimm: A Reptile Dysfunction

"You still think you're talking to Juliette?"

The story of the week here is solid: a Loch Ness style tourist attraction hires a Wesen to be a real life monster and it all goes horribly wrong- although that bloke who stupidly took a gun while boating on a lake gets no sympathy from me. On this level it's a good episode. But there's far more going on than that. 

The gang now all know about HW, about Eve, that Trubel works for HW, so what to do? All agree, as Rosalee suggests, that they should all decide together. But that's all: Rosalie continues to ignore letters from her past that are clearly leading up to something, and all sorts of current events in places like Syria and Pakistan are actually just caused by Wesen, just like Nazi Germany. Hmm. Not sure I like this: it pushes a dangerous apoliticalism. Current affairs are complicated and we should resist simple explanations, even in fiction.

Still, it's a gripping storyline. And Eve is awesome. Both the arc stuff and the story impress, with subtle references to both Jaws and The Creature from the  Black Lagoon. Yet another extra-judicial ending, though...

Grimm: Eve of Destruction

"Is this another Back From The Dead thing?"-

Phew. This episode is a big one and probably a bit of a turning point. Juliette is alive! She's still a Hexenbeist! She's weird and has an odd hairstyle! She's strangely emotionless! HW did weird stuff to her! Etc! Etc! And an awful lot of other stuff happens too.

The mystery grows throughout the episode. Nick finds out from Trubel that Juliette didn't die but was instead taken away to be turned into "a weapon" and later in the episode, at a pre-arranged meeting with Nick in a restaurant, we get to see her in action. She's an enigma, but an intriguing one. Such a radical change for such a major character reminds me very much of Fred in Season Five of Angel. 

The treacherous Xavier speaks more of the conspiracy: a revolution that all Wesen must join, a conspiracy that ultimately ends in his murder while in custody by a Wesen unafraid to Woge in public- is this the point of "Occultam Libera"? For Wesen to step out of the shadows? Is this why Billie Trump's upper middle class parents seem so strangely proud of her?

Things then go up a notch as these conspirators- called Black Claw, we're told- shockingly assassinate the entire Wesen Council, with one possible survivor, in The Hague. The entire status quo has shockingly changed.

On a more personal note, Nick and Adalind kiss, which is awkward. Their relationship is fun to watch. And suddenly the season as a whole, after a poor start, has become enjoyable too.

Grimm: Wesen Nacht

"The majority of street riots are instigated by Wesen..."

Well, that's much better. And it's a heavily arc episode, which is no coincidence.

We get introduced to this Wesen secret society who wear black and seek to create discord and chaos within the Wesen community by engineering a Kristallnacht of sorts; this and the black uniform marks them as yet another Nazi analogue.

On an apparently separate strand of plot Trubel is awake, lucid and telling lots of things to Nick and Adalind. Chavez knew all about Nick and was trying to recruit Grimms left, right and centre, including Trubel. Chavez's lot are an international government agency called "Hadrian's Wall" or "HW", a name with interesting allusions for a blogger whose Geordie wife is from Wallsend. It seems they're working to prevent some kind of nebulous Wesen uprising which quite clearly forms the basis of this season's arc.

They're paying Trubel a lot of money, and have a "Q" branch to supply her with gadget-fitted motorbikes, but for now that's all we know. So it's that, Sean's mate running for mayor of Portland and Nick and Adalind's budding relationship that are the main arcs so far.

Oh, and Trubel admits to Adalind (why are the two of them not more awkward with each other?) that she wanted to kill Juliette, and that Nick mustn't know. Well, I 'm sure that Adalind will in no way break that confidence at some point.

We end the episode, after some exciting twists and turns, with our heroes all saved from certain doom by someone who looks awfully like Juliette, and suddenly this lacklustre season seems to be looking much better. This is a fine episode and by far the best of the season up to this point.

Grimm: The Rat King

"The legend; it's true."

A fairly ho-hum story of the week, this, with a bunch of rat Wesen baddies who are persecuting a family of cat Wesen (aww!) turning out to be able to combine into a massive CGI rat monster. Reminds me of Transformers, and is on paper a good idea, but the realisation is a little awkward.

Still, as ever the arc stuff is much more interesting. Trubel spends most of the episode unconscious in hospital with a conspiracy of Wesen medical staff trying to do her in, so we don't see what she's been up to. What we do see, though, is that she has a motorbike full of the kinds of gadgets usually fitted by Q branch and has recently visited places such as Dublin, Malta, and Madrid.

Also we have Sean again being persuaded to back the mayoral campaign of his mysterious mate Andrew Dixon, who looks to be a distinct possibility as the season's big bad, almost certainly connected with all this "Occultam Liberas" stuff. We shall see.

Still, none of this disguises the awkward fact that this episode is a bit sub-par. And I have to say, so far, that this season isn't all that impressive either.

Grimm: Cry Havoc

"If it's any consolation, Kenneth is dead..."

... And now so is Juliette. Who saw that coming? It's quite a twist, as is her entire character arc throughout the latter part of the season. Bitsie gets to bow out with an awesome death concluding an awesome storyline. Yes, Kenneth dies too, but that's less important; he's just an ersatz Prince Viktor, and still feels like a blatant replacement, filling in a part originally planned for Alexis Denisof.

This is a big season finale, a highly entertaining one, but it's sadly devalued by both Debisof's absence and the fact that it opens with the revelation that Kelly is dead through means of showing, not telling, as Mary Elizabeth Madtrantonio didn't even appear in the episode in which her character died. These things matter, to put it mildly.

Still, everything else is sufficient to bring the standard up. It's a good finale, it really is, but there's a certain epic quality missing through the lack of said personnel. The dogs of war bark, and bark well, but they don't quite bite.

It's nice, and near, to see the late Kenneth being framed for the Jack the Ripper murders. And it's nice to see Kenneth getting arrested (his fake surname, from his passport, is "Bowes-Lyon", the late Queen Mother's maiden name!), but then taken to an honest, old-fashioned bout of fisticuffs with Nick. In which Nick, predictably, kills him.

Meanwhile, Juliette seems to be getting on with the deliciously evil King, who, it seems, is called Frederick, and who casually abandons Kenneth to his death. There's one more twist, however; just as we think the King has won, and is leaving Portland in a helicopter with his granddaughter Diana... she kills him. It seems this little princess, the child of Sean and Adalind, is firmly with the resistance.

Nick, though, has lost everything- both his mother and his fiancée. Still, it seems to be all over... until that FBI woman arrives, indicating that Trubel may have accepted her offer. What's been happening with Trubel? We have an agonisingly long wait to find out.

Grimm: Headache

"Well, this should be a jolly good romp!"

Eh? Jelly Burkhart dies this episode. The cliffhanger is even Nick receiving her head in a box. And yet, due to obvious behind the scenes issues, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio doesn't even appear in the episode in which her character dies. That's weird and awkward.

In less surprising news... yes, Sean is indeed Jack the Ripoer as we all thought. It seems that his blackouts are dues to obsession by said fiend, who came back to life when he was resurrected at the start of the season, which is suspiciously similar to a certain episode of Buffy. Still, at least our heroes have a plan to scare the cheeky Cockney geezer away.

But the real villain here is Juliette. It is she who helps Kenneth in setting up the trap for Kelly. And not even the "surprise" return of Trubel can save her. Still, there's no getting round the convoluted awkwardness of Kelly only ever appearing off-screen. At least we meet the baby, though, and my- hasn't she grown?

This is, of course, an excellent and bloody exciting episode, revving up the excitement for next week's finale. Still, the absence of Kelly is a big problem.

Grimm: The Grimm Who Stole Christmas

"Strange is your speciality!"

These Christmas episodes with a twist are becoming quite the Grimm speciality and this one, with its violent Grinch-like Wesen turning out to be just wild metaphors for teenage abandon who can be nicely cured with, er, fruitcake, is no exception. This is an entertaining tale with a nice little twist, and silly exactly to the right degree.

But what of the metaplot? Well, after last year it's heartwarming to see both Monroe and Rosalie enjoying a perfect Christmas. The Wesenrein continue to menace our newlyweds for their "miscegenation", but Triubel is on the case, ably assisted by Josh. And Wu continues to be suspicious about Nick and Hank; this will come to the boil very soon.

Trubel and Josh have results from their little spy mission against Wesen Neo-Nazis; they're quite a team. We're shown this very shortly before Trubel announces that she's off with Josh (and Nick's Aunt Marie's truck) to look after him at his home, no doubt to be the focus of a storyline later in the season. They'll be back, especially as Josh's pursuers are after a doohickey held by Nick.

But the Wu subplot is clearly coming to the boil in the very near future, especially as Renard warns Nick and Hank not to let Wu know about him. Meanwhile, Juliette may be pregnant, and it may have happened during her time as Adalind. We end with a pregnancy test, but we don't see...

This is how I like my Grimm; lots of weaving subplots. I'm still loving this season in a way I haven't really loved the others. I hope they can keep it up.

Grimm: Highway of Tears

"It's good to have you back!"

It looks as though this season is going to continue as well as it started; we're several episodes in, and there's a pleasing number of ongoing plot threads. Here we're mostly concerned with the dramatic tension- will Elizabeth's concoction cute Nick in time for him to solve a strange series of murders committed by reptilian Wesen linked to the Thuggee? (Oh, and Rudyard Kipling was a Grimm. Blimey.)

But there are other threads bubbling under. The motive for Nick (and Juliette) agreeing for Nick to be re-Grimmed, as it were, is the constant harassment of Rosalie and Monroe by the Wesen Ku Klux Klan, who object to their inter-racial marriage and burn crosses on their lawn. 

Meanwhile, in Austria, Adalind tells all to Pronce Victor, who at last learns that the baby (unseen so far this season) is with Kelly Burhhart. More importantly, though, just when is he going to get rid of that thing on his upper lip? It's doing my head in.

Elizabeth's spell requires Juliette to become Adalind and shag Nick in said form, leading to some awkward but also illicitly exciting sex for them. But Juliette collapses afterwards. Hmm. Something has happened to her!

Elsewhere, Elizabeth tells Sean that she's leaving, and Josh arrives at the Burkhart residence to find only a tense Trubel. This is to be continued next episode, I'm sure. But for now, Nick is back as a Grimm and the series has never been better.

Grimm: Dyin' on a Prayer

"You married a monster, that's all."

This is an interesting broadening of the kinds of stories Grimm can tell; the legend of the Golem that protects the Jews of Prague has nothing to do with Wesen; the Wesen baddies, a pair of domestically violent brothers, are fairly perfunctory. Still, this is interesting; will the loss of Nick's powers expand the narrative possibilities?

It's all very well handled, although admittedly its a coincidence that the only known Golem remains should end up in Portland. And Nick gets to play the hero by just being a good cop with, admittedly, supernatural knowledge.

In other season plot threads, Rosalie and Monroe are beginning to face prosecution from the Wesen KKK for their mixed marriage. Trubel tells Nick about her offer from Chavez, the FBI woman, and Woo continues to have suspicions about Trubel and Nick. It's all bubbling away nicely in this superb season. And if this is the level of stories of the week we're getting now then I for one have no complaints.