Grimm

Grimm

Episode 12: Last Grimm Standing

By: Carlos Uribe

Grimm is a show about a guy who hunts fairy tale monsters.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The episode begins with a married old couple living in a secluded area getting killed by some creature. The creature is then hunted down by some horseback riders. I don't know why, but that cold open was particularly effective for me. It just seemed like that old married couple were actual people rather than characters who solely exist to get killed. The episode then goes through the formula of having Nick and Hank investigate the crime. They essentially figure out that there are creatures who are forcing other creatures to be in some kind of gladiator combat. They don't know where these illegal fights are taking place and they believe that their suspect is one of the fighters. The goal of the episode is to find the fight club, break it up, and find the killer. Nick proceeds to try and figure more about these creature games by going straight to Monroe. Monroe doesn't know but he knows someone who might help. It turns out this someone is a booky who tells Monroe to meet someone from the games. This someone will then reveal where the games are currently being held. This doesn't happen because predictably they capture Monroe.

The plan is to make Monroe fight. They are unaware that Monroe has given up the deadly parts of being a blutbad. They don't know he has reformed. They also don't know that he has given Nick enough information to essentially come and find him. Nick, not the brightest cop out there, goes to the fight club by himself. Realizing that he can't just demand Monroe and arrest the person behind the fights, he decides to get into the arena and fight for Monroe's freedom. Nick actually manages to do pretty well and manages to not die until police backup arrives. The fight club is broken up, the killer is found, and the cops have saved the day. The only hitch is that the person behind the fight club managed to get away. The good news? He gets what's coming to him regardless.

It turns out that the person running the fight club was working for someone else: Captain Renard. Renard continues to confuse me. He's clearly part of the Grimm world but he's not a Grimm himself. This seems to indicate that he's a bad guy, but so far he has acted more as a good guy. This episode sort of shifts that perspective. Captain Renard was having the person running the fight club, a loran, take people from a list of creatures that were no good. These creatures were gang members and methheads. There were supposed to be specific rules the loran was supposed to follow so that neither of them would get caught. The loran got cocky and started caring more about money than about what Renard wanted. Renard's solution was to go to a church (!) and have the priest creature kill the loran. So the guy running the fight club is now dead, and Renard continues to confuse me. On one hand he's running an illegal underground fight club consisting of monsters. On the other hand, he's been protecting Nick and he did try to limit the fight club to just degenerates.

There seems to be some trouble in paradise for Nick and Juliette. This week is apparently their third year anniversary which means there's a dinner. Juliette is really excited for this dinner and she also discovers the ring that Nick was going to give to her all the back in the pilot. The problem? She may be focusing on their relationship, but Nick is focusing on being a Grimm. When it's time for dinner, he doesn't call Juliette to tell he'll be running late to dinner. He doesn't call until he's already running late. Granted, he was in the middle of a fight when the dinner began but he could have found a way to call her beforehand. This means that Juliette is now rethinking their relationship. It's possible nothing will come out of it, but there might be.

This was a decent episode of Grimm. It was entertaining enough, and it showed us more of the Grimm world. There were some problems I had with the episode. The beginning, after the cold open and until Monroe appears in the episode, wasn't that interesting. The show needs to find a way to make the procedural aspects of the episode feel more alive. There's also no explanation as to how Nick was able to hold his own in combat. Has he been training? Does he have Grimm superpowers the show forgot to tell us about? Also, based on one line towards the end of episode, it seems like Hank has accepted without question that Monroe is not a part of police investigations. The show needs to remember to establish some details-such as Nick's sudden ability to fight Grimm creatures and why Hank doesn't question why Nick brought Monroe into the case.