Grimm

Grimm

Episode 10: The Hour of Death

Episode 11: To Protect and Serve

By: Carlos Uribe

Grimm is a show about a man, Nick, who hunts monsters which look human.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Hour of Death:

This episode's Opening Quote: “And branded upon the beast, the mark of his kin. For none shall live whom they have seen”-Nightmares for Wessen Children (made-up)

This Episode's Monster(s):

Lebensauger: A lamprey-like monster that are repulsive and are prone to substance abuse.

Schackal: A jackal-like creature that are notorious jewel thieves and like to eat human babies.

Eisbiber: A beaver-like monster that is friendly and cowardly. They were the focus of “Leave it to Beaver”

Ryan was introduced as an intern in the episode “The Other Side” but he didn't make much of an impression. He remained in the background in “La Llorona” and he really wasn't adding that much to the episode. This should have been a clue that he was going to be important soon but I didn't really pay that much attention to him. He wasn't doing anything interesting and it looked like the show was just using him for comic relief. Watch as the silly intern acts all awkward around the Captain! Watch as he trips over a trash can and becomes the laughing stock of the police force! Watch as he attempts to become a special kind of Grimm that kills all wessen that he finds without any hesitation and marks them with terryfing brands! Wait a minute, that last one is actually pretty interesting. It's indeed what this episode is all about. It takes Ryan and puts him in the foreground completely. Suddenly we find out why he's important and why we should care. Still, wouldn't it have been nicer to tease his dark side in previous episodes rather than just making some lame jokes and making him utterly forgettable? Having Ryan turn out to be a villain was good but it could have been so much better if the show had nudged us into his dark side in earlier episodes.

The weekly case starts out dull. There's a kidnapping case and the characters have to solve it before it's too late. This is something that has been done many times on different shows. It's even similar to the show's pilot. That is until the kidnapper is found tortured and dead after he had claimed that Nick was threatening him. The kidnapper had his body branded with a sign. A sign that all the wessen world in Portland instantly begins to fear. A sign that signifies that not only is there a Grimm in town but that this Grimm is a special kind. A kind that is heartless and scares all the wessen in a way that Nick never could. There are some wessen who actually think that Nick has become this kind of Grimm but he hasn't. This signifies that there's another Grimm in town. Nick is able to figure out and stop him before he kills recurring character Bud. This figure turns out to be Ryan. Ryan isn't really a Grimm. He's actually a wessen called Lebensauger. He is so disgusted by what he is that he decided that he'd be a better Grimm than anything else. Ryan is arrested and his plot ended. It was a bit sudden but at least the character had one episode where he made an impression. Still it was nice to see the series trying a short arc that managed to pay off because Ryan was there for a few episodes.

While this is all happening, Captain Renard has decided that the best course of action is to check up on Juliette. This leads to a scene where Juliette remembers that Renard had kissed her in the hospital. She kisses Renard briefly before slamming the door shut. It's nice to see this part of the show is advancing ever so slightly. It might be moving at a snail's pace but at least it's progress. The Hour of Death became one of the best episodes of the season simply because of it's reveal that Ryan was not what he appeared to be. It simply took up what began as a boring episode and turned it into one exciting and thrilling episode. The only complaint is that the beginning of the episode was still kind of dull and it would have been nice if the episode had been able to build up to the time when the dead kidnapper turns up.

To Protect and Serve:

This episode's Opening Quote: “The beast was simply the Call of the Wild personified... which some natures hear to their own destruction”-From the works of Algernon Blackwood

This Episode's Monster(s):

Wendigo: Savage human-like creature that likes to eat actual human beings and then burrying their remains.

To Protect and Serve has a simple dilemna. The episode begins with a flashback to a time before Hank became a detective. Hank finds a house with one dead body in it and another unconcious one. He soon hears someone running away. Hank chases this guy and catches him. The guy rambles on and on about how he saw these people become monsters and how they tried to eat him. Hank thinks he's crazy and arrests him. The episode then goes to the present when Hank remembers the guy because he's about to be executed. Hank realizes that the guy might not have been crazy at all. He might have seen the wessen change and they might have indeed been trying to eat him. Hank's desire throughout the episode becomes simple: he's going to try and get this guy off of death row if he turns out to have been telling the truth. He decides to bring Nick in to his investigation because he needs someone who can help him identify the creatures the guy saw and navigate the wessen world. The characters are able to figure out that the guy was killing Wendigo in self-defense. The two know the truth but they now have to figure out how to get him off death row. They can't just take this information to the D.A. They need to have concrete evidence.

This turns out to be a challenging task. They decide that because Wendigo like to bury the human remains where they live, that they need to search the house of where the murder had taken place. The problem is that it has since become a store. It is now difficult to actually dig up the dead bodies and they don't have the proof they need to get a warrant. They decide track down the surviving Wendigo to confirm he's a creature and to hopefully get him to confess. It should come as no surprise that they only succeed at the first one. They do decide to search his home and they have probable cause because the Wendigo skipped jury duty. It's at the house that they discover that the Wendigo has kept burying new human remains in his place. Some habits just don't die. They try to tell the DA about this new evidence and there's a whole bunch rising tension. It's literally the last minute when the guy on death row is saved.

While this is all going on, Renard convinces Juliette that they need to solve their attraction to each other by going to Monroe's store. The episode ends with the two of them going into the store and making out. Monroe walks in on them kissing and is shocked when he finds out that it's Juliette. That's the cliff-hanger that ends the episode and it's a pretty good one. This plot continues to take baby steps but here's hoping that it speeds up for the fall finale next week. Overall, To Protect and Serve is a pretty good episode that has some really great tension at the end of the episode. It has an intriguing premise-how do you prove someone is telling the truth when nobody will believe it-but there are moments where it dragged.

Other Notes:

The “G” brand from The Hour of Death looks a lot like the smiley face from The Mentalist. Is Red John a Grimm and Patrick Jane has been looking at the case all wrong?