Grimm
Episode 17: One Angry Fuchsbau
By: Carlos Uribe
Grimm is a show
about a man, Nick, who hunts monsters which look human.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
This episode's Opening Quote: “He sang a sweet song in tones
so full and soft that no human ear could resist them nor fathom their
origin...”-The Garden of Paradise
by Hans Christian Anderson
This Episode's Monster(s):
Ziegevolk:
A goat-like creature that has the powers of pheromones to influence
people to do their bidding. They consume toads to make themselves
more potent. They were previously the focus in “Lonelyhearts”
Eisbiber:
A beaver-like monster that is friendly and cowardly. They were the
focus of “Leave it to Beaver”
The
episode Nameless failed in it's weekly case because it tried to
combine modern technology with classic fairy tale monsters. It failed
because it showed a distinct lack of knowledge about the issue and it
felt convoluted. It was forced rather than naturally belonging in the
world of the wessen. There is a difference between updating fairy
tales and turning them into something they're not. One Angry Fuchsbau
gets this. A judicial system is far from new as they have existed in
every civilized society. Their a way for the government to
differentiate between who is guilty and who is innocent. The idea
behind judges, juries, and lawyers might not be new but the modern
American justice system is distinct enough to be different from other
systems. At the same time, the fact that the court system has existed
for a while means that there is a lot of tradition behind it. It
would make sense that the wessen creatures of old would have found
ways to use this system to their advantage. The series might have
trouble integrating these wessen creatures into modern technology but
it is able to naturally fit them into established modern systems. It
helps that instead of relying on an unknown creature, they went with
the Ziegevolk. The series didn't need to establish anything new and
the viewers could quickly catch on to what was happening. They might
not have remembered the gold spray visual effect but as soon as the
lawyer ate the toad I knew what he was. This goat-like creature
already has the established power that would make him a great lawyer.
The
ability to use the pheromones to influence the court system for a
client is a pretty compelling one. It's using a wessen ability to
succeed in life. It is difficult to be able to stop anyone from
tampering with juries and witnesses when the method is basically
magic. It has to be detected before people will realize why exactly
something is wrong. Most observers of the court case might be
confused by the witness testimonies being recanted every time the
defense lawyer questioned them but it's not like they could point to
anything concrete. The lawyer gets a reputation for being really good
so only somebody who knows what they're looking for would be able to
find them. Once the problem is discovered, finding a solution proves
to be tricky. A normal Grimm might have decided to simply kill the
lawyer but Nick has been proven to be special. He'll only kill when
he has to. This is so engrained into the show's DNA that not a single
person considers killing the lawyer for abusing his powers to set
killers free. That's a simple way of looking at things because
there's a chance he's helped innocent people stay of jail but that's
besides the point. So the series has two problems. The first is how
does it get our heroes involved in this case. Nick might be a cop but
he would need a reason to suspect this lawyer for being a ziegevolk.
The second is finding a peaceful way for our characters to take them
down so they remain likeable.
There
are limited ways that the series could solve the first problem. It
could have Nick or Hank at the testimony stand and that's why they
realize something fishy is going on. It could involve Monroe or
Rosalee as on the jury so that they could figure it out and bring
Nick in. Renard and Juliette aren't good options since they're too
involved in their plots right now. There might be another clever way
to bring the characters on the lawyer's trail but personally
involving the heroes provides them with personal reasons to stop him
and is an easy way for the narrative to start. Rosalee is the one on
the jury. She falls under his influence which causes her to later get
sick. Monroe tries to support her by sitting through the trial and
that's when he figures out the lawyer is using his powers. They get
Nick and Hank involved. So how do solve the second problem? A potion
of course! Only two complications arise from this. The first is that
they need the sweat from the lawyer in order to make it. They manage
to solve this by running a con on him. The second is putting it in
one of the toads that the lawyer eats. This toad will give him the
potion which will permanently shut off the lawyer from accessing his
skills. They use the con game they played on him to inject the toad
but the series increases the stakes by using math. There is potion
for only one toad but of course there's two. Our heroes get lucky
because the toad Monroe injected was the one he ate. The lawyer loses
his skills and Rosalee is allowed to send a guilty man to jail rather
than having to live with setting him free. Everybody wins! Well
except the lawyer and his client. The client goes to jail and the
lawyer soon follows him when he figures out the plot and he ambushes
Monroe. Bad news for the lawyer since his client isn't too happy
about the results of the case. It's implied that the lawyer is going
to get killed which I guess removes some of the reasoning on why Nick
didn't just kill him.
The
weekly case was exciting and it fit the world of Grimm well. The
serialized aspects keep chugging along. The visual memories of
Juliette become more clear when she goes to the trailer. The good
news is that she can see and hear ghosts of the Nick she knew. Her
memories are coming back. The bad news? She seeing a lot of Nicks.
It's so bad that she's basically being haunted by them. She's forced
to call that Spanish lady from the llonera episode to try and get
answers but the spanish lady is as cryptic as possible. What we do
find out is that Juliette is going to play a large role in an
upcoming struggle between good and evil. A struggle we get slightly
closer to as a pregnant Adalind reveals to Renard's brother her
failure to retrieve the key. Renard's brother decides it's time to go
and visit Portland a visit. He should enjoy it since the city remains
as beautiful as in the first season. Overall, the narrative pace is
painful as I want to know more.
One
Angry Fuchsbau is a pretty good episode of Grimm. The weekly case was
integrated a lot better this week than the last one since it made
actual sense from what we knew of the Grimm world. There were a lot
of tense scenes as well-especially the part where Monroe had to
inject the poison into the toad. It's a fun and good episode but
we're starting to enter the final stretch of the season-let's hope
the narrative really starts to pick up speed.
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