Well, we’d been asking for a while—when is poor Sgt. Wu going to get looped in? And, boy, did he get looped in. And not in the way we were expecting.

This week’s episode of Grimm, “Mommy Dearest,” started off with Adalind and Meisner in their very Grimm-Fairy-Tales-esque cabin in the woods. Adalind is in labor and Meisner is adding ‘midwife’ to his list of (fairly impressive) skills.

Adalind (Claire Coffee) in labor with the Royal baby.
Adalind (Claire Coffee) in labor with the Royal baby.

After throwing some cups and things about the room, Baby Girl is born—and Adalind is back to her Hexenbiest form.

Pregnancy is a Theme, Apparently

Then we jump to Dana (Tess Paras), also pregnant, cleaning up after dinner and bantering with her husband, Sam (Alain Uy). He goes to get her pre-natal meds, and she goes to bed.

A Golemn-esque type creatures climbs up Dana’s tree, through her window, and then, its tongue whips out, winds through the room and INTO HER BELLY.

INTO HER BELLY.

HER PREGNANT BELLY.

Way to up the nastiness, Grimm.

A neighbor hears Dana’s screams, runs in, and saves her.

INTO HER BELLY. That's where the baby is, people!
INTO HER BELLY. That’s where the baby is, people!

Finally, an Episode All About Wu

Next we go to Sgt. Wu and his partner having dinner in the police car when the calls comes over the radio—turns out Wu knows Dana. he throws out the food and turns the car around, siren’s blaring.

Wu rushes over to find her unconscious, bleeding from her belly. She comes to just long enough to whisper “Aswang.”

Nick and Hank show up and find claw marks on the window frame and the tree outside—which makes Nick think it could be Wesen.

Apparently Wu is close friends with Dana—since childhood—and they moved to Portland at his recommendation, so he feels responsible.

GRIMM -- "Mommy Dearest" Episode 314 -- Pictured: Reggie Lee as Sgt. Wu -- (Photo by: Scott Green/NBC)
GRIMM — “Mommy Dearest” Episode 314 — Pictured: Reggie Lee as Sgt. Wu — (Photo by: Scott Green/NBC)

At the hospital, they discover that almost all of Dana’s amniotic fluid was drained, but that she and the baby are okay. Also, Dana was drugged with some kind of sedative. Sam was at the CVS when the attack happened, but Nick and Hank are still suspicious.

Also, it becomes pretty clear that Wu’s feelings for Dana are definitely not just ‘friendly.’ Poor Wu!

Juliette shows up for a minute to tell Hank and Nick that the claw marks could be any large animal (thanks!) but then brings up the salient point of the episode: if it is Wesen, how are they going to tell Wu?

Nick’s response? “We lie.”

Cause that has worked out so well in the past.

Sam, played by Alian Yu, morphs into an Aswang as he talks to family. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Sam, played by Alain Uy, morphs into an Aswang as he talks to family.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

Of Course You Married an Aswang

Wu leaves Sam and Dana alone at the hospital, and Sam—closing the door behind him—calls Manila (here’s hoping he using a VoIP service or his phone bill’s gonna bankrupt him).

His brother answers, and they discuss that ‘she’ is in Portland. Sam says he can’t ‘do this’ to Dana, and then shifts into the same grey-golemn looking Aswang creature.

Shift to Wu, sleeping in his apartment. He is dreaming about finding Dana on the floor, bloody, saying ‘Aswang,’ and then shifts to child-Wu listening to his grandmother telling him a story about a demon which eats babies. Then an Aswang flies at him from the ceiling (ACK) and he wakes up.

Back in the woods of Austria, Meisner makes sure Adalind is asleep and calls Renard. After a brief (and touching) moment where Renard learns the baby is a girl, Meisner and Renard have another ‘you’re not safe! You can’t stay there! Stop calling me! conversation. Their whole relationship is like a Muse song.

Dana, played by Tess Paras, recovering from her attack. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Dana, played by Tess Paras, recovering from her attack. Courtesy of NBC Universal.

Why is it Always Valerian Root?

Hank and Nick can’t find any dirt on Sam, but get a call from the hospital telling them that Dana is awake. Off they go.

Wu visits his cousin (who apparently runs a restaurant), and asks him if he remembers stories about Aswang. He does (drugs the mom, eats the fetus…ew). The cousin also remembers Dana—and it’s made clear that Wu has had a torch for Dana for a while.

At the hospital, Dana doesn’t remember anything about the attack, except the pain. Wu shows up in time to hear that the doctor found valerian root (a natural sedative) in her system—which is in line with the Aswang lore.

Wu almost tells Nick and Hank about the Aswang theory, but doesn’t.

Sam is cleaning up the bedroom (i.e. scene of the crime) when his brother in Manila calls him back. Brother tells him that ‘she’ is in Portland, at the Victory Motel, room 117.

As Sam leaves, he runs into Wu. Wu wants to look at the bedroom again, Sam won’t let him. Wu runs the Aswang theory by Sam, who brushes him off. Things get a little tense—and Wu begins to think Sam is a suspect.

They can always count on Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner)? Courtesy of NBC.
They can always count on Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner)
Courtesy of NBC.

To the Spice Shop!

At the spice shop, Rosalee and Monroe go over Valerian root and ancient rituals involving amniotic fluid and youth with Hank and Nick. They all decide to go to the trailer to see what they can find out.

Sam goes to the Victory hotel to meet the mysterious ‘her’—who turns out to be his mother, Lani (Fredo Foh Shen). Apparently, if you’re Aswang, and you’re the eldest son, your firstborn is ‘owed’ to your mother, who consumes it while still in the womb, to preserve her life.

Kudos to Sam, he’s not having any of it. “People die, Mom.” He says. Her response? “You can have other babies.”

Ew. Blech. Ew.

He gives her a plane ticket back to Manila and tells her to go home, and leaves.

After he leaves, she morphs into Aswang form and tears the ticket into shreds. So probably not going back to Manila, then.

It's gotta be bigger on the inside... Courtesy of NBC Universal

It’s gotta be bigger on the inside…
Courtesy of NBC Universal

To the Trailer for More…Research…

Wu is helping Dana pack at the hospital—where Sam isn’t—and he embraces Dana when she admits that she is scared to go back home. Sam walks in on the embrace, leading to him taking Wu out into the hall for a ‘she’s my wife, not yours, leave us alone’ conversation.

Sam also conveniently tells Wu that Sam’s mom is in town and where she’s staying. Making Wu wonder why Sam’s mom isn’t staying with Sam and Dana.

At the trailer, we get our usual fact-finding research scene, but this one has the best lines of the episode:

Hank: Do we have to start at the beginning?

Monroe: Yeah, can’t we just skip to the ‘and then I cut off his head’ part.

Nick: Snuck down putrid alley…fetid smell of blood, blah, blah…cut of it’s h—okay, too far.

HA.

So they find out it’s an Aswang, and what an Aswang does (including making a tick-tick sound, which a witness at the scene reported hearing), and then they have a ‘tell Wu or don’t tell Wu conversation, where they decide not to tell Wu, as it’s just too freaky and they don’t know how he’ll take it.

Sidenote: At this point we had a very loud conversation with the TV where we attempted to sway the argument being had by imaginary characters. OF COURSE YOU SHOULD TELL WU.

Sheesh.

Friendzoned

Sam and Dana have a little heart to heart about what is going between Wu and Sam, as she can tell they’re mad at each other. Sam doesn’t understand why she’s still friends with him, because it’s awkward (yeah…) to which she says he’s always been such a good friend to her….

Poor Wu.  Courtesy of icanhazcheezeburger.com
Poor Wu.
Courtesy of icanhazcheezeburger.com

Wu goes back to the station and tells Nick and Hank that Sam’s mother is in town and where she’s saying. Wu confides in Hank and Nick that he thinks Sam might be guilty, and that he might be staging the attack to look like an Aswang.

Nick calls it ‘quite a theory’—Hank almost tells Wu the truth, but at the last minute chickens out.

Yeah, they sorta had this look on their faces as Wu walked away. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Yeah, they sorta had this look on their faces as Wu walked away.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

Just Calling My Married Friend While I Sit Outside Her House…

Wu—in full kinda-stalk-ery mode—sits outside Dana’s house in his car. He sees Lani show up in a cab, go behind the tree in the front yard, and then a creature climb up the tree.

Nick and Hank get to the motel, and find the torn plane ticket. The motel manager said Lani got into a cab—Hank calls the cab company and finds out Lani went to Sam and Dana’s.

Back at Sam and Dana’s, Sam hears scuffling in the hall—and mom ambushes him, pushing him down the stairs and knocking him out. Then she goes into the bedroom—as Lani—and sings Dana a lullaby until Dana goes to sleep.

Then it’s all full-Aswang-tongue into belly. Before she can do much damage, though, Wu runs in. He see Lani in her Aswang form and freaks out.

Lani attacks Wu, slashes him across the face—he can barely resist—when Nick crashes in and shoots her. As she dies, Lani morphs back into Lani.

Wu just stands there and repeats “It wasn’t her.” Over and over.

Sidenote: At this point Nick and Hank and the perfect moment to tell Wu he did see something, and it was real, and they DON’T, which MAKES NO SENSE, because clearly Wu is already suffering some severe mental stress.

Wu's face when he sees the Aswang. This is not a face of someone having a good day. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Wu’s face when he sees the Aswang. This is not a face of someone having a good day.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

So Many Creepy Baby Things

Back to the cabin, Adalind is still sleeping, with the baby. Meisner tenderly strokes her hair, only to have it come alive and clench around his hand—and baby Girl opens her blood-red-super-creepy-CGI-eyes.

SUPER CREEPY EYES.

The two stare at each other for a moment before baby Girl relaxes Adalind’s hair around Meisner’s hand.

Back to Portland, where Nick and Hank are meeting Wu in a mental hospital. We were not expecting that—and we don’t like it. Not poor Wu! Why does it always happen to him?

Even with Wu in an institution, because he believes he’s crazy, because of what he saw, neither Nick nor Hank say anything about Wesen. Wu’s a hero, they say.

Wu says that’s nice, then turns away…right into an Aswang jumping at him

So that was also unexpected.

What did you think, fellow Grimms? Should they have told Wu? What do you think Adalind’s baby really is?

And what about next week? Egyptian Gods were Wesen–what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGAvTLEb870

Grimm airs on NBC on Fridays at 10 p.m.

Grimm is back, and it picks up right where it left off (to refresh your memory, this was before Polar Vortexes or #sochiproblems)—Monroe’s parents, already freaked out by the whole marrying-a-Fuchsbau-thing, went full thermo-nuclear when they saw Nick—a Grimm.

Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) faces off against his father, Bart (Chris Mulkay) and mother, Alice (Dee Wallace), over marrying a Fuchsbau and being friends with a Grimm.
Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) faces off against his father, Bart (Chris Mulkay), and mother, Alice (Dee Wallace), over marrying a Fuchsbau and being friends with a Grimm.
Courtesy of NBC Universal

Parents Just Don’t Understand

Nick manages to fend off Papa Monroe—a ruggedly confused Chris Mulkey—and the elder Monroes spout off some fairly cliché we’re-so-disappointed-we-don’t-know-you-anymore and storm out.

Monroe and Nick have a mini-fight (a bro-row? Or bro-tiff?) and Nick leaves without telling Monroe about the whole scalping-seriel-killer.

Rosalee goes back to the spice shop to have a little crying jag, Monroe stares morosely at cuckoo clocks, and Nick ends up telling Juliette all about the cop-killing-spree. To which she appropriately replies ‘wow.’

Wow is right, oh she-of-the-slightly-getting-better-plot-points. Wow is right.

We leave the stunned Juliette, befuddled Nick, crying Rosalee and glum Monroe to a remote campfire, where our raging serial killer performs some sort of ritual involving a fire and flowing red ember, which he eats, causing his eyes to go all Wesen-red. Spooky. Definitely not a good guy.

Alexis Denisof as Prince Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Alexis Denisof as Prince Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

To Europe!

Next is Vienna, where Prince Viktor (full name: Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf, thank you IMDB!) played by Alexis Denisof (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) trying his best to be Evil–most of his scenes feel like they should end with him twirling his mustache and putting a bwa- in front of his cackles—anyway, Prince Viktor is watching a pregnant Adalind via remote camera and having secret meetings with Stefania. Not good. Very nefarious. We’re pretty sure Viktor and Stefania aren’t meeting to discuss nursery furniture.

The two agree that they need to move Adalind into the castle soon so that the baby is born there. No idea why this is important but it clearly is.  Also, Stefania has Adalind eating mandrake to hold off labor. Isn’t that poison??

Sebastian calls up Renard and tells him all about the happenings in the palace—including Adalind’s impending labor—and Renard starts snapping out orders. Call this person, talk to this person, get Adalind out of there! Fake your own death!

He’s interrupted by Hank and Sgt. Wu coming in to tell him that a student film caught our bad guy on tape—our first genuinely funny moment of the night. The rolled-eyes look Renard gives Hank is priceless as he sees the student film (zombies, ha!) and the muttered ‘seriously?’ is a tiny moment that shows why this show is so good.

Rosalee and Monroe, getting engaged. Courtesy of NBC UNiversal
Rosalee and Monroe, getting engaged.
Courtesy of NBC UNiversal

Don’t Worry, Baby

Monroe finds Rosalee at the Spice Shop and convinces her that she’s more important than his parents, despite her misgivings, and then decides to go have one final conversation with them, basically to say: ‘accept me or this is good-bye.’ While all of this feels a little ‘parent-drama-101’ it is a quiet subplot, beating a counterpoint—an almost-normal-type-of-life-situation–to the other events boiling up around them.

Back at the campfire, a Park Ranger pulls up to investigate crazy-scalper-man’s campsite. It’s deserted just long enough for the Ranger to call in the license plate and figure out he really shouldn’t be out in the woods alone when Scalper-man shows up. And his friend. Who knew he had a friend?? Can’t be good. The two voge and fall on the Ranger in a pride-of-lions sort of way. Not a good night for our Ranger.

The next morning, Monroe and Rosalie wake up to the sun and have a little Monroe-and-Rosalee-for-cutest-couple-ever moment before Monroe calls his mom (after he tells Rosalee ‘no one talks to you that way.’ Awww, Monroe!). Monroe tells his mother he’s coming over to ‘talk.’

At Nick’s and Juliette’s, Juliette stayed up all night being research-girl (does anyone else want Giles to show up and give a master class in how to properly research and hand out information??) and informs Nick about a how in 44 BC the Scythians considered hair to have mystical powers (think Samson and Delilah)—more scalps = more power on battlefield. Which we kind of already knew, didn’t we?

Juliette than lectures Nick on how serious it is that these super-powered Wesen are coming after him, and Nick gets called to the Ranger’s murder scene.

Monroe's parents pretty much had this look the whole episode. Courtesy of NBC UNviersal
Monroe’s parents pretty much had this look the whole episode.
Courtesy of NBC Universal

We Don’t Even Know You Anymore

Monroe gets to his parents hotel room and has it out with them about Rosalee and Nick. It ends with a ‘if you do this, you’re not our son anymore’ and Monroe leaves (a lovely bit of acting here by Silas Weir Mitchell—understated and heartfelt).

In Vienna, Adalind is woken up by Renard calling her to say that he’s sent people to take her someplace safe, as Viktor and Stefania have sent Verrat agents for her. He tells her he thinks the child is his, and that she needs to choose a side. The phone call is interrupted by a knocking at the door—it’s Sebastian and Meisner. The Verrat are also in the building so Sebastian goes to see if he can delay them while Meisner gets Adalind ready.

Sebastian calls Meisner to tell him the Verrat are on their way up, almost instantly there’s a knock on the door (fastest elevator ever).

Meisner takes off his shirt (hello!) and climbs into the bed (because illicit lover of a pregnant woman is preferable to Resistance-leader). The Verrat look ready to get violent and then—and this is where the episode got exciting—the baby killed them. The unborn baby hurled things (a pen…and something else, we weren’t sure what) through the air into their chest (Verrat #1) and eye (Verrat #2) and killed them.

Spooky.

Hank, Nick. Sgt. Wu and Renard find one body...in lots of pieces. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Hank, Nick. Sgt. Wu and Renard find one body…in lots of pieces.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

Into The Woods

In the woods outside of Portland, Nick, Sgt. Wu and Hank find the poor Ranger (in many bits—Grimm is really amping up the blood and gore) and realize there’s now two serial killers. Good times.

In the woods outside of Vienna (sensing a theme??) Sebastian, Meisner and Adalind speed along a highway, where the reveal they all (and Renard) work for the Resistance (which is soooo cool. We can’t decide whether to hum “Do You Hear the People Sing?” or “Vive La Resistance”). Meisner stops the car in the middle of nowhere, and he and Adalind hike into the woods. Clearly these people have never actually read any of the Grimm Fairy Tales.

Juliette stops by the Spice Shop to check in on Rosalee, ostensibly to offer moral support, but she also makes Monroe and Rosalee know about the case Nick is working on (though she does say multiple times that was not why she came…). The whole scalping-people-and-making-cloaks things gets Monroe’s hackles up (sorry, couldn’t resist the turn of phrase) because apparently it’s really serious. More than just people-getting-killed-en-masse-serious.

Monroe rushes out to get Nick, talking about the Caccia Morta, telling Nick to meet him at Monroe’s house—but not to bring Hank. Apparently it’s too dangerous for just normal, non-Wesen/non-Grimm types.

Meisner brings Adalind to a cabin in the middle of the woods (apparently it’s been in Meisner’s family for a long time…WHO IS MEISNER?? He’s rapidly becoming the most interesting thing in the show…and is it just us, or is there a Adalind/Meisner romance vibe happening??).

Stefania being dragged back to the castle.  Courtesy of NBC UNiversal
Stefania being dragged back to the castle.
Courtesy of NBC Universal

Something Rotten in House of Prince Viktor

Back at their hotel, Mama Monroe (Dee Wallace) surprises Papa Monroe (but not really any of us) by refusing to leave with him. She wants to try and understand Monroe, and doesn’t want to lose him.

Viktor drags Stefania to his Royal Plotting Room and blames her for Adalind escaping. She convinces him it was someone close to him who did the betrayal…and then they both stared menacingly into the air for a beat.

Mama Monroe (her name is Alice, apparently) goes to the Spice Shop and tries to befriend (kind of…) Rosalee. She eventually asks Rosalee if she would mind doing a Vertrautheiten (German for intimate, familiar), which apparently means doing a full Voge and sniffing each other…and it must have worked because they were both purring at the end.

Monroe gets home to meet Hank, only it’s Papa Monroe waiting for him on his porch (who’s name, IMDB tells us, is Bart), looking kind of lost and concerned. The two have it out over being friends with a Grimm for a little bit (including random, awkward flashback to the pilot episode—did Nick’s hair really look like that??) before Nick shows up.

Monroe tells Bart what they are up against—the Wildesheer—and Bart reacts by telling Monroe to run.

Because they do things like this.  Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Because they do things like this.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

Time to Weapon Up

Nicks shows up, and he and Bart warily circle each other (literally) until Bart leaves, and then Monroe fills in Nick on the Wildesheer—or the Wild Hunt (including a great little moment where Monroe shows Nick his favorite story from childhood—the one where the Wildesheer tear a Grimm apart). The Wildesheer come on the heels of thunder and wind, as if ‘blown from the gates of Hell,’ and they gain strength from killing great warriors—and Monroe thinks they’re in Portland specifically for Nick.

Which means they use Nick as bait and pick a fight somewhere of their choosing. So, off Nick and Monroe go to the trailer to weapon up, as Bart watches from the woods.

At the trailer, Nick’s books offer a never-tried hypothesis on how to kill the Wildesheer—cut their hair. Monroe and Nick weapon up just as thunder crashes and the wind picks up.

Nick and Monroe go outside—and are attacked by two cloak-of-scalp wearing Wesen who are impervious to weapons of any kind.

It’s almost a draw, but then a third Wildesheer shows up, and it’s all going down hill—until Papa Monroe shows up. Nick is able to cut the bad guys hair while Monroe and Papa Monroe fight with them, which instantly kills the Wildesheer (though it looked like Nick scalped them–lots of blood–to which we say, doesn’t scalping kill everybody?).

Grimm has family counselor. Courtesy of NBC Universal.
Grimm has family counselor.
Courtesy of NBC Universal.

Bad Moon Rising

Papa Monroe begrudgingly accepts Monroe’s friendship with Nick, and then Papa Monroe tells them that the story he heard from his Grandfather: that if the Wildesheers ever came back, something really bad would happen next. Something that would change the world.

Back to Adalind…warm, fed, flirting with Meisner a little. Suddenly gripped in terrible, terrible pain.

“I think it’s coming.” She says, before screaming.

Back to Monroe’s hosue, where Rosalee, Monroe, Mama & Papa Monroe and Nick and Julieette are having a very uncomfortable dinner. Nicks cutting up a ham and serving it. Juliette brings up the wedding (like she didn’t know it was sore point) and everyone Voges—causing Nick to stand up, knife in hand, and declare: “Everybody just calm down.” (The third best moment of the night. Grimm as family counselor….ha).

Best Lines of the Episode:

1.  Renard: “Seriously?”

2. Monroe: Not in that book, they’re supposed to win. (responding to Nick: Is there anything in here on how to kill them?)

3. Monroe: Ogre Gun.

Grimm airs on NBC on Friday nights at 10 p.m. Catch up on recent Grimm episodes on NBC.com or Hulu.

Would do you think, fellow Grimms? What is up with Adalind’s baby? And what is the terrible thing that’s going to happen? And what, exactly, is the Resistance?? What do you think of next week’s trailer (you can watch below)? Comment below and let us know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOdty2mp4uY

 

Grimm’s back, after a week away, with another solid installment. “El Cucuy” (and boy, the Coco has been super popular this year, with a short film, a maze at Universal Studios Hollywood this past Halloween, and now its own episode on Grimm).

Title card from "El Cucuy," Episode five in Grimm's third season.
Title card from “El Cucuy,” Episode five in Grimm’s third season.

Cops and Robbers

Of course, at its heart, Grimm is a cop procedural, so we start with a crime: two masked men rob a grocery store, and for no real reason other than villainy, beat the clerk almost to death. A clever series of interconnecting televisions (all showing the same news broadcast about the robbery) lead us to the clerk’s hospital bed, where his mother sits and prays to El Cucuy, to come and punish the bad men before more mothers cry. A vertigo-inducing moon shot, and then to a motel room, where a leathery, clawed arm rips into the chair as the news reporter continues their story about the robbery.

If you remember, the last episode ended with Juliette finding an email from Nick’s mother (and why doesn’t his email go to his phone?? We mean, he clearly has an iPhone…) is waiting for Nick when he comes home.

Sidenote: We know Juliette is a Vet, but does she ever go to work? She is ALWAYS home and seems to be able to take on time-consuming research projects with no consequences.

Credit for not dragging out the ‘are you cheating on me’ subplot for more than ten minutes (though even that felt a little too long); Nick explains “M” is his mother (with flashbacks to the fight/beheading sequence from a year or so ago) and somehow comes to the conclusion that Mommy dearest is in trouble (though how he jumped straight to that is unclear, all the email said was ‘turmoil,’ but okay).

Nicks comes clean with the ‘Mom’s a Grimm, I’m a Grimm, our kid could be a Grimm” news, and Juliette wants to know if his mom liked her (what?).

Sidenote: We thought the whole ‘my Aunt is Grimm, my ancestors were Grimms, I’m a Grimm’ had already confirmed the being-a-Grimm-is-genetic hypothesis but apparently Nick only figured it out when his Mom showed up. Um. Okay.

In Vienna, Adalind is getting her ultrasound and—uh-oh—there’s two heartbeats. Not twins. Just one baby and…um…something else. The doctor thinks it’s an echo, but we know better, don’t we? Something creepy is keeping baby company.

Renard’s man on the ground takes pictures of Adalind leaving and instructs Henchman #2 to break in and get her files.

Masked man doing bad things at the local convenience store. Courtesy of Grimm/NBC
Masked man doing bad things at the local convenience store.
Courtesy of Grimm/NBC

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Mauled

Back to Portland, where our two Thugs from earlier saunter up to a convenience store, masks on. They rush in and rob the place, with more violence then was strictly necessary. The Thugs run to their car—and the first one is attacked by something with very, very, very sharp claws. Lots of blood. The beast (El Cucuy, we assume) runs the second thug down and kills him in an alley.

Nick and Hank arrive at the crime scene, where the one witness–clearly scared—can’t help them much. Uniforms find the car, and the two discuss whether it could be Wesen or feral dogs as they search it, finding the stolen money just as Wu calls in the convenience store robbery. Our favorite detectives put two and two together and join Wu at the store.

Outside the store they are verbally accosted by David Florez (Manny Montana, Graceland). Sergeant Franco (Robert Blanche) tells Nick and Hank that Florez always shows up at local crime scenes and complains about how badly the police do their job.

After watching the security tapes, they decide to speak to the customers who had left the store right before the robbery, and may have seen the Thugs before and/or after the robbery.

Juliette helping Nick out with the researching. Courtesy of Grimm/NBC
Juliette helping Nick out with the researching.
Courtesy of Grimm/NBC

Juliette is Super-Haxor

Juliette, ensconced at home (in the TINY computer desk in the foyer, because that’s where’d you put a computer in a two-story Craftsmen…) shows computer skills not even hinted at before by managing to trace Momma Grimm’s email to Visnja Gora.

At the precinct, Nick and Hank interview the three witnesses who left the store prior to it being robbed: 1. Large Guy—who saw/heard nothing; 2. Little Old Lady—same and 3. Vest Guy, who points Nick and Hank in the direction of the local neighborhood psychopath, Ray Bolton (Matt McTighe, 24, Bones) who owns dogs (which he also fights on the weekends. So not a nice guy).

Nick heads home (late) to find Juliette (oddly manic, for some reason) who shows her days work of ISP tracking and spouts lots of nerd speak (don’t get us wrong, we love nerd-speak, it was just weird to hear it from Juliette).

The next day, Hank and Nick decide to go talk to Bolton, as he is connected to the two dead thugs (one of whom had testified against Bolton). Bolton gets aggressive and reveals a rat/dragon/dog-like Wesen side. Nick arrests him just as Florez shows up, who loudly cheers the cops on during the arrest.

Over to Monroe’s house, where Monroe is doing pilates (??) with a machine (??) of some sort. The phone rings, and Rosalee answers—its Monroe’s mother. Who clearly doesn’t know that Monroe is living with Rosalee. The two discuss how and when they will tell their parents. Apparently it’s going to be a touchy subject.

Bolton, Hank and Nick just before they take him 'downtown.'
Bolton, Hank and Nick just before they take him ‘downtown.’

Claws and Teeth Do Not El Cucuy Make

Back to the precinct, where Nick and Hank interrogate Bolton, who doesn’t flinch. Not a nice guy, but also (probably) not the attacker. And his dogs are innocent, as well.

They decide to leave Bolton under arrest and try to find out what/who exactly did the crime.

So, the Scooby gang is called and meet at Monroe’s house, where they show the pictures of the victims (gruesome) while drinking red wine and eating Portlandia-type food. Very surreal. Also, this scene has two of the best lines of the night (odd that that happens when Monroe is around!):

Monroe #1: “We’re more of a throat first and ask questions later Wesen.”

Monroe #2: “There’s no signs of going after the legs first to cripple the prey” at Hank’s perturbed look: “Sorry, victim.”

Also, Juliette gets to actually add to the conversation, thank goodness. Hopefully she’ll find something to be besides Nick’s girlfriend this season.

The gang decides Bolton is a Hollentier, a vicious, but not very bright, type of Wesen.

Across town, a young women gets off a bus, followed by two man. One follows her, but to her relief turns away—and that’s when she gets jumped by the other. Unmentionable things are about to happen, when the beast-Wesen shows up, all claw-rific and toothy, and saves the day.

Grimm 3.5.5.
Nick and Hank at the second crime scene, where the victim was rescued by a yellow-eyed monster.

El Cucuy Saves the Day

Nick and Hank show up (as does Florez, much to Hank’s disgust. The victim describes how she was saved by a beast/monster, and describes the beast that saved her; she calls it El Cucuy. Neither Hank nor Nick have heard of it before, but Juliette has. She explains it’s like the Bogeyman and that her grandmother used to use it has a ‘be good or El Cucuy will get you’ type threat.

At a loss as to whether El Cucuy could be a Wesen, Juliette takes Nick to meet Pilar (Bertila Damas, reprising her role from Season 2). Pilar tells a story about how El Cucuy was called to her village when she was a girl, and proceeded to, um, clean up the streets. Lethally. But effectively. El Cucuy was brought to the village by the prayers of the victims of the ‘bad men.’

Pilar describes El Cucuy as yellow-eyed, big teeth, bad breath and can be called by the voices of women who have suffered.

Nick and Juliette retreat to the trailer (by far the best super-secret-research-place on TV at the moment) but don’t find anything on El Cucuy.

Bolton and his thug buddy about to beat up Florez in this week's Grimm. Courtesy of Grimm/NBC.
Bolton and his thug buddy about to beat up Florez in this week’s Grimm.
Courtesy of Grimm/NBC.

Florez Can’t Catch a Break

Not only had Hank ran Florez through the system because he suspects Florez of the murders, but on his way home from getting groceries, Florez gets beat up by Bolton and his gang (who also threaten Florez’ mother).

Hank discovers Florez is an ex-Marine suffering from PTSD, making him a possible suspect. Wu brings in the security footage from the bus, and Little Old Lady from the convenience store is also there. Renard urges Nick and Hank to bring her in again for questioning.

Florez, pushed to breaking, locks himself in his bedroom over the cries of his mother and gets out his (wicked looking) knife and Marine dress uniform (though why he’d where his dress uniform and not his BDU’s for a fight, we don’t know—though the dress uniform certainly has all the shiny medals on it).

Hank and Nick get to Little Old Lady’s apartment (Mrs. Garcia, apparently. Thanks for the name drop, Hank!) and ask her to come down to the station.

Renard gets a video email (do none of these people get email on their phone???) and once he gets to the computer, he sees Adalind—proving she’s the one pregnant with the heir. But whose baby is it?

Nick and Hank, on the way back to the precinct with Mrs. Garcia, get a call from dispatch alerting them to Florez’ plans to rumble with Bolton. Nick and Hank, being close, go to intercept (with Mrs. Garcia).

Florez arrives at Bolton’s house, uniform on and sword/knife drawn (it seemed like it got bigger from his bedroom to the this scene, but hey, we could be wrong). Bolton and his friends are doing something drug-deal/evil-man related when Florez pounds on the front door.

Bolton morphs into his Wesen form and they proceed to brawl. Florez is saved by Nick and Hank showing up; Bolton demands Florez be arrested (and sadly, was in the legal right). Hank tells him to go into his house; he and Nick get Florez into the car and that’s when they notice Mrs. Florez is gone.

Bolton, gloating that the cops have nothing on him, is attacked in his front room by El Cucuy. Hank and Nick get in too late to save Bolton, but just in time to see El Cucuy morph back into Mrs. Garcia.

They bring Mrs. Garcia back to the precinct, and she points out—in a really great scene—that they have nothing on her. Cue third best line of the night:

Renard: Are you kidding me?

Awesome.

With nothing on her, they will have to let her go. Mrs. Garcia, waiting in the interrogation room, hears the prayers of other women, and her eyes glow yellow.

The yellow-eyed monster, El Cucuy.
The yellow-eyed monster, El Cucuy.

Released, Mrs. Garcia walks home when a Thug steals her purse. She laughs, and morphs into El Cucuy.

Whew. All in all, a solid episode. The quality of the guest stars just keeps getting better and the fact that all the main players (except Wu, poor Wu) know the same facts removes a lot of the ‘who do I tell what to?” melodrama that dogged some of last season’s episodes.

We’ll be back with more Grimm next week!

Grimm airs on Fridays at 9 p.m. on NBC. You can watch “El Cucuy” here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQmCwP0vvw