REVIEW - Grimm S02E14

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As of ‘Natural Born Wesen’, it looks like we’re back to the usual Monster of the Week routine; last week we encountered bank robbers that use their wesen appearance to conceal their identity. This reveals to Nick the greater implications of wesen exposure in the Grimmverse. This episode is a little more newbie friendly thanks to some exposition delivered by Hank and Renard, but it’s still better to watch in sequence. We also get to see an episode that involves Juliette without her swooning over Renard and has her questioning her grip on reality.

Grimm is no stranger to claiming that historical events were either orchestrated or caused by wesen. It’s time to add the Witch Trials to that happy little list; in the past, when malevolent wesen were exposed to the populace, it set off a chain reaction that ended in a purge of all discovered wesen. As a result, there’s a code against wesen showing their faces to us mere mortals.

Where was this code in the past 36 episodes?

Most episodes don’t have wesen revealing their faces, but I feel that this deserved a passing mention in at least one (I’m looking at you ‘Big Feet’). This episode also introduces the Wesen Council that exists to deal with wesen that roar and beat their chest too much. It’s through this revelation we get some backstory for Rosalee’s family; her father was a former member and her family has a contact in said council. Though Nick and Juliette are the focus again, Munroe and Rosalee mull over contacting said contact throughout the episode. It’s nice to see our supporting cast get airtime despite all the recent drama.

I like this episode because it explores why a Grimm shouldn’t be a policeman. Lately we are getting more situations where operating as a Grimm might get the job done more quickly and efficiently...but would also push Nick into a more grey area. This episode best illustrates this problem so far. Nick doesn’t seem to struggle with this much, but I get the feeling that this is going to become a recurring theme in the series.

For now, Renard and other forces are just going to keep bailing him out.

I mentioned before the break that I had grown to really like Juliette and wanted to see her make it out of the ‘amnesia arc’ in one piece. At first, I though this episode would undo that; like many a fan, I am frustrated by her inability to accept that maybe Nick isn’t crazy. Keep in mind that we have seen her researching wesen DNA and thrown into the damsel in distress role more than once. The last time I checked, she only lost her memories of Nick, not all the wesen she has encountered.

Then her new subplot began and I felt sorry for her again.

After Nick’s done impersonating a tomato, Renard and Juliette take their potion and the ordeal is done. However, as Rosalee notes after Juliette leaves the spice shop, she doesn’t know what effect it’s going to have on the both of them.

Apparently your entire ground floor becoming a bottomless, whispering pit and your staircase stretching to infinity is a side effect.

The effects aren’t the best in the show, but the idea is still unnerving. It’s made clear that Juliette is hallucinating, but the only reason I can think of her hallucinating this is to represent the blanks in her memory. Otherwise, it’s just Grimm doing its best to inject some more nightmare fuel into the episode. Yay.

Review by Greta Rehak

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