How many times have video games been
associated with death in the media?
I was declaring ‘you have got to be
kidding’ when I saw the preview detailing a ‘you die in the game,
you die in real life’ plot. I have seen this handled very, very
badly before in other media so I braced myself for the worst.
‘Nameless’ was a pleasant surprise.
The focus of the plot is the anonymity
of the killer rather than the game itself. We deal with someone who
has the ability to hide in the shadows yet craves someone to work out
who he is. A parallel is drawn between this killer and the Zodiac
killer because he leaves behind title pages and Sudoku puzzles as
coded messages.
Thankfully, this is Grimm, so
the case doesn’t remain unsolved after over fifty years.
If there is one thing I love about this
episode is that most of the groundwork is done not by Nick, Monroe or
even Hank: the biggest asset to the investigation is (wait for it)
Sargent Wu. Yes, the comic relief whose last bout of plot relevance
was eating the inside of a cushion is the one who does the best
police work.
In the previous review I complained
about the need Grimm has to make all the side characters inferior to
Nick in some way. This episode, thankfully, proves me wrong. Granted,
the usual ‘cram the ongoing side stories into the episode’ stunt
is pulled, but we still get a great plot and an instance where I can
safely say all the side characters were used to some extent.
We even take a moment to develop the victim and (a complaint that I
had last week) the killer. This is not something Grimm has been doing
much of for the past few weeks.
Perhaps I am overenthusiastic after
‘Mister Sandman’ failed to use the concept for anything but
granting Nick a new superpower. Even so, this is the first time in a
while I have rewatched an episode of Grimm not because I have to
review it, but because I want to. It’s cheesy at times and you can
see things coming, but it one of the most interesting twists and
satisfying endings I have seen in this show for a while.
Meanwhile in Juliette land, guess who
decided to wrangle Monroe and Rosalee into a slumber party? Before
this sparks sexy fanart on deviantART, I would like to point out that
I have been enjoying Rosalee and Juliette working together. It makes
me wonder what might have happened in the plot if Bree Turner hadn’t
needed maternity leave; would she have become her confidant much
quicker than she has here or is this all purely because she made the
potion? Anyway, we see an alarming rate of progress in ending the
hallucinations and a revelation that is going to either save or
destroy Nick and Juliette’s relationship.
Sadly the
prominence of the ongoing subplot that doesn’t contribute to the
episode plot does lock out newer viewers (as usual), but I feel you
can enjoy it with minimal knowledge of the series because of how well
the Monster of the Week is executed. If you’re like me and you’ve
been losing faith in the series for one reason or another, see if
this episode. Hopefully it will restore it, but that’s just my
opinion.
Review by Greta Rehak
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