Looks like the writers are once again
dipping their hands into another mythology’s cookie jar in
‘Volcanalis’. Don’t let the opening quote fool you; we’re
dealing with an Ancient Roman god this episode. With Hank gone on
vacation and Wu still locked out of the loop, Nick has to team up
with Captain Renard for this investigation. Meanwhile, Juliette’s
struggles with her memories climax with a car accident, forcing her
to seek a solution, and Adalind makes a deal that the season two
preview spoiled a few months back.
This episode is great—in places.
Given Nick has been able to neatly hide the supernatural elements
under normal crimes up until now, it was surprising to see an enemy
force him to solve the issue as a Grimm instead. Though the tension
from their previous brawl seems to have diminished, Nick is still
reluctant to trust Renard with any information pertaining to his
sources. It is a shame that this isn’t explored more, but it’s
enough to hint at what we might expect in future episodes.
The two subplots, both Juliette and
Adalind’s, were engaging and refused to be crushed under the weight
of the main plot. We see Juliette return to the grandmother from ‘La
Llorona’ (again) and learn of a way to remember without suffering
another ‘Nick Overload’. The cinematography as Juliette relives
her memories (starting in monochrome save her shirt then gradually
turning to colour) is beautiful and helps create one of my favourite
moments in the episode.
Adalind’s sub plot saw our favourite antagonist going back and forth between manipulatee to manipulator. She is taken away from her suite by Frau Pech (first seen in ‘Mr. Sandman’) to speak to the Queen of the Gypsies. This is not only something that Adalind did not plan with Pech, but it also leads to a situation where it’s clear the two women are just using her to rack up power for themselves. It’s only in the final moments of her scene that we stop thinking Adalind’s the one being played.
Where it fails is the lack of focus in
the episode. The cold open alone struggles to stuff all the sub-plots
in before the theme music. Some subplots are forgotten outright (how
is Wu being Nick’s partner for a week any different to him being
Hank’s? What did Nick and Renard wind up telling Wu? What did Nick
and Renard tell the victims’ company?).
Some are devoted so little time that
nothing would have been lost by cutting them. After Nick gets word of
the dead body, he completely forgets about what’s going on with
Juliette and doesn’t mention her accident again. Munroe, despite
trying to cheer him up, doesn’t mention it again either.
Though I feel Adalind’s scenes really
needed to be in this episode, there is already too much going on in
this plot without adding them. The same can be said about Juliette’s
scenes and their relevance to their plot. Ultimately, I feel that
‘Volcanalis’ would have been a much stronger episode either
without these distractions or without…well, Volcanalis. A Roman god
isn’t your average Monster of the Week; it shouldn’t have to
fight an amnesiac and a pregnant woman for attention. The resolution
of this episode is very satisfying, but the focus is far too
scattered for the enormity of each protagonist’s (or antagonist in
Adalind’s case) to be realised. Nick takes down a god. Juliette has
resolved most of her crazy. Adalind is going to get her powers back.
I should be fan
girling right now, but instead I’m horrified at how badly the plot
is stitched together this episode.
Review by Greta Rehak
0 comments:
Post a Comment