This week on Grimm, Nick picks the
worst possible time to start an affair with a wesen. He spends the
majority of ‘Kiss of the Muse’ obsessed over a musai while the
rest of the cast work to both arrest another one of her victims and
find a cure for him. Meanwhile Juliette has obtained all her missing
memories and wants to reconcile with Nick.
Nick’s gradual descent into
obsession, while not subtle, is effective. From the moment that she
kissed his hand it was obvious something was going to go down, but it
is not cemented until he goes to her house instead of dinner with
Juliette. The more time he spends with her the worse he gets and it
starts to show after his second and third visits. Bravo, David
Guintoli. Bravo, Sean Calder.
Speaking of performance and writing, it
was great to see Munroe, Hank, Rosalee and (yes, even) Renard working
together while Nick was under the influence. Hank and Renard do the
policing while Munroe and Rosalee do their usual research in both the
trailer and the spice shop. The supporting cast are usually
downplayed in importance when it comes to each case so it was nice to
see them taking over investigation this episode. I believe it was
‘Mr. Sandman’ that first had this opportunity to play with this
idea but it’s this episode that does something with it.
This is also one of the few episodes so
far where there is no cure or counterspell for a wesen’s ability
provided by either of the cast’s main resources. Munroe and Rosalee
had to improvise a solution using their own deductive abilities.
Again, I love seeing the showrunners try something different.
As mentioned above this is the episode
where Juliette remembers everything and tries to apologise to Nick
for how she alienated him. For someone who has been watching this
whole time it’s both cathartic and heartbreaking. In any other
episode Nick might have loved to hear those words coming out of her
mouth. In ‘Kiss of the Muse’, however, he’s too busy thinking
about sparkly blue wesen ladies to care.
While I was applauding the writing this
episode just a few paragraphs before, there’s two things that
really bother me; first and foremost, I have a problem with
Juliette’s memory of the talk she and Nick had in the trailer. It
is a complete reversal of her original reaction for no other reason
than ‘having time to gradually process what happened’. Just a few
months ago I would have been screaming ‘why is this so hard to
believe’, but the change in attitude here was too jarring. Nick
needed her this episode, but that could have been achieved by her
having a five second freakout, calming down and then coming to
conclusion she did in that scene.
The other issue I had was the musai and
the ending of her arc—to put it bluntly we are given no motivation
for her actions other than ‘I’m a musai, it’s what we do’.
This is lazy writing. While it’s implied she enjoys seeing men
fight over her, I have no idea if this is a species trait or just her
abusing her powers. Her interrogation scene, which would have been
great to establish any kind of backstory, gives her no depth. The
idea of her is great and the conflict she creates makes this episode
one I won’t soon be forgetting but I’m in no rush to see her
again.
In conclusion
this episode is great save a few jarring moments and a bland villain.
With Juliette in the loop I imagine the team dynamic will be shifting
next week. Whether or not it’s for the better is yet to be seen.
Review by Greta Rehak
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