To be fair, Satan is not involved in this episode of Grimm,
nor is a Weseen — it’s just a parasite from Jordan that turns little kids into creatures that
seem exceedingly Satan-like, but it does provide this week’s Grimm with a bit
of balance.
First, lets go with the “sub-plots” of the episode, just for
kicks. Renard goes to Austria and hides and gets attacked and hides some more, while Adalind meets a prince of the royal family, who isn’t revealed because meeting
a royal prince and revealing that prince is obviously just too much for Grimm
to take on in a single episode.
The real meat in the episode is of course a boy who freaks
out during his own exorcism, knocks a seminary student unconscious and kills an
old priest, to his parents’ gloom. Apparently this kid has been
evidencing Satan-like behavior for a while now, and the exorcism was the
parents’ last hope. Nick investigates, and he acknowledges it it could be a
Wesen, but since neither of the kids’ parents seem to be Wesen, it’s all very weird.
The requisite Munroe and Rosalee chats reveals the existence
of the Graussen, who are basically Damians from The Omen that have appeared throughout history, who the royal family
have traditionally murdered throughout history because they end up slaughtering
continents full of people or something. Here’s where it gets interesting:
Apparently, the Graussen is so taboo that Rosalee reports it to the royal
family, who sends an assassin to kill the boy; Munroe, when he learns of
Rosalee’s actions (not to mention the assassin) tells Nick, indicating a fair
amount of cultural tension between the couple (although this is Grimm, so we’ll see how serious this
really gets).
The hospital discharges Damian because they don’t know
what’s wrong with them — because that’s what hospitals usually do — the royal
family’s assassin hides in a closet and waits until someone walks in and
reveals the kids’ location (thanks, Nick!), and it all ends up in a chase scene
in the woods outside Damian’s parents’ home, where Nick beats the assassin and
kids gets so cold that the parasite dies. The kid is fine! The problem was a Satan-like
parasite lurks in the Jordan river. So… non-Satanists should probably cancel
their Jordan vacation plans, I guess.
Rereading what I wrote, this episode seems pretty banal, but
the Renard’s European Vacation weirdly had some weight to it despite very
little of anything happening, and I respect that Grimm is going outside of its Wesen sphere to present Nick with
other mysteries besides fairy tale monsters. It would have been cooler if Satan
were actually a player in these stories, but at least the world is bigger than the
new Wesen Nick arrests each week.
Assorted Musings:
• Juliette does the heavy lifting in regards to the non-Wesen
research this week; again, it’s awesome she’s being helpful, but that gives
less time for Munroe and Rosalee to be helpful, and think we’d all rather watch
Nick and Munroe, right?
• Rosalee seems really unlikable in this episode, which, I
know she’s more or less advocating the murder of a child, but the show doesn’t
even try to capitalize on the goodwill she’s earned so far. She’s just, “Sorry,
it’s the rules.”
• Admittedly I would LOVE it if Rosalee took a heel turn.
• So this parasite only affects kids, I guess? Because Munroe and Rosalee seems pretty adamant that Graussen are kids.
• Having started Grimm
in the middle of the second season, I haven’t gotten to see Nick really own his
Grimm-ness much. When he schools the Royal Family’s assassin, that’s pretty
great.
• David Giuntoli looked shockingly pale during some of
tonight’s scenes. I can’t tell whether this was an intended nod to Nick’s
half-zombie status or just weird production values. If anything, that sums up Grimm for me more than anything else: If
it’s doing something clever, I don’t know if it’s intentional or on accident.
• I’m forming this theory that Wu knows all about Wesen, and
he’s keeping quiet because he patiently waiting for Nick to bring him on Team Grimm. It makes his constant eye-rolling at people after he relates
all those weird “facts of the case” far more enjoyable.
• For all my problem with Grimm, I’m really excited about Krampus next weekend.
