Wow. Who knew how good this show could be when it skipped the standard Wesen-'o-the-week storylines, focused solely on the season's biggest storyarc, and brought all its players together for one purpose? Well, I think we all did, actually.
It's a shame this doesn't happen more often. But that doesn't take away from the fact that "The Law of Sacrifice" was a terrific episode of TV, period.
Adalind and her baby (who is eventually named Diana) are at Renard's, and not only is Renard instantly protective of his child, he and Adalind quickly form a family unit, one dedicated to protecting the baby. When Nick arrives, Renard's completely ready to shoot him in case he or his mother want to spirit Diana away.
But Nick and his mother just want to protect the baby as well, and they don't object to Adalind staying with Renard. Well, at least until Viktor calls his Verrat asset in Portland, an FBI agent named Steward, along with a few Verrat agents to seize the baby at any cost. Of course, there are not one but two Grimms currently at Renard's apartment, so they incapacitate Steward and kill the two Verrat quickly.
The only place left to hide the baby? You guessed it, Munroe and Rosalee's. You know I hate when Grimm repeats information to characters that the audience already knows, but Nick's call to Munroe where he has to explain all the people who are coming over to his house, who slept with who, who murdered who's family members, and everything else, is delightful, mostly because Munroe and Rosalee are wonderfully and appropriately flabbergasted.
This gives Nick, Renard and the others time to think up a plan. After learning from Steward that Viktor is on his way to Portland, they have Steward send the prince a message to meet them at a secluded warehouse. Instead Viktor stops by the precinct and says that if Renard doesn't give him the baby, he'll have him, Adalind and Renard's mother killed. Suddenly at Monroe's house, Nick's mom gets arrested, in front of Adalind, for the murder of Adalind's mom. Shortly, Adalind is brought to the station to answer questions about her mother but is instead confronted by Nick's mom, and while she's distracted, Renard gives Viktor the baby.
It's not hard to guess that there's a method somewhere in this madness, but the episode moves so quickly that it's still kind of unexpected when five masked members of the Resistance drive up to Viktor's plane, hold everybody at gun point, steal the baby, and drive off in Viktor's limo. Of course, these five are really Nick, Nick's mom, Hank, Monroe and Renard, who hope that by blaming the Resistance, Viktor will leave them alone. Just in case, though, Renard sends little Diana off with Nick's mom, who leaves Portland with a used truck and baby with purple eyes.
I'm not how much this plan really makes sense — the Resistance protected Adalind and the baby and brought her to Renard in Portland in the first place, surely Viktor realizes there a connection between Renard and the Resistence, and could keep threatening his cousin to force the Resistance to give the baby back — but it's such an exciting, well-paced episode, who cares?
And now we've got so much to look forward to! Adalind super super-pissed that Renard stole her baby! Adalind might not even know Viktor doesn't have it! Viktor's in town and also likely super-pissed! There's so much potential here now that everyone's together and all caught up — and next week a new, young, hotheaded, hell-raising Grimm comes to town! I don't know if Grimm can keep this momentum up for the rest of the reason, but I'd sure like to watch them try.
Assorted Musings:
• Holy shit, someone remembered the key! Nick's mom and Renard have a little conversation about it at Monroe's house. They don't explain anything about it, of course, but at least people remember it exists.
• If Viktor doesn't stick around in Portland I'm going to be super pissed myself. This show desperately need a bad guy who sticks around and directly interacts with the heroes, and Alexis Denisof is having a ball.
• When Viktor lands at the airport, Hank is surreptitiously taking photos in his car, which is hanging out alone on the tarmac, about 50 feet away. It's kind of hilarious.
• Some pretty good acting by Claire Coffee when it dawns on her that Renard is giving up Diana. I hope someone remembers to tell her that the baby ended up with Nick's mom and not Viktor, though.
• Diana's crazy baby powers: having purple eyes, making things levitate, fucking with Munroe's clocks. She also turns the coffee in Viktor cup into a floating skull, which would be awesomely creepy if the coffee hadn't looked exactly like turds on the way up.