Grimm - Review: Tangled Up In Blue
Recap and review of Grimm - Season 2 Episode 19 - Endangered:
A lot has happened on Grimm since I last reviewed it in the fall: Nick (David Giuntoli) and Renard (Sasha Roiz) have formed a very tentative alliance to keep the seven keys out of the hands of the royal families, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) have formed one of the cutest damn couples on TV. Meanwhile, also in the relationship realm, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) has begun to remember Nick, and the life they shared together before Adalind's amnesia spell took effect and obliterated him from her memory. Of course, this doesn't include remembering Nick's confession of his status as a Grimm in its entirety, but only bits and pieces -- actually, mostly just the romantic parts (because awwwww). "Endangered" builds on the momentum season two has amassed, telling a truly engaging "case of the week" that will hopefully introduce the show to a wider audience, as Grimm has remained one of the most routinely compelling genre shows on television.
Credit: NBC
The case this week involves the Glühenvolk, a mythical Wesen race once thought extinct. They have human skin that mimics fish scales in its bioluminescent properties -- thus, to the untrained eye, the creature appears to be an alien of some sort, with its glowing blue skin and small, ovular head. This means that small-scale paranoia inflicts the area when a rash of cattle mutilations strikes local farms. A rancher is killed, perhaps accidentally, by a Glühenvolk who impales him after a brief struggle, following the rancher catching the Wesen mutilating his livestock. A second rancher happens upon the scene, too late to save his friend, but just in time to catch the glowing blue creature as it beats a hasty retreat. As we soon learn, the Glühenvolk in question is a man named Vincent, and his reason for the string of cattle mutilations is his pregnant wife, a fellow Glühenvolk named Jocelyn. It turns out that gestating Glühenvolk females consume cow ovaries during pregnancy as a method of prevention for premature delivery. In effect, the cattle mutilations are simply the byproduct of Vincent going on a food run to satisfy his wife's pregnancy cravings. Nick gets the case, doing preliminary police work with Sgt. Wu (Reggie Lee), finding a piece of Glühenvolk skin stuck to the rancher's barbed wire fence, before joining up with Rosalee and Monroe to launch a full-scale investigation into the mutilations.
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As Rosalee and Monroe explain to Nick, Glühenvolk have a reputation within the Wesen community similar to that of leprechauns in human society, as it's said to be good luck to see one. However, the likelihood of this is rare, since Glühenvolk are rumored to have been hunted to extinction for their luminescent skin, which fetches a hefty sum by collectors on the black market. By study the direction of the 27 attacks on the map, Nick and the others are able to surmise that the couple is headed north. Thus begins the race to find the couple, as Rosalee believes that, given the number of attacks, the Glühenvolk female could give birth at any moment. However, there are other complications. Nick, Rosalee and Monroe discover that a UFOlogist who attempted to wiggle his way into the investigation isn't a UFOlogist at all. He's a Raub-Kondors hired to capture and kill the Glühenvolk for their valuable skin. The Raub-Kondors are among the most feared hunters in the Wesen mythology, and this particular bounty hunter is eerily persistent in his tracking attempts. And so the race is on, with Nick and co. on one side, and this sinister Raub-Kondors on the other.
Credit: NBC
It's a terrifically lean case, in narrative terms. It never gets more complicated than having to track down the Glühenvolk before it's too late, and the case itself relies less on the supernatural powers of our heroes than it does on good, old fashioned detective work. This makes the plot feel intensely focused, particularly once Nick and the gang catch up to the Glühenvolk, and rush to the aid of Jocelyn, who is in labor while Vincent is out finding her more cow ovaries. Vincent has been tracked back to the cabin by the Raub-Kondors, and though Vincent gets to the cabin just in time to see his glowing blue daughter born, he inadvertently directs the Raub-Kondors right to them. What I loved about the scene that resulted was the pure, unambiguous goodness of Nick, Monroe and Rosalee. In a TV age where dramas thrive on antiheroes, it's heartening (and even a little exhilarating) to see people instinctively stand up for good, on the principle that it's the right thing to do. When the Raub-Kondors trains the gun on the baby, and talks about the price that the child's skin will fetch him, Monroe stands between the gun and the baby and woges into his blutbad form, daring the Raub-Kondors to try his luck. Rosalee does the same, challenging the bounty hunter to see what price a Fuchsbau would fetch him. "Or how about a Grimm?" Nick adds. And like that, it's on.
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Monroe tackles the Raub-Kondors, leading to a brief struggle in which Monroe is subdued. But before the Raub-Kondors can be finished off, Nick shoots the Wesen with his own gun, rendering him incapacitated. The Glühenvolk are safe and can finally go and join the remaining members of their species, who are gathered in Alaska. As much as I enjoyed the storyline, I was kind of thrown by the conclusion, as Nick more or less lets a killer get away: Vincent is never brought to justice for killing the ranch hand, simply because he was doing it to preserve his species. I'm not entirely sure that flies, for me. But if we look at it from a thematic perspective, this decision reinforces how Nick has more gradually put his status as a Grimm before his role as a cop. He's every bit as interested in justice; he's just not as interested in the letter of the law. He understands that there are certain allowances when extenuating circumstances are involved, to where justice is better served by compromise. In this case, the compromise is leaving behind the body of the Raub-Kondors for the cops to find, in the truck the Glühenvolk initially stole. The cops believe the creature to be the "alien" that was spotted, thus wrapping up the case. Though the Raub-Kondors didn't kill the rancher, it wasn't as if Nick had framed an innocent man. Thus, justice is served, though not necessarily in accordance to the letter of the law. It's this moral gray area that offsets the purely heroic moments Nick has from week-to-week, making him a more interesting character as a result.
Credit: NBC
As for the other big developments this week, Juliette visits Monroe to question him about her memories of Nick. In this instance, she has memories of a Christmas party in which she and Nick were photographed kissing under the mistletoe. She recalls the conversation just before the photograph was taken. And it was a pretty big conversation, as it was the first time Juliette and Nick declared their love for one another. The romantic memories seem to have the side effect of helping her along in remembering other things about Nick, particularly something called a "Grimm," which Nick revealed himself to be that night in Aunt Marie's trailer. Monroe is hesitant to tell Juliette the whole story, simply saying that a Grimm is someone who can see things that are hidden to others -- a Grimm can see the "true heart of darkness."
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However, it's apparent from his body language and his vagueness that Monroe would rather she talk to Nick about this. He advises her to Nick how she feels about him, since her returning feelings are being undermined by the fear that Nick doesn't love her anymore, which Monroe assures her isn't the case. But he doesn't reveal any more about the nature of Grimms than is absolutely necessary, and this is the rare occasion where a character withholding information is actually logical, as Monroe wouldn't want to encroach on his buddy's territory. Monroe senses that it's not his place to talk to her about this, and that this is a discussion she should really be having with Nick. It's an understated performance from Silas Weir Mitchell, but it works wonderfully because so much of it is in his body language.
We also get incremental plot movement on Nick's key, which Renard reveals is one of seven keys that unlock the location of a hidden payload somewhere that Nick's seven Grimm ancestors, warriors in the crusades, vowed to keep out of the hands of the royal families. The families have four of the seven keys, thanks to one of the crusaders betraying the other seven, while Nick has the fifth, leaving two keys unaccounted for. Thus, the former enemies have to work together to discover whatever it is the keys are concealing, and keep it out of the hands of Renard's family, with whom he isn't exactly on the best of terms given that they've tried to kill him on numerous occasions and haven't exactly been subtle about wishing he'd never been born. The episode didn't go too deeply into the mythology, and this was a strong decision, as the episode had plenty going on without the overarching mythos being brought to the fore. We have three more episodes this season to really dig into the mythology and how it affects each character's trajectory.
Credit: NBC
"Endangered" was pretty much the perfect episode to kick off Grimm's Tuesday run -- not too complicated and mired in mythology for new viewers to enjoy, nor too standard for hardcore fans to sink their teeth into. This show has really evolved into one of TV's better procedurals, and one of its best genre shows, full-stop.
