Grimm - Season 2 Episode 8 - The Other One - Recap and Review
Grimm’s new episode “The Other Side” is essentially a reenactment of last week’s storyline, but thankfully, a richer portrait of Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) and Juliette’s (Bitsie Tulloch) emergent sexual tension kept me glued to the screen.
Check out my recap and review below:
The subject of “The Other Side” revolves around a boy named Pierce, who stands out as the kid who I’m sure we all know too well - the “I know it all” student. With the goal to win a national quiz tournament and get accepted by an Ivy League, it is not surprising that his mother is a ‘helicopter parent’ who checks all the criteria of wanting their son to be perfect, still setting curfews, and enjoys the power to control. His competitors casually mock him for his prudishness but Pierce doesn’t seem to mind as he’s convinced he’s got the win in his bag but by the end of the day, he doesn’t seem too sure. As they head back home in their separate ways, one of Pierce’s peers, Brandon is ambushed and killed by a lion-esque Wesen.
During an award ceremony honoring the police force’s work triumphs, Captain Renard gets another chance to speak to Juliette. It appears that he is trying a lot harder to strike up a conversation with her, but he notices that Juliette is still hesitant to continue with a reasonable conversation. Renard goes to offer to drive Juliette home and as she reluctantly accepts. Having a strong visual memory of kissing Renard and yet not knowing why and when, one can presume that many questions are undoubtedly running through her head such as “Did I cheat? Did he abuse me? Is Nick not the one?”. This poses the intriguing question of - just how much does a comatose individual really feel and sense? Meanwhile, judging by Renard’s smoldering expressions, he is going through the same internal conflicts, as he’s starting to become increasingly attached with Juliette.
Once Juliette is home, she makes it clear that she’s extremely relieved to finally get away from Renard. Whilst she is taking a shower, Renard finds a way to sneak in and perv. (On second thought, maybe Juliette just saw right through his flirtatious tendencies that led to her her keeping a distance. I’ve got to tell you, you would think that living with a police officer would encourage Juliette to lock her door a little more properly.) Renard loses control of his lucidity as his mind begins to run on pure hormonal impulses. Appearing as though something completely different is controlling his mind, it is apparent now that the potion Adelind’s mother is doing to him seems to be taking stronger side effects. He becomes violent, and breaks Juliette’s photo with Nick. As he escapes, he crashes a car in the middle of the road, and starts mutating as a nearby witness questions him. Renard doesn’t seem to be his usual self at work the next day, and it is apparent something’s really troubling him.
Back at Brandon’s crime scene, Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) discover his cell phone that lead them to questioning the group of students, as they try and find out if he had any reason to be killed or any conflicts. The principal of the school, who turns out to be a gorilla Wesen arrives and threatens Hank and Nick to capture the culprit as soon as possible, expressing a great, possibly concerning, attachment to the kids. Still, he doesn’t quite match the attachment that Pierce’s mother demonstrates down the line. Whilst all the other students continue the next few days grieving for Brandon, Pierce has resumed back to his academic life in full force, studying and practicing for the competition, under the supervision of his mother. Jenny reaches out to Pierce in hopes to ease her loss of motivation and asks to meet up. Pierce makes sure his mother doesn’t know and unwillingly sneaks out to meet her. As Jenny arrives at the bleachers, she becomes the next victim.
Renard recognizes his unusual behavior and decides to seek help from the spice shop. Without revealing his identity, he asks Monroe (Silas Weir) to find an antidote for obsessive behavior, explaining that these feelings developed from the moment he kissed a certain girl. As Monroe attempts to gain more details to establish a proper diagnosis, Renard’s face appears to ring a bell. Monroe asks for his name, but Renard quickly leaves to escape any more time for Monroe to identify him.
Pierce becomes the main suspect as Jenny is discovered wearing a watch that belongs to him. As Nick employs more aggressive ways to encourage Pierce to confess, his mother comes to the rescue, ultimately revealing that they are both porpoise-like Wesen. Pierce’s sanity is quickly and as he tries to sleep his troubles away, he spills hot chocolate on his sheets. Heading to the washing machine, he discovers to his dismay that the washing machine is full of blood but his mother, (once again, on the tail of his every step), tries to distract him from it.
She receives a call from the principal who notifies her of his decision to withdraw the school from the competition due to the tragedies, but the mother refuses to hear it. Nick and Hank begin to feel certain that the series of events is a case of someone getting rid of competition for Pierce, but despite not really getting answers from Pierce, have ruled him out of the picture already. Accordingly, they first approach is to Coach Anchor but discover that they are too as they find that he’s already been killed.
Shaken by his discoveries, Pierce tries to reach out to the police and accuses his mother of the crimes, but his mother desperately tries to console him and substantiate the killings with love. At this point, it seems apparent that the mother committed the crimes to help Pierce, but Grimm pulls out the same twist as last week’s episode; once he tries to retrieve the evidence, he finds that the bloody clothes are his own. Pierce is actually the killer, who is in fact subconsciously living the lives of two Wesen, a turtle and a lion. His shock enrages the beast in him and he attacks her mother. Nick appears just on time to combat Pierce, but unable to seeing Pierce’s true colors, Hank stops the fight. The mother confesses that Pierce is genetically modified and that up till now, Pierce still has no idea of his double identity. Interesting! Not so much the genetic modification, but I’m excited about the possibility of Wesen crossbreed characters in the future!
Pierce comes to the point of being on the edge of killing himself, literally, and when Nick arrives to mediate, the lion inside him, apparently claiming to be his protective “spirit” claims that his actions were only meant to help him. Fighting between his two extremely contrasting personalities, he decides to jump to end all but Nick dives over the ledge to rescue him, an act that frankly does no benefit as Pierce continues his killing rampage in prison.
Renard returns to retrieve the medicine only to be cautioned by Monroe, as his concoction may not be effective as it was created without enough information. Monroe warns him that if he doesn’t treat it, it will cause him to downward spiral into dysfunction. With that said… Renard’s disquieting inner dialogues linger on…
Meanwhile, back in Austria, Adeline meets up with Renard’s brother. Together, they converse about their similar experiences, motivations, and dreams, eventually initiating some plan of vengeance to get back at Renard's unfaithfulness towards his ancestor's plans and Nick's increasing record of kills.
This, to me was one of the more triumphant episodes in a while! Whilst it was apparent Grimm producers recycled the same storyline as last week, (utilising similar procedures of introducing contrasting characters with a strained relationship, leading you to believe the parent is responsible, but turning it around and revealing that the child was the true culprit), I was able to forget about that, because Captain Renard is finally showing his insecurities to the surface, rather than consistently trying to play it cool. As a big bloke with a rather intimidating face, his vulnerability and insecurity is definitely a refreshing new 'look', both physically and in context of the narrative. Adeline is another character I feel Grimm needs, as I feel she is one of those actresses who's skills should list "pokerface". The script for her is particularly compelling and stimulating, and I like the pace that she takes to unveil her plans. I know I keep saying this over and over again, it's all about 'strategy' for me. She doesn't operate in an "action and reaction" fashion, and she brings a great element of much needed complexity to a show that can be be too conformist to conventional crime narratives, thus predictable in its presentation of events. What do you all think of this episode? Excited about Renard's potential storyline?