I waited impatiently for the Grimm panel since last Thursday and as of yesterday at 5 pm, I finally had the pleasure of seeing that beautiful post-pregnancy glow on Claire Coffee (Adalind), the adorable nuttiness all over Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe) and even Russell Hornsby had a strange giddy swagger about him. (Hornsby and wife Denise Walker just had a little boy, Walker, two weeks ago.) Although the panel I saw was edited, I couldn't help that the questions asked by both the moderator and the audience were a bit on the lukewarm side. It almost made me nervous about where the show is going considering my own fearful opinions. Sure, the questions asked were cute and expected with the giddiness of the impending Loch Ness Monster storyline, the lack of Juliette and Kelly, and of course the "Spoilers" teasing game of it all. In other words, the off season responses a fan would expect.

The truth is, with the ever growing phenomenon of Comic Con and the genre of fantasy/sci fi becoming very prominent in acting content, Grimm and the Grimm world should have every right to be lovingly nit picked. Who better to lovingly nitpick than me with my last two opinion pieces about the show? We all expect the cute young kids and young adults to ask about characters and make up logistics about Grimm or how magical and immersive SWM is as an actor and that's fine, but these are the questions I would have asked (in an imaginary world where I have the ability of confidence-ing)...

"I would like to ask a question considering the friendship of Nick and Monroe. In season 1 and 2 there was this fairly solid sense of masculine closeness, but now that there is basically this Grimm army, when, how, and will you [creators David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf, director/producer Norberto Barba] come back to that focus between the two characters?"

"Are there any early editing choices you [Greenwalt/Kouf/Barba] made to the show that you regret now? And if there are, would you want to rework them back into the show somehow?"

"Where do you [Greenwalt/Kouf/Barba/Coffee/Turner] think Grimm stands on the Bechdel scale? Do you think changing Juliette into a hexenbiest and the whole "hexenbitch" phenomena made where you are on the scale better or worse?"

View image | gettyimages.com

"To Silas, I was wondering if in all of your magical Germanic-ness if you have more ideas of what you would want to bring to the show in terms of content and if they had not made it into Season 5, would you care to divulge future possibilities?"

"To Bree and Claire, as women where do you think Grimm ranks in terms of feminism both within the show and even in the broader genre of fantasy/sci fi? Do you think it could be better and how, either in terms of the writing or characters in general?

"David [Giuntoli], I thought you portrayed the duality between Grimm and cop brilliantly in the last few seasons just in terms of that pressure cooking acting. Now that it is no secret (and this also goes to the producers), what other aspects of the character will be his internal war now outside of all of the loss and bitterness or will that be the only highlights of who Nick is as a character? Where does his darkness go from here? Will things get psychologically worse before it gets better, if at all?"

"Not to throw out episode ideas which I'm sure you [Kouf/Greenwalt/Barba] hear plenty of, but what do you think about a first-Wesen account (as it were) of experiencing the Grimm-ness in Nick's eyes? Or do you think it's frightening alone just from hearing it from other characters or even just to divulge the unseen just once? 

View image | gettyimages.com

"Claire, now that Adalind is insistent on being a better mother to Baby-Grimm now that Diana is gone, do you think she will lose her autonomy as a woman losing herself into the role of a mother? Now that Adalind has been weakened throughout the show in more ways than one, do you think she will jump back into some aspect of her old self at some point? What would you like to see paralleled or differentiated from her experiences as a daughter to an emotionally abusive mother to her own role as a mother? Do you think she can or will rise above her [mother-daughter issue] genetics?"

View image | gettyimages.com

"Sasha [Roiz], producers, speculate with me. I know that you said that the royal storyline will be put aside for a bit, but now that the King is dead, do you think Mia Gaudot will be back to make a power play? Will we also see just a tiny ounce of Sean's backstory, just a teeny bit?"

"Russell [Hornsby], you seriously crushed it in that tent scene during the "Mishipeshu" episode, is there more impending scenery chewing to expect from you in the next season? What would you like to have happen to Hank outside of being a friend/extension of Nick?"

BONUS! My new favorite person and one of the many in the current running to be my spirit animal, Yael Tygiel interviewed cast and crew for my favorite podcast, Afterbuzz TV. Check out this magic-ness. (Click on the playlist button for the others)

Last time I caught up with the voguegasm universe (which I know this blog title could be so much better), I bemoaned the episodic formula, Nick and Monroe's bromance, but especially Nick himself. But something happened in the middle of season 4. What was it exactly? Trubel? I don't want to think so. The writers? Not to throw them under the bus, but maybe. Burning the trailer? Kelly "dying?" Probably a big fat yes to both of those. But it seems I can't shake this feeling off as if they're starting to rewrite the show. 

Nick and/or His Grimm Army

Once upon a time, an average yet intuitive cop realized he was victim to his genetics of being a paranormal profiler seeing into a half mythical half realistic Wesen world. Like the world of humans, the Wesen species has their good ones and bad ones. But with this came a greater world and a sense of loyalty where being a cop began and ended. With his Aunt's trailer full of Grimm artifacts and making an accidental friend out of a blutbad ("big bad wolf") and a fuchsbau (fox), he begins to attain all the Wesen knowledge available. He makes a mortal enemy out of a hexenbiest (witch) and his relationship with his boss gets compromising to say the least. But mysteries still remained between the Royals and an ancient myth that involves the crusades and 7 keys.

There's nothing wrong with making a one person narrative into an ensemble as long as the focus on your main character never wavers. Maybe therein has laid the problem for the Grimm writers. How can you develop dimensional characters when you only have 40 minutes and known to be the pit stop hour where commercials come to die? For season 4, the issue has been the following. What can we stretch and what do we have to put a roadblock on?  [More on this question later]

In Season 4, Wu joins "the Scooby gang," as it were, in a fantastic realistic way and by the season finale, he leaves the badge at home truly earning his Scooby stripes. Hank deals with a Native American Mishipeshu spirit in one of the better episodes of this season. Even Adalind didn't make me cringe so much as the show incorporated her real life pregnancy, which tied into her own Mommy issues. I love how these characters have been stretched a little further. But the focus occasionally hiccups for Nick, who did lose his Grimm-yness and had five episodes to really decide what he wanted in making this fantastical thing surprisingly realistic. Luckily and conveniently, it was back in full force for #savemonroe aka. the two most stressful episodes of my life! 

After Christmas break and the panic attacks that involved the Wesenrein, it was all Nick being a cop in the Wesen world which was a nice change of pace but without Trubel. Through the assorted cases, bringing back ex-Lieutenant Peter Orson to a natural MPD-suffering Wesen called the Huntha Lami Muuaji and may I repeat the Mishipeshu, Nick's psychology isn't so much a character after getting his powers back. Up until now there had always been a sense of internal struggle with Nick and we are to assume while he's off being a Grimm-Cop it shows how blindsided he is once Juliette comes clean about what Renard's mother or the process of re-Grimm-ing him did to her. But without that tension, whether it comes from the cases or the Portland mist or Nick's psychology, it all just becomes camp! I understand that delving into slight "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" nods from Greenwalt's past life can be fun, but it doesn't have to be a moment to moment basis. 

But let me back up since I kind of hit and ran on something back there. Let's go through the emotional teeter-totters of Nick's psychology in the past 3 seasons. Season 1 was the discovery and the slow evolution of balance between being a Grimm and a cop. Season 2 was how much of it would consume Nick and his home life as well as the balance of who he can trust with this knowledge. Season 3 was Nick's realization with amplified Grimm senses that he can be dangerous without a badge as well as the balance with the amplified senses. Where's the question of balance in season 4 exactly or are there more interesting questions to ask? Maybe instead of balance, Nick begins to unconsciously realize the dualities of everything: intentionally being dangerous leaving the badge at home, having to sleep with a shadow of his enemy in order to get his powers back, who Juliette is to him with or without the Hexenbiest powers, who Adalind is to him now that she's having his child?

But is duality an impossible abstraction to put into a TV show when it has been about disciplined balance? Or is that the risk the writers are taking right now in taking a chance on doing something different? But with doing something different also risks the show as a whole e.g. Glee. But at the same time, if Nick's psychology isn't so much a character, but instead duality, there is a sense that after those five episodes of just being resourceful that things have become dire as if there is no teeter totter anymore, it's simply polar opposites. In that case, then the show should feel a little off as both Kelly and Juliette's possible "deaths" will take Nick to that place I mentioned in my last post: should we feel sorry for that genetic rabbit hole of a Grimm or celebrate it because this is the old school Grimm that he could possibly come back from in season 6?

The Female State of Grimm

Where Nick and Monroe's relationship has been deflated by the lack of focus, it's been no secret that the gender equality or really just the role of women has strengthened. Obviously Juliette as a character has grown over the last 3 seasons either as a fault of the shallow writing, she has been given or what her character has gone through to bring her to this point. Between the coma and the shock of learning about the Wesen world (which she had been a great help with considering "Stories We Tell Our Young" and "El Cucuy"), Juliette  was made fully comfortable in her character until Elizabeth found a way to give Nick his powers back. Unfortunately, it backfired on Juliette as we all know making her into a hexenbiest.

This is one part of the huge mess of what people have called "hexenbitch" that has been rather poetic. What would happen if someone was created Wesen instead of being born with it, what would be the differences? What would be the struggle? Balance? Duality? Perhaps it is because Juliette has never been a consistent character to begin with, it works as long as they keep it tight and disciplined in about 2 or 3 episodes. But, like The Grimm Podcast has said, this (and the Renard/Jack the Ripper storyline) could have been nailed in 3 episodes or less! Once again, it's all about those editing choices! Instead, it was stretched out to sixteen episodes right up to the possible "mercy killing."

Juliette only continued down this spiral of what it means to be Wesen and the balance of it throughout the rest of the season, it shifted from beating a dead nuckelavee (yep, went there...) into these really interesting moments. In the season finale, you can see her struggling between her human and Wesen side much like how Renard's mind was not completely his own. But she continues to do the evil thing because she does not know any better!

The issue I have ties Adalind into all of this from the moment Juliette tells Nick that she "will kill her." Since the start of the show, Grimm has kind of been a boy's club but with some sensitivity thanks to the guy love Monroe-style. Juliette was treated as something Nick struggled to keep separate from his Grimm and work life, someone who could see into the private places of himself, including the loss of Marie and the type of person he is having lost his parent(s) at an early age. Only through Adalind's continuing antagonism on Nick then Juliette, Juliette begins to hate her almost as much as Nick does.

But it's the relationship between Nick and Juliette that has always concerned me. Because she was always the home life that was to never get in the way of Nick's profession, Juliette was never even given any characterizing agency until she is turned into a Hexenbiest. Sure, before the transformation she had her moments of extreme passion defending her fuchsbau best friend when the abusive boyfriend broke into the house, learning how to use a gun and fighting off the Siegbarste with nothing but boiling water! But it's through her passionate nature that also destroys her through internalizing the damaged person who Nick naturally is.

Regardless, it's a woman internalizing a man and with Adalind destroying that man and by extension Juliette, it's understandable why the Burkhardt unit would collectively hate her. But it's the first glance of it that has always made me queasy and one of the oldest soap opera rules known to mankind. The blond-haired woman is the good girl and the antagonist is either a redhead or a brunette fighting over a man. Grimm somehow managed to invert that to their advantage. With all the emotional ammunition, yes, it's more than fair that Juliette on the Wesen flip side would be amplified for her hate, but it all is still rooted in the empathy she once had for Nick which also made her Adalind's target. The amplified anger would be triply dangerous and now it's all for Juliette herself. Somehow we are to believe that is who Juliette is but for a character who was never given a set of attributes what are we supposed to believe of Tulloch's character exactly?

Where Juliette has become the antagonist, Adalind has fully settled into her role as the mother of (eventually) two children. I liked what they did to Adalind in the fourth season because of her stance as an antagonist and paying for it through the loss of her child. Whereas the last section of this post was about balance, it seems for the women their characterizing points are opposites. What was once the protagonist is now the antagonist and the antagonist's empathy would cure Juliette. What was once Adalind's biggest fear of having children and being a mother is now what she wants and realizing how ferocious she can be if she can't have them. After the scene she talked to her mother's grave in "You Don't Know Jack," however humorous, I got a sense that as someone of emotional abuse, it came full circle. There is something implied here that Adalind would struggle to be a good mother where Catherine just wasn't.

And here is where we are 4 years later. It's still a boys-club on some level (considering the uh-may-zing "army" scene, invading the Royal compound with all the guys and Trubel) with the women having more of a presence. Excluding Rosalee and Trubel, Juliette and Adalind wear their painfully archetypal attributes as two unfortunate extensions of Nick much like a madonna (Adalind) and whore (Juliette, only in a sense that she is independent and destructive). But perhaps that's rather a boys-club thing to say...

Dear Grimm Writers...

There is no nicer way to say this, but, you're getting sloppy. Other than the poor focus on Nick which would have been remedied by a PTSD like arc of reviving (super-)Grimm powers, there are a few other non-Nick-centric things I would like to discuss. But before I do, let me praise you first. I love how you brought Wu into all of this as well as the compound invasion which was probably the best thing I've seen this season next to the Wesenrein situation. I love the Mishupeshu (obviously), Monroe's speech at the camp after all that happened to him and the satisfying, although campy as hell Hexenbiest fight between Juliette and Adalind. I really enjoyed all the cases you brought to the table this season, but honestly, I can't make a favorite episodes blog post for a number of reasons! 

As great as the cases have been, the B and the occasional C storylines could have been better, whether through just grabbing that red pencil and about five thousand read-throughs focusing on details alone. In "You Don't Know Jack," the sloppiness was the most apparent. Cops (both human and Grimm alike) who aren't versed in the legend of Jack the Ripper, really? If someone said something right away like a cop walking by the trio, "Gosh, this reminds me of Jack the Ripper" would have triggered something in their minds that the deceased room mate's life could have been next and to get her into protective custody! I really don't mind my worlds crossing being an avid "Ripper Street" fan, but another Jack element also bothered me just as much as the former. In "Double Date" Renard enlists Monrosalee to help find out what's wrong with him but they never follow through. How can you develop dimensional characters when you only have 40 minutes and known to be the pit stop hour where commercials come to die?

Another detail that really bothered me was when you decided to burn the trailer (which I understand for plot device reasons and even on an unconscious level, it does work but for the next week I actually thought of quitting you). From season 1, we are to believe of Nick's character that although very intuitive about people, he is also incredibly jaded from his family. First Aunt Marie dies, then he finds out his mother is alive, then the trailer burns up. Even if it was an extended scene, it would have been nice for Nick's reaction to literally be in tears as if he's losing Marie all over again. If we are to continue to play this back and forth of Nick's psychology between being Grimm and human then where was this emotional battle or are we so masked by the "Hexenbitch" arc we can't even have that moment? 

I understand how badly the season wanted to physically pit Juliette against Adalind now having Hexenbiest powers, but as much as you made the rules of what constitutes a woge, you are slipping, I really felt throughout this whole sequence staying in woge was a little needless. A person can only stay in anger or absolute fright for so long, you even wrote season 3's "The Show Must Go On" over this theory! I just felt that Juliette and Adalind's woges were really just a device to mask the stunt people which I find very poor direction. I'm sorry, I just do!

In the past two sections I have mentioned what deserves to be expanded on and when you need to use that red pencil. It's like what I said in the first post: "How can you develop [...] when you only have 40 minutes and known to be the pit stop hour where commercials come to die?" Well, for one, you can cut down a C storyline like how you did with Adalind in season 3, you just have to be strategic! Secondly, you need one of the creators there in the writer's room, making executive decisions based on details and consistency from season to season! Thirdly, I more than understand that you want to experiment and test the limits of Nick, he's the central character of the show, but if killing aspects of what made him or rather, the show so atmospheric at the expense of camp or the occasional preachiness, I think we have a problem. Oh, and let Brenna Kouf at the helm more often! "Double Date" was really disturbing in a realistic MPD kind of way and "Chupacabra" was definitely something out of season 1 which is a standard to live up to that you're, I'm sorry to say, forgetting about! Like the 7 keys situation or the resistance!

And that promised, although bullet-infested, shirtless rage. You're welcome!

I know. It's been almost a month and a half since I have advertised a few of my (new) favorite things, but you know, life. In the lieu of life and wondering if anyone is actually reading this blog or this post, leave a shout out in the comments and make a girl feel good. Please? But since it has been a month and a half, there has been plenty things cooking in my Vspot folder...

Five of the Best Words in the English dictionary: Emmy the Great, New Album

Our favorite anti-folkster has moved to the West Coast from England and adopted a new sound, this we already knew from her "Swimming Pool" single from last year. Now there are three more songs attached to this new EP entitled "S" and they all are made of ambient, sensitive, honest, and electropoppy goodness.  Even in the first few seconds of "Somerset (I Can't Get Over)" you feel that "oof" factor in the "tell me something that's real like please don't get over me." But that's what Emmy has done even in her previous incarnation of Regina Spektor's lyrical cousin with her cleverness. Case in point in the same song, "F. Scott Fitzergald, Tennessee Williams/Come on let's talk about something different..." I always find it fascinating that an album or an EP comes out around a life experience of hers and that's why I love her so much. Now Taylor Swift on the other hand....(j/k)

NEW TRAILER for 

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Ten of the Most Orgasmic Words in the English Language:

Josh Groban, Three New Videos and a New Album Coming

Josh Groban will be putting a new album into the world that sounds much more promising than "All That Echoes" (sorry!) IN TWO WEEKS! While it will be nothing original like "Illuminations," which I will forgive because my Joshy has been very busy for the last few years, he will tackle the Broadway standard. Already it's been reported that standards such as "Pure Imagination" (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), "What I Did for Love" (A Chorus Line), "Bring Him Home" (Les Miserables) "You'll Never Walk Alone" (Carousel), "Finishing the Hat" (Sunday in the Park with George), "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (The Wizard of Oz), "Try to Remember" (The Fantasticks), "Not While I'm Around" (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), "Children Will Listen" (Into the Woods) among many others. Oh, and "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. You *do* *not* want to hear the noises I made when I discovered that one. This will be a VERY happy experience!

The Von Trapps Are Doing Indie Pop

The Sound of Music notwithstanding, "Kurt" or Werner in the real world von Trapp's great grandchildren, Sofia, Melanie, Amanda and golden hair God -- I, I mean -- August made a band and they're awesome. While the von Trapps have already released an album with the easy listening band, Pink Martini, they are putting out a more Indie poppy sound on their "Dancing in Gold" EP that will come out -- oh hey! -- today. Unfortunately, I missed the chance to see them in Des Moines a few weeks ago (but luckily I got the secondhand scoop from a friend who opened for them) but I'm ready to hear more than just the YouTube clip of their new song. Their genetic harmonies are just as genetically tight and I am so ready for this! [EDIT: (4/14 1:23) IT'S HEERREE!] My Homegirl Mackenzie Scott is Being Awesome Again...

By this point, you all know my deep homegirl affection for Mackenzie Scott. She's adorable and awesome and honest and can rock a Kum and Go trucker hat like no one's business. But I digress. That honesty has come back in a more vibrant way via "Sprinter" coming out May 5. While her first album was painfully truthful and beautiful in that melancholic kind of way, this time around (if her singles "Strange Hellos" and "Sprinter" is any indication), it's raw and as autobiographic as the first album. In an interview with pitchfork, she explains the lyrics come inspired by her family (she herself being adopted as well as the mother who raised her).

"Whether it be abandonment, or fear of rejection, or perhaps inability to connect with people, comes down to that fear of isolation, of not being good enough. Those are themes that have cropped up in my personal life, in my writing, and my Mom can definitely understand that herself."

Sold!

Warning: Spoilers Included

Bad Moon Rising

(Season 2, Episode 3)

When Hank decides to quit his job, his Coyotl high school friend's daughter (and Hank's God-daughter) is kidnapped by her mother's side of the family for an Aseveracion (mating incest ritual) now that she has turned sixteen. Nick decides to bring Hank into the Wesen loop. Juliette is released from the hospital and Nick sleeps on the couch.

Literature Used: The Old Woman in the Wood

Wesen featured: Blutblad (werewolf), Coyotl (coyote)

Best Quotes: 

Monroe: "Well Nick, when a mother coyotl and a father coyotl love each other very much..."

Carly: I'm sorry Hank. I didn't mean for that to happen. I just... I thought he was going to kill me.

Hank: Why?

Carly: He's a Grimm. It's... what they do.

Hank (to Nick): A what?

Nick: A Grimm. It's sort of a family problem. Look, I promise I'll explain it better later. But right now you just have to trust me.

Best Moments: The gratifying moment when Nick tells Hank what he is.  

The Good Shepherd

(Season 2, Episode 5)

When an accountant to a church organization gets thrown into a wood chipper, Hank and Nick find out this has happened before to the last accountant in another state. The church organization is led by a Blutblad who just happens to be romantically involved with a Seelengut woman who has been married to the two prior accountants as both of them extort money from the church. Monroe goes undercover at the church. Nick and Juliette start to lay ground rules as strictly room mates.

Wesen featured: Blutblad (werewolf), Eisbiber (beaver), Seelengut (sheep), Nuckelavee (horse)

Literature Used: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Best Quotes: 

Monroe: Yeah, well, he is definitely working his charms on his assistant Megan. I think they have something romantic going on and I gotta tell you, that's totally weird. A Blutblad with a Seelengut, I mean, Darwin would have a field day with this relationship. And I'm not saying I'm prejudiced. It's just like the wolf getting into a sheep's clothing, if you know what I mean.

Hank: Last thing you want to do is put any pressure on her. That'll just push her away. Not that I'm an expert. Well, I guess I am the expert.

Best Moments: Monroe bemoaning the use of digital clocks in the church room. When the Seelengut go after Monroe after attacking and killing Calvin. (That's bad to say it's the best moment but the herd mentality is so ridiculous you just have to laugh and start quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

La Llorona 

(Season 2, Episode 9)

It's Halloween and Monroe is decorating and having way too much fun -- until some delinquency happens which results in his window being broke. Nick and Hank get caught up in the disappearance of three children according to the La Llorona myth where a ghost of a woman tries to replace three living children for the three dead children she drowned in the river to be with a man who would not accept her children. Juliette is brought on by Nick to act as translator for a Spanish family whose son has disappeared. Juliette is confronted by a woman who can sense the effects the cat scratch had on her.

Wesen featured: Blutblad (werewolf), Balam (jaguar)

Literature Used: La Llorona myth

Best Quotes: 

Monroe: Halloween for us, come on. That's like, bigger than Christmas. There's a long Wesen tradition of All Hallows' Eve Midnight Woge running through the woods, scaring the crap out of the villagers. Literally, sometimes.

Monroe: What a bevy of great costumes. Oh, love the wolf man. Looks like my Uncle Herman before they chopped his head off. 

Best Moments: Monroe's decoration of a reaper with an activated mace before all hell breaks lose.

One Angry Fuchsbau

(Season 2, Episode 17)

Monroe takes Juliette to the trailer with Nick's blessing but only causes Juliette's memories to come back more erratic and hectic. Juliette caves and finally asks Pilar to help. While serving jury duty, Rosalee becomes victim to a lawyer Ziegevolk bending the court to his client's advantage as Monroe, Nick and Hank go all Scooby Doo on the case. Slapstick ensues. Eric notices there is something different about Adalind as he tells her he best have a visit with his brother, Sean on getting the key back.

Literature Used: The Garden of Paradise

Wesen Featured: Ziegevolk (goat), Blutblad (werewolf), Lowen (lion), Fuchsbau (fox), Eisbiber (beaver), Mauzhertz (mouse)

Best Quotes: 

Monroe: "Oh, I get it, so if I'm crazy no big deal." 

Nick: "Hey, we can't both be crazy."

Monroe: "It smells good. I didn't know you could cook."

Nick: "I can't. This is take-out."

Monroe: "Oh, he's sweatin'. But I think I pulled a groin muscle."

Best Moments: Monroe injecting the frog only for it to run away from him. Monroe jumping to Rosalee's rescue at the end.  The return of Bud and his role in the great plan to get Kellogg's sweat. Juliette's Memory-Nick with a guitar in his hands, it's strangely sexual.

Volcanalis

(Season 2, Episode 18)

Fumarole is discovered on Mount Hood and a very possessive Fire God will ravage and kill anyone who takes them in, including a employee of EON Industries and an archaeologist-turned-not-so-crazy-as-we-think's wife. The men of the "Grimmy-Doo" gang fix this complete with hosing the mythological character with liquid nitrogen. Juliette's memory continues to strengthen as she faces them head-on. Adalind makes alliances with the Schwarzwald gypsies in Vienna to give up her half-royal unborn child  in exchange for her powers back 

Literature Used: The Devil's Three Golden Hairs

Wesen Featured: Blutblad (werewolf), Esibiber (beaver), Hexenbiest (witch), Taureus-Armenta (minotaur)

Best Quotes: 

Monroe: "Keeping Portland weird."

Monroe: "You got something?"

Nick: "Dead Body"

Monroe: "See? That'll get your mind of her [Juliette]."

Best Moments: Hank being rolled out of the police station by multiple cops with a lei around his head (I must have a .gif of this!). When Juliette delves deep into a memory, the color turns from black and white to gray to colored very very slowly as she fully gains the memory back. (Genius!)

Endangered

(Season 2, Episode 18)

A pair of a rare alien-type of Wesen is on the run from from a Condor who kills and sells parts of Gluhenvolks. The kicker, the girlfriend is pregnant and George Lazur, the Raub Kondor, is after the baby. Jocelyn has to eat cow ovaries in order to go into labor which Rosalee and Monroe help bring her child into the world. Hank is still on vacation in Hawaii, leaving Nick to team up with Wu for this investigation. Nick also learns more about the Seven Keys; the shapes on them forming what could be part of the Black Forest in Germany according to Monroe's grandfather's maps. Juliette's memories become strong enough that she asks Monroe what a Grimm is.

Literature Used: Little Brother and Little Sister

Wesen Featured: Blutblad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Gluhenvolk (alien), Raub Kondor (condor)

Best Quotes:

Monroe: "Don't you need a warrant for that?"

Nick: "You're right, you open it."

Monroe: "Oh, OK."

Wu: "Nobody was probed...yet."

Monroe: "A Grimm is someone who can see into the heart of darkness. Someone who sees things other people don't understand."

Wu: "What is it about cows and aliens?"

Nick: "I got nothing."

Best Moments: Wu. Just everything Wu. The gratifying moment we can trust Renard. Monroe and Rosalee finally kissing and getting mildly frisky. Monroe attacking the Raub Kondor. 

Kiss of the Muse

(Season 2, Episode 20)

A musai drives men into insanity and attempts to take Nick as her own as he spirals out of control. Only Juliette can save him. Juliette returns to the trailer and starts to remember more of what Nick told her of the Wesen world and finally believes him. Hank comes back from Hawaii on crutches. Rosalee goes to the trailer for the first time.

Literature: The Odyssey

Wesen: Blutblad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Luisant-Pecheur (otter), Musai (elf)

Best Quotes:

Nick: "Man, what did the doctor say?"

Hank: "Actually, he was very adamant. 'Let your partner do all the work."

Nick: "As if I don't already."

Monroe: "Ring a dinner bell?"

Renard: "Really?"

Best Moments: When Renard got all guard-Zauberbieste-dog on Nick as he threatens Zoe then woges. Most gratifying moment ever! When Juliette finally gets it and although apprehensive, is willing to learn about the new Wesen world. 

Warning: Spoilers Included

One Night Stand

(Season 3, Episode 4)

 

 

When multiple drownings have occurred in Portland, Nick and Hank stumble on a new type of Wesen of the mermaid kind with vicious male counterparts. Rosalee starts to move into Monroe's place. Renard discovers who the royal baby's birth mother is. Juliette finds a curious email in Nick's inbox with the signature M.

 

Literature Used: The Little Mermaid

 

Wesen Featured: Blutbad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Half-Zauberbieste (warlock), Naiad (mermaid)

Best Quotes:

Jake: I just -- she came over and she just wasn't... normal.
Nick: Nobody is, Jake. it's Portland.

Best Moments:

Rosalee allowing Monroe to leave her to unpacking her stuff and to go to the trailer with the boys.

Elly swimming in Jake's swimming pool then woges in front of him.

Nick doing his own Grimm woge-ing in front of Hank after pulling Elly out of the water.

The Stories We Tell Our Young

(Season 3, Episode 6)

 

Renard leaves for Vienna for a Resistance meeting and ends up being hunted by his family. Back in Portland, Nick and Hank's latest case involves a child that has a Wesen-like virus that is very deadly to the species. Rosalee feels the duty to report the virus case to the council despite her friendship to Nick and Monroe who are against it. Juliette delves deeper into Nick's job as a Grimm. Adalind meets Eric's brother.

 

Literature Used: Inuit mythology

 

Wesen Featured: Blutbad (werewolf), fuchsbau (fox), Half-Zauberbieste (warlock), Hundjager (hound dog), Pflichttreue (panther)

 

Best Quotes:

 

Monroe: So I guess it's time for the "Birds and the whole Bienen-Wesen" talk.

 

Nick: I like to think we live in an enlightened age. Where fear does not drive belief. That's the truth behind the fear.

Alexander: Fear is not an easy thing to change.

Nick: Try

 

Best Moments:





Every time Renard turns into an action star and starts killing people.

The medical treatment scene in the little boy's outside fort.

Twelve Days of Krampus

(Season 3, Episode 8)

 

A Santa-like Wesen is terrorizing troublemaking teenaged children and it's up to Nick, Hank, Bud and Monroe to stop it. Over in Vienna, Renard is continued to be pursued by the Verrat as he insists that the Grimm he has will help them defeat the seven royal families despite their distrust in him for being half-royal. Monroe enlists Juliette to help him surprise Rosalee with the way he celebrates and decorates for Christmas but ends up falling flat on his face in the process as Rosalee's depressing history unfolds a little more. Renard leaves Adalind a message.

 

Literature Used: O Tannenbaum

 

 

Wesen Featured: Blutbad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Half-Zauberbieste (Warlock), Krampus (anti-Santa sheep-like Wesen),  Eisbiber (beaver), Schakal (jackal), Hundjager (hound dog)

 

Best Quotes:

 

Monroe: You know, I've got a lot going on today. Gotta get these jobs out before Christmas, because you know, clock repairs. Need to be timely.

Rosalee: Is that a clock joke?

Monroe: Just a tiny one. Sorry, I heard it second-hand.

Rosalee: Yikes. I'm leaving before you can think of anymore.

 

Wu: Don't worry, I'm not going to give you crap about arresting Santa Claus in front of a bunch of children. But I wouldn't expect under the tree this year.

 

Hank: You picking anything up?

Monroe: I got nothing. Except the smell of fear on Bud.

 

Renard: I am royal and I can be a bastard.

 

Wu: Besides the red suit and the black boots, he looked like something out of... and I quote "my worst drug crazed, acid induced, flashback nightmare."

 

Juliette: "You arrested Santa?"

 

Best Moments:

 

Interaction between Juliette and Monroe as they decorate his home.

 

Nick beating up on a Schakal posing as a Santa as on-lookers stand there doing nothing but recording the incident on their phones.

 

Girl talk between Juliette and Rosalee.

 

Nick getting choked by Krampus's rope and not being affected (except for a little CGI-tinting of his skin)

 

When Rosalee leaves out a beer and cigar for Santa.

this.

 

Eyes of the Beholder

(Season 3, Episode 10)

 

 

Hank's physical therapist and crush is involved in a current case involving street gangs and her younger brother whom she is raising. Juliette is feeling more awkward around her college room mate after discovering she's Wesen and seeks out advice from Rosalee on what she should do. Alicia's boyfriend makes a move to take her home but results in Juliette defending her best friend.

 

Literature: The Merchant of Venice

 

Wesen Featured: Blutbad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Half-Zauberbiest (warlock), Klaustreich (alley cat), Yaguarate (jaguar)

 

Best Quotes:

 

Nick: That's quite a way to send a message. Cutting off the head of a serpent.

Monroe: Or in this case, the head of the Yaguarate (Nick and Hank stare) Serpent's good.

 

Monroe: I'm glad you're not perfect.

Rosalee: Who says I'm not perfect?

Monroe: Not me.

 

Rosalee: You have to play more often. Got any more?

Monroe: I do, I do. I have a Mozart, a Bach, a very nice Brahms. And I got a Rimsky-Korsakov from Scheherazade that'll knock your babushka off.

Rosalee: Oh, the babushka one.

 

Best Moments:

 

Hank and Zuri looking very toasty towards each other.

 

Monroe playing his cello again!!!

 

Juliette kicking her best friend's abusive boyfriend's ass.

 

Hank playing video games with Zuri's little brother.

 

Mommy Dearest

(Season 3, Episode 14)

 

As Prince Victor's men close in, Adalind gives birth to Sean's daughter and gets her powers back. [Drew] Wu comes in contact with his first Wesen that feeds on his childhood best friend's womb fluid and it's only the question if Hank and Nick should tell him he's not crazy.



 

Literature: Legend of Gello/Asswang

 

Wesen Featured: Blutbad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Half-Zauberbiest (warlock), Hexenbiest (witch), Asswang

 

Best Quotes:

Drew Wu: "Sometimes my cat gets mad at me, and all she needs is a belly rub."

 

Best Moments:

 

Wu seeing his first Wesen, finally being addressed by his first name (Spoilers... it's Drew), and overall being amazing showing he is devoted and maybe a little in love with Dana. And even his choice in going straight to a psych ward. Everything Drew Wu!

 

 

The Law of Sacrifice

(Season 3, Episode 18)

 

 

Prince Viktor and the Verrat are on the hunt for Adalind and her child and closing in even tighter. Immediately, the whole Grimm gang has no choice but to help Adalind as **spoiler** Diana's **spoiler** life continues to be in danger as long as she is with her mother. It only ends in heartbreak.

 

Literature: Rumpelstiltskin

 

Wesen Featured: Hexenbiest (Witch), Half-Zauberbiest (Warlock), Blutbad (werewolf) Fuchsbau (fox)

 

Best Quotes:

 

Wu: (pronouncing Viktor's long full name) "I may have inadvertently dropped a -berg or a -dorf or two."

Monroe: "How was my German?"
Hank: "I believe him."
Monroe: "But you don't speak German."
 

Best Moments: Adalind in the street discovering Sean took her baby from her and her hexenbiest powers break a million car windows.

 

The stand off between Prince Viktor and Sean.

 

Everything Sean this episode: the pain in his face realizing he has a child, when he has to give her up and **spoiler** the compassion in his face knowing he has to live without his daughter..

 

 

 The Inheritance

(Season 3, Episode 21)

 

A dying Grimm travels all the way to Portland from Philadelphia to give Nick his trunk of Grimm weapons including... dun dun dun, a second key much against the Grimm's son's behest. Rosalee starts to feel anxiety over the wedding as Adalind finally puts her plans to destroy Nick into action.

 

Literature: The Water of Life

 

Wesen Featured: Blutbad (werewolf), Fuchsbau (fox), Half-Zauberbiest (warlock), Hexenbiest (witch), Hundjager (hound dog)

 

Best Quotes:

 

Rosalee: "It's just all gotten so overwhelming."

Monroe: "Honey, it's a wedding. It's supposed to be overwhelming; to keep you from doing this more than once."

Rosalee: "I just... I have this feeling something awful is going to happen."

Monroe: "That's the spirit."

 

Trubel: "What's up with this key he keeps talking about?"

Nick: "It's along story. It has to do with the Crusades and a bunch of knights who were Grimms who found something they thought no one else should have, so they buried it in the Black Forest and made a bunch of keys that had a map that supposedly leads to where it is. Is that enough?

Trubel: "Good enough for now."

 

Monroe: "Well we're one key closer to god knows what"

Rosalee: "I don't think we'll ever know."

Josh: "I don't think I want to know. But at least now I know my Dad wasn't crazy; unless all of you are."

(everyone looks at each other)

 

Best Moments:

 

 Trubel admitting she was almost raped and attacked by a Wesen.

The magical deviance all over Alexis Denisof's (Prince Viktor) sexy mug.

Not necessarily a best moment but the freakish moment where Hank almost legitimately got ran over by a member of the Verrat. That was extremely close for a TV show!

Everything about that fight with the Verrat members -- possibly the most intense fight in Grimm history.