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Grimm S02E08: "The Other Side"

In last night's episode of Grimm, "The Other Side," helicopter parenting ran amok as a Wesen kid took out his entire quiz team and Adalind surfaced in Europe to raise hell for Portland. However, the biggest question of the night came not from the story but from the episode's weird ending: Namely, why is Nick such a jerk?

"The Other Side" began with the ongoing saga of Juliette and Renard as she and Nick attended a ceremony honoring the captain and then Renard awkwardly drove Juliette home after Nick and Hank left for the A plot. We saw Renard's obsession had gotten worse as he stared at Juliette in the shower a la Psycho before stumbling off into the night and punching an innocent bystander in the face. Renard: 1, Grocery Man: 0!

Meanwhile, a high-school academic decathlon participant was brutally murdered and it wasn't long before another team member bit the dust, prompting Nick and Hank to believe the murderer was another teammate whose motive was to take out his competition. After they questioned team star Pierce—who was a Galapagos Tortoise Wesen—Nick and Hank found the decathlon coach murdered as well.

It turned out that Pierce's mother, a geneticist and total hard-ass—as her "do homework to take your mind off your friend's murder" approach to parenting proved—had tinkered with her son's DNA in-utero, adding genes of the Lowen (a super-aggressive Wesen) to give him an edge. The splicing created a Jekyll/Hyde personality; Pierce was now killing anyone who stood in the way of his decathlon greatness... without knowing. When he found out he'd done, he was devastated and tried to commit suicide, but ultimately Nick was able to save him. Although the poor boy ended up in prison, so maybe that wasn't such a kindness.

Everyone's favorite Hexenbiest returned as Adalind hooked up with Renard's Royal brother. From Ro-Bro we learned that Renard is half Hexenbiest, the son of their Royal father's Hexenbiest mistress. Renard and Monroe interacted at the spice shop as Renard sought a cure for his Juliette obsession, and the episode ended with Monroe delivering some bad news: Not only is there no singular cure, things are going to get worse for the captain.

While enjoyable, the episode's hard sci-fi twist of gene-tampering was not only difficult to swallow, it also brought up all sorts of new questions about the Wesen—questions the episode never answered—and served to point out how little we actually know about the Wesen world. For instance, if you can isolate and transplant the genes that make up individual Wesen species, can you get rid of them? Is being a Wesen something you can "cure?" Fundamentally, what is a Wesen and where did they come from?

Also, how is a prize-winning geneticist unable to afford a better lawyer for her son? I mean there were multiple witnesses to his split-personality insanity! He was obviously mentally unbalanced, so how's come Nick and Hank were fine with callously spitting platitudes about the deck being stacked against him as he was marched off to prison (and not juvie!)?

Up until the ending, "The Other Side" was a great Wesen-of-the-week episode that did a nice job of balancing Adalind's plotting and mythology with cop-procedural action. It was fun to see Monroe geek out about the spice shop and Hank get upset about the Grimms' bloody past. Plus Renard is such a strong character that I even liked the Juliette storyline. But Nick and Hank's cynical shrugging-off of a mentally unbalanced kid who desperately needed help not only felt out of character for both of them, it also destroyed the whole premise of Grimm—that Nick, despite being a Grimm, is still a good guy.

A good guy doesn't say, "Oh, well!" when a kid is thrown into jail instead of getting the psychiatric help he needs. A good guy doesn't learn that the kid's mother is the true culprit, in messing with her son mentally and genetically, and then casually watch as the kid gets thrown under the bus. A good guy would at least testify or something, right? After watching Nick cover up his own murders and bend the rules for his friends, seeing him not do anything for a Wesen who truly needs him is more than upsetting—it runs contrary to Nick's fundamental role on the show.

Last night Nick was the real bad guy, and this is a twist I neither like nor am confident that the writers of Grimm will explore past this episode.

QUESTIONS:

– Is that police station intern going to be a new main character? He's obviously going to be important, otherwise Grimm wouldn't have wasted a scene on him, right?

– Why are the Royals prejudiced against the Hexenbiests?

– As they are clearly not Hexenbiest, what type of Wesen are the Royals?

– If Pierce's Wesen species is from the Galapagos, why is he white?

– Does Rosalee just have a list of weird things Monroe needs to ask people walking into the shop, and if so, can I get a copy?

– What do you think will happen to Renard?

Grimm "The Other Side" Photos

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Grimm S02E07: "The Bottle Imp"

Grimm sidestepped up to the problem of Juliette this week, tackling more forcefully along the way the thorny questions of: How does Captain Renard feel about Juliette? What's up with Adalind? And what hi-jinks can a Blutbad get up to when he messes up a potion, comedy-of-errors style!

"The Bottle Imp" kicked off as poor Nick dreamt of an accepting and non-amnesia-ridden Juliette; Rosalee and Monroe really aggressively glazed over—practically shellacked over, really—Monroe's dead ex-girlfriend from last week; and a Wesen dad seemed to redefine "road rage" as he went on the lam with his daughter. After the latter failed to understand that smashing a camera does not erase the tape inside, Portland PD tracked him down only to discover that he was a wife-beating, daughter-kidnapping Drang-zorn (an urge-anger Wesen, my Google translate tells me!).

Hank got too see the full glory of Aunt Marie's trailer and did some shellacking of his own after he got upset with Nick over the death of a troll that happened in Season 1—not because Nick had someone murdered, but because he wouldn't tell Hank who'd helped them. But that was quickly dropped when Adalind returned to the series with a vengeance—literally, she was on the warpath over dead Mommy Dearest. Also, a conversation between Adalind and Captain Renard revealed that effects of her potion are more sinister than just amnesia. Finally, Renard is currently obsessed with Juliette against his will, and it seems Juliette is the same way. Romance has nothing on freaky Hexenbiest spell casting!

But, back to the case: In a fantastic twist, it turned out that daughter Drang-zorn was actually the mother-beating, gas-station-attendant-murdering perp and Team Grimm got to see the creepy girl in full-on chomping mode before they put her in the hands of a Wesen Juvie warden.

Elsewhere, in a silly B plot Monroe screwed up a potion and it went comically awry for a while. Clocks were threatened!

"The Bottle Imp" took some baby steps toward doing something with Juliette, and so far it's got my attention. Unfortunately, after rocketing through plot points early in the season Grimm seems to be slowing back down to the "milk it for several episodes" pacing that plagued Season 1. It's great to know that Adalind's spell is the curse that keeps on giving, but I'm afraid there will be no confrontation between Juliette and Renard, or realization of what's happening on anyone else's part, for a while.

One emotional roller coaster I did want to see was Monroe's reaction to Angelina's death, and how it affected him and Rosalee. But that's clearly not happening, as Monroe's very fun (clocks were threatened!) but very unimportant B plot showed.

Some of this is, I think, poor prioritizing on what emotional beats the writers think are important to character development. As a viewer I'd rather spend time on Monroe and Rosalee's relationship than deal with, say, five more episodes of Juliette and Renard pussyfooting around each other, or on the problems of random Wesen.

However, I think much of this is due to the semi-serialized, semi-episodic nature of the show. More than just a mythology-episodes-versus-monster-of-the-week series, Grimm straddles the line between television where what happened the week before doesn't matter, and an epic, over-arching story where everything matters. The show has been able to be both this season by throwing dashes of greater mythology into every episode, so here's hoping "The Bottle Imp" is a bump in an otherwise smoother Season 2 road.

Questions:

1. Is it a Grimm thing that they all draw in the same exact style?

2. Will Hank confront Monroe over saving his life?

3. More importantly, will any cop on this show ever get upset over how many lives he's taken?

4. However: Are there some Wesen, like the Drang-zorn, who really deserve to be put down? Can Wesen be judged the same way as humans when they seem so much more pre-programmed?

5. Along those lines, is the Wesens' inability to go against type the writers' playing with destiny and fate, two ideas that saturate fairy tales and the real Brothers Grimm folklore?

6. Why are the Wesen willing to integrate into human society when they are so bad at it? Why isn't there a shadow Wesen CPS, or an American Wesen police force—or was that the type of thing they fled when they left the Royals in Europe?

7. Is Grimm gearing up for an Adalind/Mama Nick confrontation?

8. Finally, does anyone else think this planning-five-steps-ahead-of-everyone Adalind is way scarier then her old Hexenbiest self? Raise your hand (mine's in the air already)!

Grimm "The Bottle Imp" Photos

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You know how it is with Grimm: another week, another monster in Portland. And thanks to the folks at NBC, we've got an early peek at this Friday's episode, "The Bottle Imp," in which a grisly murder scene leads our boys Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) to pursue a "seemingly unstable father" (guest-star Josh Stewart) who's on the lam with his daughter. Plus, you know, some sort of creature, because this is Grimm we're talking about. In the promo clip below (which actually features Hank for once!) the guys do a little light reading in Aunt Marie's trailer in hopes of figuring out what they're up against...

Also on deck for Friday, according to the official episode synopsis: Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) tries to fill in for Rosalee (Bree Turner) at the spice shop, only to realize that retail is tougher than it looks, and Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) gets all stalky on "more than one woman" from his past. Fun!

Grimm airs Fridays at 9pm on NBC.

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Grimm S2E06: "Over My Dead Body"

I've said it once and I'll say it again: It's hard out there for a Grimm! Especially when the Royals start targeting your friends in an effort to undermine you—this is why superheroes have secret identities, Nick. Passions were flying high this week as date night, or in Renard's case, potentially-lethal-booty-call-night, turned sour in bloody Grimm fashion.

"Over My Dead Body" began with Monroe's best wooing outfit to date. The green bowtie! The giant vest! The baggy button-down shirt underneath the giant vest! I will discuss hand-carved Cuckoo Birds with you any day, Monroe, though Rosalee has me beat when it comes to zither talk. If there has ever been a better pairing on genre TV, I'll eat my hat (or Monroe's tweed bowtie collection).

Alas, into this cozy and very geeky date burst Monroe's insanely hot and insanely insane ex-girlfriend, Angelina. It appeared that Little Miss Murderer wound up tasked with killing Monroe after she dispatched the original hit man and would-be rapist, again bringing up the disturbing, nonchalant way Grimm seems to view sexual assault. She had 24 hours to deliver Monroe's body or end up dead herself.

Over in the Portland PD side of the world we learned that Renard really has a thing for blondes as he flirted with an old "friend" and Royal lady, Mia. Mia sympathized with how her poor Captain had been treated by his family and we discovered that Renard had a plan to regain his "rightful place." Renard also found out that Mia had met with the Dragon's Tongue and he probably shouldn't trust her as far as he could spit.

Nick did some wooing of his own as he and Juliette tried to re-start their romance and jump-start Juliette's memory. Here's a tip for you, Nick: When trying to describe your years-long relationship with your ex-fiancé, do better than, "We started talking and sort of never stopped." Juliette immediately got a taste of pre-amnesia life with Nick, as he avoided talking about his secrets and ran over to Monroe's. Sexy!

Everything came to a head as Nick discovered Monroe was in danger only because they were friends. Nick, Hank, Monroe, and Miss Murder Rap hatched a plan to put Monroe under a death spell and ambush whover wanted him dead. The plan worked initially, as they saw that Mia was the Royal who paid to dispatch Monroe, but fell apart when Angelina took a bullet for him, and the episode ended with Monroe's sad Blutbad funeral for his one-time killer squeeze.

"Did you know she killed another guy tonight?" was probably the best Nick line has ever uttered, cementing what I've suspected for a long time: Nick's at his best when he's a little pissed at the world. I love David Giuntoli, but compared to the rest of Grimm's charismatic cast, he can come off as stiff or bland. He has the unenviable job of playing a straight man and serving as the audience's eyes and ears, the combination of which can make him seem lacking in the personality department. But Giuntoli shines when he gets to roll his eyes at the Wesen world, and he's genuinely funny when he gets all short-tempered in response to the craziness going on around him. As the Royals start targeting Nick and his "family," I can only hope we'll see less of straight-man Nick and more of hilariously irritated Nick.

Hank and Monroe's bonding time thankfully clarified the mechanics of who can see Wesen once and for all, and we also saw more of the downside of being a Grimm, which seems like a worse and worse job with every episode. Being friends with Nick is risky, and while murdering people seems to no longer phase Nick (is anyone else worried about just how not-bothered Nick and Hank, who are both cops, are with shooting people and covering up murders?), what does shake Nick to his core is the idea that his existence will put others in danger.

While I would prefer the show to have Nick agonize a little over his body-strewn Grimm path (again, he's supposed to be a cop), putting pressure on all of Team Grimm is an excellent way to further develop Nick's character. Let's hope we haven't seen the last of Mia or her cobra-headed hit-men hires.

Questions:

– What was Monroe like before he chilled out and started making clocks?

– Will Mia or the other Royals send someone after Rosalee next?

– Will it bother Hank that he just stone-cold shot people in the woods and then hid the murders? Cops, people, these guys are cops!

– How does the Dragon's Tongue fit into the European Royals' schemes?

– What is Renard's overall plan to get back at the Royal families, and does it involve the Grimm Key?

– Will Nick discover this season that Renard is the Royal?

– Will Juliette fall in love with Renard, and will that make us like her more?

– Finally, will Angelina's death affect the fledgling MonRosalee MonRomance and MonRelationship? Okay, that last one didn't work, but you get my drift.

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Grimm S02E05: "The Good Shepherd"

After a brief hiatus, Grimm is back with new episodes and its regular Friday timeslot, and this week it was Blutbad clockmaker vs. Blutbad priest as "The Good Shepherd" got really on-the-nose with a religious group literally made of clueless sheep people. Wake up, sheeple!

The episode revolved around an embezzlement claim filed by a Wesen church, which led Portland's finest to a gruesome crime scene after the thieving church accountant got put through a wood chipper. Nick and Hank's investigation brought them to the Reverend Calvin, a "reformed" Blutbad with a red-flag waving, "more pious than thou" attitude and a track record of leading churches that wind up becoming victims of embezzlement.

Because Nick and Hank are somewhat competent as cops they didn't buy Calvin or his assistant Megan's claims of innocence, and brought in Monroe in to go undercover at Calvin's church—which was made up entirely of sheep-Wesen. Many delightful Monroe-isms later (involving the world's worst congregation welcome and his ongoing annoyance with Hank), he was sleeping in the church. Captain Renard began entertaining thoughts about Juliette, and Megan began to sour on her Blutbad sweetie when she realized she was being considered a suspect in the murder.

After menacing Homestead Grimm, the Royal Nuckelavee assassin broke into Aunt Marie's trailer and Nick dispatched him almost as easily as he did the two Reapers (but way easier than when he bested the Kimura). Also every police officer in Portland needs to get way better at dumping bodies, though to Captain Renard's credit he was pretty content that "his" Grimm bested the Royals again.

Megan went baaah-nkers (sorry) after finding out sweetie Calvin got a teenage congregation member pregnant, and so she turned the flock against him just as Calvin tried to get Monroe's fingerprints to frame him for the murder. Lucky for Monroe, Nick showed up just in time to save him, but it was too late for con-man Calvin. And finally, proving that the Grimm writers read my recaps, the episode addressed my last post's gripe that Juliette and Nick are still weirdly living together, as they awkwardly talked about it and then both claimed, unconvincingly, to be cool with it.

A take on the Aesop fable "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing," there was a lot to like in this episode in terms of Monroe and Hank—Hank weirding out the Wesen was great, as was Monroe's palpable disgust at digital clocks and his awesome hat (come on NBC store, Grimm's giving you ideas for free!). The ending with Megan and Harmony was a nice topper on the cake of an otherwise entertaining—albeit perhaps a bit too literal at times—episode.

"The Good Shepherd" also furthered one of Grimm's more interesting themes: the fluid relationship between exploiters and exploitees. We saw it when the Eisbibers met and Bud's friend declared it was time to get revenge now that they "had" a Grimm. It was present when Rosalee's ex-squeeze shot the hit man chasing him (who also got in a good speech about the oppressors versus the oppressed). And it came back this week as the docile sheep people violently turned against their "shepherd." Abuse of power is rife in the Wesen world, but so is the tendency to get sucked into mob mentality, and I have to wonder if one helps cause the other.

Characters and themes aside, the show unfortunately missed a cool opportunity to flesh out the Wesen belief system, or at least examine religion from the monsters' point of view. What does Leviathan think of the Old Testament? Do snake-Wesen get upset at their portrayal in the Garden of Eden? Are animal-headed Pagan gods Wesen too? Instead Grimm trotted out a vague Christian group for the sheeple to belong to and left potentially juicier aspects out.

But my main gripe with "The Good Shepherd" is that Grimm still can't find anything interesting for Juliette to do. Before the amnesia she existed solely as an angst-causing love interest for Nick. Post-amnesia she exists solely as an angst-causing ex-love interest for Nick. Quite frankly the show has never given her a personality beyond "Nick's girlfriend" and now that she's single Grimm is squandering the chance to show us the cool, capable woman Nick fell in love with. She's a character in an action show who never gets to partake in the action, and the writers refuse to let her do anything other than talk about Nick. It's time to either elevate her beyond "romantic plot device" or jettison her as dead weight.

QUESTIONS:

... Man, between the sheep Wesen and the Nuckelavee we really hit the barnyard tonight! What type of horrible farm animal assassin will come after Nick next? A rooster-Wesen? Cow hit men? SOW-SASSINS?

... If different "species" of Wesen can get each other pregnant, does the baby end up a hybrid? Or take after one parent versus the other?

... Okay, this may be reading too much into it, but is Nick taking down the horse-person with a hammer some really convoluted Beta-Ray Bill reference? I hope it is!

... Is the "pure of heart" potion causing Renard to have romantic feelings about Juliette?

... Do you think Grimm will do better on Friday nights than it did on Mondays?

... Are your church bake sales as entertaining as the sheeple's?

Grimm "The Good Shepard" Photos

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What to watch on Monday, September 10...

Alright, here we go: It's the beginning of a new week. Time to make some new week's resolutions. What's my new week's resolution, you ask? Easy! I'm giving up junk food and replacing it with reality TV. And I'm also giving up exercise. And the outdoors. And healthy food, too. Wait, did I just give up all food, all together? I think I did. Damnit. Here's what's on TV tonight:

8pm, Syfy
Alphas
In "Gods and Monsters" it becomes readily apparent that Parish's intentions are exceedingly evil when a young Alpha starts to show off some crazily dangerous mind-control skills. Having pretty much no other choice, Rosen realizes the only way to beat Parish is to, well, beat Parish. Will Rosen's efforts pay off?

SEASON FINALE, 8pm, ABC
Bachelor Pad
Oh em gee it's, like, the finale and stuff! Can you guess what's going to go down? I'll give you a hint. It has to do with a winning couple and lot of money. And also challenges. And roses. And bears, oh my! Okay, not really bears. But tonight Bachelor Pad will crown its reigning couple, who managed to survive the Bachelor house either because they're cunning or like-able or flat out lucky—and they may have also fooled themselves that they're in love. Poor chaps.

9pm, Syfy
Warehouse 13
In "Endless Monsters" Myka and Pete come across a drug that can actually make you taller (go ask Alice). In the process they make the acquaintance of a very strange drug company executive. Meanwhile, Steve, Artie, and Claudio sneakily follow Brother Adrian to his hiding place. And it's not a treehouse or a broom closet (which were always the first two places I'd look when seeking).

10pm, NBC
Grimm
In "The Good Shepherd" Monroe takes it upon himself to investigate a Wesen church shortly after a major robbery and all of the church goers become suspects. Nick, in the meantime, is making serious moves to reconnect with Juliette, hoping to spark her memories of him. Unfortunately for him, he's being followed—and that could mean really bad news for Juliette.

10:30pm, MTV
The Inbetweeners
Tonight's episode is called "The Wrong Box." Is that some kind of innuendo or a literal proclamation? I guess we'll have to find out, but I'm leaning toward innuendo: Will falls in love with the girl of his dreams, who happens to love cooking, so he decides to spearhead a cooking club on campus. Simon takes advantage of the plan, hoping his cooking skills will impress Carly. How hard can it be? Probably too hard for these two.

PLUS ALL NEW EPISODES OF...
Alphas, 8 p.m., Syfy
Bachelor Pad, SEASON FINALE, 8 p.m., ABC
Basketball Wives LA, 8 p.m., VH1
Hell's Kitchen, SEASON FINALE, 8 p.m., Fox
Switched at Birth, 8 p.m., ABC Family
The L.A. Complex, 8 p.m., The CW
The Voice, SEASON PREMIERE, 8 p.m., NBC
WWE Monday Night Raw, 8 p.m., USA
All on the Line, SEASON PREMIERE, 9 p.m., Sundance
American Chopper, 9 p.m., Discovery
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, 9 p.m., Travel
Border Wars, 9 p.m., NatGeo
Blood, Lies, & Alibis, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery
Hoarders, SEASON PREMIERE, 9 p.m., A&E;
Intervention, 9 p.m., A&E;
Love It or List It, 9 p.m., HGTV
Major Crimes, 9 p.m., TNT
MasterChef, SEASON FINALE, 9 p.m., Fox
T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle, 9 p.m., VH1
The Real Housewives of New York City, 9 p.m., Bravo
Warehouse 13, 9 p.m., Syfy
Bad Girls Club: Mexico, 10 p.m., Oxygen
Fast N' Loud, 10 p.m., Discovery
Gallery Girls, 10 p.m., Bravo
Grimm, 10 p.m., NBC
Perception, 10 p.m., TNT
Ridiculousness, 10 p.m., MTV
Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery
House Hunters International, 10:30 p.m., HGTV
The Inbetweeners, 10:30 p.m., MTV
Get To Work, 10:30 p.m., Sundance

LATE-NITE HIGHLIGHTS...
Lea Michele and Simon Bird on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 12 a.m., ABC

What are you watching tonight?

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Grimm S02E04: "Quill"

If Monday's Grimm were an episode of Friends it would have been titled, "The One Where Multiple Plots Thicken." We had a MonRosalee kiss, Juliette stumbling onto the Grimms, Renard investigating Mama Nick, Renard spying on the Royal Families, Hank forcibly joining the team, and—as if all of that wasn't enough—there was also an ew-inducing Dark Ages plague, for good procedural measure.

"Quill" began as the aforementioned Wesen-infecting virus hit Portland. It caused the carriers to break out in horrifically gross boils and yellow pustules and basically made them act like 28 Days Later rage zombies. Now, last week everyone was mad at me for not recognizing Mark Pellegrino, so get ready for me to call out the name of the guest actor who played the porcupine Wesen every two seconds: Kevin Shinick, from Robot Chicken, Ugly Americans, MAD, and Where In Time Is Carmen San Diego?!

Anyhow, Shinick's Porcupine Man fended off a pustule-zombie-Wesen but got infected with the disease through his quills. Nick and a newly Grimm-appraised Hank investigated, and the show answered last week's big question by confirming that Hank still cannot see the Wesen despite knowing about them.

Jumping into plot two: Renard seemed to be suspicious of Mama Nick's "death" and was possibly putting together the news of a double Grimm sighting as the recent reunion of the Burkhardt clan. He also got a call from his mole in the Seven Families, who warned him that the Families sent a Nuckelavee (horse-man) to Portland, which hinted at a grander scheme Renard is part of, outside the Families' knowledge.

Plot three saw Juliette trying to remember Nick. We learned she could remember some things about Nick when she flashed back to the fearful Eisbiber plumber from Season 1. She invited him over and, not knowing the score, he told her Nick was a Grimm. He then fumbled a cover story and took off for the hills as Juliette put on the bug-eyed "I'm pondering" face she's worn for the past two episodes.

Plot four had Monroe finally, finally, finally ask out Rosalee! Rosalee answered positively but I could barely hear it as the legions of cheering MonRosalee fans around the world drowned her out. Because this is Grimm their super-sweet picnic in the picturesque Portland woods was interrupted by Kevin, foaming at the mouth due to the virus, which brings us back to plot one. Full circle!

Hank and Nick made it to Rosalee's apothecary just as she began showing symptoms and Hank got a rushed introduction to Team Grimm as Monroe mixed medicine to counteract the plague. The episode then ended with Rosalee and Kevin healed and MonRosalee shyly taking their first steps toward a real relationship... while the Nuckelavee hit man watched from above.

Thematically Grimm continues to upend the pieces on the board. Just like Hank and Juliette, we're all frantically evaluating and re-evaluating with every new piece of information we have. Does Renard spying on the Royal Families make him good? Is it bad that non-Wesen and Grimms are learning about the secret world lying side-by-side with ours? We also have to ask ourselves what good and bad means to the various agendas and plots flying around. In Season 1 it would have been a good thing for Juliette to find out about Nick being a Grimm. Now that she has no memory of him, this feels like it'll lead to disaster.

Similarly, Renard is wrapped up in so many secrets and alliances it's impossible to tell whether we should root for him or not. He's a cop and invested in stopping criminals, so that's good; but he's a Prince of the Royal Families, so that's bad. He wants to keep the Royals out of Portland, so that's good; but he sent Adalind to kill Aunt Marie and threaten Hank, so that's bad. Renard is transforming into one of the show's most interesting and ambiguous characters, once again reflecting what I think of as Season 2's overarching theme: Nothing is what it seems.

However, the less analytical part of me simply wants to "awwww" over Rosalee and Monroe for forever.

AWWWW!

Bree Turner acted the Hell out of infected Rosalee, making me laugh as she insisted she was infected "With love!" one moment and jump as she barked out commands in the next. She and Silas Weir Mitchell have real chemistry and I could watch a show of just them gazing lovingly at each other for hours. Forget "Pond Life"—I demand a web series devoted to Monroe and Rosalee's relationship, stat!

Questions:
... Now that the term "Grimm" has been said in her hearing, will Juliette flashback to the memory of Nick taking her to Monroe's for him to Blutbad out?

... Also, is it weird Juliette seems fine with living in the same house as a (from her perspective) complete stranger?

... Is Adalind's cat dead? Can one simply run over Magique, the murder cat?

... What is the big plan Renard and his mole are afraid of jeopardizing? Is he part of the Resistance?

... What horror will interrupt Monroe and Rosalee's second date? Ten bucks says it's the Nuckelavee hit man.

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Grimm S02E03: "Bad Moon Rising"

What do incestuous coyote-monsters, a bathtub full of animal remains, and pelts gussied-up like a fifth-grade taxidermied diorama have in common? If you need me to tell you then you clearly haven't been watching Grimm, so get out now while the rest of us discuss fairy-tale monster sex rituals. Thank you!

Last night's "Bad Moon Rising" was the episode where Hank finally learned the truth about Nick and a young girl almost got violated by her hillbilly kin. But let me take a moment to address the biggest shock of the episode, which was the awful new opening title sequence.

This new opening sequence is the worst!

There was something inherently exciting about Season 1's logo and discordant instrumental theme, cluing you in to the fact that there was more to meet the eye in the forested, fantasy-land that is Grimm's Portland. With the new sequence's horribly hyped-up narration and Photoshop-filter fun, I can only hope that the show's title-sequence people saw a Wesen and temporarily lost their minds, and will return to the original opening posthaste.

"Bad Moon Rising" kicked off with Operation Freak-Out-The-Amnesia-Patient as Nick showed Juliette a really boring slideshow of their relationship and established that Juliette remembered everything in her life but Nick. Monroe suspected Adalind's spell was geared toward erasing the Grimm from Juliette's life.

The real meat of the episode, however, was Hank and Nick's search for a seventeen year-old AP Student, kidnapped by a hick in a denim vest ('90s holdovers are always a red flag, guys). This was, without a doubt, one of the creepiest rape-centric Grimm plots to grace the screen since Season 1's "Lonelyhearts," and yes, I realize I've now written "rape-centric plot" for the second time about one network TV show. Grimm, ladies and gents!

The missing AP student was Carly, the daughter of one of Hank's oldest friends and goddaughter to Hank. Kidnapped by her inbred Texan relatives, Carly and her kin were Coyotls (coyote-Wesen) and her uncle and cousins wanted her to be part of a shudder-inducing Coyotl mating ritual. After Hank spent some time reflecting on his Wesen-induced PTSD he and Nick tracked the kidnappers first to a rotting corpse in an apartment building, and then to a foreclosed barn where Carly was being held. Teamed up with Carly's father, the truth came tumbling out after Hank nearly killed the transformed Coyotl Carly and Nick had to admit he could also see the Wesen. Hank and Nick then took care of the Coyotl's by being unimpressed when they transformed, the Texans were arrested, and Coyotl Carly was safe once again and free to take too many AP classes.

Let's get this out of the way now: Come on, Grimm, Coyotl? For a show that forces me to misspell complicated German words every week I expected better of you. If I'm not cursing the English-to-Deutsch function in Google Translate then it's not Grimm!

That said, I think we're all relieved to see Hank taking a proactive role this early in the season. Throughout Season 1 Hank was a comedic relief, then an Adalind plot point, and finally an Albatross around Nick's neck. Now he's got the chance to be an equal partner in all things, sleuthing for human and Wesen criminals alike. While some (*cough* me *cough*) would be a bit more miffed that my best friend was content to let me go shotgun-cuddlin' nuts, Hank's determined to see the silver lining once Nick clues him in. With both Hank and Monroe on Nick's side perhaps our Grimm will actually be able to overcome the Royals, rogue Wesen, and the Selective Amnesia Girlfriend. Plus I cannot wait to see the Hank/Monroe meeting!

With the reveal of the truth, it's increasingly obvious this is a Grimm radically different than Season 1, determined to throw status quo to the wind rather than milking a plot. Moreover, this Wesen-of-the-week story did not feel like useless filler as so many of the Season 1 episodes did. It stood on its own and delivered a solid crime story that could have honestly been an episode of a regular procedural drama with the barest of retouches. No longer does the show feel segmented into monster episodes versus mythology episodes—just like Hank and Nick, the show is uniting all the separate pieces.

I will say that I was little troubled at the central "a group of guys kidnap a teenage girl to rape her" plot—and the fact that when Carly's father learns their intentions it takes him two commercial breaks to get as upset as I think most of us would be if we learned our child was kidnapped for a mating ritual. But Grimm avoided exploitive pitfalls and used the horrifying truth to propel the action and raise the stakes rather than wallow in sensationalism, so we'll chalk Father Coyotl's reaction up to Grimm's often-inconsistent guest star acting.

And for now let's rejoice in the enlightening of Hank—this looks like the beginning of a beautiful Grimm friendship.

Questions:
... How are Rosalee and Monroe going to react to Hank, newest addition to Team Grimm?

... Will Juliette become a more likeable character now that she has to literally restart from scratch?

... Was Adalind's spell targeted specifically to Nick memories?

... With the reveal that Hank's high school bud was a Wesen, at this point are there any actual humans in Portland? Real people from Portland, weigh in!

... Now that Hank has seen one Wesen fully transform does that mean he can see them the same exact way Nick can? Or do they need to transform to a certain point for Hank, a non-Grimm, to be able to see them?

... Will Hank become a Deputy Grimm? Can one become a Grimm if one is not born into the Grimm family line?

... How many languages does Monroe know?

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What to watch on Monday, August 27...

Well I hope everybody is feeling well rested on this delightfully overcast Monday morning. If not, I hope your preparedness for the day includes a gallon-sized jug of coffee topped of with a healthy dose of raw milk for taste (the pasteurized stuff is so passé). Also, here's what's on TV tonight:

7pm, PBS or MSNBC
The Republican National Convention
Hey, it's important to stay informed. So we're informing you that this is on TV tonight. You know what they say—"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"—so whether the Republican party is friend or foe, you have 100% stake in whatever hot button topics come up during tonight's convention.

9pm, TNT
Major Crimes
In "Medical Causes" the crew investigates a deadly car accident that occurred in front of a nightclub, but as the investigation digs deeper, the facts become blurrier and blurrier. Also, Raydor makes a move to contact Rusty's mom as promised, but finds it difficult to continue the search when burdensome facts come to the surface. Parental expeditions never quite go as planned, you know?

9pm, Syfy
Warehouse 13
"Fractures" get ghostly when Lewis Carroll's mirror is lifted from the warehouse: The murderous spirit of Alice Liddell is somehow set free—and what else is she to do but go on a killing spree? Notice that rhyme? It was all me.

10pm, NBC
Grimm
In "Bad Moon Rising" Nick investigates a case involving a close friend of Hank's whose daughter recently went missing. Of course, any case that Nick jumps into has more going on than meets the eye, so as he begins to discover the motives behind the case, he's driven into an even deeper crime.

10:30pm, MTV
The Inbetweeners
Since we were so pleasantly surprised with this one last week, we're deciding to feature it again! In tonight's "Sunshine Mountain" Simon nails his driver's license test and takes the gang out to an amusement park in hopes of impressing his crush, Carly. Will has other aspirations: Taking on an infamous roller coaster. Teenage misfits at an amusement park—what could be more amusing?

PLUS ALL NEW EPISODES OF...
Alphas, 8 p.m., Syfy
Bachelor Pad, 8 p.m., ABC
Hotel Hell, 8 p.m., FOX
Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, 8 p.m., VH1
Tia & Tamera, 8 p.m., Style
The L.A. Complex, 8 p.m., The CW
The Secret Life of the American Teenager, 8 p.m., ABC Family
Wild Justice, 8 p.m., NatGeo
WWE Monday Night Raw, 8 p.m., USA
American Pickers, 9 p.m., History
Bizarre Foods America, 9 p.m., Travel
Border Wars, 9 p.m., NatGeo
Blood, Lies, & Alibis, 9 p.m., Investigation Discovery
Hell's Kitchen, 9 p.m., Fox
Intervention, 9 p.m., A&E;
Love It or List It, 9 p.m., HGTV
Single Ladies, 9 p.m., VH1
Stars Earn Stripes, 9 p.m., NBC
The Real Housewives of New York City, 9 p.m., Bravo
United Bates of America, 9 p.m., TLC
Bad Girls Club: Mexico, 10 p.m., Oxygen
Beyond Scared Straight, 10 p.m., A&E;
Big Tiny, 10 p.m., TLC
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, 10 p.m., Food
Gallery Girls, 10 p.m., Bravo
Locked Up Abroad, 10 p.m., NatGeo
Pawn Stars, 10 p.m., History
Perception, 10 p.m., TNT
Push Girls, 10 p.m., Sundance
Ridiculousness, 10 p.m., MTV
Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets, 10 p.m., Investigation Discovery
House Hunters International, 10:30 p.m., HGTV
Get To Work, 10:30 p.m., Sundance

LATE-NITE HIGHLIGHTS...

Kirsten Dunst on Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., E!
Dax Shepard and Wendy Williams on Conan, 11 p.m., TBS
Jake Gyllenhaal and Sharon Osbourne on Late Show With David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., CBS
Dennis Miller and Kate Flannery on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., NBC

What are you watching tonight?

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Grimm S02E02: "The Kiss"

"The Kiss" picked up right where "Bad Teeth" left off, in the middle of the Saber Face/Nick battle in the lumber mill. Mama Nick killed the Wesen and Nick raced to the hospital where Monroe and Rosalee waited with a potion for Juliette. The potion was only able to stop the memory loss, not revive Juliette; Nick administered the drops while Monroe, Rosalee, and battle-scarred Mama Nick ran interference (the doctors, I guess, didn't recognize Nick from past visits?).

Nick then got called to a crime scene and tasked Monroe and Rosalee with driving home the homicidal, Wesen-hating Mama Nick. Oh, the joys of carpooling!

So remember when Mama Nick stabbed Saber Face to death? Yep, so does the the FBI because that's the crime scene Nick got called to. Though he sneakily stole his gun back (it was dropped in the fight), two more FBI Agents with interchangeable names waltzed in and claimed the investigation.

In the Team Grimm carpool-from-hell, Monroe did his best to pretend it was not at all petrifying to chauffeur Mama Nick. However, the Ballsiest Wesen Award went to Rosalee, who told Mama Nick about Juliette learning that Nick's a Grimm, then hugged her. Mama Nick made a facial spasm that could be construed as a smile and didn't murder either Wesen, so we'll call that a step in the right direction.

Because all evidence pointed toward Nick being involved in the lumber-mill killing, the FBI barged in and confronted Nick about it. Tying the boat murders to Saber Face, Nick evaded turning over his gun for ballistics (and dumped it in the river instead) but agreed to a DNA swab after some visible gulping. Hank may be going to crazy-town in a hand basket, but he proved a solid friend when he revealed he knew Nick fought Saber Face but trusted Nick, so long as Nick does not hang him out to dry, which seems like a pretty reasonable request, all things considered.

Captain Renard called Saber Face's handler, Mr. "I'm on the Phone" Royal Wesen from last week's episode (British actor and True Blood cast member James Frain, for all you genre fans). We learned Mr. Royal was Captain Renard's brother Eric—and Renard was not happy Eric sent his grunt to Portland. Renard also pondered the newspaper report of Nick's parents' death.

With the FBI trailing Nick, Mama Nick volunteered to persuade Adalind's mother to reverse the spell on Juliette. Captain Renard also paid HexenMom a visit and she handed over a gross sludge shake that would make Renard "pure of heart" so he could wake up Juliette. The Renard revelation we'd been waiting for dropped when HexenMom taunted that the potion would hurt him, because he is "barely human." Looks like Renard is a Wesen, though that comment could be interpreted as meaning that he's got some sort of link to humans as well.

Mama Nick intruded and learned from HexenMom that there was a Royal Prince in Portland—literally a bastard—and he was the only one who could save Juliette. Mama Nick then beat the living daylight out of the Wesen with a rolled-up magazine, accidentally sending HexenMom to her death. With family like this, who needs enemies?

Nick was arrested and interrogated by the FBI officers who knew he was covering for a family member due to DNA evidence. But with nothing else to go on (and them falling for Nick's gun switcheroo) they let him go—right onto the new crime scene left behind by Mama Nick. In a heart-to-heart Nick forgave his mother and she suggested it was time for her to go. Based on the body count she's left behind, I think we can all say, "Duh."

Renard revelation number two dropped when Renard, anticipating pain from the heart-purge milkshake, showed his Wesen side! Transforming, he looked like a half-burned corpse, but he pulled it together before going full... whatever you call a Wesen half-burned corpse. The milkshake also magically prompted him to rip off his shirt, which in turn magically prompted all female Grimm fans to admire his washboard abs.

Nick gave Mama Nick the Coins and dropped her off at the train station, where she broke into a car and sped away. Our Grimm booked it to the hospital, but Captain Renard, the Royal bastard Prince, got there first and planted a kiss on Juliette. He took off, Juliette woke up, and Nick emotionally told her how much he loved her. Juliette's response: "Who are you?"

There's a lot I could say about this episode, but that would mean I'd need to stop doing my celebratory "We finally know what Captain Renard is!" dance—and I will never stop! Even though we don't know what kind of Wesen he is, the reveal was not as disappointing as I feared it would be after a full season of build-up. I think we can all do a jig over the fact that Captain Renard is some sort of horrible zombie monster and not just an Eisbiber or, god help us, a Murcielago.

Renard enlightenment aside, the episode was also fun. Monroe and Rosalee's nervous interactions with Mama Nick were a blast and Monroe was pretty adorable in his insistence that he would have killed HexenMom for insulting Rosalee (yes, I know I just described a death threat as adorable. This is Grimm).

"The Kiss" also shed an unflattering light on the Grimm lifestyle. Mama Nick has spent her life on the run, breaking into cars and doing a pretty terrible job at staying one step ahead of the law. Unlike Aunt Marie, Mama Nick told Nick to stay with his loved ones because if he doesn't he'll end up like her. But now that Mama Nick has broken and entered her way into the night, lingering questions remain about how much longer Nick is going to be able to stay a Grimm and a cop, or keep his loved ones safe.

Questions:

... Did the eye-drop potion not work, or do you think it stopped Juliette's memory loss just after Adalind's spell erased Nick?

... Now that we know Renard is a Wesen, what sort of Wesen is he? Is there a reason only half his face changed when he freaked out in the mirror, and is that related to him being "barely human?"

... Will Renard's brother send more hit men out to Portland?

... Did that shot of the "car accident" newspaper mean Renard is connecting the second Grimm in Portland to Nick's family?

... Is this the last we've seen of Nick's mother?

... What will happen with Juliette and Nick now that Juliette doesn't remember him?

... After watching Rosalee call Monroe sweet throughout the episode, how close do we think we are to a declaration of love? Very close? I'm hoping we're very close. MonRosalee forever!

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