Cinderella's Revenge

Grimm, S01E20

Nick had to handle the murder of a woman named Mavis, who had been killed by a bat-like Wesen.  The suspects were the woman's family members, especially those who had asked her for money just before her death.  When one of Mavis' daughters turned up dead with her stepdaughter's godfather Spencer at the scene, Nick arrested him, despite there was no evidence to prove he had did it.  Nick finally learned that the real killer was Lucinda, the stepdaughter, from Spencer's confession at the police station.  Nick went to stop Lucinda from killing the second daughter with a Grimm weapon that Monroe brought him, but it was Spencer who finished her off.  However, Spencer took her life at the cost of his own.  Juliette also got Nick some more information about the car crash that killed his parents.  Instead of finding closure, he got the name of only still-living suspect who might be able to explain his parents' death.

The beginning of this episode was so long (aka revealing a Wesen-related murder) that I wasn't even sure I was really watching an episode of Grimm.  That actually was a good thing because I am unusually inattentive during the murder scenes.  I tend to ignore that part because it's typically short and slightly unimportant (because you know that Nick's going to be dragging his ass before he figures it out), but this time their spin on the Cinderella tale was interesting.  Especially because it was set after the couple had supposedly had their happy ending, but instead were experiencing financial trouble and had to beg the stepmother for money.  I was so invested in the strained relationship between Mavis and Lucinda's family (Arthur and Spencer) that I almost forgot about the existence of the Wesen and the Grimm world at all.  Thus, when a bat creature popped out from under Mavis' bed, I actually jumped in my seat.  I really forgot I was watching the kind of show that Grimm is. 

I, of course, thought that the Wesen that killed Mavis was Spencer for a second, but when I thought about how he was best friends with Lucinda's dad, I knew there was no way that her dad wasn't a bat too (I doubt anyone could go such a long time without knowing their best friend wasn't as human as they appeared to be).  I understand that Lucinda wanted to get her "rightful" inheiritence by getting rid of her step-family, but I don't know why it took her so long to do so.  Either Arthur must have been making such good money that she didn't feel a need to bother with them or either she just was so traumatized by her father's passing that it never crossed her mind to eliminate them until her supposedly wealthy husband looked like he was going to be penniless.  I dunno.  I just would think that after all the years of her step family's abuse, she might have used her eyeball-popping screech once or twice before Arthur came into her life.  And speaking of her husband, I feel really bad that she dropped him like a bad habit once she went on her money-grubbing murdering spree.  But I did like the idea of the Cinderella type being the villain, while the stepmother and stepsisters were the victims.  No matter what they did to Lucinda in the past, I'm sure it wasn't horrible enough to deserve a brain-splattering death.

Monroe didn't have many scenes this time, but I liked when he and Nick were in the Grimm trailer, looking for information about the bat Wesen.  It was cute how excited Monroe was to try out the device that would cancel out the bat attack.  I'm surprised that Nick was nice enough to let him do the honors of trying it out.  When it comes to using Monroe, Nick rarely gives his "servant" any perks to helping him.  I just thought that the weapon was a little cumbersome to use.  I mean, you had to put it on a stand and then crank it.  It's not something that's very mobile, that's for sure.  I couldn't see that being very useful if they had to chase Lucinda throughout the rest of the night.  Lucky for them that Spencer took care of her.

Concerning Spencer, I think he was a damn loyal friend and good godfather.  He might have been a bit of a busybody, but he kept his promise for a long time.  I mean, Arthur seemed to not know his left foot from his right without Spencer there to tell him what to do.  Maybe he was just like that since he invested his money in the wrong person, but from what was shown in the episode, he seemed like a pretty helpless guy most of the time.  Spencer was the rock that made sure Arthur gave Lucinda everything she wanted so she would fly off the handle.  He even went as so far to kill her to stop her from killing more innocent people.  It's not as if he could turn her and tell the police everything she had done--he tried to do that with Hank there and he thought he was insane.  That was a great scene, by the way.  I thought Nick would be exposed as a Grimm, but Hank didn't believe Spencer for a second.  I almost wished he had because I would love to see Nick have to explain that one.

I must admit, though, Nick was smart to submit the Grimm weapon as evidence of Lucinda's crimes.  There would be no other way in the world that he could have logically explained the way Mavis and Tiffany were killed.  Still, is it safe to leave that kind of powerful weapon at the police station?  I kind of worry about what Renard might do with that thing.  He's no stranger to the Wesen world, so he might have a use for it one day.  Hell, Nick might have a use for it one day (who knows when another bat might cross his path?).  How smart is it to get rid of the one thing that could handle those creatures?  Even though Nick just started using the tools Marie left him, it seems that they are his best bet to effectively take care of murderous Wesen.  Yet he's just throwing them away like he has enough know-how to survive without them.  If this show was slightly more realistic, Nick would have been dead from almost every episode so far.

My biggest complaint about Nick digging into his past again was why couldn't he do the digging himself?  Why is it that Juliette is better at getting information from the police than her own cop boyfriend?  This is like the second time or so this has happened and it still puzzles me.  Either Nick is a shittier investigator than I thought or Juliette must have some past with the police that I failed to remember.  What Nick found out also had me a little confused.  I don't know why only now he found out that his parents' accident had been reclassified as a murder, but he never knew.  Granted, it happened while he was a child, but you would think once he became part of the law force that he would check into that once or twice.  It's just dumb.  Unless it just was all too painful for him to think about it again.  I could buy that if I had seen Nick agonizing about it more.  We rarely get to see Nick's emotional side, so I don't buy his internal pain at the moment.  Besides that, I'm slightly interested in the last living suspect, Akira.  I don't know what he'll be able to tell Nick, but it's curious that there is still someone around who can shed a little light into Nick's past.

This was one of the better adaptations of the fairy tales that Grimm has come up with (not the best but still good).  I almost wish that I could have seen the story before it had gotten to the point where murder was involved.  There wasn't much development this time, as far as any of the overall mysteries, but at least Nick has gotten interested in his parents' death again.  With that being explored again there's a bit of hope we might glimpse into Nick's emotional depth.  It'd be nice to see him as something more than a bumbling, lucky fool with a pretty face.