Nick And Company Save Hank and Wu

Grimm, S01E17

Nick saw that Hank was quickly becoming the love slave of Adalind and had little luck convincing him that she wasn't the woman she claimed to be.  Using his two Wesen lackeys, he found out that Hank was under a very deadly love potion and had to rush to save him before Adalind caused his death.  They also figured out that Wu had been affected by the same potion and cured him, but they were too late to get to Hank and Nick had to fight Adalind to snap Hank out of a coma.  During their fight, Nick got his blood into Adalind and removed her of her powers, freeing Hank.  This was a victory for Nick, but it was a failure for Renard's plans to get Nick's key.  The significance of the key was yet to be revealed, but Nick seemed to be more interested in it than he had been since his aunt gave it to him.

Okay, I understand now that Adalind was after Hank so that she would have leverage to ask Nick for his key.  And since Renard was murdering people who were getting in the way of said plan to get that key, I guess this was what it was ultimately about.  We don't know what will happen when Renard does get that key, but it seems like it's something that his whole family is involved in.  But I've been way past wondering what the big secret was, so I didn't take any joy in understanding those little facts.  It was a little funny watching Renard have to cover his tracks since Nick was getting closer to the truth.  I'm almost a little excited to see how Nick changes his tune about his captain once he finds out that he's been working in the shadows.

For being a Grimm, Nick really has no power to stop Wesen who are plotting against him until it is almost too late.  At dinner, he threatened Adalind to stay away from Hank, but he was just as powerless as any other guy who didn't know what she really was.  It's amazing that neither Juliette nor Hank picked up on how much Nick disliked Adalind, despite all the signs he was throwing out.  If it wasn't for Rosalie and Monroe at his command, he would have never stopped Adalind (I can't believe that Renard called Nick smarted than her--he's just lucky he has people he can use!).

Monroe brought up a funny point when Nick was pumping him for information.  He suggested that Rosalie might have the answer they needed about what potion Adalind could have used on Hank, but said it was too late in the night to bother Rosalie now.  Then he remarked that if it was him, Nick wouldn't have given a damn and bothered him anyway.  Nick proved to him that Rosalie gets no special treatment and told him to call her right away.  I like that Monroe is aware that Rosalie is as much under Nick's thumb as he is, but rather than be relieved someone else can take Nick's abuse for a change, he often seems a little miffed that they don't get the same treatment.  If only he didn't like Rosalie so much, he might try to push her as Nick's "number 1" and get out of his unofficial sidekick role.

But I think that Monroe may never escape Nick's clutches because he seems to care about Nick so much.  I'm almost certain that he holds Nick in higher esteem than Nick does he.  It was pretty cute when Monroe was pacing around in Adalind's room, fretting about whether Nick would be all right against Adalind on his own (a valid concern).  As dangerous as she was, Monroe seemed more than ready to join him on the battlefield.  I guess all the deadly adventures they've had together has really made Nick an indispensable partner for him.  Oh, Monroe, you're more of a good friend that Nick deserves.

The best thing about this episode was that Wu really had been eating weird things like I had thought.  He definitely ate a paperclip last week, but was eating weird things like coins and chapstick tubes this week.  Even though Nick was the one to really notice that Wu was acting strange, Rosalie was the one who pieced together that Wu's strange eating habits were from the love potion he had mistakenly took.  It was pretty funny that Wu was in his apartment eating carpet when Nick and his crew busted in to save the day.  And they never even bothered to explain themselves after they successfully sprayed the antidote up his nose; Wu ran away to his room (not understanding his visitors nor why he was in his underwear) and when he got back they were all gone.  Well, I hope that Wu just writes that off as a dream because Nick is the worst liar ever.  But I guess it's okay that he sucks at covering up things because everyone is stupid enough to believe him anyhow.  

Well, now that Hank is safe (and they no doubt have a horrible lie to cover up why Monroe and Rosalie were at Adalind's) I guess now the focus will be on the key that hasn't been mentioned for a while until this week.  It would have been nice if Nick had been wondering about the key in previous episodes, so the audience might have thought the key was what Renard was after without him having to tell us directly.  Oh, well.  With Nick having no chance of marrying Juliette any time soon, I guess it only makes sense that they would need to create some task for Nick to focus his attention on (you know, besides his real job).  At this point, I'm in for it for the occasional laughs and the new Wesen that are introduced.  It's not enough to keep me interested forever, but I'll at least finish up this season and see if they can wrap things up in way that doesn't make me regret my time completely.

Lord Of The Coins

Grimm, S01E13

A theft at a jewelry leaves another dead body for Hank and Nick to investigate.  What makes this story more interesting than most is that we learn a little about Nick's unknown past (did he ever mention his parents were in a car crash?), and we get to see another side of Captain Renard, though not the kind that reveals any of the questions I have.  The whole quest to get the coins that bring you power and whatnot just reminded me of Lord of the Rings.  When Hank was trying so hard to keep them, I just was waiting for him to come out with "My precious..."

Anyway, Nick found out that his parents were mostly likely killed by a creature named Soledad.  He not only made Nick an orphan 18 years ago, but also ruined the relationship between another eagle-like creature named Farley and Marie.  Huh, so Grimm sometimes date the creatures?  I know not all of them are bad, but it seems kind of backwards.  Then again, Monroe is like Nick's best friend (if his friend was like his assistant against his will).  I found that this information could have been more intriguing but for some reason it wasn't.  I guess because we only got to hear it from Farley's side, and he's not the best storyteller around.  We can't, of course, have Marie give her side now that she is dead, but I wish there was something to add to that background story.  Juliette, instead of Nick, confirms that Farley was indeed living in Rhinebeck around the time his parents were killed.  I didn't know his girlfriend was such a sleuth.  I just think it's odd she is able to get that information so easily.

Nick also gets a good bit of information about the Soledad's kind after he enlists Monroe to translate some journals in German for him.  That's none too surprising, but again I just feel bad that Nick uses him so unashamedly.  The second Monroe finds something that interests him (antique cameras and such), Nick pretty much kicks him out.  The reason I even mention this typical Monroe abuse moment by Nick is because Monroe had a pretty funny line about Soledad-type creatures:

They ate a baby.  That's rude.

Sick as that is, his definition of "rude" cracked me up.  I could have used a little more Monroe comedy this time to offset all of the "drama."  It's not that it was too intense for me, but it would have helped me keep engaged with the story better.

What I liked most of all was Captain Renard becoming possessed by those coins.  I knew he would already know what those coins would do, but I didn't think that he would be able to be taken in by their power.  I guess not even reapers are impervious them.  Hank sure wasn't.  I liked how ambitious he became and how good he looked in his police uniform.  And  that guy has a pretty nice body!  We got a good look at it when he was absentmindedly rubbing the coins between his fingers in his room.  I'll admit that scene was a little creepy, but getting to check out his great abs distracted me from that fact pretty well.

Luckily for him, Farley took the coins away from him before he went mad with power.  I have to hand it to Nick that he was able to get into Farley's room before the creature could escape with them, though.  I don't have much confidence in Nick's skills as a detective, but he has his moments.  I guess eagle creatures aren't much of fighters because Nick smacked him down once and took the coins.  If anyone has been watching this show, Nick can't fight for crap, so if Farley had fought a little harder, he would have probably won.  The stupid thing is that Nick took them back to Marie's trailer of Grimm goods and hid them.  I just know that someone is going to find that place and get those coins or some horrible weapon from there.  That is not a secure place!

The last thing I want to mention is that Nick watched a film that showed Hitler was a creature.  What the hell??  When I saw that I was like "Really, Grimm writers?"  There's something stupid about that, and I'm not sure what.  I guess it shouldn't be surprising that historical figures could be creatures in the Grimm universe, but I feel like it was an unnecessary reveal.  They ended the episode like that as if it would make you gasp.  I would have rather they did something with Renard at the end instead of that.  Or something that would reveal more about Nick's past.  I would have rather that Farley mentioned it in his story than the way it came out as if the viewers were wondering about Hitler's humanity.  Thanks for answering a question no one asked.

This week's episode didn't deal with Juliette and Nick's relationship, which is a shame.  And there was nothing else about why Renard pretty much knows about everything going on in the creature world.  I loved him speaking French, by the way.  It would be nice to know what it is that makes him multilingual and with whom he was speaking in Paris.  I feel like with this show I keep shouting for answers, but get almost nothing in return.  Seriously, Grimm--it's time to give us more than what we see.  You're not so thrilling of a show that I won't drop you.