Grimm: Dyin' on a Prayer

November 14, 2014 7:07 PM - Season 4, Episode 4

Nick and Hank investigate a crime scene where a victim may have died from clay-induced asphyxiation; Wu becomes more suspicious of Trubel's presence; Elizabeth makes a breakthrough in restoring Nick's powers.
posted by oh yeah! (20 comments total)

The first half of this episode I was a bit distant, but then it really picked up. I am concerned that Wu may become....a villain. And it seems like my first season wishes may finally come true.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:34 PM on November 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

I am concerned that Wu may become....a villain.

Yeah, it's starting to feel like they're setting it up for something to go very wrong with him.
posted by homunculus at 1:00 AM on November 15, 2014

They didn't even need a Golem. The best way to deal with a Siegbarste is to lure it into a kitchen and let Juliette take it down.
posted by homunculus at 1:16 AM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm actually hoping that they have Wu get entangled with the FBI-side, if there is a quasi-governmental X-files like task force to handle Wessen, because Wu's always been fundamentally decent and strongly believing in law and order, and his concerns about Trouble are totally valid - something hinky is happening and there's a possible murderer being shielded.
posted by viggorlijah at 5:34 AM on November 15, 2014

Also the last exchange in the spice shop "Make yourself at home!" was hilarious.
posted by viggorlijah at 5:34 AM on November 15, 2014

If Grimm was on HBO like True Blood was, we'd get some batshit crazy Wessen sex scenes, at least.
posted by homunculus at 10:23 AM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm interested in the surrealistic mind trap Adiland was drowning in.

She must still be in the hexenbeast cell, tripping out on whatever drug was in the food the fellow 'prisoner' gave her. It seemed out of character to me for her to be blindly following him up the endless staircase instead of striking out on her own, but then once the flood started and it seemed that the entire breakout was a hallucination I could buy it.
posted by oh yeah! at 12:05 PM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

Was anyone reminded of some of the creations from Labyrinth? Specifically the false alarms and the helping hands.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:02 PM on November 15, 2014 [3 favorites]

She must still be in the hexenbeast cell, tripping out on whatever drug was in the food the fellow 'prisoner' gave her.

Yeah, I'm on board with this explanation. The faces in the wall mimicking her and then drowning her in tears was pretty inventive, though.

The writers seem to be taking this opportunity to expand the mythos of the Grimm universe. Provided they do that skillfully, the show will continue to remain delightfully imaginative. If they do it badly, it might turn into something like True Blood.

I've never watched True Blood, so I don't know how it compares, but I'm not sure they're all that interested in really expanding the mythology. Someone in one of the past Grimm threads (I think it was Small Dollar) made what I thought was an excellent point - that Grimm isn't about world-building, it's mostly about this group of characters that we like having some weird adventures (I'm paraphrasing, of course.) So periodically they have some other weird non-Wesen stuff happen just to prevent every episode being too much the same, but I don't know that the writers & show-runners are too concerned with the occasional oddball episode actually fitting cleanly into an established canon.

And it seems like my first season wishes may finally come true.

What were those, if I may ask?
posted by soundguy99 at 2:12 PM on November 15, 2014

I believe I've stated here before, but I will again. I've never been a fan of Juliette. She's grown on me since first season, I admit, but it looks to me like they are preparing for her exit and have been since the wedding.

If Juliette should leave, it wouldn't be too surprising. We've seen similar characters on other shows (Buffy, Sam and Dean Winchester) struggle with maintaining romantic relationships. Arguably Nick and Juliette are the most grounded of those types of couples, but that's because her relationship with Nick started normal and the Grimm stuff came later. Of course, knowing what she does, a break up could be quite difficult.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:20 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

miss-lapin, I get where you're coming from. I don't quite agree; I like a lot what Juliette could become on this show. But it does seem that Grimm is a show that pins most of its female plots on the classic lady-drama triad - get married / get pregnant / go crazy - and I've already seen more of those than I care to on this show.

Juliette totally did in that siegbarste (thanks for the link, homonculus!) and has a lot of potential I'd love to see realized. I'm just not sure Grimm is up to the task. It's a fun show with a fun cast and some fun plots, and I deeply appreciate the way characters actually talk to one another and thus avoid all kinds of misunderstanding-based trauma; but it's not particularly mature in its relationship portrayals, so...

Anyway. Please don't screw up Teresa, Grimm, that is all I really need from you right now. (Oh, and also please give Nick his powers back, he's really boring without them. Thanks!)
posted by kythuen at 4:41 PM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

If Juliette does leave they'll probably put Nick in a relationship with a Wesen at some point. Forbidden love and all that.

Grimm is a show that pins most of its female plots on the classic lady-drama triad - get married / get pregnant / go crazy

The only Wesen I remember who was interested in Nick went straight to crazy.
posted by homunculus at 5:30 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Putting Nick with a Wesen, considering his relationship to Rosalee and Monroe, makes sense depending on what kind of Wesen. It's also the Buffy standard, although the show had actual reasons for her to be attracted to vampires (revealed in later seasons). A Wesen is already part of that world so unlike Juliette, there's no "opting out." And, of course, there would be lots of built in drama.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:40 PM on November 15, 2014

I think they have the "forbidden love" thing covered with Monrosalee. Wesen anti-miscegenationists threw a brick with a Nazi symbol through their window in an episode about a golem!

But who knows, maybe Juliette will get turned into a Hexenbiest. Something weird and unpleasant has to happen to her for Nick to get his powers back, at least. I just hope it's not more amnesia.
posted by Small Dollar at 5:52 PM on November 15, 2014 [5 favorites]

depending on what kind of Wesen.

I'll bet Mauvais Dentes hickeys are really hard to hide.
posted by homunculus at 6:05 PM on November 15, 2014

Yeah, I could see that they could be prepping for Juliette to leave.

Although I've got almost the opposite take on the character - I thought she was fine the first season (if maybe a little prone to staring wistfully out of windows while wearing a turtleneck) - but given all that's happened since then the writers haven't really developed her much. She's pretty much the same now as she was then, and not in a good way, like she's got a core strength of character, but in a bad way, like they just don't know what to do with her. Her staying the same in the face of all she's been through is just starting to seem a little weird.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:31 PM on November 15, 2014

For awhile it seemed like she was going to be the show's resident science adviser/researcher, like in the episode where she figured out that a supposed curse was really a condition caused by a protazoa (I'm still waiting for an episode where she presents her findings to a Wesen science club.) They could do a lot more with that, like have her work on a cure for the kid whose mother made him a hybrid with DNA splicing, but she seems to have been relegated to just being The Girlfriend. Is she even still a practicing veterinarian?
posted by homunculus at 7:40 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Is she even still a practicing veterinarian?

Yeah, exactly. I get that maybe the show's become a little too complex plot-wise to have much time for the kind of "real people" scenes they had in earlier seasons, like where Juliette accidentally wakes Nick up because she's got an early surgery to get to, but it seems like they've just abandoned any idea of Juliette doing anything besides tagging along with Nick and Hank whenever she feels like it.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:09 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

If they're using stuff from the comics, those masked assailants are probably part of the Purewelt Orden, who were the KKK and the Nazis and a death squad in Bosnia, so that's bad news.
posted by Small Dollar at 7:21 PM on November 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

But who knows, maybe Juliette will get turned into a Hexenbiest. 

I don't think she works as a blonde.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:13 PM on November 16, 2014