Grimm "Revelation" Review

The wild hunt pack from “The Wild Hunt” was named “Cuacha Mortay” (spelling botched!) and a harbinger of doom. Something, or someone, worse than the wild hunt pack will slouch its way towards Portland. David Greenwalt, Joss Whedon, and the other ANGEL writers told a similar story in ANGEL. The offspring of Angel and Darla was prophesized as a darkness, but baby Connor only became dark and dangerous after spending 18 years in a hell dimension. What he was born into made him into what people feared, but I assume that’s the tricky part of prophecies. I like when prophecies aren’t cut-and-dry—when Adalind’s baby is delivered, he’ll become what he becomes because of the Verrat, the Resistance. There’s more nuance to that approach; webs are so tangled that one needs a microscope to see all the fibers that one must cut.

Adalind’s run-away adventure from Prince Viktor with one of the men from the Resistance engaged me far more than any other Verrat/Resistance story in the second and third season. The story included inevitable betrayal, many angry glares, and the slowest escape through lush woods, but the active movement of character, physically speaking, and a bearded angry Prince Viktor added some excitement that hitherto has never existed in the Verrat/Resistance story. Adalind as a pawn in in the power struggle hasn’t been a major point in the story for her, though her focus on regaining her hexenbiest nature was; those two stories basically mix and mingled. Renard expressed genuine concern for Adalind in the seconds before the escape plan was enacted. His lines, though, are always touched with self-interest, selfishness—he reveals Viktor’s plans for her and the child. Adalind sort of reacts with mild surprise--she’s basically been a non-participant in what’s happened around her. Regaining her powers involved her sitting in a bed of flowers, running blood over belly with her hands, and sitting daintily while conversing with the Prince.

The escape takes her to the nameless gentleman’s (with the tattoos) cabin deep within the lush Austrian woods (which probably bear as much resemblance to Austria as New Venezuela resembles Venezuela). At this point, the action slows to concerns about what she’ll eat, whether or not the bed is comfortable, and I lost interest in the story. She finally goes into labor right after complimenting her rescuer’s food, while wrapped in what must’ve been the warmest, snuggest blanket ever, and unleashes a scream that portends something possibly foreboding and definitely transformative. She cries the cry of the crowing (no, she doesn’t).

Monroe’s bigoted, narrow-minded, judgmental father warns about the coming darkness after he, Monroe, and Nick, defeated the wild hunt pack. Monroe’s father delivers this warning in the moments after their victory. There were issues with the wild hunt storyline. Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt didn’t establish the pack’s threat until nearly 3/4s into “Revelation,” over a hour after the first guy’s introduction in “The Wild Hunt.” I suppose they murdered more gruesomely, but other Wesen murdered more gruesomely. Monroe exposits about their origins from a kind of hell: lightning and thunder, booming thunder. The unearthing of that information creates another uncertain conclusion in the final two acts. I really thought the wild hunt would hang around for another episode. Monroe, his father, and Rosalee portray the pack as epic threats. Monroe leaves Hank out of it for fear he’ll die. Nick has not fought creatures like this in his grimm life. The fearsome beasts, the epic threats, the most dangerous foe to Nick of them all, though, are beaten within three minutes of the fight. Cutting their hair kills them. Cutting their hair. It occurs to me that the wild hunt pack were visceral embodiments of what Monroe and his family faced in this episode and the previous one: fear. These fearsome beasts aren’t so fearsome after learning a good haircut kills them.

Monroe’s parents feared disruption to tradition. Monroe planned to walk away from their love and support. Monroe’s mother tried to push past her fears and hesitations, to look into Rosalee and through her in their scene where they volga’d and stared, looked, explored. Monroe’s father almost left his wife and son behind because of his fears, his reluctance to change; however, the thought of losing his wife and son was more fearsome to him than a mixed marriage. Monroe’s father comes to fight with Nick and Monroe. He tells Monroe, “I wasn’t going to watch you die.” In Grimm, the mental steps towards acceptance are actualized into physical struggle, violence, into honest interfacing and peering through the glass of one’s eyes and not seeing what you want to see in the person but seeing the person.

The last scene of the episode is sweet and involves everyone gathered for dinner, actively working towards a future harmonious whole.  “Revelation” had a few hiccoughs, but that was in service of a very decent story. It never hurts to put Monroe in the forefront.

Other Thoughts:

-I don’t have any other thoughts to share. I wonder what Hank did while Nick fought for his life. I’d question how the police will resolve the case now that Nick took Grimm justice; however, that way leads nowhere for a blogger.

-Jim Kouf & David Greenwalt wrote the episode. Terrence O’Hara directed.