NBC’s premise
for the episode, or maybe the cable provider’s premise for the episode, or
whatever department wrote the premise for “Bad Luck,” included a bit about
Monroe and Rosalee going undercover in an effort to stop a Wesen who hacks off
one foot of another Wesen for the sake of helping Wesen couples that struggle
to conceive. I had visions of a multi-act Rosalee and Monroe romp under
disguise, elaborate and parodic, but they’re undercover antics last two scenes.
It’s far from the hook of the episode. What is the hook of the episode? Well,
one wants Nick and Hank to find the killer, for certain; one wants the victim
in the teaser’s sister to survive; there’s also Nick’s bad reaction to
Juliette’s hexenbiest transformation. The reveal changed the relationship.
Juliette regains his trust of her authentic identity by mentioning the nonsense
around their proposal. Nick wanders off into the Portland night and recollects
their past. The leaps of faith she took for him and so on. Henrietta suggested
to Nick, later in the episode, that he accept her for who she is rather than
seek out a solution, which doesn’t exist. Indeed, his blood can’t cure her,
because that’s dramatically uninteresting. The couple must redefine their
relationship.
A lot of the
non-case of the week action has moments amid frustrating creative choices.
Adalind’s proposal to Renard about working together to find Diana doesn’t make
sense. It allows for convenient conflict in the same way Juliette going to
Renard first allows for convenient conflict. Nick’s freaked by the hexenbiest
news, but he didn’t like Renard’s initial involvement in helping Juliette.
Renard and Juliette have a past Nick would like to forget. The plot involving
Adalind, Renard, Juliette, and Nick is unpleasantly soapy, but soap is needed
to sustain twenty two episodes worth of content and story in a network year.
“Bad Luck” dovetails into melodramatically soapy revelations that stem from the
roots of Juliette’s unpleasant situation. Nick needed to become a Grimm again
after Adalind took his power of sight (or whatever makes a grimm a grimm). To
do that she slept with him. Juliette needed to sleep with Nick as Adalind to
restore his grimm-ness. She became a hexenbiest, and Adalind became pregnant.
She screamed an anguished ‘No!’ at the end of the episode, which anticipated
the loud oratory and prolonged “No!” from the audience. Baby stories always
disappoint in TV as do stories about conflicts involving the mother or father
of that unfortunate baby born from a degree of laziness in the writers room.
The case of the
week involved another Wesen acting outside the parameters of what the Wesen
Council set. The Wesen Council, though little seen, and only through its
mediators (or whatever), have become more prominent in the series. Perhaps
Greenwalt and Kouf will involve the council more in season five. The council
admonishes cruel Wesens, but the council is not without its cruelty. A
confrontation between Nick and the council as a multi-episode arc’d out story
in season five that’s focused may be the thing Grimm needs moving forward;
however, a single season focused story hasn’t been Grimm’s style. The Wesen
Council seems destined to remain a vague threat, a warning to those tertiary
Wesen that act out of accordance with the laws. The organizations and Royal
Families and et al are fragments, shadowy ideas that need form and substance.
Other Thoughts:
-I guess my
Grimm reviews will continue. I’m not sure that I’ll refer to the posts as
reviews. I might meander about whatever, or I may not write if I’ve nothing to
write. The 5 weeks between episodes helped produce this jawn.
-I made a bet
that the high school introduced in the teaser would die. That’s the easiest bet
to make whenever a procedural is on.
-Thomas Ian
Griffith wrote the episode. Terrence O’Hara directed.
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