Grimm "Eve of Destruction" Review

Grimm definitely does not ‘work’ all the time. Often, it’s a messy show with inconsistent pacing, strange plot choices, odd structures, and pieces the writers will ignore for months and months--for example, the Wesen council. The Wesen Council seemed like the lite version of The Watcher’s Council in Buffy. Buffy’s Watcher’s Council made her, Buffy, unhappy. They were a stuffy, rigid council more concerned about themselves than the one girl saving the world. The Wesen Council was similarly useless. Rosalee reached out to the council after the Black Claws ambush on the gang. Their response? We’ll get back to you. The council never does, because a member of Black Claws murders the entire group during a meeting about how to contain the threat of Black Claws. The elimination of the council will create a ripple effect through the wesen community. Lucien seemed to clarify that his group wants the world to know about wesen. No wesen council will probably result in chaos, or nothing. One never knows with Grimm. The writers, really, wrote off a part of the show that added nothing. Whatever shallow drama the wesen council added to the show was not dramatically interesting. The wesen council appeared and it was like, “Oh? Britta’s in this…”

Black Claws laid waste to the council. They killed Xavier. Nick and Hank learned the ideology of the group spread into suburban families after asking Billie’s parents questions about her whereabouts. Her parents believe she’s living a courageous life of convictions. Nick, Hank, Monroe, and Rosalee try to make sense of recent developments. They’re all reactive, vulnerable, and unsure. Trubel knows more than they, as does Meisner, and none can believe Juliette came back from the dead as an even more destructive force. For Nick, he needs clarity about Juliette (who and what she is). The woman was responsible for the death of his mother, and the near destruction of the people closest to him. Juliette/Eve is in character rehabilitation mode. Meisner gave her the name Eve to symbolize a new beginning. Instead of biting from the forbidden apple, Juliette/Eve will atone for ever touching, let alone biting and mauling, the forbidden apple.

The appearance of Eve upset Nick’s new domestic order. Adalind worried about the return of Juliette, you know, because of the wanting to murder her thing. Adalind and Nick have adapted to a peaceful domestic situation with Kelly. They meaningfully kissed for the first time (no one acted like the other; no one was forced to do it to save someone else). Adalind apologized for what she did to Nick. After they kissed they thought about the implications of being together. Both decided waiting until the craziness subsided before doing anything. By then, Meisner will likely have brought Diana back to Adalind, and Juliette may be redeemed. This whole storyline—the different parts cohering together eventually--could be a disaster.

Nick’s meeting with Eve had that underwhelming quality specific to Grimm. The writers build to climatic meetings or fights  or revelations, but the scene itself is a dud. Nick/Eve was a dud. Juliette/Eve sits stone-faced, offers a little about her purpose, and then stands to kill one of the leaders of Black Claws. Nick asked about what she did before he thought she died to which Eve met him stone-faced. Eve returned to her cage. She removed her wig. The last shot of the episode was of her eyes to show how precarious the divide is between her two selves.

“Eve of Destruction” established, for the third time this season, the Black Claws threat. The difference this time, I suppose, was becoming aware of how the good guys planned to combat the threat. Black Claws revealing that wesen live among ordinary humans seems the initial agenda of the group. I assume they’ll want to take over the world, too.

Other Thoughts:

-It was a decent return for Grimm. NBC only aired 6 episodes during the fall. Will NBC air an uninterrupted stretch through May?

-Renard and Wu fell off the narrative after the teaser. Renard helped question Xavier. Wu disappeared.

-Thomas Ian Griffith wrote the episode. John Behring directed.