Coin of the GRIMM Realm
Episode 113 “Three Coins in a Fuchsbau”
According to the NBC Grimm website, this week’s story has it’s foundation in the Master Thief story. Personally, I see more resemblance to The Lord of the Rings. Except the end of this episode does not deliver the same finality. I really like several things about this episode. First of all, there is less gore and more mystery. That is just my personal taste. Others may miss the gore and creep factor of weeks past. Sargent Wu is back. I, for one, missed him last week. Hank and Nick get to delve more into their characters.
Spoiler Alert
Our story opens with three bad guys getting ready for crime. You can tell they are bad guys in several ways: they talk like bad guys, they are prepping guns, and they can’t even trust each other. Oh, and we quickly see two of them morph in to nasty-looking creatures as they draw guns on each other. The third brandishes two guns completing the “gun on each other” triangle. He doesn’t flinch when they morph, which tells me he is also something not pretty.
They boldly burst into a jewelry store right after closing. The owner of the store manages to make his way into his own vault. He locks himself in and selects a metal box. Inside the box are three coins. We see him take out one of the coins. He looks as though he dreads what is to come. Then he lets drop the empty box. With an explosion the three robbers break into the vault.
Hank and Nick arrive at the scene of the crime. Our faithful Sargent Wu is already there to brief them on details from the crime scene. The store owner, Samuel, is dead in the emptied vault. His body is pierced from the explosion, especially his head and upper torso.
As Nick is leaving the crime scene he sees Soledad across the street transform into his creature form. He also notices the car that Soledad gets into and leaves the scene.
The Robbers stole the surveillance camera from the store. However, back at the police station they are able to get a license plate image from a nearby camera that caught the robbers driving.
Our robbing trio rummaging through their ill-gotten loot are disappointed. The coins they committed the crime to gain are not in the pile of treasure they have amassed on the floor. As bad guys are want to do they immediately start blaming each other. Their leader, Soledad, leaves to return to the scene of the crime and see if he can find them.
Almost as soon as he has left a sound sets off the two remaining robbers and they start searching the house for the source of the noise. Of course being bad guys they do this with guns drawn. Did you notice the deer head in the background? The filming of this part is confusing. I assume it was supposed to be. Part of it is shot with a yellow fish eye look. I don’t know if that is the point of view of one of our two bad guys or the third entity, Farley, that they are trying to find. My guess is that this is Grimm‘s version of hawk vision. Anyway, our two bad guys shoot each other in the dark.
Harper finds the coins inside Samuel’s stomach. She hypothesizes that Samuel was somehow poisoned; his body systems just shut down. Hank takes the coins with him in an evidence bag. Harper is unusually upset about the coins leaving. But they do.
Suddenly Hank and Nick leave for the crime scene where the two bad guys shot each other. These police are very fast. They get there soon after Soledad has returned. Farley has the upper hand in this situation. He has Soledad on the floor, questioning him. When Farley announces that the police are there Soledad makes a quick exit.
Hank is already being affected by the powerful coins. This power that the coins seem to exert on anyone they come in contact with is what made me think of the Lord of the Rings story. I think that the power they have on Hank is a slip in the story because the coins are in an evidence bag. They are not actually in contact with Hank’s skin. When he picked them up and put them in the evidence bag he was wearing gloves. So unless the idea is that he is more affected because of something about him and this isn’t supported by the plot.
Back to the story. Hank roughs up Farley more than necessary. Nick is confused by Hank’s behavior but doesn’t say anything. As Nick is cuffing Farley, Farley shows himself to be a Steinadler, a hawk like person. It’s not an instance of Farley losing control it’s more of a I’ll show you who I am. I know who you are.
Soledad gets away from the officer that called Hank and Nick to the scene out the back door. He leaps over the fence in a very un-human way. The officer goes back into the house where Hank and Nick are arresting Farley. Hank jumps on the officer for losing the second suspect. Nick trying to defuse the situation sends the officer to get a coroner to the scene. Back at his patrol car the officer gets on his radio but is snatched from behind before he completes the call.
Hank and Nick show the mysterious coins to Captain Renard. They believe the coins to be German because of the swastika on one side of the coins. Captain Renard explains that through out history the swastika has had different connotations. It was not until the Third Reich used the symbol that it became reviled.
Hank is given the night off to cool down. It seems that Hank is especially susceptible to the power of the coins. He did not even come in direct contact with the coins. He used a blue glove when he put them in the evidence bag. The rest of the time that Hank had possession of the coins they were in the bag.
Renard makes a call in French to some one that he shares news of the coins with. He is warned to be very careful.
Under questioning Farley begins to tell Nick the history of the coins. He also tells him a bit about his own past (well… not directly). He tells Nick about another Grimm he knew. He was in love with her but she left him eighteen years ago. Her sister was killed in a car wreck in Rhinebeck, New York. He claims that the woman killed had been taking care of the coins. With her death the coins were once again in circulation. The woman, the Grimm he was in love with, left him to raise her sister’s child.
Monroe stops by Aunt Marie’s trailer for some late night German translation. Monroe’s translation gives Nick information on what sort of creature he is dealing with this week. The Steinadlers are usually involved in the military. He says that you cannot always tell what side a Steinadler is on. Monroe finds an old camera and projector in the trailer. Of course Monroe knows all about the equipment. He gets excited and heads off home to rummage through his own attic to find his family home movies.
Nick shares with Juliette that a suspect in custody may have a connection to his parents and Aunt Marie. Don’t worry he isn’t being a bad cop. He doesn’t share Farley’s name. And he explains to Juliette that he could not ask the suspect personal questions.
Renard did not put the coins in evidence. He kept them for himself. During the night he has a dream where he is cheered by throngs of followers in the street below his apartment balcony. The next morning he comes to the police station in full Captain dress uniform. He schedules a press conference for that afternoon and requires the presence of all police staff.
