GRIMM: Cover Your Tracks and Steal a Kiss
Episode 202 “The Kiss”
[Photos: Scott Green/NBC]
This is the conclusion of the season premiere. If you saw the promos and read from the NBC website, you know that Nick survives and that he is also in legal trouble for this one. Before he has been able to keep his violence under the law’s radar. This time he is rushed and maybe more sloppy. With the arrival of his mother all the parts of his life are colliding.
Spoilers ahead!
We open with a recap of the week before then back to the fight with the Mauvais Dentes. Of course both of the FBI agents were dead when Nick got there. As I predicted, the surprise element of having Nick’s Mother there would even the playing field. Actually that might not be true. Kelly is a very good fighter, with a lot more experience combating deadly Wesen. She is the one who lands the fatal blow with her knife. She is more ruthless than Nick and is after information from the Mauvais Dentes before she kills him. After he dies, she is looking for information on him. She finds a roll of money and takes that with her.
It gets to the point that you wonder, even if you are fighting on the side of right, does that make your unlawful actions pardonable? Kelly has perhaps lost her moral compass. She steals and kills without a thought about what she is doing morally. Her only thought seems to be survival.
Nick and his Mother run from the fight scene to the hospital where Monroe and Rosalee are waiting. He has to administer eye drops into Juliette’s eyes to stop the memory loss from the spell. The hospital staff do not like what is going on. But the odd group of allies get it done and are out before they are escorted out by security.
As they are leaving the hospital Nick gets called to the scene of the crime he just helped create. He requests that Monroe give his Mother a ride home. It’s an uncomfortable ride but they all survive it. Rosalee even gives Kelly a hug once they are at Nick’s house. Kelly may be starting to see that there are other ways for Grimms to conduct themselves than what she was taught. Maybe. On the other hand it may just be an act with her. She’s hard to read.
It bothers me that Nick accepts that this woman is his mother with very little proof. Is this because he has gone through so much that nothing surprises him any longer? He doesn’t seriously question her identity. I think that she really isn’t to be trusted. She comes crashing into his life with really no more than her tone of voice and a nickname to say who she is. Why does Nick believe and trust her?
Nick shows up at the lumber mill that he left a short time ago. Now he is in the awkward position of investigating a crime scene that he had something to do with. When Wu finds a 9mm bullet shell casing, Nick remembers that his gun is in this building. He manages to grab his gun. Then on his way back to the precinct he throws it out into water.
Federal agents arrive on the murder scene and take over from the Portland police. One of the Federal agents takes agent Kantiger’s cell phone and re-dials her last call. Foolishly Nick does not check the number when his cell phone rings. He answers “Detective Burkhardt” which incriminates him even more. Now there is evidence that she called him and he didn’t mention it to anyone. Nah, that doesn’t look suspicious at all.
Despite the behavior of the FBI agents falling for an easy and obvious trap, the ones investigating their murder seem a bit smarter. They are sure that Nick is somehow involved in what happened at the lumber mill. They accuse Nick at the police station and request a DNA sample. If you notice, this scene is more about what Nick does not say and how he turns what he says back on the investigating agents than it is about actual information that he gives. He does deliver one standout lie about what the agent said to him in her last phone call. And he does it without even a flinch. This whole dual life is making lying too much of a habit.
Hank and Nick leave the station together. The sad part is Hank letting Nick know that he knows that something’s up. After all that Nick has put Hank through, all that Hank asks is not to be hung out to dry. The whole first season we watched Hank deal with his sense of reality being shaken time and again. And Nick not knowing what to say, never helped him out. It looks like next episode Nick will have to deal with the fall out from his inaction on this.
Captain Renard calls the man in charge of the torture in last week’s episode. It’s his brother Eric Renard who lives a much different lifestyle than our Captain. Eric lives in a castle and sleeps in full pajamas with an apparently naked woman. And who sleeps with that many lit candles?
Anyway, I digress.
The two brothers make threats back and forth. I think the conclusion of this is an even nastier beast will be sent to dispatch with Nick. The look on Eric’s face seems to say that this is rather like a game of chess to him and he likes the game.
The next morning there is a bunch going on. Nick stops by his house to get a gun out of his gun safe. Recall he threw his other one into the water. He tells his Mother that he needs to pay a visit to Catherine. Kelly convinces him that it would be better if she goes, mother to mother to persuade her on a more personal level. The federal agents place Nick under arrest. They are sure that Nick had something to do with the triple homicide; they just aren’t sure what. Renard goes to Catherine’s to collect a jar of thick white stuff. Catherine explains that he must be pure of heart to wake Juliette and the stuff in the jar will chemically do that. But she also tells him that since he is barely human he is in for a rough ride.
As soon as Renard has left, Kelly pays a visit to Catherine. Kelly is trying to get more information on what Adalind infected Juliette with. As Kelly later says, it didn’t go well. She kills Catherine without getting a lot more information. She does learn that there is a bastard prince in Portland and he is the one who can wake Juliette. I couldn’t help wonder as I watched, can you really kill a Hexenbiest? I would not count Catherine out. Although from the production log it sounds like they won’t be bringing back the Catherine character.
Nick is able to talk himself out of his arrest. It’s not that they think he’s innocent. It’s just that they can’t tie him to the crime scene. In a bit of humor, the one time Nick tells them the truth, that the person he is trying to protect is his Mother, is the one time they don’t believe him.
As soon as he is released, he and Hank leave for the murder scene of Catherine. For the second time Nick is investigating a murder that his Mother has committed. Kelly leaves quite a wake of death behind her.
For the first time we get a glimpse of what Captain Renard is as he prepares to go through his purification process. It looks like Renard has a lot of purification to go through. But he comes through the process with no visible signs of wear and tear.
Realizing the predicament that she is putting her son in, Kelly announces that she needs to leave. She is taking the Coins of Zakynthos presumably to destroy them. At least that’s what she leads Nick to think. She asks Nick for a ride to the station. They say their goodbyes and Nick drives off. Kelly however, walks a few steps and then turns in to a parking lot to steal a car.
As Nick is heading to the hospital to be by Juliette’s side, Renard plants the wake up kiss on Juliette. In timing that rarely happens in real life, as Renard leaves the hospital Nick is arriving.
Juliette awakes just as Nick has come back to her bedside. And in this week’s cliffhanger, she doesn’t know who he is.
I am pretty sure we have not seen the last of Kelly. I don’t know what she’s up to, but she is not on the up and up, even with Nick. It looks like Renard has changed himself. I wonder how long a purification process lasts? Juliette has holes in her memory and is Renard her Prince now? It looks like Nick will have to examine his choices with Hank and maybe he will help Hank find his way back to some semblance of sanity.
This season is off to an exciting start.
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