GRIMM Goes Mental

Episode 4:11 “Death Do Us Part”

This episode had a good police story. It was almost a ghost story. Some characters are changing. Some of the personalities we’ve come to know are noticeably missing.

This episode was the unveiling of Drew Wu 2.0. The response to the new Wu on Twitter was very positive. Everyone seems to like the enthusiasm he has for being part of the team. It played really well and fits with the world that Grimm has established. None of this would work in the real world but, this isn’t reality it’s our escape into Grimm.

The police case involved a ghost hunting trio of young adults, the Ghost Seekers. Like some actual reality TV ghost hunting shows, they locate a house supposedly haunted and video themselves investigating the house. They have gear and go around acting scientific as they ham it up for the camera.

They pick the Donovan house because five years before a couple died in their bed. In the years since, there have been sightings of lights flickering and sounds coming from the house.  The circumstances of the couple’s death was never solved. The story that interested the Ghost Seekers was that Stetson, the husband, is said to still haunt the house.

 

The real story is even better. It’s an electric love triangle filled with Wesen. Stetson Donavan, who happens to be a Matanca Zumbido, found his wife Patty and another man named Theo in his bed. He electrocuted them both with his Wesen powers, leaving them so charred their bodies were not recognizable. The assumption was made that it was the husband and wife that were in the bed. How they were killed was never solved.

The police were close to getting it right, they just missed on who the dead man was. Theo, the man in the bed, was also married. Lily knew it was her husband that died in that bed, but because of the Wesen circumstances she couldn’t go to police with what she knew.

One of the Ghost Seekers, Ron, is attacked by Stetson, who has been sort of living in the house. Ron’s charred body hurtles down the stairs and justifiably scares Carol and Paul. Nick and Hank join Wu at the scene of Ron’s death. They piece together information from the detective of the previous deaths five years ago, Ron’s camera, and Aunt Marie’s library.

That leads them to interview Theo’s wife. She realizes that Stetson is still in the house. It becomes something of a deadly farce. Stetson cuts his obviously fake beard to clean up. Lily enters the house with a gun. Paul and Carol enter the house with cameras. I wondered if Paul was going to become the token black guy from a B horror movie. He sort of did, except he didn’t die.

Nick gets his ear pierced and poison dart frog paste applied to his ear. That is all the armor he needs to protect himself from electrocution. Am I the only one who finds that kind of silly? Apparently it works. He saves Paul and is about to arrest Stetson when Lily shoots him in the back. The shock wave that shooting Stetson created was pretty cool. It seemed like that much energy should have caused injuries to someone.

Later at the police station, Wu inquires what Lily will be charged with, and he’s brought into the less than legal side of taking care of these Wesen cases. Hank and Nick inform him that they are calling it self defense, and she won’t be charged with anything. This is one of those parts that require suspension of disbelief. We all know that a lot of what goes on in this precinct would not hold up in real life. You have to decide to just go with it. If you don’t, this show will probably drive you nuts. There’s a lot of “What kind of police are you?” moments.

Juliette is on an interesting road as a Hexenbiest. Last episode ended with Juliette begging Renard for help. This week, he connects her with a really powerful Hexenbiest. Henrietta is a new character who promises to bring a new level of magic and power to what we’ve come to know of Hexenbiests.

So far, Juliette has been adamantly wanting to be rid of her Hexenbiest side. But, let’s think about this for a moment. I think having this sort of power could be life-saving if she plans to continue living with a Grimm. Even the promo for next week alludes to her being in mortal danger, yet again.

I liked this episode a lot. Which is why my biggest complaint is the wig and beard on Stetson. Considering the effectiveness the special effects team does with the Wesen, how can the makeup folks not make a wig and beard look believable? Grimm has got to have enough budget to be able to create a believable beard. It’s disappointing when something like costuming takes me out of the story. I start think about that instead of the story or the characters.

It’s like when the blood effects have been so off that the blood is pink. I end up spending time wondering who goofed on the blood recipe that it could look that unbelievable. Anything that looks really off takes the audience out of the story. Yes, it’s hard to get everything right. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

I’ll ask the obvious question: how long does it take to travel from Vienna to Portland? Wasn’t it two weeks ago that Adalind was awoken and informed that she would be traveling to Portland? I know there have been other things going on. But now, Monroe is presumably safely off on his honeymoon. Wu has been brought into the Wesen, Grimm fold. We know that Juliette has had a little hiccup of a side effect from helping Nick regain his Grimmness. Why we haven’t had a glimpse of Adalind? And when will Trubel make her return?

[Show site at NBC]     [Previous recap: “Tribunal”]