GRIMM’s a Believer!

Episode 516: “The Believer”
Written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt
Directed by John Behring

[recap by Maia Ades]

First a bit of house cleaning news. In case you missed it, Grimm was renewed for a sixth season. It will be interesting to see if Grimm will get to run its course and call it quits on its own schedule. Not many TV shows have had that luxury. It’s always better for the fans if the writers know when the series will end and can give it a proper send off.

Take a look at the writer credit. The creators of the show wrote this episode. These guys are really busy, they are not just the creators, producers, they are also the show runners. I don’t know the reason that they wrote this episode. I hope it was because they wanted to be involved in the writing, probably their first love in the world of production.

Tonight we got more information on our ongoing stories and a new police case to boot. I’ll cover the police case first, even though that’s not where the episode actually started.

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I apologize upfront if I offend anyone. It is after all, a story about religion, beliefs, right and wrong, and understanding or the lack thereof. Just as Hank (Russell Hornsby) did his best to be respectful and not judge the parties involved, it is not my intention to make light of, or disrespect anyone’s beliefs. Just remember that I have a bit of Dustin Adair’s snarkiness and take it in the spirit of fun that I wrote it in.

The police case was sad. Not sad in the writing or the execution from a production standpoint. Sad in how many lives were lost or destroyed in the name of God, religion, right vs. wrong. And perhaps the final blame lies with Dwight Eleazer (William Mapother). If he’d at least been honest with his wife, Joan (Melinda Page Hamilton), she might not have led a exorcism to rid him of the Devil. Which of course was nothing more than a dragonish Wesen.

My husband has told me about religious tent revivals; however, I’ve never attended one. I’ve never heard tell of the preacher transforming into the devil incarnate. It’s no wonder that this one makes believers out of those in attendance. Although, you’d think there would have been some Wesen in attendance that would recognize what Dwight was. Maybe they did and their explanations were, um, quieted.

In any case, we have Dwight, who’s come to town to put on his tent revival, and Joan just happens to run a church in town and she’s bent on saving him, whatever the cost may be. The cost ends up being very high indeed. Benjamin, a member of the revival audience, takes video of Dwight’s performance on his phone. He’s confronted by one of Dwight’s security as he leaves. In the scuffle the security guy is shoved to the ground, hits his head and dies, immediately. That’s what brings Nick (David Guiltoli) and Hank into the story.

Benjamin runs back to the church to show the evidence on his phone of Dwight’s satanic possession. They make plans to help Dwight. Of course help is in the eye of the believer. Meanwhile Hank and Nick are closing in.

I think at this point I have to bring the other parts up to speed. Remember Eve’s (Bitsie Tulloch) test of her Grim Polyjuice Potion? Well, now she’s ready to do it for real. Eve enlists Nick’s help in knowing where Renard (Sasha Roiz) is so she can be him somewhere he isn’t. Got that? Which leads to Renard coming along as Nick and Hank follow the money to death and more death.

Meanwhile, Eve/Renard has one of the most awkward sex scenes with Rachel Wood. As off as Eve, er “Renard” is behaving, why doesn’t Rachel suspect anything? Really, you’ve been intimate with this man and you don’t notice anything? Oddly, this was actually my favorite part, only because I enjoyed Sasha Roiz’s performance.

The other story bit is the ongoing research of the cloth that was wrapped around the Splinter of Destiny. Okay, let’s be honest. There are a whole lot of problems with this. Mostly if these problems don’t come back to haunt them, it’ll be completely “hand of the writer” stuff. If Monroe’s professor friend (whom we’ve never heard of before) didn’t read through his halting explanation of the origins of the cloth… We’ll then he doesn’t deserve to be in his position. That means that whether they meant to or not, they’ve brought another person into the web of mystery that is the bronze chest and its contents. Oh great.

The exciting bit, was seeing that Sgt. Wu is going through some kind of changes. We don’t know what yet. All we see are neck pain and blurry vision. Hm, wanna look that up on WebMD and see what kind of Wesen that leads to? Kidding.

This episode continued an issue of morality and inconsistent application of actual law. This is something that upsets some fans. Well, by this time they probably aren’t fans. They left the show disgruntled over these issues. This is part of the “Don’t stare too hard at the TV show” reality. If you look too closely, you’ll see way too many flaws and gaping holes in the story. I attribute, or explain it, because of the tight schedule of a TV series. But I’ll readily admit there are many issues. But I’ll remind you that this is just meant to be entertainment.

If you’ve been following Grimm this long, I think you’ll hang around to see if Eve and Adalind (Claire Coffee) are going to have a physical showdown.

 

Grimm airs Friday nights at 9/8c on NBC.