Maia Says GRIMM is Bee-Musing

Season 1, episode 3: “BeeWare”

[all images: NBC]

There are a whole lot of things in this episode that I don’t understand and I have little hope that they will be explained in coming episodes. In some ways this episode works better than the earlier ones. This one focuses more on being a police story with unusual suspects rather than being a creature show with police work being done.  We still don’t have a lot of feeling for our leads in this show. It may be that the writers are trying to cover too much material in each episode. It might work better to break the story up more and give us more reason to care about the people involved. Then again, some of them – including Nick – may not warrant our interest or concern. He does some really bone headed things.

Spoiler alert:

Has any one else noticed the apparently intentional use of the color red in this series? It is usually used as a tip off that the wearer is going to die. In the opening of this episode “Beeware” a lady gets on a bus and we are privy to see the bottom of her high heeled shoes. And yes, the bottoms are red and yes, she dies. I always wondered what it would be like to take part in a flash mob event. I am re-thinking my desire to take part in one.

I don’t follow the logic of when Nick sees the monsters for who they are and when he does not. I know it’s supposed to be when they lose control but, even that logic does not seem to hold. In the pilot he saw Adalind Shade reveal herself as a Hexenbiest. And all she was doing was smiling as she crossed the street. Then there were the two Mellifers in the police station who morphed breifly when they were not being questioned. When a fictionalized world is being set up the audience will buy in if the rules are set up and followed. I feel like the rules for this world are being bent when ever it suits the creators of the show. That throws the audience off. We will come along on the journey with the writers, but they can’t keep changing the rules. It’s like watching a bad performer of pantomime who just walked through the door they closed. It ruins the whole illusion.

This episode centers on the battle between the Mellifers, bee people, and the Hexenbiests, I don’t know what to call them decaying pretty ladies? I don’t know if there are male Hexenbiests. The only ones in this series have been females. If I understand this (and that’s questionable), the Mellifers are the communicators of the monster world. They are trying to protect and warn Nick. The Hexenbiests are probably trying to kill Nick and they have the protection of the police chief. Nick being a good cop, kills the Melissa Wincroft the Queen Bee. Melissa warns him of impending doom as she is dying. Adalind is obviously happy about the outcome.

The previews of the last many weeks with Nick and Monroe going up the creepy stairs finally played. It was one of the best Monroe moments in the show. I think that at some point Nick is going to have to let his police partner, Hank, in on the fact that he’s a Grimm. He put’s Hank in danger and I think you owe it to some one that you routinely put in danger to know why they are in that position. There are moments when it seems Hank has an inkling that there is a new dimension to Nick. That is one of the things that makes Hank more interesting than Nick. That and Hank has been married four times to seemingly very different women. His time with these past women gives him background and knowledge that he uses in each of their cases.

Please, oh please oh please give Nick some reason to be… Make him interesting. The only surviving Hexenbiest (that we know of) is more interesting than Nick.

There is some really good casting in this series. They manage to find actors who look like the creatures they morph into. That helps make their transformation more believable. The Queen Bee looked like a bee even in her ‘human’ form. Adalind Shade looks sort of like a skeleton even when she is in her human form. She has this little boney nose that does not take a lot of imagination to see it as the skeletal form she takes when she looses control.

I don’t understand a lot from this episode. Why were there dead bees all over the floor in the Queen Bee’s home? Why did she have hives in her home and there weren’t any bees attending to those hives? Why did all the bees fall dead when the Queen died? Where are the lights coming from into Nick’s bedroom window at night? Why is a bee out at night? Why did it sting him? Now he has been injected with toxins similar to a spider bite, courtesy of the Hexenbiest Adalind Shade, and now bee venom. Does this make him stronger?

Why does Nick go alone or only with one other person when entering a dangerous location. He does this in every episode. Maybe things will not go well for him and the show will be re-named “Monroe”! I’d watch that!

[Official Show Site at NBC]   [Previous Recap: “Bears Will Be Bears”]