Will GRIMM Throw Out the Baby With the Bathwater?
Episode 604 “El Cuegle”
Written by Brenna Kouf
Directed by Carlos Avila
[recap by Maia Ades]
You know that comfy pair of jeans that is worn and comfortable? That’s how I feel about this episode. It reminds me of former episodes. Not back to the time when Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) had more of his interesting characteristics. But far enough in the past that it feels familiar.
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Renard (Sasha Roiz) not only saw and talked to Meisner, he put his hand on him and it didn’t go through. That made me start to wonder if Meisner was somehow there. I started trying to figure out if he could have survived and was sneaking in and out of Renard’s home. However, it seems that Meisner is just a very powerful figment of Renard’s imagination.
Grimm brought up an interesting moral dilemma. Unfortunately both the audience and our leads don’t have enough information until the end of the episode. If the moral part had come earlier and we could have seen Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) grapple with what is the right thing to do it would have been more interesting. This week’s Wesen can see the future murders that a baby will commit. His kind steal these babies and … wait for it… eat them to prevent the future violence they see the baby will do. The moral question; is it better to kill a baby that is predicted to commit violence when it grows up or allow it to grow up and hope the visions are wrong? If Nick and Hank had more time to ponder the choices before them, would they have done something different?
Grimm rarely actually looks at serious issues or questions. It’s even more rare for the characters to have time to work through something like that. Guess what, this isn’t any different. I enjoy thinking about characters and situations after watching television or a movie. I know that Grimm is an evening soap opera but, it could have been more. Although that would probably have been a completely different show.
You know, I’ll probably miss pondering these questions when the series ends. I wonder what show Grimm‘s fans will watch when this season ends.
My favorite moment from this episode was the quiet scene between Monroe and Rosalee (Bree Turner). Monroe dips into his strong, quiet side. The part of him that is there to comfort and protect Rosalee. His ability to do so much with his story telling has always been some of my favorite watching in this series. This was a bit of the old Monroe character back, thank you writers. Thank you for giving me some time with the Monroe I used to enjoy.
I think we’ve all thought this, if the writers don’t have some kind of large showdown in mind with Diana; they’ve missed the mark. This young character is being set up with incredible powers and no filter on how or when to use them. The list of things she can do just keeps growing. This week she demonstrated that she can instantly boil water. Last week she threw Nick/Renard across the Spice Shop into a wall and knocked the spell out of him. Any guesses who her show down will be with? It’s unclear at this point if her allegiance will be with Adalind (Claire Coffee) or with Renard. I wonder what she will go through when she learns that basically her parents are on the opposite sides of a war. That takes the stakes of parental separation to a whole new level.
I’m also interested in hearing your thoughts about what’s going on with Eve (Elizabeth Tulloch) and her tunnel drawings. I think it’s obvious it has something to do with the Splinter of Destiny: but what? Did holding the Splinter zap her with some sort of divine knowledge? Is she trying to reconcile her two halves? Is she being driven mad by some power from the Splinter?
I’m not sure where this is going next week. We’ll have to find out together. I look forward to where the story will go from here.
Grimm airs Friday nights at 8/7c on NBC.
