GRIMM Has a Party Animal

Episode 605 “The Seven Year Itch”
Written by Jeff Miller
Directed by Lee Rose

[recap by Maia Ades]

The Grimm count down continues. This is turning out to be a strong half season. It’s an odd feeling knowing these are the last episodes of a show I’ve been following and writing about from the first episode to the last.

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It seems that, at least for now, the Wesen of the week is back. This week’s monster was a cicada. Full disclosure: I’m not fond of cicadas. I don’t mind them in the trees making their repetitive drone. But get one too close to me and I’m apt to behave more like a middle school girl rather than an experienced adult. I’ve been working on this phobia for years. I think I’m making progress. However, seeing a man size cicada did kinda creep me out. There were parts of this episode that were hard for me to watch. I won’t lie.

I thought the effects team did a pretty good job translating a cicada to Wesen. There were some movements that were great little insect twitches. I doubt that the transformation from human to cicada could happen that fast. That seemed a bit odd that he could so easily make the change back and forth.

Did anyone else wonder if there is another version of this Wesen that emerges every seventeen years? Different kinds of cicadas have different lengths of time that they remain underground. There are over 190 varieties of cicadas just in North America.

This episode also furthered our main characters’ stories. It didn’t give us many answers, but I think those will come.

Eve (Elizabeth Tulloch) finally got out of the tunnel. And thanks to her close encounter with the Splinter of Destiny last week she now sports a cool symbol burned into the palm of her hand. We still don’t know why she was compelled to scrawl on the tunnel walls and ceiling. Hm, I just realized that. How did she manage to do that on the ceiling of the tunnel? I expect our attentive viewers noticed and asked the same question. Any thoughts you’d like to share on how she did that without anything to stand on? Could she have managed just by reaching above her head? Or is it too high to do that?

Personally the most interesting part was the haunting of Renard (Sasha Roiz). I don’t know exactly what happened in the pawn shop. Our co-host Ann Laabs had a theory that the whole experience was in Renard’s mind. However, Renard called the pawn shop owner, Steiger, and set up the appointment. Which leads me to think that at least part of it actually happened. Perhaps the part at the end, when Renard came to and found himself in a deserted version of the pawn shop, took place in Renard’s mind.

Kudos to Brad Greenquist, who portrayed Steiger. He gave a wonderful, nuanced performance. I really enjoy it when an actor takes a seemingly small part and breathes so much life into it. Thank you Mr. Greenquist for you work in this episode.

Any thoughts on when Renard found time to move into his new residence? I’ve moved a few times. It’s a lot of work. Takes a lot of time and this episode seems to take place right after the last one. Think about it, just moving his wardrobe would take some effort.

Perhaps next week we’ll learn more about the symbols from the Shroud of Destiny. Who knows, we might even get some answers on some of the storylines. I don’t expect that. I think most of the longer stories we have going on now, will continue to the end. I do hope the stories get some kind of conclusion then.

 

Grimm airs Friday nights at 8/7c on NBC.