GRIMM's Grudge Match
3.10 “Good Soldier”
[photos: Scott Green/NBC]
It appears that I should not try to get my information from other websites offering information on Grimm. I read that we wouldn’t meet Roaslee’s mother and sister till next week and Monroe’s parents the following week after that.
I knew it could be done. I knew that there were ways to keep the suspense even with the format that Grimm has established. And see how much fun it is when you don’t get all the answers up front? Did you enjoy not knowing for sure who was committing the murders? I did.
This episode had some great things going on. The plot has three storylines, but doesn’t invest the same energy in all three. There’s the police case, Adalind in Vienna, and Monroe meeting Rosalee’s family. It felt like a really good balance of time spent on each of the three stories, even though the largest chunk of the episode is the police case. Said case begins with Ron, an army vet, now private security man, who gets an unwelcome visit from a lady while having a night out at the VFW Hall.
She is obviously angry over something in their past. She has crudely cut numbers on her forearm and confronts him with the cut. He leaves and goes home where she again confronts him. He’s about to make her leave the front of his house with his gun when she vanishes. Returning to his home he’s attacked and killed from a stab wound.
Hank and Nick discover that there are four former military buddies and it seems that someone is hunting them down. Another of their group was killed in Arizona the week before. Turns out that the four buddies — Ron, Robert, Troy and Jim — gang-raped Francesca Gonzales, a.k.a. Frankie, while stationed in Iraq. She is the anguished young lady that confronted Ron at the VFW.
Hank and Nick talk to the mens’ C.O. via computer because he has terminal cancer and would not be able to make the trip to Portland. He explains that the private sector security companies working in Iraq were immune from prosecution. He describes them as dogs without leashes. The one guy that was under his command was quickly reassigned before there could be charges. All he was able to do was file a restricted complaint. He tells them that the four raped Frankie and there just wasn’t much recourse to punish them. Hank and Nick think they’re talking to the Colonel from his hospital bed but as soon as the conversation is over we see that he’s in fact in a motel room.
Troy is guilt-ridden and following a visit to his home by Frankie, he confesses to his wife that he and his buddies raped the woman. I can’t imagine the shock and horror of learning such news. Troy later tells Jim and pleads with him that they need to come clean on this. Jim asks Troy to give it some more thought. At home Troy has written out his confession. His furious wife tells him to burn it. He tosses the torn up confession into the fireplace but before he can get it burned they are both attacked and killed in the same way as Ron.
Nick decides that since they are dealing with something nearly matching scorpion venom that they could use Juliette’s help. The three of them make a trip to Aunt Marie’s trailer to do their research. There they learn that what they are probably dealing with is a Manticore. The Manticore is described as a lion with a scorpion tail and no fear of death. Armed with this knowledge they track down Frankie. They arrest her while she is harassing the fourth army buddy, Jim. During questioning at the police station they discover that while she is Wesen, she is not a Manticore. She’s a bird type Wesen, looks like a raven.
While she is in custody the Colonel invites Jim to the VFW for a show down. Both of them are Manticores and we suddenly find out that Jim killed Troy and his wife. The two fight, the Colonel is stabbed with a knife by Jim and dies. I think he set it up to get stabbed by a knife and not Jim’s scorpion stinger which would be much harder to get a conviction for. As he’s dying he tells Nick, “Maybe you can’t arrest him for what he did to Frankie but you can for what he did to me.”
The shortest storyline is Adalind’s. She is being watched while sitting in a restaurant in Vienna. She is starting to have some pain and she’s creating some interesting physics-defying effects and blowing out the lighting. The spy calls Sean Renard to report when she enters her hotel room. Sean makes a comment about Adalind getting her powers back and it not being long now. It sounds like when Adalind delivers the baby she’ll get her full powers. What isn’t at all clear is what will happen to her or the baby. And is Sean interested in Adalind or in the baby she carries?
Our third storyline involves Rosalee making contact with her family and introducing Monroe to them. This is was really well acted by all parties. It’s one of those scenes where it’s not what’s on the page but how the lines are delivered. It’s what is not said, the tension and body language between family members. The little digs that siblings get in to annoy each other were all played to perfection. Monroe is in such an awkward position.
Dinner with Rosalee’s family breaks down. Rosalee runs out of the house followed by Monroe. After she gathers herself back together she approaches the house. Her mother comes out and they embrace. Monroe is watching this tender moment when the older sister Deana surprises Monroe from behind in full Wesen form. She threatens Monroe if he should ever break her little sister’s heart.
It looks like next week we’ll get the reverse on this and meet Monroe’s parents. There is also the promise of a wedding proposal from Monroe but we’ll see if they put it in the same episode. This is all adding up to some possibly really fun season finale stories.
[Official Show Site at NBC] [Previous recap: “Coming Out GRIMM Style”]
