A GRIMM Trust
Episode 210 “Hour of Death”
[photos: Scott Green/NBC]
This was in several ways a week of payoff for storylines that have been set up for weeks. This episode worked well. It had all its elements working together. For instance, a few weeks ago the special effects detracted from the episode. And it hurt the overall effort of the episode.
Spoiler Alert
Nick is having bad dreams. Not surprising considering his work and the things he sees both as a police detective and Grimm. He is dreaming about a kidnapping case he’s been working on. There is some friction between Nick and Juliette. Nick is tired of sleeping on the couch. And Juliette wants to put off talking about it.
A guy is talking to someone else on his cell while burning photos of the kidnapped woman, Donna Reynolds. Hank and Nick arrive at his door. They are questioning him about the kidnapping when Adrian, morphs into a Schakal. Nick pretty tosses him through a screen door and then chases him down. He is hitting Adrian and demanding information with Hank pulls Nick off of Adrian. Back at the station Hank and Nick question Adrian. They are getting nowhere and Captain Renard tells them that with out hard evidence they are going to have to release him. Adrian is frightened of Nick and loudly announces that Nick is threatening him and that if anything happens to him Nick will be to blame.
It’s nice to see Nick’s character displaying more emotions. His frustration and inner conflict are more evident. Early in the series Nick was the least interesting of the characters. Now he is finally more interesting to watch. However, especially in this episode Nick is starting to display more of the Grimm characteristics that the Wesen fear. Not only the scene in which he attacks Adrian but also later in his response to the trade off of Adrian’s life for the safe return of Donna. I would like to see more comic relief. It has been used very effectively in this show. But this episode was lacking that element.
Convinced that Adrian knows more than he has shared and is probably the perpetrator they are looking for Nick decides to handle this his own way. With his crossbow from the trailer, he goes to ask Monroe if he can mix up some sort of truth potion.
Meanwhile Juliette is doing her own detective work trying to locate Adalind. It’s not going well. Sean Renard calls and under the pretext of wanting to talk to her about Nick sets up a coffee date for the next day.
When Nick arrives at Adrian’s house Nick finds him in the basement, dead and he looks like he was tortured before he died. Hank came to make sure Nick didn’t do something he might regret. Then Sargent Wu arrives on the scene and both of them are surprised to learn that Adrian called 911 and made a full confession including the location of the lady, Donna Reynolds. Nick and Hank have trouble explaining why they are at the crime scene. Adrian’s body is branded with a symbol. The same symbol is on the wall in what looks like fresh blood.
Donna is safely rescued. Renard at the scene of her rescue talks to Nick on the phone about taking Adrian into custody. Nick explains that Adrian is already dead.
When Renard gives his news conference they release an image of the symbol in hopes that someone will recognize it and call the police. Immediately both Monroe and Bud recognize this symbol and both of them call Nick. Monroe gets a hold of Nick on his cell and tells Nick he needs to come over immediately to talk about the symbol. Nick assures Bud by telling him that he has it under control.
Of course Sean Renard knows what the symbol means. He calls his contact in Vienna to find out if the royal family sent someone, again.
Hank goes with Nick to Monroe’s where they learn the symbol was used by an ancient branch of Grimms known as the Endezeichen Grimms. They were ruthless and killed any Wesen they found. Their mark and brand a stylized G is known as the Sterbestunde or the “Hour of Death” and they branded the bodies of the Wesen they killed. Monroe shows them the same symbol in a book that is the Wesen version of Grimm’s fairy tales. Hank is conflicted that this killer got the confession they could not. Nick does not seem so conflicted.
When Nick gets home the killer calls Nick on his cell. He accuses Nick of not doing his job. The next day when Nick gets to the police station he learns the a video of the torture was put online. Nick and Hank go to interview Donna Reynolds and her parents. They learn that there were two people involved in her kidnapping. And that she was taken in a van.
They find footage of the van from a security camera in the garage of the building Donna was taken from. When they go to pick up the registered owner of the van, Richard, he is about to leave. When he sees Nick, he freaks out sure that Nick will also torture and kill him.
Juliette meets Renard at the coffee shop. Okay, I know that I said their looks at each other didn’t seem romantic. This time, at least on Renard’s side, they did. He reaches for her hand and tries to reassure her that what has happened to her is not her fault. But instead of drawing them closer Juliette pulls away and takes her leave. But like a glass slipper, she leaves behind her sunglasses. Renard pulls them close to himself.
At the station Nick and Hank are interrupted during their interrogation by forensics. They go to see the evidence found in the van. It’s a slam dunk case. There are fingerprints, the chloroform and cloth used to administer it and the kicker, Donna’s purse is all in the van. Confident they have their man they head back to the interrogation room. But the suspect is gone. Someone let him go. Considering the fate of the first suspect they immediately send a SWAT team to Richard’s home, but they find him dead. He has the same brands on his body as the first. What I don’t know is how his head is in an upright position while tied to a chair with a slit throat. The killer again calls Nick and chastises him for not killing Richard. Nick counters that they had evidence on Richard and would have been able to convict him. The killer says that he was a Wesen is all the evidence needed.
When Nick and Hank get back to the police station Ryan the intern urgently tells Nick that there is someone to see him. It’s Bud, very worried by the Endezeichen symbol and the internet video of torture and killing of Adrian. In his own way Bud conveys that Nick has gained Wesen trust and is in danger of losing it with these killings.
Bud is leaving the police station when he’s met in the parking lot by Ryan. Suddenly Ryan injects Bud in the neck with something that fells him immediately. Wu has been going over the the video from their interrogation room. He points out Ryan’s reflection in the glass of the door when Richard was released from the room. A quick check reveals that Ryan followed Bud out. Nick realizes that Bud is in mortal danger. First they try Ryan’s apartment. There they find his drunk mother and Ryan’s room is covered in pictures and articles about Nick. It’s obvious that Ryan has more than a passing interest in Nick. It’s like a shrine to Nick on Ryan’s walls.
Nick makes a quick call to Bud’s wife and learns that he was headed to his shop. Nick and Hank rush there and stop Ryan as he is about to torture Bud. Nick chases Ryan but when he has him cornered Ryan morphs into a Lebensauger a leach-like creature. Ryan is ashamed of his Wesen form. He begs Nick to kill him. Nick won’t do it, he cuffs him instead.
Renard stops by to return Juliette’s sunglasses. He kisses her and in a rush she has a flashback and remembers that it’s Renard who kissed her in the hospital and he that broke her coma. Now she knows. Now what?
Bonus points; did you catch this week’s continuity mistake? Or at least the one that jumped out at me. The part with the interrogation of Richard and Nick and Hank going to check out the van with the forensic expert. Look for Hank’s police badge. When he’s in the interrogation room it’s hanging from his neck. When he steps outside the room it’s gone. When he’s walking with and talking to the forensic expert, it’s back. When he’s walking down the hall back to the interrogation room it’s gone again. Are all or most television shows this bad with continuity or is it just the show I watch?
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