Grimm 1x06: The Three Bad Wolves

Original Air Date: 9 December 2011

Storyline: Nick is called to a suspected arson case, which exposes a longstanding family feud that brings Monroe face-to-face with characters from his troubled past. While Monroe wrestles with restraining his wild side, it's up to Nick to keep everything from going up in flames.Trivia: In this episode, Angelina, a Blutbad, mentions being with someone named Adam Hauptman. Adam Hauptman is the name of an alpha werewolf from the Mercedes Thompson series written by Patricia Briggs. 

The arson investigator is named after Orson Pig, the main character in U.S. Acres, the cartoon strip created by Jim Davis, also the creator of Garfield. 

Best Quote:

Eddie: My aim is to keep the toilet clean. 
Hap: Cool.
Eddie: Your aim will help.

The Story: The Three Little PigsIntro: "'Little pig, little pig, let me come in,' said the wolf to the pig. 'Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin,' said the pig to the wolf."Review: The centuries-old feud between the Blutbaden and the Bauerschwein - essentially between the wolves and the pigs - is the idea being this Friday's Grimm episode, was that finds Monroe struggle with his natural instincts as opposed to his new, reformed persona. This is not an easy thing to do, especially when you throw into the mix his old flame, beautiful and dangerous Angelina (played by Jaime Ray Newman), a Blutbad who is not so happy about moving past the old ways.

It was great seeing the focus on Monroe. He has all the makings of becoming a reliable character - hell, he already has - and having a bit of an insight into his life previous to repairing clocks and doing Pilates gave me what I've been searching for from this show ever since his character was first introduced. He talked about his old ways before and how he doesn't want to go back to that, but it was refreshing to actually see what his old ways were - though messing with the Bugs Bunny population of Portland didn't make me love him unconditionally. It was also great to have confirmation that he's a guy who struggles with his nature every day; somehow, you always appreciate more a person who puts so much effort into staying out of trouble than someone for which doing good comes naturally.
There were times when I wasn't crazy about the way classic fairy tales or legends were transposed into this show, but I liked the concept from this episode. It wasn't just a fight between two natural enemies, it was a fight between families and, ultimately, a fight between the old ways and the modern society and how the different creatures chose to adapt or not to it.
The progress in getting to know the actual Grimm mythology is still a slow one. Orson tells Nick that their families have never been enemies, which makes me wonder if there's only one Grimm family out there and Nick has some long lost cousins somewhere. That's still hard to believe, I doubt there's only one "chosen", after all, what would happen to the rest of the world outside of Portland? And this isn't Buffy.
I have to give credit to Orson for being the character to put things into perspective multiple times. His "sometimes being a cop gets in the way of what you have to do" was a great way to point out Nick's dual role into this world and I hope to see more of the conflicts between being a policeman and a Grimm in the future. So far, he has chosen the law in all situations (remember the bee incident?), but I'm waiting forward for the day where he will have to chose his Grimm persona over his job.Grimm 1x05: Danse Macabre Back to Season 1