Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Alan DiFiore, Dan E. Fesman, and Richard Hatem
Directed by Omar Madha
Many of my annoyances with “Grimm” have centered around the too-obvious construction of the season arc. Relatively early in the season, it was clear that the writers were going to toss up artificial barriers to ensure that Hank and Juliette didn’t suspect the existence of the Wesen until the season finale. This has led, especially in Juliette’s case, to some character assassination, as some have termed it.
Herein lies the problem. Hank and Juliette are both supposed to be intelligent and/or savvy enough to be good at what they do. Hank is a detective, and Juliette is a scientist. Both involve a form of investigation that might favor certain probabilities, but ultimately depend on the evidence at hand and noting gaps where they exist.
In terms of Nick, his behavior all season has been suspect. There have been obvious holes in his explanations for various events, especially when it comes to how Monroe is so integrated into his world for the past several months. One could accept that Hank would ignore some of the strange evidence that has cropped up in recent cases, but would he be so willing to overlook what has been, within the context of the show, an abrupt change in Nick’s personality and activities? And don’t get me started on how they skipped the consequences of the whole Adalind affair.
One could argue that it has all been prelude to this moment, when Hank finally sees one of the Wesen shift. Perhaps this will force Hank to reconsider some of what he’s seen and dismissed over the past year or so. We don’t get to see what Nick does after that moment, because it jumps right past it to his conversation with Juliette. Even if they do make it all part of Hank’s process, it feels like a cheat, because they skip moments that would be difficult to cover and still make Hank’s ignorance seem reasonable.
Juliette is a bit worse, in the long run, because they really had to be inconsistent with her powers of observation to make her arc work. I’m still not sure how she missed the fact that Nick and Monroe were lying to her face a few episodes ago, and she’s seen enough by this point that the discoveries of the Wesen DNA logically take her to the right conclusion. So how does she not put two and two together?
In terms of the plot for the episode, I like the idea that some of the Wesen would want to have more control over their transformations and even lead a “normal” human existence. That the experiments to that effect go horribly wrong isn’t much of a shock, since there is an element of magic to the Wesen that science would likely have no answer for, but it does a nice job of playing on the current “Bigfoot Hunter” craze. If the writers are doing one thing much better, it’s the integration of the legend into the “real world”.
I have to admit that “Grimm” has improved a great deal since a slow and inconsistent start, but it still suffers from a formulaic and obvious arc construction. Many shows follow a standard three-act seasonal structure, since it fits the traditional “sweeps” schedule rather well, but it’s usually done a bit more artfully.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
