Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Dan E. Fesman
Directed by Steven DePaul
Only time will tell if the gambit of airing four episodes as a “preview”, then waiting almost a month to resume, will help or harm the ratings. The numbers for those first few episodes were relatively good for a returning series, and I’m sure that the increase in quality overall will help matters. But I have never been a fan of pulling a show off the air, especially when it’s important to build momentum.
It doesn’t help when the return is a fairly standard episode. Within the flow of the season itself, this is a logical step from the previous installment: Hank’s education into the reality of the Wesen continues, as Nick’s other allies get comfortable with the idea. That requires a case that allows for that sort of interaction, and that means getting Monroe involved on a fundamental level.
The notion of a preacher that routinely grifts from his own congregation, and will kill to hide it, is hardly new. It has to have come up once or twice in the “Law and Order” franchise by now! But even if it hasn’t, it’s a bit of an obvious direction to take with the “wolf among the flock” concept. And for all that the Blutbad connection meant that Monroe’s undercover work was well explained, it didn’t quite come together as well as I might have hoped.
In fact, by the end of the episode, I was left wondering if Monroe’s presence at the church served any purpose at all, other than to give the resolution a bit more action. Using him as a consultant would have achieved the same purpose as prepping for the undercover role, in terms of slowly getting Hank up to speed. It did put more of a timetable on things, but since Monroe was unaware of that, and he had nothing to do with how the Reverend was exposed or taken down.
On the other narrative fronts, things continue to percolate. Juliette is one step closer to remembering what Nick really is, it seems, and that can only mean that Captain Renard’s endgame is going to start playing out (or so one would hope). Nick is also aware that the Royals are sending assassins after him to retrieve the key, which means he ought to have a better chance at defending himself and his allies.
Overall, it’s a fairly average episode of “Grimm”, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It shows that the writers are taking their time and letting the larger story tell itself. If they had done that in the first season, instead of remaining slaves to rigid plot structure, I imagine we would have seen this level of progress much earlier.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Score: 7/10
