Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt
Directed by Karen Gaviola
Adalind looked like she was going to be the obligatory eye candy when the series first started, but ever since then, she has become one of the more interesting villains. After what she did to Hank last season, and subsequently to Juliette, there was no doubt that her return would mean trouble for everyone.
I was hoping that Hank would have the chance to show Adalind that he was a lot more aware of the Wesen than she could ever suspect, but that’s not how things went down. Instead, he was nearly beaten to death, which served the purpose of removing him as part of Nick’s support system. As a result, Nick is spread a bit thin, which makes Monroe’s revelations about Juliette all the worse.
If Nick had been on his game, he might have wondered why Adalind was willing to reveal herself so openly. Instead, he comes barreling in, putting her under arrest, which appears to have been the point of the exercise. It puts Adalind in the perfect position to mess with Nick’s head, letting her minions do her dirty work while she’s safely in custody.
Perhaps more to the point, Adalind is well aware of Captain Renard’s tricky status among his Royal brethren, and deftly manipulates him into going after the key in Nick’s possession. This also, unfortunately, means that Nick’s enemies (or questionable allies) know where Aunt Marie’s trailer is, and unless Nick figures out where all of this is going, he could lose a lot of his resources.
Nick has every reason to be angry about the “relationship” between Juliette and Renard, but I also feel like the writers are having him be somewhat blind to the big picture, more than he should be. He already knows that Adalind is responsible for some serious attacks on his friends, and that Juliette was scratched by Adalind’s cat. He knows it had something to do with her loss of memory, and given that she has said that she doesn’t understand her obsession with Renard, everything should be pointing to Wesen magic.
On the other hand, maybe that will be the hook they use to get Rosalee back into action (if the actress has had the baby at this point in production). Monroe might see that Nick is not thinking clearly, and ask Rosalee to help figure out what has happened so they can convince Nick that Renard is more or less innocent. (Granted, this was his fault, but only because he was trying to save Juliette.) But the larger implication might be that Nick finally learns that Renard is one of the Wesen.
The first half of this season of “Grimm” comes to a close on strong footing, capping off what has been a big step forward for the series. There’s not much about the show that I can complain about right now, other than the lack of Rosalee, but that will attend to itself in time. Considering how clunky the show was at the beginning, it’s great to see it finding its own voice and adding to the array of solid genre offerings on the airwaves.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Score: 8/10