Grimm 4x11 Death Do Us & 4x12 Maréchaussée & 4x13 Trial by Fire
I am doing those reviews several at a time, because neery and I are watching them two at a time, and afterwards I have a hard time separating the episodes again in my head.
For my new friends: link to my last Grimm review (eps 4x07-10)
Grimm has kind of just floated along this past year, but I wasn't really all that invested since the whole magic mindfuck with Renard and Juliet had been resolved. Now I'm finally excited about Grimm again and can't wait for new eps!
4x11
* I basically forgot to write up that episode. I should have done it much earlier. :/
* I honestly don't remember much about the case in that ep. At least it was less predictable than usual. It took us a while to figure out who the murderer was. The whole "camera crew" setup was done to death on SPN, so I found that part lame. I always hate comic relief throwaway characters.
* What interested me was Juliette and Renard.
* I didn't expect Renard to introduce a new character at all. I thought either he'd help Juliette or his mother would.
+ Juliette blowing up a car was priceless.
* I loved the scene between Renard and Juliette at the cafe, too, just because it reminded me of their meeting at the cafe in season 2.
+ Yay shirtless Renard. I really wanted to know what the scene with his reappearing wounds was all about. And I still do! Damn you, show.
* In conclusion: every episode should have that much Renard. Preferably shirtless. ;)
4x12
* The title is really weird. Why do the French wesen always get episodes named after them? Maréchaussée means militia or police, btw. So is it supposed to refer to the Wesen Council in general? Huh?
+ I liked the idea of the couple abusing their wesen-ness for money-making purposes. That's an avenue they hadn't tried before and it is *so* obvious.
+ Juliette! Juliette! I like everything about her storyline, except the fact that noone mentioned that a Grimm's blood may be able to cure her. I know, they probably will find an argument against that, but they should have at least mentioned it. This way, we were (as usual) sitting in front of the tv and ranting at it. :)
* I liked how her blood drilled itself down into the earth. Lol that made no sense whatsoever.
+ I like her advisor Henrietta on principle. Even though I (really really) wanted it to be Renard, it's cool that they chose a woman of color. Renard can still be involved in some way, right?
- The fact that Henrietta actively discouraged Juliette from telling Nick annoyed me no end, though. Why create stupid unncessary conflict like that?
- I know Sasha Roiz said that Renard was deeply uncomfortable with everything because he wanted to stay away from Juliette. Apparently he's still afraid something of the old attraction remains or might come back. So far, we haven't seen anything that should make him worry. I am hoping that something of that kind will come up, though! :D And in the meantime we can just assume that he's still totally in love with her but suppressing it well. ;)
* The case itself was otherwise pretty predictable. The usual, I guess.
+ I hadn't expected Juliette to kill the Manticore. That was way cool. It's great to see more evidence of how strong she is now. All the time, the whole problem with her and Nick was that she was always afraid for her life and he couldn't be a Grimm without endangering her.
+ Now different problems arise, and they are just as interesting. I want to know how Nick will cope with it. (Although I suspect he'll run away to mommy/Monroe again to prolong the plotline until the end of the season. *yawn*)
4x13
* While it annoyed me that Juliette kept quiet to Nick about it before, she didn't wait that long with telling him after all, so that was okay, too.
- It definitely annoyed me that we didn't learn anything new about Renard's problems in this ep.
+ The last ep was really good on several levels.
+ I like seeing old wesen back, and the arson investigator was a good one to pick. There's history between them, and it was interesting to see what had changed since then. It's really a meta look at how far Grimm as a show has come since season one.
* The scenes at the precinct were funny.
+ I especially loved that it was addressed as a problem that Monroe's sister killed his brothers. There was no black and white about it.
+ I loved how Monroe reacted and especially how Rosalee reacted, and most especially that her voice of reason won in the end. So well done, show.
- The case, well. It was predictable again (why do guilty parties have to act so shifty in the first scene they're in?), but the wesen was cool.
- neery and I kept joking about how the guy and his victim now have to start a lengthy discussion to allow Nick and Monroe to find the son, then interrogate him, then drive to the crime scene, then confront him
- Oh, the confrontation. Why would you send in the one unarmed guy first? Those quirt guns were long-range weapons, the only kind likely to work against him. *shakes head*
* I liked how they made the phoenix 'antidote'. It's nice to see them winging it once in a while.
+ Although I hated how cavalier they all were about having accidentally killed him in the end. I mean, yeah, they were right about no prison being able to hold him. But still, it *should* shock them more to have someone explode.
+ Loved loved loved the Hexenbiest fight. It was a proper fight.
+ Loved even more that Juliette told Nick in the end. It was a great ending and not half as cliffhanger-y as in previous seasons.
+ I am really looking forward to the next episode.
Spoiler-free discussion:
The last ep brought up some interesting points. Most wesen seem to be very rare, and no other wesen have heard of them. Not even Rosalee, who worked in the resistance. The wesen council has been killing wesen for centuries as the only way to police them, and still some of them exist. That means the vast majority of them are no menace to (wesen) society. This is a nice thought. The negative conclusion to draw is that there really are only very few of some kinds. I still haven't understood the genetics of it - if they have to be the same race (genetically, it's a race, not a species) to actually produce children of that kind, or if sometimes they reappear unexpectedly. Rosalee and Monroe weren't very clear on that when they tried to explain about genetics a while ago. Assuming they need to come from a mono-racial wesen family, the chances of them to keep procreating are exceedingly slim. I think this is likely, though, because otherwise there would be *a lot* more mixed wesen. That means that Nick is constantly close to wiping out entire wesen races. Not such a nice thought.
We really need to know more about wesen genetics. And about the ways wesen keep in contact with each other and find possible mates. Can this show please go on for a few more years?
x-posted to dw (comments:
)
For my new friends: link to my last Grimm review (eps 4x07-10)
Grimm has kind of just floated along this past year, but I wasn't really all that invested since the whole magic mindfuck with Renard and Juliet had been resolved. Now I'm finally excited about Grimm again and can't wait for new eps!
4x11
* I basically forgot to write up that episode. I should have done it much earlier. :/
* I honestly don't remember much about the case in that ep. At least it was less predictable than usual. It took us a while to figure out who the murderer was. The whole "camera crew" setup was done to death on SPN, so I found that part lame. I always hate comic relief throwaway characters.
* What interested me was Juliette and Renard.
* I didn't expect Renard to introduce a new character at all. I thought either he'd help Juliette or his mother would.
+ Juliette blowing up a car was priceless.
* I loved the scene between Renard and Juliette at the cafe, too, just because it reminded me of their meeting at the cafe in season 2.
+ Yay shirtless Renard. I really wanted to know what the scene with his reappearing wounds was all about. And I still do! Damn you, show.
* In conclusion: every episode should have that much Renard. Preferably shirtless. ;)
4x12
* The title is really weird. Why do the French wesen always get episodes named after them? Maréchaussée means militia or police, btw. So is it supposed to refer to the Wesen Council in general? Huh?
+ I liked the idea of the couple abusing their wesen-ness for money-making purposes. That's an avenue they hadn't tried before and it is *so* obvious.
+ Juliette! Juliette! I like everything about her storyline, except the fact that noone mentioned that a Grimm's blood may be able to cure her. I know, they probably will find an argument against that, but they should have at least mentioned it. This way, we were (as usual) sitting in front of the tv and ranting at it. :)
* I liked how her blood drilled itself down into the earth. Lol that made no sense whatsoever.
+ I like her advisor Henrietta on principle. Even though I (really really) wanted it to be Renard, it's cool that they chose a woman of color. Renard can still be involved in some way, right?
- The fact that Henrietta actively discouraged Juliette from telling Nick annoyed me no end, though. Why create stupid unncessary conflict like that?
- I know Sasha Roiz said that Renard was deeply uncomfortable with everything because he wanted to stay away from Juliette. Apparently he's still afraid something of the old attraction remains or might come back. So far, we haven't seen anything that should make him worry. I am hoping that something of that kind will come up, though! :D And in the meantime we can just assume that he's still totally in love with her but suppressing it well. ;)
* The case itself was otherwise pretty predictable. The usual, I guess.
+ I hadn't expected Juliette to kill the Manticore. That was way cool. It's great to see more evidence of how strong she is now. All the time, the whole problem with her and Nick was that she was always afraid for her life and he couldn't be a Grimm without endangering her.
+ Now different problems arise, and they are just as interesting. I want to know how Nick will cope with it. (Although I suspect he'll run away to mommy/Monroe again to prolong the plotline until the end of the season. *yawn*)
4x13
* While it annoyed me that Juliette kept quiet to Nick about it before, she didn't wait that long with telling him after all, so that was okay, too.
- It definitely annoyed me that we didn't learn anything new about Renard's problems in this ep.
+ The last ep was really good on several levels.
+ I like seeing old wesen back, and the arson investigator was a good one to pick. There's history between them, and it was interesting to see what had changed since then. It's really a meta look at how far Grimm as a show has come since season one.
* The scenes at the precinct were funny.
+ I especially loved that it was addressed as a problem that Monroe's sister killed his brothers. There was no black and white about it.
+ I loved how Monroe reacted and especially how Rosalee reacted, and most especially that her voice of reason won in the end. So well done, show.
- The case, well. It was predictable again (why do guilty parties have to act so shifty in the first scene they're in?), but the wesen was cool.
- neery and I kept joking about how the guy and his victim now have to start a lengthy discussion to allow Nick and Monroe to find the son, then interrogate him, then drive to the crime scene, then confront him
- Oh, the confrontation. Why would you send in the one unarmed guy first? Those quirt guns were long-range weapons, the only kind likely to work against him. *shakes head*
* I liked how they made the phoenix 'antidote'. It's nice to see them winging it once in a while.
+ Although I hated how cavalier they all were about having accidentally killed him in the end. I mean, yeah, they were right about no prison being able to hold him. But still, it *should* shock them more to have someone explode.
+ Loved loved loved the Hexenbiest fight. It was a proper fight.
+ Loved even more that Juliette told Nick in the end. It was a great ending and not half as cliffhanger-y as in previous seasons.
+ I am really looking forward to the next episode.
Spoiler-free discussion:
The last ep brought up some interesting points. Most wesen seem to be very rare, and no other wesen have heard of them. Not even Rosalee, who worked in the resistance. The wesen council has been killing wesen for centuries as the only way to police them, and still some of them exist. That means the vast majority of them are no menace to (wesen) society. This is a nice thought. The negative conclusion to draw is that there really are only very few of some kinds. I still haven't understood the genetics of it - if they have to be the same race (genetically, it's a race, not a species) to actually produce children of that kind, or if sometimes they reappear unexpectedly. Rosalee and Monroe weren't very clear on that when they tried to explain about genetics a while ago. Assuming they need to come from a mono-racial wesen family, the chances of them to keep procreating are exceedingly slim. I think this is likely, though, because otherwise there would be *a lot* more mixed wesen. That means that Nick is constantly close to wiping out entire wesen races. Not such a nice thought.
We really need to know more about wesen genetics. And about the ways wesen keep in contact with each other and find possible mates. Can this show please go on for a few more years?
x-posted to dw (comments:
)