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Grimm, Ep. 2.08, “The Other Side”: Renard’s little secret finally comes out

Grimm, Ep. 2.08, “The Other Side”: Renard’s little secret finally comes out

Grimm, Season 2, Episode 8: “The Other Side”
Written by William Bigelow
Directed by Eric Laneuville
Airs Fridays at 9pm (ET) on NBC

Nice little resonances through the Grimm storyline this week. We have a Wesen who, due to evil genetic tampering by his mother (genetics are always evil in TV shows) is torn between the personalities of two ‘breeds’ – a gentle Genio Innocuo and a Löwen. This good twin/bad twin theme is reflected (see what I did there) in the further unfolding of Renard’s backstory. Adelind Schade has ingratiated herself with Renard’s brother, Eric (James Frain slumming it between BBC costume dramas), not a difficult thing to do because Eric is Eurotrash royalty and therefore, as we all know from the antics of Prince Harry, willing to remove his bowtie and get frisky at the drop of a bottle of decent Sancerre.

Adelind manages to keep her clothes on, despite Eric’s strong hints that the carpet would be a comfortable place for her to lie down. This is convenient because in the following conversation we then learn that Sean shares a father with Eric, but that his mother was…wait for it…a Hexenbeist!

Yes, Captain Renard is a Hexenwhatsit (the technical term for a Wesen-Hexenbeist mix) and therefore, like the genetically modified teen, dealing with two competing heritages.

This discovery of his dubious parentage has done nothing to dim my lust for Sasha Roiz, who is still top of my list of Grimm hotties. The Renard-Juliette story is also coming along nicely, with Renard now beginning to lose control of his Wesen side. The show’s creators understand very well that Wesen-spotting is one of Grimm’s greatest strengths, so giving us a glimpse of Renard morphing into something that looked like a cross between the Terminator without its skin and a werewolf having a really bad day really whets my appetite for more. The screws are then tightened by Renard discovering from Monroe, who is still on shop-minding duty for Rosalee, that there is no easy cure for his obsession and that, left untreated, it is only going to get worse. Cue visions of Renard rampaging around Portland biting the heads off random citizens while Nick hunts him down with Aunt Marie’s elephant gun.

I can dream. The resolution is likely to be less exciting, although Grimm does give us some suitably gruesome moments, as the investigation element of the episode focuses on a series of murders by a Löwen, who is the type of Wesen armed with lots of teeth and a casual attitude towards the safety of others. Throats are ripped, blood is spilled, and Nick and Hank go back to Aunt Marie’s trailer to hit the books. The sleuthing element of the show is much more lively now that Hank is in on the secret and able to act as a foil to Nick’s rather serious personality, but the danger remains for David Giuntoli to continue to be acted off the screen by Russell Hornsby. To be fair, this isn’t really Giuntoli’s fault – Nick’s character has steadily become more and more underwritten as the series has progressed and the focus on Renard’s colourful background doesn’t help. The writers need to rescue Nick (and Giuntoli) from being the least interesting aspect of the show, otherwise they might as well change the name of the series to Wesen and be done with it.

That said, the upcoming tussle between Renard and Nick over Juliette ought to provide an opportunity for Nick to show us what he’s made of and for us to find out exactly what’s lurking under Sean Renard’s skin.

My unanswered questions this episode: did Eric give Adelind carpet burns? Are tortoises really that smart? Why does Monroe always wear baggy knitwear?

Cath Murphy

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