Grimm, Episode 2.19 “Endangered”
Written by Spiro Skentzos
Directed by David Straiton
Airs Tuesdays at 10pm (ET) on NBC
The true intentions of the Grimm creators become clear this episode. The revelation arrives during a tête-à-tête between Nick and Renard (with Hank out of the way, these two characters are forced to talk to each other, the way warring parents are when their teenage kids aren’t around to carry messages). Nick wants to know more about the key his mother left him. Renard knows all about the keys- they are a map to a secret treasure.
Cue Indiana Jones music. Or Da Vinci Code music. The choice is yours.
Yes, the Knights Templar are involved. Yes, the treasure is an instrument of unspeakable power. Yes, there are references to Mohammed. Yes, the cross and the nails which crucified Jesus to it might enter the equation somehow. If Renard wasn’t so pushed for time, he probably would have explained how Buddhism, numerology, and the building of Stone Henge also relate to this deepest of all Wesen mysteries.
At some point in the development stage, Greenwalt, Wouf, and Carpenter must have realized that they had lucked into an idea which went way beyond fairy stories. It’s fun to play with the idea that those slightly weird neighbors who like to howl at the moon might be the Big Bad Wolf in disguise, but how much more fun to gather up every unsolved mystery and internet conspiracy theory and great event of history under the same conceptual umbrella? Hitler: Wesen. Knights Templar: agents of the Wesen. Barack Obama: Wesen.
Well maybe not that last one, but you get the general idea. To drive the point home, this show’s Wesen-strand concerns that old favorite of the foil-hat brigade: cattle mutilation and unexplained sightings of little grey men. Guess what? Wesen. Yes, Mulder and Scully might have spent years trying to get to the truth (cue Sergeant Wu delivering the line ‘The Truth is Out There’ with an admirably straight face) when the real answer was right under their noses. Those pesky aliens we keep glimpsing but never quite catching on camera are actually Glüenvolk, forced to kill cows and eat their ovaries (cue classic Grimm eeeewwwww! moment) when in the final stages of pregnancy. And in a lovely twist, even the foil-hat alien hunters also turned out to be Wesen, not on the track of photographic evidence, but of rare Glüenvolk hide.
Nicely done Grimm creators. We can now look forward to all our fave enigmas turning out to be Something to do with Wesen. A mouthwatering prospect.
And the rest of the storyline is also chugging along nicely. The Juliette/Nick strand has now reached a turning point. She remembers him, just at the moment when his interest starts to wane. As David Giuntoli always cheers up when he has to act tough, this heralds some good acting moments from him, and Juliette’s determined pursuit of answers via Monroe means that Silas Weir Mitchell gets lots of glassy-eyed panic moments – an expression at which he excels. With that and Sasha Roiz getting many opportunities to hover between noble and sneaky, the scene is set for plenty of excellent viewing.
Questions: If Monroe’s parents do decide to visit, which actors ought to play them? Renard’s family tried to kill him because he was born out of wedlock – doesn’t that mean they’ll do the same to Adelind’s baby?
– Cath Murphy