Sunday, December 18, 2011

Grimm, Season 1, Episode 7: Let Your Hair Down



The enchantress was so hard-hearted she banished the poor girl to the wilderness, where she had to live in a miserable, wretched state.

So we start with 2 people doing that most incomprehensible of activities – hiking. And kissing in the woods and planning to skinny dip in the lake (leeches people!) when they run across an organic farmer! An organic farmer who is growing interesting plants and is Most Displeased with their presence. Before he can shoot them, he’s attacked and killed by something. His neck broken and a long strand of hair on his body.

In comes Nick and Hank to watch the organic farm be dismantled. All the drug grower’s supplies have been stolen but not his drugs and apparently it’s one in a string of murders.  Nick sees someone and goes off chasing a feral woman – but he has to stop to look dramatic at her monster face, so she gets away.

Nick and Hank get to deal with the dead man’s less than pleasant relatives who want to seek their own revenge – and have fixated on the hikers, kidnapping one of them and planning to torture a confession out of him.

Meanwhile the DNA on the hair comes back linking it to a girl, Holly, who went missing 9 years ago at the age of 7.

And wow Eddie loves his Christmas decorations. Wow, even my Grinch side is impressed. Yes, Eddie rocks. Nick has a theory, Holly as a Blutbaden, raised by adopted parents, ran away at 7 and has been living in the woods ever since, living on her instincts. Grimmopedia Eddie says it’s possible and Nick wants them to go out into the woods to look for her. Poor Eddie.


So they go hiking as well. In December, December! These people have no appreciation for insulation and central heating until they find both a ritual bone yard – and her territory – and her. Eddie and she have a pretty cool growling match and adjourn to her treehouse. She’s injured and her wounds are infected – and dealing with treating her when she has so little grasp on her humanity and who she is/was. Nick goes for help while Eddie acts as doctor. Unfortunately so are the avenging brothers.
Hank doesn’t get to go hiking –he gets to question the depressed surviving family to track down where they camped and if there’s any connection, tracking down a neighbour who used to lend them camping equipment. And Hank and Sergeant Wu realise his alibi was flawed looking through the old files and go to chase him down. It was his camping equipment Holly is still using – and the nasty dog bite he got on her leg was actually from her.

The avenging brothers run into Eddie digging up healing herbs. Eddie plays nice, but these guys really need eating. Thankfully Holly obliges with her hair lasso and everyone is saved.
It’s nice to see Hank and Wu working together and being proactive and independent. But at the same time it kind of separates them from the main plot line to a degree – and makes it less likely they’ll be let into the big secret.

And in comedic what appears to be a vague attempt at meta-plot, the supernatural who was fixing Nick’s fridge and ran away when he saw Nick was Grimm is now bragging that he saw a Grimm and lived to tell the tale in the supernatural community. 3 of them now get to play buffoon, I suspect this will be a repeat performance.

All in all another interesting amusing episode without any plot development. I mean the same impressions apply to this episode as applied to the last 3, I think. It’s as good now as it is then – but it’s not developing. Metaplot. Oh metaplot. Where are you metaplot? Anywhere? Anyone seen the plot? Yes it’s another monster of the week plot. And it’s nice and amusing and pleasant to watch but it’s not GOING anywhere! In fact it’s not just plot, it’s characters. Nick, Eddie, Hank – none of them are being developed. It’s one great big rut. It’s a nice rut, but it’s still a rut.