“Death stood behind him and said: ‘Follow me, the hour of your departure from this world has come.’”
We start right with the action, with a car accident
between a park ranger – and a boil encrusted, groaning man trying to eat his
face (I’m going to go with zombie here). The park ranger surprises us by
sprouting quills, (a porcupine Wesen?) driving face-eater off him to crash into
a nearby building.
Hank is still adapting to the world of Wesen existing and
Nick being a Grimm with Nick taking time to bring him up to speed when their
lunch is interrupted by Wu calling them in for the big car crash/assault. They
enter the building looking for zombie man and find it trashed – with dramatic,
zombie-style bloody handprints (they’re like a zombie’s calling card. Every
programme with zombies in will have one of them) on the glass.
Stanton, the zombie man, is still trashing the office and
as they go up into the building the place is well and truly wrecked. Wu goes to
get backup while Hank and Nick follow the blood trial. They find Stanton
throwing things and demand he stop – and he Woges (only seen by Nick) into a Reinegen
(rat Wesen) – before attacking them with
an iron bar. Hank and Nick shoot him. Nick confirms to Hank that the man was a
Wesen – but the boils all over his skin suggest there’s something else going
on. Nick fills in Hank – and Hank points out that he has holes in his arms that
suggest he has been stabbed by giant needles.
So time to talk to the ranger, Ryan, who zombie-rat-man
crashed into. They try to question him to find a motive and Hank tries to
figure out how to ask “hey did you see him go ratty” to which Nick’s facial
expression is just perfect. Ryan goes to get his police report from a police
officer – and suddenly seems to shift personality and hit on her really
unsubtly. She tells him how out of line he is and he walks off – scratching his
arms.
Nick and Hank report to Renard – no drugs in his system
except ibuprofen and a big sack of over-the-counter pain killers in his car –
and he looked scabby and nasty and attacked like an animal. They go home and
Renard gets a call from his European Royal Family (that is, his family who are European
royals). The family in Europe has sent something else to Portland – a Nuckalavee
(which is an evil Scottish fae in folklore) to get the key – something Renard
vehemently opposes. But if “they” learn it will jeopardise “everything they’ve
been working for”. Oooooooh plot. Renard gets one of his officers to check out
the guy arriving – calling him a fugitive.
Juliette is still struggling to remember Nick, why does
she remember everything except Nick. She calls Monroe to see if it’s possible
that they were unhappy – but Monroe assures her they were a happy couple and
suggests she talks to Nick, which isn’t very helpful.
Nick takes the chance to go see Monroe and tell him that
he has told Hank everything – but didn’t want to tell Hank about Monroe until
he saw how Hank reacted. Monroe is less than pleased and questions why Nick
didn’t wonder how Monroe would react (and appropriates “coming out” language.
Ugh, Grimm, bad enough you have zero GBLT characters without that). Monroe
tells Nick about Juliette calling about memory loss and Nick leaves. Leaving
Monroe to have a mini panic about Hank knowing.
Meanwhile Juliette is having memory flash backs – not about
Nick, but about an Eisbiber who was afraid of Nick and begging her to make sure
Nick didn’t come after him. Nick comes home and they have another very well
acted, painful scene as they both try to deal with the memory loss.
That night, Ryan, the porcupine Wesen, wakes up from a
nightmare sweaty, itchy, looking like Hell and covered in horrible scabby
boils.
And that morning, Rosalie goes to her shop to find a mess
– and hear the sound of evil monster cat (the one Adalind used to curse
Juliette) has managed to rip its way out of its cat carrier. And is now
clinging to the ceiling in a totally-not-creepy way, honest. She runs to the
door – and forces the cat outside – just managing to force the door closed.
Then Monroe arrives and marvels at the destruction. He worries briefly at it
being out on the street – but they hear the sound of a car horn and a cat yowl…
but decide that, all the same, let’s not go look (yes, I laughed, they do
bounce off each other well. In fact, Monroe bounces off just about everyone
well). Monroe, instead, wants to take Rosalie on a picnic
Back at the office, Renard is checking up on the death of
Kelly Burckhardt – Nick’s mother – and has an update on the “fugitive”. He’s
arrived in the city, but then disappeared – as did a taxi driver and his taxi.
Time to pass that on to Nick and Hank with a warning that the fugitive has a
thing against cops (to keep Nick on his toes).
And the pathologist (who we haven’t seen for a long time which is a shame because she’s great fun) updates Hank and Nick on the condition of the body. The boils suggest something similar to Ebola – without being contagious since Hank and Nick look healthy (see why I like her?) She takes blood samples to be sure, Nick and Hank discuss more about the Reinigan and how the disease made him violent – and Hank suggests they do some background digging – all while watched by a Wesen – a Nuckalevee – in a stolen taxi.
Research time, Hank and Wu check out the background and
Nick checks the Gimmy books – and finds the Fluvus Pestilentia. Hank finds that
Stanton’s wife is a researcher in animal control. And Wu goes to her house to
find it trashed. And Mrs. Stanton is there – with 2 knives, covered in scabby
boils – and Wu is forced to shoot her. Hank and Nick join him – and Wu is
obviously pretty shaken.
In the house Hank raises the possibility that Ryan may
also have caught the plague – and they check where he was working. And Nick
finds some study papers from Mrs. Stanton, showing some pigs with the same
scabby boils – presumably the source of the plague.
In the forest, Monroe and Rosalie are having a sweet
romantic picnic, interrupted by Ryan the park ranger – who is now covered in
boils – and attacks them. Monroe smacks him with the picnic basket and they run
– to the car and drive away while he chases them.
They return to the shop – and instantly fall into
passionate making out. Which is when Nick calls with the worst possible timing
every, to ask Monroe and Rosalie about the disease – the Yellow Plague. Monroe’s
heard of it, it’s a plague that wiped out whole villages of Wesen. Roaslie says
she can but she’s busy making out with Monroe. Monroe warns Nick to be careful,
originally it doesn’t seem like you’re sick, but your libido goes into
overdrive (hence the park ranger hitting on the cop) he says, while Rosalie
crawls all over him… and he sees a scratch on her neck. Monroe tries to talk to
her, even as boils begin to form around her scratch. She begins to feel awful
as Monroe desperately tries to talk to her about the cure.
In the park, Ryan emerges, goes all porcupine in front of
Nick and Hank – then collapses. They take him to Rosalie’s shop where Monroe is
desperately trying to put together the cure while Rosalie is lying sick – she
asked him to tie her down but he didn’t hear. This also gives Hank a wonderful
moment of “Wait, Rosalie’s one? And Monroe?” And Rosalie escapes through a
window – Nick goes to get her while Hank holds Ryan down and Monroe makes the
cure.
Nick tracks down Rosalie and Woges into full Fuschbau and
tries to attack him with scissors – he draws his gun but won’t shoot her,
instead managing to knock her out and carry her back to the shop. Monroe is
shocked to see Rosalie unconscious and his hands shake too much to pour the
medicine – Hank takes it off him and administers the cure.
Everyone recovers. Rosalie and Monroe have another
romantic moment. And Eddie comes clean about being the Blutbad Hank saw in the
wood that day – though they’ll discuss it all later. And the Nuckalevee is on
the roof, watching them.
Juliette keeps getting Eisbiber flashbacks that suggest
something odd was going on in their house. She finally decides to contact the
Eisbiber in question to try and get him to fill in some of the gaps. Of course,
Budd, the Eisbiber is one of Nick’s greatest fans since he, as a Grimm, has
done so much to help him and his people. And he tells Juliette this – including
the Grimm thing.
Which he realises Juliette knows nothing about –
screeching halt and backtrack time!
Grimm continues to stay good – the meta is really keeping
up. Hank seems much much more integrated into the plot now. And I love the way
he’s dealing. There’s none of the hurt betrayal that is so common. He’s adapting,
absorbing, confused at times, but learning and rolling with the shocks.
Season2 is really
impressing me – here’s hoping it can keep it up.
