“Eye for eye
tooth for tooth
hand for hand
foot for foot.”
A woman is sat in a car outside a VFW office, looking
agitated. She slices into her arm with a knife – and her arm is already very
scarred.
She goes into a bar where a man has just been boasting to
his friend about the security system he’s installed (and the apparently lonely
housewife who may need more personal assistance). He doesn’t recognise her at
first but seems to know what she’s there for – and she’s not welcome. After a
lot of menacing, but vague talk she shows him her arm and tells him she’s not
going away until he admits what he did. He leaves the bar in a definite huff
At home he calls someone to warn them about her. He puts
the phone down when she arrives outside, yelling “don’t you want me any more
sergeant?” He goes outside and
physically throws her away from his house threatening her with arrest; she won’t
budge or leave. He heads back in the house to get a gun (the camera drawing
attention to some framed medals which I assume are relevant). He comes out, gun
ready – and she’s gone.
Back into the house – with the creaky floorboards
announcing someone else is inside, sneaking around. He hears his framed medals
break and goes to them – and is leaped on by a Wesen with a lion head and a scorpion
tale (a Mantecore?) he’s stung and dies.
Crime scene – the gang arrive and Wu does his normal
recap of the victim (Ron Herd), his profession (security company – or, as Hank
puts it, rent-a-cops for the rich). They find stolen medals, Troy, fellow
veteran and co-worker found the body and has the standard “no he had no enemies”
speech and that the corpse has a huge hole it and all the fancy security system
Ron had wasn’t actually turned on. But while he calls his company to update Jim,
the company owner, Jim warns him that Frankie – the woman – is in town which
evidently worries them, though they don’t think she killed Ron.
Back to the police station for standard background checks
and discovering that Ron called Jim, the owner of the security company, late
that night.
Troy goes home to his wife and a guest – Frankie. He’s
not happy to see her and she shows him her cut arm, talking about how bad it is
to bottle things inside. He threatens the police and, again, she says she wants
him to call them. Before she goes she asks him how sex with his wife is – and links
this to thinking of her. I think we’ve got a strong implication that these men
raped her.
Hank and Nick go to the bar Ron visited (and was
confronted by Frankie) to see the landlady/barmaid/waitress who tells them
about Frankie – and that she found a napkin with blood on it on the table
(Frankie had used it to clean her cut arm). They take it out of the bind and
see the lines on the napkin – like the wound was a pattern.
Next step is to talk to Jim (who is looking at Frankie’s
military record) who is super, efficiently helpful while at the same time
knowing nothing useful (they do get a photo of soldiers Ron was in Iraq with –
him and 3 private contractors)
When they’re gone Troy goes to Jim apparently feeling
very guilty – he wants to come clean about some wrong thing they did before the
cops find out – and because living with the guilt is getting to him.
At the police station Hank and Nick check up Ron’s
colleagues and found one of them died a week ago in a home invasion – and Renard
confirms he died by being stabbed with a poison spike. The same way as Ron. The
next step is checking with their commanding officer to see if Ron and the three
military contractor friends got on well – or are killing each other off
They make the call to the CO, Colonel Adam who tells them
that they had to clean up a lot of mess in Iraq caused by the contractors who
ran all kinds of criminal rackets – benefitting from the contract they had that
exempted them from prosecution. And in that time, they were accused of rape by
Frankie; Adam reported it but his superior told him to look the other way, Ron
was transferred and Adam’s report ignored. They realise the date of the rape is
what Frankie has carved into her arm and then mopped the blood with the napkin.
Adam’s also quite happy for the soldiers to get whatever they have coming to
them before signing off – in a hotel room. Except he’d told Hank he was calling
from hospital, dying of cancer.
Back to the guilt ridden Troy who writes out his whole
confession for the bad things he did – and gives it to his wife. She’s shocked
and appalled – but agrees with his army buddies, he should burn the confession
and not tell anyone. He tears it up, but before he burns it he hears his wife
cry out – when he reaches her she’s convulsing on the floor with a hole in her
chest. He starts to call for help – and then the gets stung as well (this must
be the stealthiest manticore, no-one ever sees it).
Hank and Nick arrive at the scene, Nick finds the confession
– and Wu calls with the toxology; all the victims died from scorpion venom. Yes
they realise they have a Wesen – time to call Juliette and do some research and
find Mantecore – part Lowen with a scorpion tail and no fear of death.
They rush off to find Frankie – and she’s battering on
Jim’s, the last man, car and screaming at him. They arrest her and a take her
back to the police station where she protests her innocence, she only wanted to
make them confess. Nick does the big Grimm reveal – except she’s not a
Mantecore. She’s a Steinadler (noble, valorous eagle-wesen). The only person
who knew what she planned was Colonel Adam her old CO.
Frankie calls the colonel and he admits he isn’t in
hospital and is getting revenge for Frankie after he failed her – while the
police track his call. Adam confronts Jim in an empty bar – because while Adam
killed Robert and Ron, he didn’t kill Troy and his wife so that was Jim to stop
Troy confessing. Another Mantecore. They both Woge and have a really awesome
Mantecore fight. At the end of which Jim stabs Adam just as Hank and Nick
arrive. Adam’s dying but he’s happy – even if they can’t prove what he did to
Frankie, they can arrest him for murder of Adam.
They gather with Frankie to bring her up to date
Over to the Spice Shop where Rosalie and Monroe are being
very very cute when Monroe finds a letter from Rosalie’s mother. She wants
Rosalie to visit on the anniversary of Rosalie’s father’s death – and it’s the
first time Rosalie has spoken to her mother in 7 years. Definitely a big thing –
and of course Monroe agrees to give with her for moral support.
Rosalie arranges to go with massive amounts of
awkwardness while Monroe does the awkward supporting thing. Even better,
Rosalie’s oh-so-long-suffering sister will also be there. The finally make it
to the house, Monroe supporting all the way as Rosalie nearly falls apart from
nerves, until they finally meet her mother: who seems nice and welcoming.
Sister Dieta, not so much.
There begins awkward family dinner with everyone playing
nice – except Rosalie’s sister, snarking away. She’s bitter because she felt
she had to come home and live with her mother, abandoning her career, because
Rosalie didn’t. Oh yes, she is bitter, especially since this was during Rosalie’s
drug addict days. More, she is beyond furious that Rosalie didn’t show up for
their father’s funeral – and Rosalie reveals she couldn’t make it because she
was in prison. Rosalie has a full tearful confession and how much it eats at
her that she never even heard about the funeral until after the fact – and then
she leaves the house; Monroe follows her, trying to comfort her.
He gives her some awesome speeches and they spend some
time outside gathering themselves before heading back in. She gets to hug it
out with mum while Dieta woges and threatens Monroe with death if he breaks her
sister’s heart –awwwww.
Over in Vienna, Adalinde is still being watched by
Meisner – which means he sees when she gets severe stomach pains and moves her
coffee cup with telekinesis. And destroys the lights with a power surge. Meisner reports all this to Renard who confirms
Adalind is getting her Hexenbiest powers back
It’s something of a monster of the week episode, but a
pretty good one at that. It doesn’t go into depth but it does touch on a lot of
hard realities – like the issue of rape in the military and the military
contractor’s lack of any kind of accountability. Perhaps these were a little
heavy to be covered in such depth but the wrongness of it was very very clear.
I love Rosalie and Monroe together, but feel that, maybe,
the reunion between Rosalie and her family was a little too easy.
Adalind is getting her powers back – but I don’t remember
Hexenbiests being telekinetic?
