Grimm Episode 208
“The Other Side”
Written By: William Bigelow
Directed By: Eric Laneuville
Original Airdate: 19 October 2012
In This Episode...
Renard is given an award, and his whole crew is there to support him. Despite having the night off, Hank and Nick get called in on a case. Renard offers to give Juliette a ride home, and Nick and Hank head to the crime scene. Juliette is still wigged out by Renard, but can’t figure out why. Could be because he seems to want an invite in. Could be because he sees where Juliette gets the spare key. Once Juliette is inside, he steals the key, sneaks in, and follows the sound of the shower upstairs. He approaches, but at the last possible minute he snaps back to his senses and leaves, the only evidence of his having been there a cracked framed photo of Nick and Juliette.
At the scene, they find an 18-year-old academic decathlon student nearly decapitated after a vicious attack. The cops interview his teammates, but it yields nothing. Nick can’t get a read on any wesen in the room. On the way out, the team coach stops them. He is agitated and furious, and reveals himself to be a lowen, which immediately puts the coach at the top of the suspect list. Also hovering near the top is the mother of one of the decathletes, Pierce. Mom is extremely overbearing and competitive and pushes Pierce to be the absolute best. He wants to live up to her expectations because she is an award-winning geneticist. Jenny, another teammate shows up dead - and she is clutching Pierce’s watch. Nick and Hank pay Pierce and Mom another visit, and they reveal themselves to be a gentle, turtle-like wesen. Nick backs off. The coach pulls the school out of the regional decathlon competition, and then he shows up dead, too.
Pierce has a horrible headache so his mom brings him some cocoa to make him feel better. He spills it, and takes his sheets to the laundry machine. Inside, he discovers the water is thick with blood. Mom rushes him away, and Pierce calls the cops. Mom knocks the phone away and finally explains what is happening to Pierce. While she was pregnant with him, she conducted genetic tests and spliced his genes with that of a lowen - the hope was that in addition to the fierce intellectual side of their native wesen, he will get the confidence and strength of the lowen. But she didn’t tell him about it, and the two wesen sides of him were warring with each other. Pierce didn’t even remember the attacks. Nick and Hank arrive, and Pierce shows his lowen face. Nick starts beating the crap out of him, which scares Hank because, as far as he knows, Pierce is just a gentle, brainy wesen. Pierce escapes. The cops find him on the edge of a building, ready to throw himself over. Nick saves him. He is facing three counts of murder, but has a pretty strong psych defense.
Also: Renard goes to the herb shop, looking for a cure for obsession. Monroe does some research, and while he can offer Renard a kind of “reverse viagra,” the emotional component is nearly impossible to attack without the object of his obsession. Adalind is in Vienna with Eric, and the two flirt madly. He reveals that his brother Shawn is only half-royal; his mother was a hexenbiest housemaid.
Dig It or Bury It?
The A-story here was dull and predictable - a painfully straightforward Jekyll and Hyde tale. Maybe I watch too much television, but I knew exactly what was going on before the opening credits. But I really liked the Renard B-story. It is taking a little too long (still) to get the whole picture, so I am trying to enjoy every morsel I can. But if it turns out that Renard and Adalind are half-siblings, I’m going to be grossed out.
Big Bad...
...Genio Innocuo, or “innocent genius.” Originally from the Galapagos Islands (so yes, they are turtle-like) the Genio Innocuo are brilliant, but shy and gentle. Which, as Nick’s ancestors note in one of the journals, made them easy prey for culling.
Prophecies?
Halloween comes to Grimm in the form of La Llorona, the weeping woman. Nick will trade in wesen for ghosts.