Everyone on Grimm is hungry for something

It’s a playful, albeit problematic case of the week as Grimm indulges in a strange food obsession.

Let’s dig in…

I had some very mixed feelings about “The Seven Year Itch” right up until the ending. The Renard (Sasha Roiz) and Stick subplots are moving glacially slow and the case of the week – featuring a Cicada Jeepers Creepers rip-off – inched dangerously close to offensive territory. And yet, there was a lot of surprising humour and a weird fixation on feeding the cast. Very odd!

Wesen of the week: We’re in familiar territory with the case of a creature who feeds on humans to sustain themselves through a long hibernation underground (Eugene Tooms anyone?). This is the stuff of pretty traditional monster lore so it’s kinda fun to see the Grimm writers turn it into a slightly twisted mediation on our need to slow down, appreciate nature and seize the day. That and the fact that our villain, Stillman, is only known as “Party Animal” for the better part of the episode until his identity as Portland’s frontier cannibal is confirmed by Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner). I had a lot of fun keeping track of “Party Animals” in my notes.

Unfortunately the entire third act hinges on an uncomfortable narrative plot that involves Stillman posing as an sleazy douchebag and hitting on a plus sized lady in the hopes of turning her into a seven year snack. He’s clearly a slick, albeit icky, charmer (to the extent that one wonders how he’s ever managed to convince a woman to accompany him alone to a park), but it’s especially awkward watching him talk up a woman whose sole narrative existence is to big enough to nosh on for seven years. It’s definitely gross and almost offensive.

The visual punchline, however, mostly makes up for it. Watching the woman bite off Stillman’s head because she, too, is a Wesen (presumably some kind of hippopotamus) is a delightfully awesome, unexpected development. Or it would have been were it not undermined by a groaner line about the difficulty of finding a good man in the city. Single lady woes, amirite? <barf>

Who’s Hungry? The best part of this episode is its random fixation with food. Seriously, did you notice that nearly every character gets to interact with food at some point? In additional to the central Wesen of the Week conflict, which is basically all about eating (food, booze and people), Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornby) wind up in not one, but two diners and Adalind (Claire Coffee) prepares food for both Diana and Eviette (Elizabeth Bitsie Tulloch) – a sandwich for Diana and leftover pizza for Eviette. It’s a fun, albeit weird, callback that visually connects the plots and I quite liked it.

Other Observations:

• Hallucinatory Visions: This week on The Sixth Sense Renard Sees Dead People, our favourite former villain is nearly undone by visions of Meisner (Damien Puckler). The single best aspect of this draggy B-plot is the nifty bit when Renard sees multiple dead Meisners strewn all around his new living room floor. The hallucinations drive him to a) drink and b) visit a random pawn shop. In one of the hotter stranger moments of the episode, Renard strips nekkid and hops into a spirit box called Aspirateur Desprits. It’s all perfectly legit and not at all horror movie first date territory, so naturally everything goes totally according to plan. Lol. No, it winds up totally f*cked up, though in the end the entire misadventure is revealed as another hallucination (because Renard’s going maaaaad). Alas, this all feels far too drawn out to be entertaining, so something new needs to happen. Look, I’m all over Roiz showing off those delicious pecs, but ideally he does it for reasons that actually advance the plot.
• Eviette and the Stick: Eviette spends nearly the entire episode in her own hallucination, which is to say she’s still A Beautiful Mind-ing all of those Stick symbols down in the tunnels. Thank goodness for creepy Diana (Hannah R. Loyd) and her “everything the plot demands” powers or else Eviette might have ended up looking like something the Cicada ate for a few years. Alas, this storyline is just like Renard’s: it is moving far too slowly. Seriously, what did we learn except that the Stick is mentally affecting both Eviette and Nick…which is something that we already knew from last week? New developments needed, puh-lease.
  • Honest question: Diana knows everything, so why not just suck it up and ask her point blank what all of these symbols mean?
• Baby Watch: It’s triplets for Grimm‘s best couple, which is less than I thought they would go for, but two more than Monroe or Rosalee were prepared for.
• Erin, the waitress from the second diner, clearly needs to be fired. As an eyewitness, she’s okay, but she obviously didn’t check the credit card signature or she would have known that her obnoxious, weird customer wasn’t Mr. Tauberg. Do your job, Erin.
• Coffee Time: While neither Wu (Reggie Lee) or Adalind really get to do anything, Russell Hornsby was on fire with his comedic delivery in this episode (see Best Lines below). It’s kind of amazing what he can do with a few throwaway lines.
• Those rapid push-ins on Diana’s voodoo dolls were just a little on the nose as far as foreshadowing devices go. Which is to say, totally heavy handed and over the top. WE GET IT.
• Trubel Watch: Nada (not even a mention!). Screw you, Grimm.

Best Lines:

• Tauberg (upon seeing Stillman in tattered clothes): “I’m going to call 911 because you look really..weird”
• Meisner (correcting Renard): “I’m not following you. I’m haunting you.”
• Hank (when he gets the call from Wu): “Where are we supposed to be now?”
• Hank (after deducing someone crawled out of the hole): “It’s nice when the world makes sense.”
• Diana (when Eviette lies down): “Is she going to live in my bed now?”

That’s it for this week. What were your thoughts on the case: fun, PC problematic or somewhere in the middle? Do you think Diana knows everything and no one has bothered to ask her? Will Wu, Adalind or Hank ever get something significant to do? Are we supposed to be excited that Renard is going crazy? Sound off below.