Courtesy of NBC
I’m back by popular demand (or because of one person on Twitter)! It’s time to talk about the start of the final season of Grimm.
Let’s bitch it out…
Like some of my favourite episodes of the series, “Fugitives” completely eschews a Wesen of the week storyline and focuses exclusively on the principle arc: Nick (David Giuntoli) vs Renard (Sasha Roiz).
Truth be told, I had hoped that the final season would do a bit of a retcon on the police chief / Mayor’s turn to the dark side, but alas Renard’s last minute murder of Conrad Bonaparte (Shaun Toub) in the season 5 finale was exclusively a Diana (Hannah R. Llyod)-driven compulsion and not a change of heart. Instead it seems that the writers are setting up this final season to be an epic showdown between Renard and Nick, with the sidelines firmly drawn and APBs with shoot to kill orders and warrants on the gang’s homes and hangouts are handed out. Hence the episode title as everyone moves to protect Nick and keep him one step ahead of the cops.
If this all sounds a little busy, it is and we haven’t even begun to discuss Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner)’s looming pregnancy, Adalind (Claire Coffee)’s needy imprisonment, and the random new mythology involving the healing stick and mysterious symbols on the stick’s cloth and Eve (Bitsie excuse me, Elizabeth Tulloch <ahem>). With so much happening simultaneously, Grimm doesn’t allocate any time to the toll that these events must be taking on the crew. Considering that this episode opens immediately after the events of last season (and ends in another big cliffhanger), it might have been advisable to shelve one of the plotlines in order to give the others a bit of room to breathe. Even just dedicate a minute or two so that Nick can process the fact that he came back from the death (several times if those gunshots are counted up).
It’s a small quibble however. After sitting on the NBC bench for the fall TV season, it’s nice to have everyone back on our TV screens. With the premiere out of the way, we’ve only got 12 hours left with these characters. All of the sudden that doesn’t seem like a lot of time to wrap up this world!
Courtesy of NBC
Other Observations:
- The problem with taking so much time off is that it becomes difficult to remember where all of the pieces were on the board when last we saw them. Case in point: it took me almost as long as the show to remember that Wu (Reggie Lee) killed those corrupt North precinct cops in his half-woged state. Oh riiiiiight.
- The premiere doesn’t give Trubel (Jacqueline Tomboni) a lot to do outside of accompany Eve on her journey of discovery. While I liked Trubel’s larger role in S5, the whole Meisner/HQ thing always seemed a little sophisticated for our runaway Grimm. While I hope that the final season Grimm finds things for Trubel to do, the writers could do worse than simply pairing her up with random characters she doesn’t normally interact with (can you imagine a Trubel / Rosalee hour?!)
- The Eve (or is she partially Juliette now? Julieve? Eviette?) storyline holds a lot of promise, but also feels like one too many ingredients in a stuffed premiere. Thankfully the CGI on the “death grip” sequence is better than the atrocious stuff with the portal in the house back in S2 when Juliette was having her weird post-coma dreams. Remember that shitty plotline? Ugh.
- Do you think the police found the grimoires in the basement of the Spice Shop when they searched it? It’d be a bummer to lose all of those materials considering the group never really recovered from the trailer fire in S4.
- As much as I love Claire Coffee and have no problems with Adalind’s relationship with Nick, keeping the character and the actress imprisoned in a domestic melodrama is hardly a good use of one of the best people on the show. Here’s hoping Adalind just screams “fuck staying in the house!”, grabs Diana and Kelly and runs into the street in the next episode.
- Signs that you know things are coming to an end: people begin talking about moving. While discussing their pregnancy, Monroe and Rosalee broach the possibility and then later in the refrigerator repair shop, Monroe tells Nick he should leave the city while Renard remains in charge. But, guys, the series has always been, and always should be, set in Portland!
- Oh yeah BUD (Danny Bruno) IS BACK!!! One of my favourite aspects of finale years are all of the callbacks and guest appearances by characters from the past. Bud has long been a defacto member of the crew, so it’s hardly a surprise that Nick would call upon him in a time of need, but it’s still great to see the character in all of his awkward, stumbling glory return so early in the season. Let’s just hope Bud doesn’t get killed off next week.
- Finally, that one glorious shot of Rachel (Anne Leighton) wrapped up dead in her sheets was my favourite part of the episode. God I hated that bitch!
Best Lines:
- Wu (seeing Nick has been shot): “You’re not a ghost are you?”
- Monroe (when Rosalee goes on about the death grip): “Oh my god does it say anything about how to stop it?!”
- Rosalee (to Monroe, when the cops arrive at their house): “If they’re going to shoot one of us, it should be in front of the other one…No, that didn’t come out right.”
- Gossipy fingerprint tech lady (telling Hank and Wu about the prints from Rachel’s apartment): “I know she was working on his campaign, but I think she was working on something else.”
Your turn: what did you think of the premiere? Did it feel a little overstuffed to you? Which storyline are you most intrigued back? Were you, like me, hoping that Renard would dial back the crazy and come back to the side of the angels? And how will the gang get out of their predicament in next week’s episode? Sound off below!