Courtesy of NBC
Another case of the week dominates Grimm‘s final season, though at least this time the creature effects are super cool.
Let’s bitch it out…
Wesen of the Week: The Ents attack! Two night time poachers, including Colony‘s Mac Brandt, learn not to go into the forest at night when they’re attacked by a titular Tree Person. Strangely Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) are far less willing to listen to Brandt’s Ralph than usual…at least until a stop at the Spice Shop to conduct research reveals that <shocking> this is a Wesen of the week scenario.
Turns out that the Kinoshimobe is an enviro-protector and it is out to exact some seriously grotty Evil Dead-style revenge on ne’er-do-wells who trek their bad ju-ju into the woods. There’s a hilariously startling contrast in the scenes that follow: the group encounters a scene that early Disney animators would be proud of, including deer frollicking and squirrels chasing each other; it’s so tranquil and perfect that it verges on comical. When the sun sets, however, the awe-inspiring nature scene is replaced by a sense of foreboding, especially when Nick, Hank and Wu (Reggie Lee) come across the unsettling specter of faces imprinted in the bark of the Kinoshimobe’s symbiotic murder partner, the Juboko tree.
Naturally the plan to end the environmental murders doesn’t go quite according to plan (this is Grimm after all), which means we fall into 70s genre territory with pregnant Rosalee (Bree Turner) in the crosshairs of the killer tree in the middle of the night. Unfortunately the CGI effects let the whole enterprise down when Nick deals the Tree Person a death blow: it should be a somber moment to end the life of what Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) rightfully recognizes as a bit of a hero, but the seeping Chlorophyll that comes out of the Kinoshimobe’s wound looks disappointingly cheesy (I immediately thought of Ghostbusters ectoplasm and not in a good way).
Still, it’s fun to see the entire group contributing to the Grimoire entry in the denouement.
Courtesy of NBC
Other Observations:
- The book that contains Rosalee’s childhood concoction is kinda amazing – it looks like a monster face with teeth on the spine. It’s so obviously Harry Potter-inspired, it’s genius.
- Eviette and the Stick: After the multiple incidents involving mirrors (see here and here), everyone buddies up when looking at a reflective surface, leading to a nicely comedic moment when Nick and Adalind (Claire Coffee) decide he doesn’t need to shave. Aside from this, however, we’re still stuck in a catch 22 with this storyline – almost as though the writers are terrified of doing more than tangentially addressing it until we’re staring down the finale. In fact the only thing that really happens is a cryptic warning issued by Diana (Hannah R. Llyod) that the Dark Face represents something yet to come “in the other place.” Eviette (Bitsie Tulloch), always one for well-thought out decisions, impulsively declares that there is only one course of action: to go there (cue the 30 Rock / Liz Lemon vibes). Of course that action is immediately deferred for another week in order to focus on the case of the week.
- Hallucinatory Visions: Renard (Sasha Roiz)’s education by Dasha (Alla Korot) about the drawings continues to be little more than catch-up, which is starting to feel like a contractual obligation to give Roiz screen time and nothing more. If, however, there’s some fun to be had from this dead end plot, it is the hilariously dumb way that Dascha insists on speaking English to practice her language proficiency, which is clearly just an attempt by the writers to limit the amount of subtitles on the show.
- Baby Watch: Monroe’s continued fear for Rosalee’s health is either concerned parent talk or ill-advised foreshadowing that something bad will happen with her pregnancy. I’m of the mind that Grimm‘s creative team know better than the f*ck with the happy ending for this couple, so it’s probably the former.
- Trubel Watch: Nada. At this point she’ll probably just return for the finale, right? <LE SIGH>
Best Lines:
- Dasha (when Renard insists that Diana’s origin is complicated): “Sean, everything is complicated with you.”
- Monroe (when Hank reads “exiguous” from the grimoire): “That’s one of my favourite words.”
- Wu (when Nick suggests one victim has been slapped on the wrists repeatedly for her crimes): “Got slapped a bit harder this time.”
- Wu (when Monroe suggests their sleep deprivation is causing them to see faces in the tree): “I sleep like a baby and that tree right there is full of faces.”
- Monroe (when he and Rosalee notice that there’s a face-like image on their ceiling): “No, that’s pine.”
That’s it for another week. Let’s all cross our fingers that things pick up a little more next week as we cross into the final quarter of the season.
Grimm airs Fridays at 8pm EST on NBC