‘Grimm’ 4.01 Recap: “It’s Weird Not Being Weird Anymore”

Honestly, I’m surprised that ‘Grimm’ has lasted four seasons already. I still watch and kind of enjoy the show, but it fell into a rut a while back and it’s very possible that I may not have even noticed if it hadn’t come back this year. For what it’s worth, the fourth season attempts to shake things up with a major plot twist that might upend the dynamic of the show – assuming that it isn’t resolved in a couple weeks, of course.

Because I don’t recap this series with any regularity, I won’t waste much time explaining everything that happened leading to this point. What’s important to know is that Nick acquired a Grimm-in-training sidekick last season, a young girl nicknamed “Trubel” (full name Theresa Rubel, get it?). In the finale episode, Captain Renard was shot at Nick’s house by a corrupt FBI agent, and Trubel (who happened to be there at the time) decapitated the shooter. Meanwhile, Nick has lost all of his Grimm powers due to a spell by bitchy hexenbiest Adalind, who recently got all of her own powers back after Nick took them away from her, but is still pretty bitter about the whole experience – hence the spell. This means that Nick can no longer even see wesen for what they really are, and Trubel is left as the only Grimm in town.

In the season premiere episode, ‘Thanks for the Memories’, Renard is rushed to the hospital and remains in critical condition. Nick and the gang try to get their stories straight about Trubel’s involvement as she’s questioned by new FBI agents investigating the case. One of the agents is a bird-like wesen who finds one of Nick’s Grimm journals in the house and recognizes what it is. She can’t say anything about it to her coworkers, but is deeply suspicious of Trubel even as her partner is prepared to clear the girl.

Unbeknownst to any of our heroes, an octopus-faced wesen with the power to suck out people’s memories has attacked a man and killed the guy’s girlfriend. The point of this is to use the man’s memories to gain access to the computer network of defense contractor firm Citre Corp, though to what end we don’t yet know. The episode leaves off with this storyline to be continued.

As much as I want to give the show the benefit of the doubt that the depowered Nick storyline will play out in some interesting way, I expect that it will probably be written out and quickly forgotten, much as the Zombie Nick storyline was at the beginning of last season. Beyond that, this is a pretty run-of-the-mill episode. I still like the show and will continue to watch, but my enthusiasm for it has waned over the past couple of seasons.

4 comments

  1. NJScorpio

    “As much as I want to give the show the benefit of the doubt that the depowered Nick storyline will play out in some interesting way, I expect that it will probably be written out and quickly forgotten, much as the Zombie Nick storyline was at the beginning of last season.”

    Exactly. Nick seemed to have retained some interesting powers from his Zombification…and then it was never talked about again.

    I have a feeling that in the next episode or two Nick will be back to normal, which would be disappointing. I want to see them further develop him considering NOT getting his powers back, in order to have a normal relationship with Juliet.

    One new story like I dig is the FBI wessen, who found the Grimm books. She doesn’t seem to be aligned with anyone (beyond the FBI), and we don’t yet know what she does and doesn’t know about the whole world of wessen’s and Grimms.

    And will they PLEASE tell Detective Wu that he ISN’T crazy!?! While I’m not crazy about the idea of a show where the majority of characters know about wessens/Grimms, it’s better than him in a constant state of almost committing himself.

  2. Maybe she just needs some better lines and a story line where she isn’t A. Whiny or B Helpless and clueless.

    I love trouble.. So far the writers have not done well with consistent story lines and multi season story arcs that anyone cares about. They have good characters and outside of Juliette and Wu they have decent depth, but they seem to be winging it. As directionless as it seems it is still better than the infinite rabbit hole of lost or the never ending boredom of red john in the Mentalist. They need a good captivating multi season arc that can contain good single season arcs. I’m hoping Trouble is not just a single season arch. She adds good depth.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *