GRIMMly Speaking - A Grimm Podcast

GRIMM Episode 6:13 “The End” Written by David Greenwalt & Jim Kouf Directed by David Greenwalt [recap by Maia Ades] Here it is, our last GRIMM episode post. We may do a series wrap up at a later date, but this is the last episode and last post covering one of the episodes. Overall the writers did a good job of wrapping this series up. Some niggling issues with some of their choices, but it did bring the story to a conclusion. Talk about cramming story in. This episode is still only 43 minutes long. I thought since it was the series finale that they might make it a longer episode. Instead they put it all in one regular length show. It manages, to not only give us some catch up scenes of what came before, flash backs of bits from the original pilot, it also manages to have the final battle and resolve it all in the end. And that is probably the highest compliment I can pay this episode. It manages to wrap up a series that has been playing out its storylines for the past five and half seasons. It does a fairly good job of resolving many loose ends. It doesn't go back and resolve story ideas from some of the first seasons, but I'll forgive them at this point. GRIMM has been building to a huge showdown, an ultimate battle for the world as we know it. Or actually the world GRIMM has built, which, let's be clear, is not the same world I live in. So, they had to give us a pay off for the long build up to that. They also had to leave their audience with an ending that they would be happy with. This ending probably didn't make everyone happy, but if they'd left all our favorite characters dead, there just might have been riots in the streets.

GRIMM Episode 6:12 “Zerstörer Shrugged” Story by David Greenwalt & Jim Kouf Directed by Aaron Lipstadt This is the only episode in which the writer's credit has been listed as "story by" rather than "written by", which may or may not be significant, but it's odd enough for us to notice. We've seen these characters go through a lot. We've seen them take new lovers, change lovers, have babies, lose loved ones and learn so much along the way. Will you follow these actors on their new adventures or is it the characters they portrayed that are of interest to you? Either way, we'd like to hear from you and find out what brought you to Grimm and why you've become a fan. Send us a note: scifi4meradio@scifi4me.com I think the title comes from the nonchalant manner in which our antagonist, the Zerstörer killed most everyone in his path. He didn't kill all the drunks under the bridge, and I don't know why he bothered to kill the one. The guy wasn't a threat. He could have just turned and kept on walking. Or he could have killed all of them with one wave of his staff, but he didn't do any of those things. Instead, he killed just one of them. Was it to learn another snippet of our language? Was it to prove to us how deadly he was? Was it to make sure he was easy to find by following the trail of dead bodies he left behind? And wow! The end of this episode was painful... Read the full recap here: http://wp.me/p5dbzK-hBY

GRIMM Episode 6:11 “Where the Wild Things Were” Written by Brenna Kouf Directed by Terrence O'Hara Eve (Elizabeth Tulloch) gets in trouble when she steps through the mirror. But it Diana doesn't look like she'll follow. In fact, most of the main characters are being uncharacteristically pragmatic. How odd that now, with the last couple of episodes to go, they are finally being sensible. Teresa Wickersham had a good theory about why the episode is called "Where the Wild Things Were". She thinks maybe when they stepped through the mirror they actually went back in time. Anyone have a good theory they'd like to share on why the Wesen are always woged in "the other place"? Perhaps they are primitive Wesen and woging at will was an evolutionary aspect of Wesen. The concern for Eve is that she will woge and be stuck in her Hexenbiest form. Unfortunately Nick is still a bland character. Read the full review here: http://wp.me/p5dbzK-hB6

GRIMM Episode 6:10 “Blood Magic” Written by Thomas Ian Griffith Directed by Janice Cooke Folks, the end is getting close. This is episode ten. That means only three more are left. Are you planning your watch parties for March 31st? I'd love to hear what fans are planning for the final episode. It would also be fun to see your party pics. Our A storyline is the police case. It centers around the question about what happens when a Wesen suffers from dementia. In this case, it has deadly consequences. We have two different senior Wesen, both suffering severe dementia. One resides in a long term care facility and the other is still at home. Mr. Stanton resides at home. His wife has been trying to manage his symptoms by herself. She's not very effective in her goal. He goes wandering off on two separate occasions and kills two people. Not only does he kill them, but he kills them with speed, strength and ferocity that doesn't seem remotely plausible for this older gentleman. The B storyline is all about Eve. And yes, she's earned the name Eve once again. Her hair is tightly back on her head. She can woge at will and she has a very Hexeniest oriented goal. Full review here: http://wp.me/p5dbzK-hwZ

GRIMM Episode 609 “Tree People” Written by Brenna Kouf Directed by Jim Kouf Seems the literary reference was dropped for this week. Unless we missed something, which is very possible. There are other stories that have walking trees. I thought of J.R.R. Tolkien's Ents. And of course we've recently seen Groot on screen. But this didn't really remind me of any of those references. There are two different tree things. One that catches people that have sinned against nature and then sacrifices them to a large tree thing that, absorbs them. I think. Our Grimm team tries to stop this ritual killing. I don't think they were successful. The last shot in that story seems to say the forest protector will live to venge another day. Adalind (Claire Coffee) is back this week. She didn't have a big role in this week's story, but she was back. As was most of the gang, the noticeable exception was Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni). Where oh where did HW send her off to? There are only four episodes left. Can we please have her back?

GRIMM Episode 608 “The Son Also Rises” Written by Todd Milliner and Nick Peet Directed by Peter Werner This episode didn't do a lot to further the main characters' stories. It did give us a rather fun police case, an interesting dream sequence, and a bunch of flashbacks. Last week the theme was Shakespeare. If you missed it, most of the story was based on "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Our main characters drank spiked sparkling wine and each fell wildly in love with the wrong partner. This week it was Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". Debatable whether you can call it the Wesen of the week since the creature was created by scientists who had no idea the body parts they used came from different types of Wesen. When the poor creature woged he was quite a sight to behold. Short version of the episode, at least six months ago there was a car wreck that killed a scientist's son. Since that time, Shelley the father of the son, got three of his colleagues to work with him to resurrect his son. Now they've created this hodgepodge of a body with various kinds of Wesen parts.

GRIMM Episode 607 “Blind Love” Written by Sean Calder Directed by Aaron Lipstadt This one was primarily about fun. Hopefully the cast had at least as much fun working on this as we had watching it. We had two story-lines this week. The bulk of the episode was about Monroe's (Silas Weir Mitchell) birthday weekend. The antagonist in this story-line was the disgruntled son of someone Nick (David Giuntoli) arrested seven years ago, conveniently, before Nick became a Grimm. The second story-line revolved around Diana (Hannah R. Lloyd) and Renard (Sasha Roiz). Remember how Grossante was none to pleased that Renard reneged on his promise to name Grossante as his successor? Ya, well this week he tried to collect on the broken promise. His brilliant plan was to kidnap Diana. He had no idea what he was getting into when he took that girl. He ended up being her play thing. It was not pretty. On the upside, Diana had a delightful play date. Read the whole review here: http://wp.me/p5dbzK-heO

GRIMM Episode 606 “Breakfast In Bed” Written by Kyle Mc Vey Directed by Julie Herlocker Do you feel like GRIMM is bringing their story to a close? How do you feel about more police cases being introduced? Personally, I have mixed feelings. I see the ground work being laid for a grand finale. And it looks like the very final episode will be to tie up lose ends. I guess my biggest question is how many lose ends will there be and will they be able to do that in one episode. For the second week in a row there's a surprise at the end of the episode. Maia was especially fond of the hungry, hungry hippo last week, but didn't get the joke in this one. Teresa knew what was up, though. She caught that the last name of the man at the end of the hall was Herring. And when he woged at the end, what was he... a red Herring. Yes, very clever GRIMM folks. These are the jokes. We're here till March 31, when the final episode airs.

GRIMM Episode 605 “The Seven Year Itch” Written by Jeff Miller Directed by Lee Rose [recap by Maia Ades] The Grimm count down continues. This is turning out to be a strong half season. It's an odd feeling knowing these are the last episodes of a show I've been following and writing about from the first episode to the last. It seems that, at least for now, the Wesen of the week is back. This week's monster was a cicada. Full disclosure: I'm not fond of cicadas. I don't mind them in the trees making their repetitive drone. But get one too close to me and I'm apt to behave more like a middle school girl rather than an experienced adult. I've been working on this phobia for years. I think I'm making progress. However, seeing a man size cicada did kinda creep me out. There were parts of this episode that were hard for me to watch. I won't lie. Did anyone else wonder if there is another version of this Wesen that emerges every seventeen years? Different kinds of cicadas have different lengths of time that they remain underground. There are over 190 varieties of cicadas just in North America. This episode also furthered our main characters' stories. It didn't give us many answers, but I think those will come.

GRIMM Episode 604 “El Cuegle” Written by Brenna Kouf Directed by Carlos Avila You know that comfy pair of jeans that is worn and comfortable? That's how I feel about this episode. It reminds me of former episodes. Not back to the time when Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) had more of his interesting characteristics. But far enough in the past that it feels familiar. Renard (Sasha Roiz) not only saw and talked to Meisner, he put his hand on him and it didn't go through. That made me start to wonder if Meisner was somehow there. I started trying to figure out if he could have survived and was sneaking in and out of Renard's home. However, it seems that Meisner is just a very powerful figment of Renard's imagination. GRIMM brought up an interesting moral dilemma. Unfortunately both the audience and our leads don't have enough information until the end of the episode.

GRIMM Episode 603 “Oh Captain My Captain” Written by Thomas Ian Griffith Directed by David Giuntoli The biggest news concerning this episode is that it marks Mr. David Giuntoli's directorial debut. If you didn't know that before viewing it, I doubt you'd have realized it. That is possibly the highest praise I could give him. Because it means that his episode stands up to all the other episodes. There wasn't anything that would make you realize or even suspect that it was his first time at the helm. Short version: Renard (Sasha Roiz) went from having everything he wanted at the end of last episode to an uneasy truce at the end of this one. That really sums it up.

GRIMM Episode 602: “Trust Me Knot” - Written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, Directed by John Gray Both of the first two episodes were written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt. They are the creators of the show and when they step in to write an episode I always feel that signifies it's an important one. Since these are the final thirteen episodes I suppose that each of them carries more weight than some of the previous episodes. Knowing that the series will end and when has given this creative team an opportunity not all shows get. It's not uncommon for a series to simply not get picked up between seasons. Meaning that how ever the show ended the previous season becomes the show's finale. I think fans can be grateful that Grimm has the opportunity to wrap up their story in this last half a season. It's all most as if even the TV executives realized that a show with a five year run needed to be able to give the fans a satisfactory wrap up.

It's true, GRIMM is finally back. I hope it's worth the wait for all of us. Grimm got renewed for 13 episodes and that will be the end of the line for the show. I suppose because it's only a half season they started the season in January instead of the show's customary October start. I've spent so much time following this show I'm really hoping for a great end to the story. As GRIMM always does, the season started right where it left off last spring. This episode was all about getting people from one place to another. It was rather like a human nut shell game. You've seen the game, a small object often a little ball is under one of three nut shells, someone with slick moves and fast hands tries to hide which nut shell holds the little object. In this game it's a matter of hiding dead bodies, hiding Nick (David Giuntoli) and everyone else on his side pretending not to hide him under a nut shell. There's no point in starting new storylines that they won't have time to tell. At this point everything that comes up needs to be important to bringing this story to a close. Or, that's my hope. It drove me nuts that many story ideas were started and never completed. I mean, sure life is like that, but this is TV not real life.

In this episode of Grimmly Speaking, Ann Labbs and I discuss our thoughts on Grimm as a whole and especially the past season. It's been a while since we sat down to talk Grimm. It's good to jog the ole noggin and recall the show. We also share our predictions and hopes for the next season, or half season. Grimm was renewed for only 13 episodes this fall. NBC has said the reason for the 13 episodes is to allow for more flexibility with their own scheduling. I'm not a TV executive, but that kind of sounds like a nice way to say, "We're not sure we want to keep you around for a full 22 episodes." Time and fan loyalty will tell if they get picked up for the second half of the season. Which means that the biggest cliffhanger is the longevity of the show itself. Will this be the final half or full season for our brave group in Portland? Or will they continue to learn and grow all the while battling nefarious Wessen. I guess we'll have to tune in to find out. Which coincidentally will help them get their second half of the season. So, get some lemonade and give us a listen.

Episode 521 & 522 "The Beginning of the End"Written by David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf (521), Thomas Ian Griffith (522)Directed by David Greenwalt (521), Norberto Barba (522) This season finale was more intense and more mature than in the past. It left many cliffhanger questions but not the blunt instruments of seasons past. This go around it's the niggling, lingering questions that will haunt Grimmsters till this October. Golly, that sounds so far away. Short version: Black Claw moved in and made its self very much known. Diana really, really wants a family. Nick and Trubel now both know where the Splinter of Destiny is hidden. The Portland base of Hadrian's Wall is wiped out. Eve may be reverting back into Juliette. And Rosalee is pregnant. Yeah. Let those last two sink in for a minute.

Episode 520, "Bad Night"Written by Sean CalderDirected by Norberto BarbaHold onto your TV trays! We expect the last two episodes to be intense. This episode's purpose is to set up the double episode finale. You know, when TV executives decide to air episodes back-to-back, that leaves us thinking, "It's gonna be a late night."This week Hank IS the police case. Wrap your brain around that. Really, this has never happened. It's not a Wesen of the week police case. Remember when Adalind broke all of Tony's fingers? Well, he's back. And chances are, he'll be back for more. I mean, he's not dead yet.The episode was a tight weave of storylines. The title "Bad Night" well applies in this hour. Almost everyone has their own version of a bad night. Hank is having a good time with Zuri, only to learn that she's connected to Black Claw. Nick is distraught over losing Adalind and his son. And Monrosalee get their night interrupted when Nick shows up for a trip to Hadrian's Wall with Trubel, who's maybe not having a bad night.And are we seeing a few chinks in Eve's armor? A little humanity starting to spill out?

Episode 519: “Taming of the Wu”Written by Brenna KoufDirected by Terrence O'Hara The countdown to the end of the season is on. The tension is mounting. The rule breaking continues. After all my complaining last week, this episode begins to make amends in some ways. There have been a few episodes that feature Wu (Reggie Lee). Most of them, okay all of them, are about Wu basically losing his mind. This one has some other surprises. But the line in the sand is constantly shifting. One moment they observe procedure and the next they completely look the other way or even aid the guilty. There is no consistency, no set way that cases are handled.

Four more episodes of this season. Four more. Where do we stand in all our various storylines? We've got a ways to go. First off, kudos to the folks doing the Foley work for this episode! This was a gross out fest and your work with the sound effects sold it! I've never heard a human body being driven over by a large van repeatedly, but I'll guess that it sounds like that. This week, the police case involves a vulture-like Wesen that kills by sucking out the bones of his victims. And we also get a reunion between Adalind and baby Diana. But what's up with the Wu storyline? He's running off in his sleep attacking dogs? Sleep-woging? I know I'm being a grump about this. I want consistency in the way the writers deal with what they themselves set up. Don't tell me that being a werewolf is genetic in one episode and then have a character become one from a scratch in the next episode. That just doesn't jive. I've said it before, when you set up a fictional world, you ask the audience to buy into it. You're asking them to suspend the reality that they know and go along with you on a journey you're leading them on. When you then go and mess up that reality by continually changing the rules, the fictional world breaks down.

Episode 517: “Inugami”Written by Kyle McVeyDirected by Sharat Raju Some good, some bad, some baffling and a whole lot of Whoa! We've seen it in the news headlines, an accidental shooting among kids. In this case it's teenagers who have been drinking and smoking some weed. Okay, all of that is illegal, but then the kids haul out their parents' weapons in a "who's got the coolest weapon" show. This is another one of those cases where Hank (Russell Hornsby) asks Nick (David Guiltoli) when they're going to handle it like cops and when Nick is going to go all Grimm on them. And in this case it's a mix. Wu (Reggie Lee) is now gone on to have . . . um, active dreams? He apparently went off for a midnight run through the woods, not as himself. This is going to give me anger management issues. The end held the biggest surprise. But, also the biggest "how the heck did that go that way?!"

Episode 516: “The Believer”Written by Jim Kouf and David GreenwaltDirected by John BehringFirst a bit of house cleaning news. In case you missed it, Grimm was renewed for a sixth season. It will be interesting to see if Grimm will get to run its course and call it quits on its own schedule. Not many TV shows have had that luxury. It's always better for the fans if the writers know when the series will end and can give it a proper send off.Take a look at the writer credit. The creators of the show wrote this episode. These guys are really busy, they are not just the creators, producers, they are also the show runners. I don't know the reason that they wrote this episode. I hope it was because they wanted to be involved in the writing, probably their first love in the world of production.

Episode 515: "Skin Deep”Written by Michael Golamco, directed by Karen GaviolaMore classic Grimm. Hope you like it. Classic Grimm seems to be what we're getting for the time being. I was more bothered by what wasn't in this episode than anything that was.What do I mean by classic Grimm? I mean most of the episode revolved around the police case(s) with bits of main character story.This was a different kind of Wesen attack. Usually when a person is attacked they die at the scene of the attack. This time, the Musasat Alsh-Shabab, some kind of Scarab Beetle Wesen sucks the youth from its victim, who later ages extremely fast and dies. But the benefit for the attacker is it's very hard to tie the death to the Musasat Alsh-Shabab.

Episode 514: "Lycanthropia”Written by Jeff Miller, directed by Lee Rose Another classic Grimm episode. However, because this one wasn't inventing new history and hinting at much more possible story, it was more effective. Also the reveal at the end of this episode was more shocking and interesting. Overall this episode worked very well. It was Grimm's take on the classic werewolf story with bits of information on the lead character's stories.

Episode 513: "Silence of the Slams”Written by Stephen Carpenter, directed by David Straiton This episode felt like a bit of a let down after last week. Considering how much is going on for our main characters, this story didn't move those stories forward enough. This one was more your run of the mill Grimm episode. I think it would have benefited from taking more time with the police case. There was the potential for much more detail and history. By rushing it, Goyo's the decent into madness is less believable. The biggest part of the episode was a journey into the world of luchador fighters. The short version is a luchador fighter, Goyo, is tired of being paid to lose. He's prideful and certain of his star power. Benito, a mask maker, talks to him about the masks of the star fighters who's portraits hang on his walls. And, of course, there's a Wesen connection.

Episode 512: "Into the Schwarzwald”Written by Stephen Carpenter, directed by Norberto Barba This was the 100th episode and it lived up to that auspicious achievement. There's so much being set up, will fans make it through to the end of the season's ride? We expect it's just going to keep getting more and more exciting. Last week the huge moment was Nick and Adalind sleeping together. That was huge. It will or should change their dynamic totally. Of course what happened this week may throw a new wrench in the relationship.

This week Dan Handley sat in with me to record the podcast. He and I have different views which is a good thing for you as it gives you more variety of opinion.Things are getting tighter and hitting closer to home on this episode. There are still another eleven episodes to go. This one was close to the kind of cliffhanger that we've seen as finales of past seasons. There are two main storylines going on. One is the crusade that Nick (David Giultoli) and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) are on and the other is what Marwan, the creepy Black Claw guy, is up to.Most of this episode is setting up even more excitement for next week. I think fans will be pleased with what's to come. But, we're not there yet.

GRIMMEpisode 510 "Map of the Seven Knights” Directed by Aaron Lipstadt Written by Stephen Carpenter The larger storylines are getting tighter and tighter as this season progresses. Grimm has had some doozy cliffhangers. I get the feeling there maybe a real humdinger coming this season.This episode was one for the books, or about the books. Felix, an uncle of Monroe's (Silas Weir Mitchell) is brought in to appraise a stash of 20 very old Grimm books. Felix calls Monroe because, of course his mother let slip that Monroe has a friend who's a Grimm. Just a guess here, but that's probably going to have more repercussions than a call from an uncle.

Episode 509 "Star Crossed” Kammie must have more sway than I realized. She got her wish. Grimm wove both the police case and the larger storyline in one episode. This week the Wesen of the week or police case had connections to the Black Claw. Well, not directly but the writers did a good job weaving the larger story issues into the regular weekly formula. The police case was a serial killer. Actually, he was a Fuilcré, an ox-like Wesen who was performing a rain making ritual that requires seven sacrifices placed to form the constellation of the Big Dipper.

And we're back to classic Grimm! I like it. Why? Because this is what the show has been built on. It's what fans have come to expect and enjoy. I'm pretty sure if the Grimm formula wasn't popular, it would not be in its fifth season. Yes, there are a few new twists to this classic Grimm. Using Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) as they did is not how they closed Wesen cases in season 1 or 2. I think this works better than the old way. Trubel gets to get her Grimm on. Nick (David Giuntoli) handles the case like an actual detective, sort of.

Episode 507 "Eve of Destruction” We picked up the story exactly where we left it. Which made sense, the mid season finale ended with a sort of cliffhanger. Mini recap time: Nick (David Giuntoli) leaves everyone at the warehouse to question Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) about "Juliette" (Bitsie Tulloch). Who then sneaks out to confront Meisner (Damien Puckler) about "Juliette". Who later calls Nick to set up a meeting with "Juliette". Got that? Good. There's been a lot of different elements setup in the front end of this season. OK, most have been seen in tiny bits in the promos. They haven't been in the episodes. But still, if the stuff is in the promos, it's been promised. I'm pretty sure that's in the standard what audiences expect from their shows manual. Grimm, don't let us down. We're looking forward to a whole lot of story in the back end of this season. Your Grimmsters are looking forward to the rest of this season.