Saturday, November 1, 2014

Grimm: "Thanks for the Memories" & "Octopus Head" Duel Review

Back in May I posted my absolutely uncensored review and my reactions to the season 3 finale of Grimm. I couldn't wait that long I said. Well, thanks to watching lots and lots of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Supernatural, the wait went by faster than expected. Now, I waited until the second episode aired, because it is a two-part story, and I wanted to review it all at once. The one thing I loved about these first two episodes is that unlike the season 3 premire episodes, not every cliffhanger was resolved in the first two episodes. In fact, only one was resolved here. The others are far, far from being done, and several more have built up.

So, let's review the cliffhangers again shall we?

Cliffhanger #1: Renard is in Hospital
I really was worried about this one. Sasha Roiz's, the actor who plays Renard, contract was running out. If he didn't sign it, Renard would be killed off. Well, at the end of Thanks for the Memories, he was killed off, at 1:34 pm. Thus he joins to be the first major character who dies. However, a blonde woman arrives at the end of the episode and sees this. At the very start of Octopus Head, she comes in and does one of the most supernatural things ever seen on the show. She stops time. Yes, that's right, the woman stops everything around her. She then pulls out a snake with a head on both ends, the snake bites Renard and her, and she revives him that way. So, Renard is not dead now, but has joined Nick in being one of only two characters who have died, and both are still kicking. I expect at least one of them to die again sometime and be revived again, or that's just me watching too much Supernatural.

Cliffhanger #2: A Decapitated FBI Agent at Nick's Home
The way this situation was handled was very smart. I thought this would spell the end for Trubel.  However, this isn't. Nick and Trubel told the police and FBI the truth, except about why Renard came to see Nick, and about Steward being a Hundjäger. Because they told everything as the truth, they got away thankfully. However, this investigation is leaving a whole bunch of unanswered questions.

Cliffhanger #3: Wu Sees a Grimm Diary
We last saw Wu looking at the Grimm Diaries, and now he is seen at the beginning of Thanks for the Memories flipping through them. He tries to tell Hank about this, but Hank tries to shrug it off. However, I like how instead all the other times, where Wu just accepts it gullibly, he is not convinced Hank is telling the truth. He is way too smart to just accept the BS they are using to cover up stuff. He is very close. Not just that, but he is becoming suspicious about Trubel too. In Octopus Head, he looks at a security camera from a fast food restaurant, and sees Trubel there. This was in relation to a case where Trubel was the murderer of several Wesen. ("Nobody Knows the Trubel I've Seen") So, he is very smart to go up at the end of Octopus Head and confront Nick about this. However, something happens to Nick (see the last section of this post to find out what) and he is left dangling. However, it doesn't seem like he is going to give up on this, and this means two things: one, it is now inevitable that he will be introduced to the Grimm world, it's just a matter of when. Two: we will be seeing more Wu! It is exciting, as last season we had two Wucentric episodes, "Mommy Dearest", and "Once We Were Gods". I can't wait to see what season 4 has in store for Wu.

Cliffhanger #4: Nick and Juliette
The producers and writers said that things would be much different for the couple. However, I was expecting some sort of "we're breaking up" type of reaction from Juliette. In case you forgot, Adalind took the form of Juliette, and had sex with him. However, these first two episodes, the couple reacted like a regular couple would in their situation and they are working together on this. Nick offers to sleep on the couch, but Juliette said that they aren't "going down that road again". They've already been through so much crap already, they deserve a break. This actually ties into the next and biggest cliffhanger of all.

Cliffhanger #5: A Grimmless Nick
Is Nick going to get his powers back? Or, should we put it like this based on how he has acted in Thanks for the Memories and Octopus Head, does he want his powers back? Nick and Juliette think it could be a good thing, as they would not be in so much danger anymore. However, for Nick, it will be harder to solve crimes now, and despite Trubel being his eyes for the Grimm world, he doesn't like that. From next week's episode preview, it seems like he will be pushed to his human limits to decide if he wants them back or not.

Cliffhanger #6: The Cure!!!!
Even though Juliette told Monroe and Rosalee to give them time to decide, the two now married couple are still trying to find a cure for this, yet even they are stumped. Renard is in no condition to help, but this new woman who saved his life is. This woman is Renard's mother. Finally, she arrives. She will be helping to find a cure for this, but then the question comes, does he want the cure? That may be the question that will come up a lot more later in the season.

Cliffhanger #7: Adalind's Search
Adalind thinks Viktor has her baby, (watch "The Law of Sacrifice" for the full mishpuha) and so goes to Vienna to see her baby. However, she is heartbroken when Viktor instead puts her into a dungeon cell. I am conflicted here. I feel bad for her loss, but at the same time I want her to die in lava for what she did to Nick. I am curious to see how this unfolds, especially her creepy cell buddy who sounds like a Fuchsteufelwild and sounds insane (literally).

The Other Crap
Some other stuff to point out. One is how the hell did Elizabeth (Renard's mother) stop time? I know Hexenbiests can make powerful potions, but this has got to take the cake for the most powerful potion or spell I've ever seen. This means Hexenbiests have gotten much, much higher on the ranking of the most powerful Wesen. It seems like she is even more powerful than Adalind.

Something happened at the end of Octopus Head that surprised me. One of the FBI agents investigating Nick's house is a Steinadler, an eagle-like Wesen. She becomes suspicious of both Nick and Trubel, but then targets Trubel solely. At the end of Octopus Head, Trubel is kidnapped by the agent, Chavez. I think she is not working for the FBI, just like Steward. Either she just hates Grimms or was sent by the Verrat like Steward. Either way, she doesn't seem like a good Wesen at all, duh, she just kidnapped someone.

Another very interesting event unfolded at the same time as Trubel's kidnapping. When Wu was questioning Nick about Trubel, he and Adalind began to have painful headaches, and briefly, they looked at each others vision. So, Adalind looked through Nick's eyes and saw Wu and Juliette, and Nick saw through Adalind's eyes at a dungeon with rats. This is just odd. The simple solution of just killing Adalind probably wouldn't work, they are much more connected to each other than either of them would have guessed.

And then the new Wesen in town, the Gedächtnis Esser. Seriously, he is one of the coolest Wesen we have seen in a while. He kept me guessing who he was from the moment he appeared to his arrest. At first we are introduced to him as being Lawrence Anderson, but in Octopus Head, Lawrence Anderson is found dead with the markings for a Gedächtnis Esser on the back of his head. So, the guy isn't even Lawrence Anderson! What he did to the people that worked on the CVA project, a highly classified military project, is just terrible, piercing the backs of their skulls with his tentacles and stealing everything from them, every memory, they don't even know their own names! Once he handcuffs Trubel, it is clear he is very, very intimidating. Trubel, a Grimm, was absolutely out of her mind scared when he was talking her. And just to add the fear he produced, when he tapped her forehead while talking about where memories are stored, she flinched back really far. Now, the fear he induced in her is probably very impressive for a Wesen, but the fear she induced on him is even worse. Trubel fights him (while handcuffed, showing once more Grimms are badass) and he begins to feed on her memories. However, as he does, he learns she is a Grimm, and immediately stops and starts a severe mental breakdown. Because Gedächtnis Esser have somewhat eidetic memory, when he just subconsciously thinks about her memories, he screams. This goes to show that even the most feared Wesen are scared of Grimms. However, scared isn't even a good word to describe this. The fact is he looked into her memory, and because he saw the things she did to Wesen, that amplified the fear. It wasn't just her being a Grimm, but him looking at what she did by looking at her memories, that gave him a severe traumatic experience.

In the end, the first two episodes where some of the strongest episode I've seen in a while, and I cannot wait to see how this all goes. I am particularly excited to see their Golem episode, and their Christmas special this year, which features Kallikantzaroi. I hope Season 4 is as good or better than Season 3, and I don't think I'll be disappointed.

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