Geekscape Recap: Grimm: “The Ungrateful Dead”

Ah, Grimm. How we missed you! Welcome back!

Grimm, which premiered on Friday, Oct. 25^th—just in time for Halloween—is a great show that not enough people are watching, and if  last night’s episode was any indication, season three could prove to be the best season yet.

The season two finale left our heroes separated; Detective/Grimm Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) is captured by Baron Samedi and the Captain Renard’s evil half-brother Eric (who is a Prince of the mysterious Royal family) and being whisked away to Europe while Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch), Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) are trapped by ‘zombies’ in an container yard.

Just UnDead Enough To Be a Problem

Now, we already know the zombies aren’t your typical undead, rather, they are suffering the effects of a poison spit out by the supernatural Wesen, Baron Samedi, which knocks them out, mimicking death. When they awake, they are in a violent, fugue state which results in death if not treated.

So a crowd of just-zombied-enough-to-be-a-hazard people are attacking our loyal Scooby gang, and Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) arrives too late to save Nick—so it’s definitely time to call in the cavalry.

Which Juliette does (the ONLY helpful thing she’s done in the past two seasons, seriously) by calling Nick’s partner, Hank (Russell Hornsby—finally off the crutches). Hank has no questions (it is SO NICE that all our main characters are now sharing information) and immediately pulls in Sergeant Wu (Reggie Lee) to wrangle the posse and head out to the container yard.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Gypsy witch and black-market purveyor Stefania Vaduva Popescu (Shohreh Aghdashloo) finishes ripping the still-beating heart out of Frau Pech (Mary McDonald-Lewis) and seals it in a puzzle box of sorts. She calls in Adalind (Claire Coffee), who has grown on us during season two, and was particularly charming in her I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this-why-is-magic-so-dirty attitude this episode. Stefania informs Adalind that if Adalind wishes to have her Hexenbiest powers restored, she will cut off Frau Pech’s hands and feet. With a moue of distaste, Adalind kneels down, blade in hand.

How’d you get up there? Why Didn’t You Move the Stairs??

Hank and the cavalry arrive just in time to rescue Rosalee, Monroe and Juliette; the police begin rounding up the zombies and placing them in an empty shipping container (amazingly, an empty shipping container was just right next to where all the zombies were. Handy, that); Renard finds the container where Nick was taken, but before he can search for clues is attacked by zombies himself.

He goes partial-Hexenbiest on them, and dispatches three in short order just as a phone rings—Hank, calling Nick’s phone.

Renard meets up with Hank and the rest of the gang, and they compare notes. Juliette pouts about not finding Nick fast enough (really, has she NO skills?) while the police continue rounding up zombies (has the Portland PD never heard of tranq darts???).

Knowing that Eric wants Nick in Vienna—which means a plane—everybody jumps in Nick’s car and heads to the airport while Hank frantically calls the Airport Police. After discovering there is a plane under Baron Samedi’s name (apparently no need for an alias after you’ve just kidnapped a cop and murdered a bunch of people), Hank directs the airport security to approach with caution and to not let any plane take off.

Rosalee brings up the interesting factoid that no one knows how Nick—a Grimm—will react to the Baron’s poison. Since Nick isn’t exactly normal.

Airport Police To The Rescue…Oh, Wait…

Well, of course, the airport police show up (just two of them) and immediately separate, one going inside to ‘search’ and the other staying outside to chat with the Baron. So, of course, he gets zapped with the green poison ooze. His screams bring his partner out—and he, following the police procedure of we-can’t-actually-arrest-the-bad-guy-because-then-the-show-will-be-over, runs right past the Baron to his downed partner, and of course, gets slimed/oozed himself.

The plane takes off just as Hank et al get there. Juliette, per her usual function, stomps her foot and screams no, no, no, and then, showing an AMAZING lack of knowledge of police procedure for a women who lives with a cop, demands Renard stop the place. Then she slaps him, because that’s a how a strong woman goes about saving her man—slapping the people who are helping and demanding that they ‘get him back.’

Juliette is reprieved from being told to grow up, stop being a child, and if she has any helpful solutions she is welcome to bring those up (sorry, that’s our fantasy of what Renard was about to say after she slapped him) by Sergeant Chu calling Hank—the zombies are all rounded up, now what do they do?

Well, Rosalee has a handy-dandy antidote they know works, but they need to make more. Renard will check with the FAA to see if the plane logged a flight plan (which even we know private planes don’t have to do…) and everyone heads back to the car—except for Monroe, who points out the two unconscious cops. Since they can’t be treated yet, the cops get thrown into the back of the car for later (we never see them again, but we assume they got cured and went home and had pot roast for dinner).

I’m Not Dead Yet

Cut to the Baron’s plane, where the Baron is drinking bottled water (??) and gloating over the not-quite-dead Grimm in his metal coffin. Now, audience, Rosalee has already told us that a Grimm might react differently, so we know something is going to happen—and sure enough, the coffin starts to rattle.

Then it starts to shake, as Nick punches the steel into new shapes. The Baron, not worried yet, leans over the coffin, and when Nick forces the lid up, the Baron spits more poisonous goo. Nick slumps, the Baron, chuckling, walks away—and then Nick’s eyes open.

He attacks the Baron, and then a hapless co-pilot, which takes the fight into the cockpit—the plane starts to crash.

Back to Europe, where Adalind has dulled her knife hacking off Frau Pech’s hands. Stefania takes her to a lovely field of poppies and throws the lid of the puzzle box into the air, where it hovers, magically, for a moment, before landing.

Handing Adalind a spade made of a human foot (we think), Stefania bids her dig.

Back to the plane; Baron Samedi tries to regain control of Nick by chanting “Obey me, for I am your master.” Which doesn’t work at all. Nick throws him across the cock pit and the plane goes down in the forests of Oregon.

To the Tea Shop!

Meanwhile, Monroe, Rosalee and Juliette are back at the tea and spice shop, debating what to do. Juliette wants to fly to Vienna and get Nick. Monroe agrees with her—though at least he backs his argument up with a few thoughts (1) he doesn’t trust Renard and (2) they could get all of the Wesen Nick’s helped to assist.

Rosalee frets about how to inject the antidote into the dozens of zombie both in time and without getting hurt; Juliette remembers she’s a vet and probably took a chemistry class or two and comes up with the idea of making it into a gas (it takes them an unbelieving LONG time to get to that conclusion…)

Renard, back at the police station, orders his mole in the Royal family to kill Eric when Eric lands; there is a yes-we-already-knew-that bit of ex positional dialogue between Hank and Renard where the importance of saving Nick is again brought up.

At the crash site, a red-eyed, bloody and clearly not himself Nick pulls himself out of the wreckage and stumbles into the woods, leaving behind a dead Baron and two injured pilots.

Back at the container yard, Chu is having all the fun rounding up one-off zombies and putting them into the container. Monroe, Juliette and Rosalee show up with the treatment—Monroe, showing his innate knowledge of tactics, suggest making noise at the not-the-door-end of the container to distract the zombies so that Juliette and Rosalee can throw the antidote in, leading to the best line of the night (courtesy of Monroe), in response to knowing if the treatment worked: “I don’t know, I think it’s kind of like popcorn. You know it’s done with they stop making noise.”

Grimm Crash Plane. Grimm Smash!

Back at the precinct, Hank gets the plane-crash call; Nick stumbles out of the woods to find a conveniently placed roadhouse filled with a central-casting assortment of tough characters.

Chu opens the container to find a bunch of confused, bruised and frightened—but cured—people, just as Hank calls Monroe. Juliette, continuing her taking-a-stand-on-things-that-don’t-matter, insists Monroe put it on speaker phone. Hank tells them all that the plane has crashed.

Renard and Hank arrive at the crash site first, to find the Baron’s body but no Nick. Seeing the punch marks on the steel coffin, they realize that they may now be not so much rescuing Nick as rescuing other people from Nick. Hank calls the local police to request any 911 calls get copied to him.

Nick, senses inundated by the noise of the bar, attacks the first guy in his way, and then just keeps going. His senses are super-attuned; he can hear people’s heart as they attack from behind him. Terrified customers flee.

Monroe, Juliette and Rosalee show up at the plane crash just as Hank gets a call about a disturbance at a nearby bar—the whole gang heads out.

The bar owner comes out with a gun; Nick easily disarms him but then lets the guy ran away; seeing himself in the mirror, Nick, with a yell, throws the gun and shatters the mirror.

Renard, Hank, etc., pull up to the roadhouse just as the owner stumbles out; Monroe can smell Nick—it’s him, but different. Juliette offers to help (how?) and Rosalee tells him it’s not really Nick.

There’s No Way Their Finishing This In One Episode

They go in and see the damage—no one dead, but a lot hurt. Monroe and Hank head out the back after Nick.

Back to the field of poppies. Adalind finishes digging the hole, then buries the hands, feet and heart in it. Stefania says they will wait, and soon they will know if Adalind has been accepted.

After a moment, a growing circle of dead flowers spreads out from around them, then a green, vaguely skeleton looking form rises from the newly covered hole and is absorbed into Adalind, whose eyes glow green. Stefania tells her she has been accepted—and now she has to collect the dead flowers. Leading to the second best line of the night, Adalind’s snarky, exhausted: “Really?”

Back at the bar, cops pull up as Renard comes out, asking for ambulances, then tells Juliette and Rosalee that Nick has fled, and they have to stop Nick before he kills someone, because there’s no coming back from that.

Monroe gets Nick’s scent in the woods and he and Hank head after him.

Nick comes up to a house with a mom, dad and a little girl just getting home. Oh noes! What if he kills a family??

The episode ends with “This Ain’t Over Yet” title and a then a ‘this season Grimm’ sizzle reel (we can’t find it anywhere on line! Google has failed us!) that ends with what looks like Nick shooting Monroe! What? Why?

So a fun, fast, mostly excellent episode to start off the new season. No word on when that rumored second Grimm will show up, though.

Check back next Friday for our recap of episode two: “PTZD.”

The full episode can be watched at Hulu or on NBC.com; new episodes air on NBC on Friday’s at 9 p.m.

If you’re new to Grimm but don’t want to binge-watch two seasons before next Friday, you can download “Grimm: The Essential Guide” from iTunes (it’s free!).