Nick’s newest nemesis may be too hot to handle in this week’s episode of ‘Grimm’, which takes a page out of the fairy tale ‘The Two Brothers’.
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Two men arrive at an industrial building with the obvious intent to break in. When they get to the gate, they see that someone has already beaten them to it as the lock and the gate is broken. They notice the lock on the building door they need to go through looks melted and is still warm. The other man is still determined to get what they came for. As they go inside the building, they hear a noise and see a flame. They try to draw this person out by claiming to be security. All of the sudden they smell something odd and then a fireball hits them and we see it was caused by a Wesen (aka Grimm creature).
In the morning, Sgt. Wu fills Nick and Hank in on what he has so far. The bodies are “toast” and will need to go through dental records to identify them. They did identify the truck as belonging to Joseph Oliver who has been arrested several times for stealing scrap metal.
Down at the crime scene, the detectives are told that the dead men were thrown up against the wall from the blast and that it happened very quickly. The puzzling part of the whole thing was that whatever happened must have occurred very fast and at a very high temperature for the condition of the body to be found this way. Normally it would take several hours to reach this crispness.
The owner of the business, Lance Truman, tells Nick and Hank that this is the third building that he’s owned that has been hit and all that is taken is copper. Nick notices that the area of the latch is melted and the owner told him that’s how the latches at his other buildings were found. Hank notices something black on the floor as the other two talk. It smells like oil so he puts a lighter to it and the “oil” lights up into a puff of flame.
At the precinct, the fire marshal tells the detectives and Capt. Renard that the cause of the fire that killed the two men was human fat sprayed with methane. This same substance was found on the locks at the crime scene as well as the other buildings that were broken into. They’ve also deduced that whoever is stealing the copper is not selling it as it is not showing up in the scrap yards.
A witness comes in to the police station and tells Hank that he saw someone running away from the scene and almost ran him over. He described the man as having scraggly hair with half his face scarred up and unshaven. The detectives send him to the police artist for a sketch to be made. Suddenly a 911 call comes in to help as Truman was just attacked.
The detectives head back to the crime scene where Truman tells them that whoever hit him may still be in the building. The police go in where the original burnt bodies were found to draw the attacker out. Sgt. Wu hears a noise and radios the detectives. Wu then gets sprayed with a substance that prevents him from breathing. Nick cautions him to not fire his gun and to retreat as he and Hank head to Wu’s position.
When they get there, they see a man standing. A substance is sprayed at Nick but it doesn’t seem to affect him. As he looks at the man, Nick sees him turn into a Daemonfeuer just as he is about to spew fire out of his mouth. Nick manages to dive out of the way before getting blasted. The Daemonfeuer is seen leaving but seems injured. He carries with him a sack of copper and heads to the railroad tracks.
DNA results show that the person they are looking for is named Fred Eberhart, a Desert War vet who’s been in and out of VA Hospitals. He has a daughter named Ariel. Nick visits her at the club where she works as a fire dancer and as he walks in, he realizes the club is filled with Wesens (creatures). Feeling cautious, Nick tries not to get noticed until he spots Monroe and heads over to sit by him. Monroe, not wanting to be associated with a Grimm at a Wesen hot spot asks Nick what he is doing in a place like this. Nick tells him that he’s on a case involving Ariel’s father.
As they leave the club, Monroe fills Nick in on the species. Damonfeuers are a throwback to the “days of yore” when there were knights in shining armor. They come from a dragon like lineage that can breathe fire but it’s more like they vomit fire. Damonfeuers can go into a state of ketosis where they can vaporize their own fat which then becomes highly explosive when ignited by static electricity.
It’s then that Monroe remembers that his cousin from Antwerp had told him about a Grimm that was found decapitated 2 days ago and the head has still yet to be found. Rumor has it that the Reapers are responsible and warns Nick to be careful.
Nick visits Ariel back stage and tells her he’s investigating an arson related murder. Ariel knows that Nick is a Grimm and asks if she is his first Daemonfeuer as he is her first Grimm. Nick asks about her father but Ariel tells them they are estranged. She tells him that after her mother died, he fell apart and blamed himself for her death. He couldn’t handle anything after that and she hadn’t seen him. Nick gives her his card in case she sees her father and leaves.
He decides to stick around and follow her as she leaves the club to her home. On her rooftop are numerous copper rods. All of the sudden, Nick hears a thunderous roar and a flash from the house. He approaches the home and notices the same black oil that was at the crime scene. Nick suddenly becomes blindsided and is tackled onto his back with a Damonfeuer straddling him. She rips open his shirt and turns back into Ariel before kissing him on the lips. (Talk about foreplay!)
Ariel laughs as Nick rolls her off him. She is definitely into this Grimm which has caught Nick off guard. The phone rings and Ariel retrieves it from the ground. It’s Juliette! (Busted!) Ariel answers the phone and tells her that Nick is with her as Nick frantically tries to take it away from her. But it’s too late. The damage is done and by the time Nick gets the phone to tell Juliette he can explain, she tells him she can’t wait and hangs up.
At home, Nick tries to convince Juliette that he was on a case and she shouldn’t be jealous. Juliette forgives him but Nick doesn’t see Ariel outside his window drawing a broken heart on the glass coated with her regurgitated vaporized fat.
The next morning, the detectives talk to Fred Eberhart’s boss who tells him that Fred was a good welder and came from a long line of fire throwers. He tells them that Fred has gone crazy and was last seen near the tracks of an old mining line. Nick is able to locate where the tracks end and deduces it could be the Daemonfeuer’s lair.
Nick receives a call from Ariel who tells him that she is putting on a special show that night just for him (now isn’t that special?) and that she has decided to help him find her father. She invites him to her house so she can tell him everything she knows. So as not to be in the dog house with Juliette this time, he calls her and tells her that he and Hank are going back to Ariel’s house.
After finding a dead end at Ariel’s’, Nick gets home and sees a trail of clothes leading up the stairs. With anticipation, he heads to the bedroom and begins to kiss the girl in his bed. As he moves her hair away, he sees a dragon tattoo on her back and realizes it’s Ariel in the bed! (Okay, like he couldn’t tell her hair color wasn’t the same as his fiancée’s?) He backs away but she continues to come on to him. He demands to know where Juliette is and tosses Ariel to the wall as she continued to try and seduce him. Not happy, Ariel expels her regurgitated fat towards Nick but it has no effect on him and he quickly moves out of the way when she decides to ignite the fat. Ariel gets away and Nick chases after, but he’s too late.
Upstairs, the phone rings and it’s Ariel telling him that she has Juliette and he needs to go to her father’s lair if he wants to see her alive. Apparently, Ariel thinks Nick is a way for her father to redeem himself. Nick grabs Monroe to help him save Juliette. As they rush to the lair, Monroe realizes this is a quest. Nick’s princess (Juliette) has been taken by the dragon (Ariel) and he needs to sacrifice everything to go after them. (The archetypical fairy tale romantic love story.) Only problem with this scenario is that someone always dies.
Nick and Monroe find the lair and go in. He calls out to Ariel as Monroe goes and tries to find Juliette. In the meantime, Ariel has convinced her father that Juliette is her mother and he needs to protect her. Monroe quickly finds Juliette and unties her hands but before they can get away, Monroe hears a noise. It’s Ariel come back to remove the gag from Juliette’s mouth so she can scream for Nick. Once the gag is off, Juliette punches Ariel in the face and Monroe grabs her and runs.
The dual is on as Fred and Nick fight to the death. The knight defeats the dragon! And as Fred dies, Ariel tells him that he fought valiantly. Nick doesn’t quite understand what is going on but Ariel says that he helped her dad die with dignity and now it was her turn. She begins to expel her regurgitated fat and spins around to coat the entire cavern. At that point Nick runs out of the lair just as a fire ball is released.
On the way home, Juliette tells Nick that she’s not okay. Nick apologizes for the events that happened but Juliette is not sure if she can stay with him if things like this keep happening. Nick flashes back to Aunt Marie telling him that even though he loves Juliette, he needs to break if off with her. Juliette doesn’t know what to do but she does know that she’s glad that Ariel is dead.
Back at the lair, Ariel is seen walking out with a determined look upon her face.
Lots of new nuances in this episode! Did you catch that funny look Juliette gave Monroe when he put out his hand to shake hers? She looked a little suspicious, don’t you think? At this point, we’ve only seen the Grimm world through Nick’s eyes but we’ve never really seen what it would look like for someone to recognize Nick as a Grimm or someone recognizing a Wesen until now. There is definitely something up with Juliette.
Quite amazing is that Nick is now recognized on sight as a Grimm. Although we’ve seen it before, that part of Nick that creatures can sense that he is a Grimm has become much stronger and creatures can see him as he truly is just as clear as Nick can see the creatures. Nick is becoming almost superhero like as the vapors don’t affect him as they did the robbers and Sgt. Wu. I wonder what other Grimm powers will evolve as the series goes on.
Last week was a Monroe-lite episode and it was nice to see him in the thick of the action, but just as I was getting into what Captain Renard was all about, an episode that barely features him is shown. Kudos for dangling that carrot in front of me, EP’s. Next week, however, it looks like some of our questions will be answered with the return of Hexenbiest, Adeline.
If you missed the last episode, make sure you catch up by reading my ‘Grimm: Three Coins in a Fuchsbau‘ recap.
