“Everyone sees what you
Appear to be, few experience
What you really are.”

Portland’s a hotbed of happenings in this week’s Grimm as a particularly nasty bounty hunter, Adalind, Viktor, and Monrosalee come to town while Juliette’s still searching for answers to her current hexen biest status.

A poor woman is unknowingly swindled by two ‘fortune tellers’, one of whom just so happens to be Wesen. The two charlatans end up getting the sharp end of the stick, so to speak, when they get a visit from Zartan the Manticore (okay, so it’s not Zartan) and he takes them down. He takes a picture of his kills, emailing the results to two members of the Wesen Council who give him the go ahead to add another head to his trophy case.

Investigating the death of two fortune tellers.

The Portland PD arrives at the fortune teller massacre and discern the signs of a manticore in business. Their detective work leads them to the swindled Ann Payton, the previous customer and her interview connects a few dots onto at least one of the charlatans being Wesen. The cops believe this may be a part of the Wesen Council and they touch base with their Wesen encyclopedia, Monrosalee. Just returned from their honeymoon, the Wesen couple believes a Marechaussee may be at work. A mercenary in every sense of the word, they are sanctioned by the Council to take out those who are on the list for running afoul of Wesen laws. Rosalee suggests Nick stay out of things. “As a Grimm maybe,” he says. “But not as a cop.”

At Renard’s behest, Juliette pays a visit to Henrietta, a mysterious friend of Renard’s mother who may be able to assist with Juliette’s current predicament. She tells Juliette how she now has “access to a primal force in nature” and needs to start practicing her wogeing while Henrietta examines Juliette’s blood to “see what you’re made of.”

Speaking of Hexenbiest, Adalind’s back in town with both Viktor and Rispoli in tow. Renard pays them a visit and, despite the heavy animosity between all parties, things are somewhat civil. Before Renard leaves, Viktor suggests the captain to re-evaluate his stance on familial ties.

Later, the Manticore takes out another victim (a lowlife of a Wesen being) but makes a rookie mistake; leaving his print on the victim’s phone. Nick and the gang are at the scene when Rosalee warns him to stay out of it as the Wesen Council is involved. Being a cop, he can’t turn a blind eye so the Council puts a hit out on Portland’s only Grimm. Before he’s able to track Nick down, the manticore—AKA Jonathon Wilde—is arrested after his prints are identified. He plays things cool, refusing to woge in front of Nick and, after an ignorant cop gets too close, is able to escape. Nick warns Juliette—who has just found out she’ll be a Hexenbiest for the foreseeable future (read: forever)—as Manticore Wilde shows up to use Juliette as the perfect bait.

Or so he thought.

Juliette throws down against the manticore

Seems that Henrietta wasn’t too far off in judging Juliette’s new power scale. By instinct alone, she’s able to counter Wilde’s attack and give the Manticore a taste of his own medicine. Nick arrives moments after and Juliette is resting. He promises something like this will happen again but she understands something. “You can’t protect me, Nick. That’s something I’m gonna have to do myself.”

Escalations

  • We’ve hit the halfway point of the season and a steady climb to the top of the ride before things go downhill. With Vitkor and Adalind in town, vowing not to leave until baby Diana is found, both Nick and Renard have Kelly Burkhart on the mind, the former writing his mom a warning while the latter dispatches Sam to track down the elder Grimm’s whereabouts. Precisely what Renard will do with Kelly’s location once he discovers it is anyone’s guess but one thing is certain: there will be some serious fallout from it all, especially once Juliette and Ads come face to face.
  • Speaking of the resident veterinarian, she’s got quite a bit to work out. Not only has she become something monstrous (at least in part) but she’s no ordinary Hexenbiest. Her power is beyond the mundane and reaching towards legendary. She’ll probably have an even tougher time dealing with her emotional swings and control of her new Wesen side while still trying to keep her status from Nick. Something tells me when the Adalind/Juliette catfight goes down, Nick will discover the truth, one way or another.
  • And then there’s the Wesen Council making the genius decision of putting Nick Burkhart on their hit list. Bad form, Council. It seems as if they haven’t learned the lesson Alexander and De Groot understand: beware of pushing Nick too far. He may be the most empathetic Grimm in some time but, if he must, he will kill. As Alexander tells his superior, the Council better hope he doesn’t take the kill order personally…