“History is the nightmare
From which I am trying to awake.”
Taking a minor role over the last few weeks in favor of procedural one-shots, the fight against the Black Claw is at the forefront of this week’s ‘Grimm‘as Nick and the gang is presented with an invaluable offer, one that could even the odds as Nick continues his fight against the Wesen armies of bad news.
Apropos to the origins of the Grimm, we start in Germany where Felix, an appraiser of rare books gets a call from Prague where an antiques dealer asks for his opinion on a set of books, property of the now late Josef Nebojsa. After paging through the treasures, Felix calls his nephew who just happens to be Monroe. He sends photos of the books and asks Monroe to consult with Nick on if the Grimm would be interested in owning them.
Fast forward a day or two and Felix shows up in Portland, to Monroe’s surprise. He knows someone else is after the books and needs to unload them as fast as Wesenly possible. Nick answers Monroe’s call for a meet but the Grimm, wary of the situation, taps Trubel as back up. After a bit of posturing (what Wesen wouldn’t be unnerved by two Grimms in front of him?) and validation of the books, Felix gives Nick twenty-four hours to come up with one hundred grand. That’s a whole lotta cash, especially on a cop’s salary but, after Trubel fills the group in on what she knows about the Nebojsa estate and the Black Claw attack on the antique dealer, Monroe suggests asking Hadrian’s Wall if they’d be able to come up with the dough. Nick and Trubel consult Meisner on the plan while Rosalee pitches in with a bit of research into Josef Nebojsa. What she finds is Nebojsa has an ancestry that leads all the way back to the original Crusades, a direct descendant of one of the original Knights. The news makes it all the more imperative to get those books.
Unfortunately, two Black Claw agents are also on the hunt and the pair eventually catch up to Felix, killing him. Nick and Hank are on the call and when the Grimm realizes the victim is Felix, he calls Monroe in. Monroe’s pain of losing his uncle is only trumped by his determination to find those who did it before they get their hands on the books. Wu gets the biggest lead when he finds a call from a shipping company to Felix’s phone, one to confirm delivery of a shipment for the book dealer. Unfortunately the killers, who’ve added a pair of EMTs to their body count, have the shipping number. Nick and Monroe get to the shipping yard not too long after the Black Claw Wesen and the fight, if you can call it that, ends with Monroe taking vengeance for his uncle’s death.
Crate in hand, everyone gathers at the spice shop where upon opening the chest, they find the remaining books as well as a healthy cadre of weapons and, the biggest of surprises: three more of the Keys. With the discovery of the three keys, it brings Nick’s total to five. Though they are still missing the final two keys, what they have now is enough to map out the majority of the buried something’s location.
“We’re going to the Black Forest.”
Grimmtastic
- Road trip! Though we’ve seen snippets of the world from the vantage point of the Council and side stories, the vast majority of action has always taken place in Portland. It’s a good change of pace to have the entire grimm gang head out of town as they comb the Black Forest for the mysteries buried by the Crusade. Just what that hidden something is, well, guess we’ll have to wait and see.
- Speaking of wait and see, we’re still being spoon-fed Renard’s involvement in Andrew Dixon’s mayoral campaign. There’s no doubt this political race has major implications on the overall season arc, but it looks like we’ll have to keep a bit of patience as the writers are drawing out the significance in this particular plot point as much as possible.
- Finally someone asks Nick about his state of being. He admits to Monroe that he really doesn’t know how he feels about Adalind and despite living together and sharing a child, they really haven’t gone there just yet. Sure there was that kiss but, considering all that’s going on around them, it’s probably a good idea they haven’t taken things farther. Of course that probably means the dam will break out some point for the unlikely couple but until then, prepare for a bit more of UST (unresolved sexual tension, for the non fanfic people).
- It was also good to see a bit more of the Grimm lore explored—albeit briefly—throughout the episode. With Nick and the gang heading to the Black Forest, one has to believe that even more of the grimm histories will be discussed as our white hats begin their search for that important something long buried…
