“Give a man a mask and
He will show you his true face.”
Luchadores, Aztec gods and devious plots…sounds like another Friday night Grimm to me.
Picking right up where we left off last week, the gang is trying to wrap their heads around Monroe’s miraculous healing. They agree that, until they figure things out—was it the stick, the box, or the cloth that holds the power?—they’ll keep things to themselves. That includes Nick not being up front and honest with Adalind when he returns to the safe house. Of course, she’s not 100% true blue either, refraining from giving him the details of her seemingly soon-to-be Hexenbiest status return. Though, in her defense, she does test the waters, bringing up the what-if probability to Nick. He gives her a little bit of confidence, believing that, Hexenbiest or not, Adalind’s a different person now.
Our Wesen case of the week has to do with Goyo, a Luchador jobber who wants to be the wrestling headline. He visits Benito, the mask-maker of the city’s wrestlers and professes his dream. There is a way but, until he “doesn’t care about the price anymore”, Goyo’s not ready. After another scripted loss to el mayoradora, Goyo returns to Benito, ready to give the mask-maker whatever is required to become a star. Benito agrees and has Goyo sign the contract in blood—a red flag if there ever was one—before he ventures out to gather the materials for said mask. The material? Oh, just the woged face of a hoodlum Wesen…
When Goyo returns for the mask, Benito, after having the Luchador try it on, offers him an ominous warning. “This mask should never again be worn outside the ring,” he says. “It has accepted you, now you must respect its power.” How long do you think that lasts?
A quick jump over to the political fallout from Andrew Dixon’s murder finds the clever (and scary) Eve playing her hunch of Rachel Wood’s involvement in the assassination. She meets a surprised Renard, questioning the police captain on why he backed Dixon’s mayoral candidacy. When he tells her Dixon’s people pushed him in that direction, she leaves but shows up again (unbeknownst to Renard) when he meets with Rachel Wood. Rachel furthers her pitch for Renard to run as mayor but points out that he needs a family. It’s not a coincidence that Rachel knows about Diana and Adalind, an obvious hint that he needs to reconnect with them.
Getting back to the Wesen thread, Benito’s unlucky victim shows up on the Portland PD’s radar as Patrick Defonte. A bit of digging and Nick discovers this isn’t an isolated case of flayed-off face, rather it’s happened all over the country for years, decades even. Wu’s arrival with the ME report—the victim died from asphyxiation due to a neurotoxin—puts Nick in mind of the Wesen taxidermist hunter. They tap Monrosalee for the obligatory infodump and come up with Xipe Totec, a god worshiped by Aztec warriors. Xipe Totec’s practice of wearing the skin of fallen enemies to absorb their powers was enacted by the Aztec warriors and adapted for modern day by Santeros, ritualistic priests/holymen of sorts. It just so happens that the vibora dorada, a Wesen with a neurotoxin bite, are the primary practitioners.
Goyo’s debut of the mask against El Mayordomo (aka Jim Vasquez) goes swimmingly for Goyo. Unfortunately, El Mayordomo doesn’t take kindly to Goyo beating him down. It gets worse after the promoter elevates Goyo to headliner for the next night. Vasquez confronts Goyo in an alley that night and, once Goyo puts on the mask, the fight is brutal and deadly for Vasquez. For Goyo, things get pretty bad when he’s unable to remove the mask. He returns to Benito, begging the santero to get the mask off him but, as the santero gathers the ingredients for the ritual to do just that, the voices begin to take over Goyo. He attacks Benito, just moments before Nick and Hank, on the information from the promoter, arrives. Though they’re able to subdue the crazed Goyo, it’s too late for Benito. Thanks to Monrosalee though, they’re able to get the mask off Goyo but, for his sanity, it may already be too late.
Our final scene has Renard putting a call into Adalind and dangling the world’s biggest carrot—at least for her—when he says he may be able to get Diana back…
Grimmtastic
- For those not into wrestling, it was a cool sight to have Chavo Guerrero Jr, of the legendary Guerrero clan, have a bit of screen time as El Mayordomo. The case itself—imbuing humans, aka Kehrseite,with the physical attributes of a Wesen—wasn’t terrible. In fact, it would have been interesting if the story delved a bit more into the mythos of Xipe Totec and its relation to modern times. Still it works as a one-shot.
- Renard approaching Adalind about getting Diana back is happening at just the right (or wrong) time, depending on the point of view. Adalind’s Hexenbiest nature is slowly creeping back up towards the surface and emotional triggers may accelerate the change. More to the point, Renard’s ulterior motive behind it is going to cause a bit of strife between he and Nick. The two have come to blows over a woman before, will it happen again.
- Speaking of that woman, does anyone else have an uneasy feeling as it relates to Eve? She’s so calm and collected but it’s as if there is a bomb underneath all of that coolness, waiting to explode. Add to that the fact that I don’t buy that her past life emotions are gone for good and you have the potential for a most explosive betrayal.
