[Spoilers Ahead]

It’s been almost a month since the last episode of ‘Grimm’ and last night’s episode made it worth the wait. This week Nick gets hurt and needs Monroe’s help in this retelling of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’

The Crime: Judge Logan Patterson comes home late at night and as he is working at his desk. He hears a noise outside his French doors. As he goes and investigates, a person crashes through and begins to attack the judge. The judge tries to fight back but the intruder doesn’t seem to be affected by any blows or the gun shot made at him. With brute strength, he throws the judge around until he is on the floor. With a gavel, he approaches the injured judge to finish what he’s come to do. As the two fight, the home alarm alerts the police and Sgt. Wu arrives to investigate but it is too late. He finds Judge Patterson brutally beaten to death with the gavel shoved into his mouth. Down the street, the intruder is in his car and has removed the bullet that lodged in his chest. As he pours liquor on the wound to disinfect it, he turns into a creature.

Nick and Hank arrive on the scene and start their investigation. Because the victim was a judge, the case takes becomes high priority. Captain Renard arrives to check out the crime scene. As they discuss their findings, a police officer informs them that they got a print off the gavel. In the meantime, the perpetrator is seen walking toward the river edge holding a disembodied hand which he throws into the water.

Back at the police department, Hank is going over Judge Patterson’s case files with Capt. Renard to see if anyone may be a suspect when an officer announces that they got a match on the prints off the gavel. Hank and the Capt. head to the suspect’s apartment (named Vince) only to find him dead with a missing hand and a woman’s watch engraved with “To Mary Love Mom” attached on the end of the hacked off arm. Since the watch looked pretty old, they decide to try and trace the watch. Hank remembers that Nick knows a watch guy.

Nick calls Monroe (who we now know is a boxer not briefs kind of Blutbad) and asks if he could trace an antique watch. Monroe agrees and Nick goes and sees him with Hank along. Trying to play off as though they don’t know each other as well as they do, Hank and Nick show Monroe the watch. He gets excited as it is a vintage watch and watches are right up his alley. As Monroe takes the watch apart, he notices that someone put glue in the mechanism which made the watch stop working. The watch was stopped at 10:15 March 11th. Monroe states he can probably find out who owned the watch through whoever serviced it last. As the detectives grab some coffee, Hank comments how weird Monroe is. Nick tries to brush it off. Soon Monroe is able to tell them who owned the watch last. It was Mary Robinson, a retired assistant DA.

The two rush over to her home but when they get there, officers already on the scene tell them they found her body. The killer cut out her tongue and put in on a table top scale. Seeing the connection, Hank declares he knows who the killer is.

Hank tells Capt. Renard that the deaths are connected to a triple homicide that occurred 5 years ago in a case that he worked on. Jack Lambert, his wife and child were abducted from their home and taken to an abandoned quarry and tortured for 2 days. The kidnapper was a contract killer named Stark who was an associate of Lambert who knew that Stark liked to be paid for his services in gold. Lambert found out where Stark hid his gold and stole it. Stark went after Lambert and killed him. He was tried in Portland but was sent to a facility in California where he escaped. His medical records indicate that he suffers from a condition in which the nerves in his body are deadened and makes it difficult for the person to experience pain (hence the reason why Stark was able to keep fighting after being shot) and his bone structure is very dense.

They conclude that Stark is after the people who put him away. Judge Patterson was the presiding judge at his trial, Mary Robinson prosecuted him and Vince was the jury foreman who handed the verdict to the judge. The time and date that was stopped on the watch was the time and date that Stark was sentenced to prison. That meant Hank was next as he was the arresting officer. Capt. Renard orders Hank into protective custody much to Hank’s irritation.

Evidence of Stark is found nearby where Hank used to live and Nick and Capt. Renard rush over. While they investigate the area, Stark watches afar to see if Hank will appear. Nick begins to sense something… like someone is watching him but when he turns, no one is there.

Nick heads to Aunt Marie’s trailer and begins to see if he can find a creature that matches Stark’s medical condition. Unable to find anything, Nick begins to look around. Inside the weapons cabinet, he finds a case and inside is a rifle with an engraving on how to use it.

Nick gets home and hears a noise outside which he attributes to raccoons but when he hears it again, he cautiously approaches the doors where the noise came from. When he gets close enough, Stark crashes though and begins to attack Nick. As Nick lies helplessly on the floor, Stark demands to know where Hank is. He slowly closes in on Nick and as he does, Nick sees Stark’s face change into a creature. Stark continues to pummel Nick as he tries to get away all the time demanding to know where Hank is. When Stark realizes that Nick is a Grimm, his anger amplifies and he is intent on killing him. Juliette comes into the house and sees what is going on. Nick yells at her to run and Stark goes after her. She heads to the kitchen to find something to fight with and as Stark follows her, she takes a pot of water that was boiling on the stove and throws it at him. The water scalds his eyes. Unable to see clearly, Stark stumbles out of the house as Nick tries to shoot at him. Juliette saves Romeo (I mean Nick!).

At the hospital, the doctor tells Capt. Renard and Juliette of Nick’s condition. The Captain assures Juliette that Nick will have round the clock protection as will she. Nick begins to realize how dangerous being a Grimm can be and how close Juliette was to getting hurt. After she leaves, Nick calls Monroe and tells him what happened.

Sgt. Wu informs Hank of what happened to Nick. Angry, Hank decides to take matters in his own hands but instead Capt. Renard devises a plan to get Stark using Hank as bait. (Ok, it was really Sgt. Wu’s idea but the Captain ran with it) They realize Stark attacked Nick to draw out Hank so he decides to bait Stark by visiting Nick at the hospital.

While Monroe visits Nick, Nick describes to him who beat him up. Monroe is able to identify him as an Siegbarste (otherwise known as an ogre) and tells him they are very rare but the worst of their creature kind. They carry grudges and are very hard to kill unless you had Siegbarste gift (a poison) which was very rare. It calcifies an ogre’s bones so that you can shatter the ogre from the inside out. The trick is to try to get the ogre to drink it. Nick remembers there was a bottle in the trailer labeled as such and the rifle in the case was made to be used with the Siegbarste gift. Nick asks Monroe to get the poison and rifle for him.

As Monroe gathers the items needed to fight Stark, Hank goes and visits Nick. Stark is nearby and watches him enter the hospital.  Hank tells Nick about the plan to ambush Stark but Nick tries to tell him that it won’t work. It is then that Hank confesses that during the trial he “misplaced” bogus evidence that had the jury seen it may have given Stark a chance to walk. Although he and the assistant DA knew it was a set up by Stark, they didn’t want to give the jury any reason for reasonable doubt and it became “lost” on its way to court. Hank tells Nick that he intends to stop Stark and instead of following through with the Captain’s plans, he was going to lead Stark to the quarry where it all started. Nick calls Monroe and tells him to give Hank the gun but Hank had already left the hospital. Nick implores him to follow and somehow give it to him to use.

At the quarry, Hank confronts Stark and Monroe sees he’s too late. He sees that Hank is aiming a rifle at Stark and knows that won’t stop him. He opens the case and starts putting the Grimm rifle together. Munroe watches as Stark and Hank fight. As Stark is about to smash a piece of concrete over Hank, Munroe shoots the Grimm rifle. Stark falls dead. Hank is dumbfounded wondering where the shot came from. Munroe nervously gets out of the area.

Munroe, still shaken from what he’s done, calls Nick and tells him that Hank is safe. Hank visits Nick and tells him that someone shot Stark but he doesn’t know who did it. At the precinct, Captain Renard chastises Hank for trying to be a lone cowboy then tells him that the bullets taken out of Stark’s body were made in England over 100 years ago and was fired from a very old and rare elephant gun made for royalty. They both wonder who in the world would own something like that?

Overall, the episode revealed a lot of each character and the depths they would go to protect each other. The episode was well done and I enjoyed that it emphasized the trust that Nick and Monroe have considering they are technically adversaries in the Grimm world. Nick proves his trust by telling Monroe where Aunt Marie’s trailer is and allowing him inside. Monroe, on the other hand, is the reluctant partner that is finding it harder and harder to stay objective and struggles with his alliance with Nick. This episode, Monroe was the “Grimm” when he killed Stark yet he did it because his loyalty to Nick.  No doubt the creature world will soon demand that Monroe choose a side.

‘Game Ogre’ also made apparent that Nick’s Grimm world will start intruding into his “real” world more and more prevalently and he may soon have a harder time keeping them separated. He now realizes that being a Grimm not only affects him, but those close to him like Juliette.

I got the impression that Nick’s Grimm powers are expanding because when he felt as though someone was watching him, he decides to check the Grimm book to see if anything inside matches Stark’s medical records hinting that there may have been some Grimm intuition going on. What did you think?

I also like the fact that Captain Renard is now perplexed as he is wondering if there is another Grimm running around in his town. After all, who could have shot the ogre if Nick was in the hospital? This episode really didn’t reveal too much of who Renard really is and what his ultimate plan with Nick is. It did, however, make me want to go back and watch the episode again to see if I missed any of his nuances. Hopefully next week we’ll learn more.

If you missed last week’s episode, you can read the ‘Let Her Hair Down’ recap.