Welcome back Grimmsters! After last week’s pre-Halloween episode, this week it’s back to business with the show! The attraction between Renard and Juliette is getting harder for them to resist and we get a history lesson (albeit a dark one) on Grimms. This episode strays from the regular format of the series and we get to see Grimms through the eyes of Wesens instead of the other way around. Even the opening quote is different as it doesn’t come from something written by the Grimm brothers. Instead, it’s a quote taken from the fictional Wesen book of fairy tales, the Albtraume fur Wesen Kinder:

“And branded upon the beast, the mark of his kin. For none shall live whom they have seen.”

Now for the recap! (Remember, this recap does have spoilers, so read at your own risk!)

Unlike past episodes, this one drops us right in the middle of an investigation. Hank and Nick are looking to solve a missing person’s case and visit the home of Adrian Zayne who we immediately know is the kidnapper as he’s on the phone talking to his accomplice about the ransom while burning pictures of the girl they abducted.

Nick and Hank visit Adrian for a routine questioning as he was working maintenance the day Donna Reynolds disappeared. As Hank talks to him, Nick notices the burring pictures and as he gets closer, gets a glimpse of Donna’s face.

Adrian knows the jig is up and changes into a Wesen (if you’re keeping track, he turned into a Shackle). He tries to get away but Nick catches up to him and beats him to unconsciousness.

The detectives bring Adrian to the station but he concocts a story that the photos were of his ex and he was burning them because they broke up. Sgt. Wu interrupts the interrogation and Renard tells Nick and Hank that forensics could not find any evidence connecting Adrian to the kidnapping and they have to let him go.

Before Adrian leaves the police station, Nick warns him that he knows he’s lying and that it’s one thing to lie to a police officer, another to lie to a Grimm. Adrian shouts for all to hear that Nick is threatening to kill him and if anything happens to him, it will be Nick’s fault. (Nice play Adrian!) Wu escorts him out.

Nick is determine to find out where Adrian has Donna stashed and heads to Aunt Marie’s trailer (which I guess at this point can be called the Grimm Gebrauchsfahrzeug (utility vehicle in German)) and gets a crossbow.

Juliette is at home trying to track down the whereabouts of Adalind (guess that psychic lady from last week got to her!) when she gets a call from Sean Renard (yeah, Captain Renard himself!) who calls on the pretense of being “concerned” about Nick and offers to talk about it more with her over a cup of coffee. Juliette agrees.

Of course, Nick is not going to fight a Wesen without some help from Monroe. He asks his ol’ Blutbad friend if he can mix up a potion that would compel a Shackle to confess which Nick plans to inject into the Wesen via crossbow.

Later that night, Nick heads to Adrian’s house prepared to get answers. Breaking in to the place, he looks around and finally finds Adrian in the cellar…dead. He’d been strung up and tortured, left with brands burned on his chest. As Nick examines the scene closer, Hank comes down and surprises him.

Before they can determine what happened, police sirens are heard from a distant and Nick hurries to put his crossbow in this car so as to not raise suspicion on him. Sgt. Wu meets them out front and asks why are they there. He tells the detectives that the police station received a 911 call from Adrian confessing to the kidnapping crime and they have units out to her location. Nick and Hank show Wu the body when Renard calls them asking if the suspect is in custody. They tell him Adrian is dead and the Captain orders them to meet him at the precinct.

There, they listen to the 911 call Adrian made which obviously indicates he was being tortured. Intern Ryan comes in with everyone’s coffee orders and is shocked at the photos. Renard leaves for a press conference regarding the case and they decide to release the symbol in hopes someone from the public may recognize it.

And someone (or rather something) was familiar with the mark – none other than our favorite refrigerator repairman Bud! And he’s not the only one! Monroe calls Nick and tells him to come over as he knows what the symbol means. Both Wesens are clearly distressed!

Hank and Nick arrive at Monroe’s who tells them that the symbol is an ancient Germanic “G” for Grimm. As a child, the symbol was taught to them as representing the worse of the worse of all Grimms, the Enderzeichen Grimms. Long thought extinct, they would brand the symbol on any Wesen they killed and on every house in every village that had a Wesen in it. The symbol also represented the time of Hour of Death, where Grimm death squads roamed to scourge the world of Wesens through heinous means and marking their kills with the Sterbestunde brand. They surmise that since Nick isn’t doing the branding, then there’s another Grimm in town.

Renard also recognizes the symbol and calls his informer in Vienna and asks him if the family sent an Endezeichen to Portland.

When Nick gets home, he gets a phone call from the Endezeichen Grimm. He tells Nick he’s not doing his job properly. After he hangs up, he posts the video of Adrian’s torture online.

The next day after questioning Donna about her abduction, they locate the van that was involved in her kidnapping. They arrive at Richard Berma’s home and as they arrest him, he sees Nick. Panicking, he transforms into a Wesen and yells out that Nick killed Adrian and he’s now going to kill him. They take him to the precinct and put him in an interrogation room.

Meanwhile, Juliette meets Renard at a coffee shop. He asks if she remember anything about the night when she woke up in the hospital but she says she doesn’t. Only remembers feeling like she woke from a deep sleep. Renard offers his help and that’s when Juliette confesses that she finds it awkward that Nick knows a lot about her but she’s just getting to know… in what can only be described as a Freudian slip, she says you (meaning Renard) then covers her slip by saying him (meaning Nick). Renard (who I’m sure was secretly happy to hear her confession) reaches out and holds her hand telling Juliette it’s not her fault. Juliette, still confused, says she has to leave and walks away leaving her sunglasses behind.

Back at the police station, Nick and Hank question Berman who invokes his right for a lawyer. Wu interrupts (which he seems to be doing a lot of lately) and tells them that Forensics have found evidence. As they head down to see what was retrieve, Berma was let out of the interrogation room unbeknownst to the detectives. It wasn’t until they head back up to book Berma that they were told he was let go.

They immediately rush to Berma’s home where they find him dead and tortured, branded with the Enderzeichen mark. Nick receives a call telling him he failed once again and that this mysterious Grimm is more of a Grimm than Nick is.

Upset, they head back to the precinct where Ryan tells them that Bud is waiting for Nick. He is distressed after seeing the video and tells him that the Wesen community is wondering about Nick’s part in the Wesen killing. He begs Nick to find this other Wesen and fast. After he leaves, Wu shows the video taken from the interrogation room where Berma was being kept. It reveals that the person who let Berma leave was none other than intern Ryan!

Oh, but poor Bud. Ryan already knows that he’s a Wesen and grabs Bud.

Nick is in a panic because he was told Ryan was following Bud when he left the police station. They head to Bud’s repair shop where Nick was told by his wife that’s where he would be. Ryan tells Bud that Nick should have killed him as it is a Grimm’s calling to kill all Wesen. He goes on to fanatically say the Nick was not a true Grimm and was a traitor to his kind. Just as he is about to brand Bud, Nick and Hank storm into the shop.

Ryan takes off with Nick after him. Nick is able to take him down and place him under arrest but Ryan is upset saying that Nick should be helping him not stopping him. He begins his stalker tirade on how he looked up to Nick and studied him (the newspaper clippings and photos of Nick  on his bedroom wall seems to indicate that quite wel!) and was hoping they could have worked together. He can’t believe Nick refuses to see what he is doing. Ryan tells him that he saved Donna not him and is a better Grimm than he’ll ever be because he is doing what Nick should have been doing and is cleaning up “his” mess. As he explains it all, Ryan turns into a Wesen! Ryan then goes psychotic and mumbles that he’s not what Nick sees and is better than than. He insists he’s a Grimm but then reality sets in and he begs Nick to kill him. As he advances toward Nick, the Grimm hits him in the face and handcuffs him.

After Ryan is taken away, Hank asks if he really was a Grimm. Nick tells him no, but whoever he is, it’s not what he wants to be.

Later that night, Renard visits Juliette at home to return her sunglasses. She apologizes for running off at the coffee shop but Renard tells her it’s fine. He then looks into her eyes and kisses her. She returns the kiss and flashbacks to when she woke up at the hospital finally realizing it was Renard’s kill that awoken her. He kisses her again but she pulls away and closes the door on him. Renard is confused as is Juliette.

Episode Observations:

* This week’s episode was a wonderful twist on the whole Grimm world. It was amusing to know that the Wesens have their own version of fairy tales for the same reasons told to Nick as to why our fairy tales exist – as a precautionary tale to children about the evils in the world. In the case of the Wesens, it’s the evils of the Grimms.

* Did you see Ryan’s involving coming? It’s was great how the writers strung him through the last several episode as the bumbling intern when instead, he was a deranged stalker not liking himself and wanting to be someone else. In this case, he saw Nick as a role model. Interesting to note that Ryan hated being a Wesen so much he convinced himself that all Wesens must die and used the legacy of Grimms to do so. If he hadn’t, he would just have been a Wesen serial killer.

* Finally! The “romance” between Renard and Juliette is taking on a little more steam. This building attraction they were having for each other was getting a bit tiresome to the point you just want to throw something at the television screen.

* And speaking of throwing, what is going on with the writers where there are hardly ANY scenes with Monroe! It’s enough to throw something at the writers and producers! Rosalee is off tending to her aunt so now they can’t have a descent part for Monroe to play? Half the reason I watched last season was the interplay between Nick and Monroe. There are two more episodes to go before the show goes on hiatus. Let’s hope there’s more Monroe! Don’t you agree?

What did you think of the episode? I really want to hear your thoughts! In the meantime, if you missed last week’s episode, you can catch up by reading the ’La Llorona’ recap here.