“You shall not become corrupt,

You shall not become putrid,

You shall not become worms.”

If there’s one thing ‘Grimm’ has yet to do is provide a deeper history of Wesen and how they have been viewed by those throughout history. In this week’s episode, ‘Once We Were Gods’, the Wesen lore is expanded as we are given a glimpse of how these beings were looked upon in ancient Egypt.

When a sarcophagus discovered by Professor Vera Gates contains a mummified corpse that’s a dead ringer for Anubis, Egyptian god of the afterlife, the predictable buzz catches the attention of two men who, after an angry reaction to it, break into the University in order to steal the historical find. As on tags the wall with hieroglyphics, the other knocks down a cup that alerts the security guard patrolling something is amiss. He finds the two interlopers but is attacked by Karl, a Wesen whose woge takes on the likeness of Anubis. Unfortunately, his friend is hit by the guard’s stray bullet and, when the second guard comes to investigate, Karl picks up the gun and cuts him down.

Nick and Hank arrive to see the curiously shaped mummy

In the Grimm’s world, Hank is still championing the fact that they still need to tell Wu the truth. It seems like everyone’s okay with lying to the mentally rattled sergeant though Hank brokers no argument when Juliette openly wonders what if Wu’s not OK; if that’s the case, they are telling him. Speaking of the sergeant, he tells his psychiatrist about his experience with the Aswang but she forces him to question what he saw. “How could it be real if you were the only one that saw it?” Not long after, the two detectives pay their brother-in-arms a visit and he’s looking a lot better than before. In fact, he doesn’t even remember their previous visit. They aren’t able to stay long when the homicide call at the University comes in. They meet the singularly focused Professor Gates who comes to check in on the sarcophagus without a by-your-leave on the dead guard on the floor. She also translates the graffiti tag, which reads “I protect the dead”, part of an inscription written inside King Tut’s tomb. At the station, the prints on the gun match a Karl Herman, a man on the terrorist watch list wanted for arson, theft and homicide. He protests the desecration of the dead. When they talk to Renard, they theorize that Karl as well as the mummy are Anubis-like Wesen. Speaking of Karl, he’s trying to get out of town but tells a mysterious caller that he’s “gonna do it tonight” and to “be ready.”

Back in Austria, Viktor finally catches win of Sebastian’s double agent roll and, with the help of Gregor, head of the Verrat, water board him for the location of Adalind, Meisner and the baby. Speaking of baby, the lil tot has some serious tricks as it fools Meisner into believing she’s been abandoned out in the woods and, when he brings her back, he’s holding firewood. When he tells Adalind about hearing the baby’s heartbeat, she remembers the discussion with the doctor about a second heartbeat as well. Sebastian eventually gives up the location of the drop but, thanks to a warning by Renard, Meisner’s able to get Adalind and the baby out of the cottage and trekking to Zurich.

Reaching out to their trusty Wesen dictionary, Nick and Hank touch base with Monroe and Rosalee on the Anubis and the hieroglyphics written on the wall of the University. The Wesen couple recognizes this as the Beati Paoli—a vengeance society created to protect the Wesen from exposure to the human world. It’s part of the history, of how Wesen at one time were worshipped as gods. When Nick, Hank, and Juliette leave to do more research at the trailer, Monroe wonders if they should inform the Council but Rosalee thinks they need to stay out of it.

At trailer, the trio finds an entry in the Grimm diaries detailing events in Cairo along with film of the Grimm interrogating an Anubis Wesen. It seems that Karl’s mission is to give the woged Anubis a proper burial and when Alexander, the Council representative, demands to speak to Nick, the tension ratchets up even more. Nick gets the call during he and Hank touching base with the ignorant Professor, warning her that Karl’s not done trying to steal the mummy. When Nick meets with Alexander, the Council rep asks for his help. Though the Council stays out of the Beati Paoli’s business, the murder of the campus cop deigns the necessity to get rid of Karl permanently.

As things are ramping up on the outside, Wu gets a visit from Juliette. She can relate to his situation, drawing on her experiences during last season’s memory issues. Her greatest advice is that, regardless of if what he thought is real or not, he has to decide to move past the fear. It’s advice that everyone of us could stand to live by.

Meisner leads Adalind and her baby out of harm’s way

True to the warnings, Karl’s not done. He goes right to the source, kidnapping the Professor and forcing her to remove the extra security. The detectives reach out to the Professor but can’t get in touch with her and, at the same time, discover Alexander hasn’t been the good and honest Wesen he tried to portray. He’s been in town for three days and, despite proclaiming he was headed out of town, is still in Portland. The APB in his rental car puts him behind the University and Nick calls Monroe and Rosalee to keep their eyes on the car as he and Hank go hunting for Karl.  They find him and the Professor in the lab with the mummy when Karl attacks; it doesn’t take long for Nick to put him down though the young man remains staunch in his beliefs on the things needing to be “done right” by the mummified Wesen. After convincing the Professor she was seeing things, Nick confronts Alexander on his duplicity. The Grimm surprises the Council representative when he doesn’t interfere with Alexander’s desire to give the Wesen a proper send off. He and Hank join Alexander, Rosalee, and Monroe, paying their respects to the dead Anubis.

With the case wrapped up, the two partners pay Wu another visit and the sergeant’s ready to get out of the hospital. He proclaims that he knows what he saw wasn’t real and it will remain where it should: in his head.

Grimm Times

  • Though only a single episode, it’s interesting to see how the Wesen have been portrayed during history. Worshipped as gods, one can only wonder what else they’ve done and how much their true visages are responsible for the myths and legends of the human world.
  • Viktor and the Royals are closing in on Adalind’s baby but, with Meisner’s help, the trio’s able to escape. But back to the baby, it looks like she’s got some serious mojo running through her. One can only wonder what the second heart beat represents. Maybe it’s her twin, one that exists on a different plane. The magic in the world of ‘Grimm’ hasn’t really been explained so who knows what joys await us as the baby grows.
  • Once again, Nick gets away with keeping the Wesen world under wraps from someone who truly should know what’s going on. But if the experiences with Hank and Juliette have taught us anything, is that you can only keep such big secrets for so long before they get out.