Grimm Recap: Eve of Destruction

Season 5 / Episode 7 / NBC

This mid-season premier starts exactly where we left off: Nick, Hank, Wu, and Renard are at the abandoned warehouse and were saved from the fangy Wesen jaws of death by…. Juliette.

Obviously, Nick is freaking out. He’s like, “I gotta go talk with Trubel” and leaves post-haste. The other three are just standing around like, “Um. Did you just see what I couldn’t possibly have seen?”

When Nick gets back to his house, Trubel has very few excuses. She knew they wanted to “break” Juliette in order to turn her into a weapon, but with all the jetsetting and killing Wesen in exotic locales, she wasn’t sure if it worked or not. So we get the first of a few flashbacks that fill in the blanks between seasons 4 and 5. Trubel insists that she doesn’t know where Juliette is, but Adalind – after she pees a little bit out of fear – is like “Meisner?” So Nick uses Chavez’s phone to call him.

Meisner, in a typical trench coat wearing revolutionary way, is evasive: “The woman you knew doesn’t exist anymore.” Um. Okay. But Meisner relents and says he’ll get back to him.

Then Rosalee calls Hank like, “Put my husband who better be alive on the phone.” So, obviously, all of them decide to go to the spice shop to “question” Xavier about setting them up. He tells them everything he knows – after Monroe punches him in the face. He reconfirms what we know: Wesen uprising, join-or-die, etc. But, he also reveals that they singled him out because he knew Monroe and Monroe knows Nick. So the ambush was to kill the Grimm.

Hank, Renard, and Wu are back at the station. Xavier is going to a holding cell until he can be put in protective custody. Wu is working his uniformed magic and figures out that Billie (the Wesen who led Nick et al. into the ambush) wasn’t among the dead bodies.

They meet up with Nick to raid Billie’s house and find explosives and a lovely family photo, so they’re off to visit Billie’s parents.

After the others leave the spice shop, Rosalee and Monroe decide to call the Wesen Council. While they’re waiting for the callback, Monroe tells Rosalee that Juliette is alive. She’s can’t believe it either. But when you hang with Grimms, you gotta roll with it sometimes.

When they get a callback from Alexander on the council, they tell it all: the shop vandalization, the murder, the kidnapping, the ambush, the mark (officially known as the “Black Claw”). Alexander gives the discomforting answer of, “Oh, this is happening in Portland, too?” Rosalee, rightfully, is like “Too?!” So the council knows about the Black Claw and its global antics. Coincidentally, at the council meeting they are voting on taking action when one lone dude stands up and opens fire like Tony Montanga and takes out the entire council. Welp. Alexander calls them mid get-the-fuck-outta-town bag packing and is like, “No one is coming to help you.”

Meanwhile back at the abandoned warehouse/ambush site, another 5 o’clock shadow-having, leather coat wearing Wesen is walking around, surveying the scene. Billie emerges from the shadows on some, “I’m sorry, Lucien, but this chick killed them all.” Okay so obviously, Lucien is pulling the strings in the revolution – at least locally.

Nick leaves Billie’s place to go home. He has another awkward talk with Trubel about how weird it is that his not-quite-dead fiance has resurfaced. She looks guilty and then goes to bed. Which, luckily gives Nick time to have another awkward talk with Adalind, who sees Juliette’s return as 1) possibly deadly and 2) possibly taco-blocking. Nick tries to reassure her, but, well would you be reassured if the woman who tried to steal your daughter, kill you, and kill your secret crush popped up? Me neither.

Trubel sneaks out in the middle of the night to confront Mesiner about Juliette. They fight and she doesn’t exactly lose, but she definitely doesn’t win. Hmmm.

She’s still gone in the morning when Nick and Adalind are up and having coffee and (yet) another awkward talk. This time Adalind is at least mostly honest; she comes kind of clean about being insecure that Nick wishes Kelly was his and Juliette’s kid. Nick is more stoic than he has been in previous seasons; he says he had a chance at a normal live with Juliette and he chose being a Grimm. And they finally, finally, finally kiss. Immediately they agree that things are complicated and dangerous and then Trubel shows up and tell him that she saw Meisner and that Nick will see Juliette today. In a public place.

Cut to a mass Wesen funeral pyre and Lucien giving a pro-revolutionary for the fallen brethren eulogy. Billie is there and pissed that Xavier is still alive after causing the death of all the corpses that they’re setting on fire. He’s both rousing and rallying the troops. He pulls a Wesen aside and whispers something in his ear.

Still looking for Billie, Nick and Hank show up at her parent’s house. Nick shows them a picture of the Black Claw mark and they woge. Then they know that Nick is a Grimm and done talking. Except to say that their daughter is courageous and that they’re proud of her. Hmmm.

Back at the station, a rowdy dude is brought in and put in the cell next to Xavier. Not coincidentally at, it’s the guy Lucien whispered to at the funeral. So it’s a ticking clock on how much longer Xavier will stay alive in this episode.

So when nameless Wesen kills Xavier, what’s most notable is that he is unabashedly woged. He does not care that the humans can see him. Renard realizes that there is a mole in the station, so there’s one more thing to worry about.

Hank and Nick go to the spice shop and get the good news about the dead Wesen Council. They’re already freaked out and get more freaked out when they hear that Black Claw agents are woging in public. They’re not exactly made happier when Nick gets a text from Meisner to meet Juliette.

Right before Meisner texts Nick, he’s daydreaming about delivering Diana. And Rosalee’s gratitude. So, um, yeah, that’s odd. The Nick and Juliette meeting is also a hit on a Black Claw agent. Nick gets to watch that happen.

On the bright side, being a cold personality-less killer really has improved Juliette’s posture.

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Juliette, who is now known as Eve, is cold and humorless; she moves like a robot and speaks like one, too. She has a flashback to her de/re-programming at Meisner’s hands. She tells Nick that she remembers “everything.” That’s creepy af. Especially since everything includes almost killing Nick and helping the royals kill his mom.

Then she kills a Wesen with her thoughts. Um. So she’s still dangerous, but now she’s a brainwashed killing machine. How could this possibly go wrong?

Nick is left to clean up (I mean kill) her mess. He kills the dead Wesen’s bodyguards and contextualizes (lies about) the scene for the responding officers. Meisner calls him right after to gloat? to talk shop?

We’re left with the image of Juliette/Eve walking herself into her cell and locking the door. This is a little too Stockholm syndrome for my comfort.

So many questions: Will Eve stop wearing that wig now? Will Adalind get her ass beat by Eve? What kind of crazy love rectangle are the showrunners setting up? Will Trubel ever be trustworthy again?

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  • Alison

    I’d love it if Adalinds powers come back as strong or stronger than Eve’s. Then Adalind could kick her ass the way she deserves for setting up the murder of Nick’s mom. If that doesn’t work, maybe Adalind could mix up a little witchy-poison and turn Eve into a frog. Either way, have zero use for her.

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