Season 5 / Episode 14 / NBC
Two nights ago:
This week’s episode opens with Nick and Adalind in bed, sleeping… kind of. It’s more of that will they/won’t they tension. It might be sex or it might be a fight to the death. Who knows?
Nick sneaks out of bed and goes spelunking down the abandoned prohibition-era tunnel in the fome. He buries the chest with the magic stick (that he still has no idea what its use or power is) and the continues his attempt to open the locked door down there.
This evening (just before sunset):
Random suit guy is driving his expensive German car on a rainy, windy road doing suit-guy things like talking to his secretary and then his mom on his bluetooth when he has sudden tire blowout. He loses control of the car and drives into a tree. He emerges from the car with minimal scratches, but when he looks at the setting sun, he says “oh no” and starts hauling ass down the road.
Back in the fome, shirtless Nick (I feel like lately he and Renard are having a subtle ab off) is still in the tunnel trying to get the mysterious steel door open. One close up on his biceps later and he’s in. But into what? It’s all exposed brick, spiderwebs, and pitch blackness.
Back at the fome, Renard calls Adalind to set up a clandestine-don’t-tell-Nick meeting to talk about Diane (and maybe Black Claw.)
In the woods, suit guy is passed out in the middle of the street. He’s covered in blood and is almost run over by a truck. When the driver gets out to check on him, he gasps, suddenly awake. Uh oh.
Nick and Hank arrive on the scene where Wu fills them in on Doyle Bast AKA suit guy. Doyle told officers he blew a tire (true), ran into a tree (truth), and then was attacked by a guy with a large dog (considerably less true), and fell down a hill and was knocked out (maybe). But, since he has one minor cut, is covered in blood, and human – not dog! – bites, Wu is rightfully suspicious.
Nick and Hank drive him to his car (after he declines medical care) and then to his mom’s house, where he was headed when he crashed.
When they arrive, Hank lets Bast know that they need his (bloody) shirt for their investigation. But dude couldn’t get rid of them fast enough; he literally tosses him the shirt and closes the door in one swift motion.
When Adalind and Renard meets it was revelations everywhere: Renard told Adalind that Meisner was in the helicopter the night the royals took Diana and that he killed the king. He was all “oh, Meisner didn’t tell you? Hmmmm.” Adalind revealed that Meisner was in town, but that she hadn’t seen him. Then… she got pissed and hexenbiested a cup from across the table into her hand. And that’s when Renard got a bit slimy.
He asked her if Nick knew (a veiled threat) and reminded her what happened to the last hexenbiest Nick lived with, assuring her that he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Then, the old Adalind surfaced for just a sec, “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you either.” Oh. Oh it’s like that? Just veiled threats left and right? Welcome back, Adalind.
At the station, Nick and Hank are researching Bast: no arrests and from old money. Wu brings the blood analysis results from Bast’s shirt to them: three blood types, all human. So the story about being attacked by a dog is looking less and less likely. But because it’s Portland, they think that maybe he was attacked by a Wesen. Hank suggests calling Monroe and Rosalee – who at this point should be on the Portland PD’s payroll.
Monroe smells the shirt and tracks Bast’s trail on the road where he crashed. And then the trail abruptly turns into the woods. Hmmm. That’s not the story he told the cops. Aaaaannnddd that’s when they find the mutilated corpses of two really unfortunate hikers. Now Nick is questioning if Bast was the attacker.
Monroe smells something that he can’t quite put his nose on. Blutbaden? Not quite, but almost. Then the lightbulb goes off: lycanthrope. When he dumbs it down for Nick and Hank, he and Rosalee explain that lycanthropia is a Blutbad disease/condition that manifests itself only during the full moon when the Blutbad is rended temporarily “insane.” The seed of truth in the werewolf mythology.
In Portland proper, Rachel Woods is at home when she gets a call from a (mysteriously European) voice that presses her to get a commitment from Renard. So, like a good minion, she sets up a date with Renard for later that evening and heads out. The second she walks out of her door, Eve breaks in and goes through all her shit and, of course, finds the Renard Obama-ripoff poster she had printed up as a part of his Black Claw recruitment party. She takes a picture of it and of the mailing label and then leaves.
Nick and Hank get the okay from Renard to bring Bast in for questioning. Which is to say, they want to keep him in a cell overnight to see if he turns into a lycanthrope. Since the blood on his shirt matches the dead hikers, they have cause. But since he may lycanthrope out (which in my head is like Hulking out), they have Monroe and Rosalee whip up some tranquilizers.
When Nick and Hank, arrive at his mom’s house to arrest him (they say take him down to station to look at some photographs), he’s all, “let me get my jacket” and then hauls asss out of the back door. Nick was expecting that and chases him down. He is desparate not to go to jail and begs them to leave him alone. They take him away and leave his mom standing in the drive doused in welp.
At the station, Rachel Woods shows Renard the poll numbers (down) of the mayoral candidate that she didn’t have assassinated. She pushes for a commitment and used the “you need to be on the right side of history” line. The scene ends before he answers.
Downstairs, Nick and Hank put Bast in a cell. Then they go meet Monroe and Rosalee in the squad room. They have a crossbow full of tranquilizer. They are ready to go deal with Bast when Eve calls. She has zero small talk in her since she stopped being Juliette, so she’s just, “I’m in the parking garage. Come and bring Hank.” [click. Silence.]
Since you don’t keep the most powerful known hexenbiest waiting, they hustle on down. She shows them the pictures of the Renard post and the mailing label which shows that the poster was made and delivered before Dixon was assassinated. She stops short of accusing Renard, but does implicate Woods. Hank defends Renard; he was on scene and saw the captain’s response. Nick, though, questions is Renard knows now.
But they don’t have time to wax philosophical about local political conspiracies because Bast may be a lycanthrope and is in a cell. They get ready to tranquilize him, but… the cell is empty. As their disappointment and confusion is crystalizing, Wu calls to confirm that Bast was bailed out moments ago. They race through the building to find him. When they do, they pull him into an interview room (which totally seems like a legit, non-rights violating and totally legal thing they can do).
When Monroe points the crossbow tranquilizer at him, he woges… into your everyday average Blutbad. So who is the lycanthrope?
Cut to his mom, in a padded room, duct-taping her ankles and wrists.
At the station, Bast explains what happened: he was on his way to his mom’s when he got the flat tire. He was hauling ass to her house, presumably to lock her in her special anti-lycanthrope room for the night. But he was too late. He heard the hikers scream and went to try to save them, but we know how that turned out. His mom attacked him and then he did fall, get knocked out, and wake up when the trucker almost hit him.
While this is a heartwarming story of a son supporting his mom through her illness (Monroe said most kids who displayed signs of lycanthropia were killed), it is a full moon and she is gonna woge into a killing machine. They all pile into the Mystery Machine and head to her house.
She, of course, has escaped the room because her son wasn’t there to lock her in the room. Now they all head into the woods and do the stupidest thing possible: they split up.
Hank and Wu go in one direction. Nick, Hank, Monroe, and Rosaleee in another. So the humans separate from both the Wesen and the Grimm. Um… okay. Btw, Bast bounced and they don’t know where he is.
Hank hears something and so he and Wu end up separating. Why? Why? Wu runs into Bast who is like “Run.” Then mom lycanthrope jumps out of the woods and attacks Wu. Bast intervenes and tries to talk his mom down, but she seemed a bit too lunge-y for the three cops so they shot her.
Damn.
Back at Wu’s apartment, he’s unwinding from a long day of clandestine cop maneuvers and supernatural detective work when he sees a scratch on his leg. Whatevs, he thinks and goes to bed. But. But he’s all grunts and night sweats under the full moon. (High five Wu for the story arc that’s clearly coming. Glad to see him get more screen time.)
So the questions remain: What is in the tunnel beneath the fome? Who will Eve kill next? How long will the mysterious magic stick lie unprotected in a tunnel that Adalind has access to before her hexenbiestien ways take over? Who was calling Rachel Woods? Will Renard’s abs join Black Claw?
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Show Comments
Celastrina
No word from Rosalie’s old “friend” this episode, I noticed. Surely, invisibly broken fingers wouldn’t have put him off for good…