Grimm 1.2: "Bears Will Be Bears"

I'm happy to say that now that we're three episodes into Grimm, the show has continued to improve each week. This take on fairy tales is just COOL. :) Episode two, Bears Will Be Bears, picks up shortly after the end of the premiere episode -- Nick (David Giuntoli) is at the hospital being treated for a potentially fatal injection of spider venom -- an attack meant for his seriously ill Aunt Marie (Kate Burton). Poor Nick hasn't had a whole lot of time to wrap his head around the idea of seeing monsters every where he looks.

Nick and Hank (Russell Hornsby) pick up a DUI investigation at the station, where Gilda (Amy Gumenick) cops to a breaking and entering and begs their help to locate her missing boyfriend Rocky (Alexander Mendeluk). She claims that as the two were fleeing the house, she heard screams and animal-like cries. And so comes the introduction of this week's fairy tale -- a very effective modern adaptation of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," only this time the child character is transformed into Gilda, a free-wheeler out for a good time at the expense of the law. It fits really well, since I always felt Goldilocks was a bit off kilter in her insistence to try out everyone's food, chairs, and beds. Just sayin'... *wink*

The family whose home suffered through Gilda and Rocky's shenanigans are the Rabes, a well-to-do family with an interest in rare native artifacts, such as a bear claw-type weapon that Nick's seen before in Marie's trailer. The family patriarch is played by Currie Graham, a familiar face to viewers of everything from The Mentalist to Fairly Legal and everything in between. I thought it was fascinating that the moment their son loses control and Nick sees him in his true form -- that of a Jagerbar, humanoid bears with a deep respect for their cultural history, a history that is celebrated during the Roh-Hatz hunt, when young jagerbars transition from boys to men. The Roh-Hatz is an invention of the show, but connecting the bears with native cultures is a logical step that nicely brings Goldilocks' story into the 21st century.

Nick and Hank have a nice on-screen "buddy" chemistry, but by far my favorite aspect of the show is Nick's "unofficial" partner, the blutbad Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell). He is so freaking hilarious and the beauty of it is, one gets the feeling he's not even trying. He's just so wonderfully sarcastic. And the idea that "the big bad wolf" is a clockmaker and does pilates in his spare time -- well, it's a wonderful mass of contradictions but it plays against type, goes against Nick's (and viewers') expectations based on the wolf's role in the Grimm canon. I think it would be fun to have an episode at some point that focuses on Monroe's background and his family -- but until then, I'll take scenes like this episode provided, where he reluctantly agrees to Nick's request to protect Marie at the hospital, and then "gets a little carried away" (thug missing an arm? um...yeah...)

This episode saw Marie pass away (that woman had some SERIOUS moxie), but I wouldn't mind seeing her return in a flashback, perhaps as Nick revisits his childhood looking for clues to his identity as a Grimm and the true nature of his parents' deaths. I liked the revelation that there are other Grimms in the world that Marie didn't have contact with -- are these Nick's cousins or something? Would love to see Nick meet a fellow Grimm someday, especially if their approach to the "Grimm calling" is substantially different from his own.

Any theories about the fairy tale identity of Nick's boss, Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz)? I'm trying to decide if I think he's a canonical character or not -- if the former, he's definitely a big whig, calling the shots in attempting to control Nick and kill Marie. Could he be somehow related to Adalind (Claire Coffee), one of the hexenbiest witch women who seem to exist to do his bidding?

Thus far I'm really liking Nick's character and how he's handling his startling new ability. As Marie tells him shortly before her death, there's a reason he's a cop and a Grimm, the two callings dovetail nicely together. I expect his personal life will get even stickier now that Marie is gone -- he may be quick on the uptake, but this is a lot to take in. I really like his relationship with his girlfriend Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch), so I'm not looking forward to seeing that blow up, but I expect serious tension as the dangers against Nick escalate.  

I'll try to have my episode three post up soon, but until then I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've given Grimm a try!