Article originally written for Seat42F.
This week’s holiday-themed GRIMM on NBC, “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas,” which is weirdly not the last episode the series will air before December 25th, finds some evil elves destroying decorations. They aren’t actually elves, though. They are Kallikantzaroi, a Greek Wesen that experience twelve nights of hairy puberty somehow linked to this time of year. Get past that strange conceit without explanation, and the hour is better than many this fall, starting to get the show back on track.
This week’s holiday-themed GRIMM on NBC, “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas,” which is weirdly not the last episode the series will air before December 25th, finds some evil elves destroying decorations. They aren’t actually elves, though. They are Kallikantzaroi, a Greek Wesen that experience twelve nights of hairy puberty somehow linked to this time of year. Get past that strange conceit without explanation, and the hour is better than many this fall, starting to get the show back on track.
GRIMM is best when it’s serial, even if there are strong
procedural elements to the show. Recently, many episodes have relied too
heavily on the monster-of-the-week format, without enough movement in the
character arcs. “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas” strikes a bit better balance,
still involving a creature, but also letting several in the ensemble progress a
bit.
Nick (David Giuntoli) is back to being a Grimm, a welcome
development since his loss of power slowed down the narrative quite a bit. This
means Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) finally feel
comfortable leaving town on their honeymoon, which they will be taking next
week, not this one. Bud (Danny Bruno) gives the team important clues as to who
is terrorizing the happy couple. Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) may just be
pregnant, which might have happened while she looked like Adalind, meaning the
baby could be strange. None of these are major plots; well the last one sort of
is but not yet featured majorly. Combined, though, they start to give the
series the development it needs to move the characters along.
More notably, Josh (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) decides he wants
to go home and Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) chooses to accompany him. This comes
a little out of nowhere, since Josh seems quite satisfied to be there and learn
about his dad, and maybe even wants to be a Grimm, too. Trubel, though, is
ready for a mission she can undertake without Nick looking over her shoulder.
Now that he’s back to normal, it makes sense for her to want to go off on her
own, doing something that matters, not just serving as back up from him. Josh
provides a convenient way to do so, and given how they leave, it’s likely their
story will re-connect with the main one later this season, so no fan should be
too disappointed.
This leads to a very touching scene between Nick and Trubel,
which is a long time coming, but can really only occur under these
circumstances. Personally, I don’t much care for her character, though I like
the idea of her. But it’s nearly impossible not to be moved by her teary-eyed
farewell, and Nick clearly is. He has done something very important in helping
her. Might this be a way to move Nick’s character forward, offering similar
assistance to others like Trubel?
Wu’s (Reggie Lee) investigation is brought back up, though
it’s still moving frustratingly slow. Next week’s preview indicates this will
finally get some focus, and it is long overdue. Renard (Sasha Roiz) tells Nick that
whatever Nick tells Wu, Nick shouldn’t tell Wu about Renard, which is slightly
puzzling. So Renard is OK with Wu knowing about Wesen, but not about his own
captain? Why? Does Renard have some reason not to trust Wu? This dialogue
puzzles and intrigues me.
While “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas” does spend at least
two-thirds of its running time on the Kallikantzaroi, that story is fun and
seasonably appropriate. Add to that a number of wonderful scenes that highlight
the cast, which remain a definite draw for the show, and the episode ends up
being pretty good. It’s not a perfect installment, but it’s an improvement over
what GRIMM has been delivering lately. I appreciate that.
GRIMM next airs this coming Friday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
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