Episode Title: ‘The Thing with Feathers’
Writer: Richard Hatem
Director: Darnell Martin
Story:
Nick (David Giuntoli) prepares to take Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) away on a romantic weekend to a place called “Whispering Pines,” where he plans to propose to her. Meanwhile, outside Whispering Pines, a man with a broke down car talks to a woman about helping her escape. The woman, named Robin (Azura Skye), runs through a farmyard, but is apprehended by a man who turns into Wesen. Panicked, Robin also reveals herself to be a creature. Inside the house, the man tells her it’s time to eat before dumping worms into a blender. Back in Portland, Hank’s obsession with Adalind (Claire Coffee) grows deeper.
Nick stops at the farmhouse to ask for directions. The man holding Robin answers the door and points out the cabin where they’ll be staying. Nick sees the man turn into a Wesen while Juliette notices Robin in the window. Juliette tells Nick she’s got a creepy feeling about the place. Meanwhile in Portland, Hank (Russell Hornsby) watches Adalind kiss a man in her apartment. When the man leaves, Hank warns him never to come back. Back at the farmhouse, Robin’s captor ties her to a chair in the basement and force feeds her the drink he made in the blender.
When Juliette sees the man pushing Robin around, she tells Nick to call the police. They arrive but leave shortly after without arresting the man. Upset, Juliette tells Nick she thinks trouble is following them and wants to talk about what’s going on. However, Nick promises things will soon calm down. Back in Portland, the man Adalind was with tells Renard (Sasha Roiz) about his confrontation with Hank.
Nick calls Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) to find out about the Wesen at the farmhouse and learns he’s an alley cat like creature known as a Klaustreich. Monroe says women love them but it never ends well. While at the grocery store, Robin makes brief contact with the man trying to help her escape. Juliette spots her a moment later and gives her Nick’s card, in case she needs help. She’s soon ushered away by her captor as Nick watches her transform. He learns from Monroe that the woman is a bird-like creature known as a Zeltanvogel. The rare creatures are desirable for their ability to produce a golden egg in their throat.
Adalind finds Renard in her apartment as she gets out of the shower. He tells it’s time to start taking Hank’s calls. At the farmhouse, Robin tries to make an escape when her captor leaves to help a friend with a broken down car. Nick decides to follow her and tells Juliette to stay behind. Meanwhile, Hank makes plans to have dinner with Adalind.
Robin finds her friend dead in his truck and her captor waiting for her. As he drags her off, Nick arrives and calls the sheriff. Juliette watches the man, who we learn is named Timothy, take Robin into the farmhouse. He brings her downstairs for another feeding as Juliette calls Nick. He makes his way inside the farmhouse and holds Timothy at gunpoint. After knocking him out, Nick takes Robin to the cabin where she tells him that the Sheriff is working with Timothy.
As Timothy and the Sheriff approach the cabin, Juliette tells Nick to flee with Robin as she grabs her gun out of her purse. While in the woods, Robin tells Nick it’s time to remove the egg. He calls Rosalee (Bree Turner) who talks him through the procedure. Just as he removes the egg, Timothy and the Sheriff arrive. Nick tosses the egg in the air, distracting the men and grabs the Sheriff just as Juliette shows up. The egg breaks in the altercation.
Back in the cabin, Nick proposes to Juliette but she turns him down, saying she can’t marry him while he continues to keep secrets from her. In Portland, Hank and Adalind enjoy their dinner late into the night.
Breakdown:
Juliette thinks trouble follows her and Nick wherever they go. And she’s right, only Nick won’t come clean about why they were attacked in their own home, who exactly Monroe is or why the refrigerator repairman, Bud keeps showing up. So frustrated is Juliette that she won’t even let Nick put a ring on it. And I don’t blame her.
The premise ‘Grimm’ is based on, that our world is inhabited by a secret society of fairy tale-esque creatures whose animalistic proclivities often lead them to commit heinous crimes is already a bit silly. But its also pretty cool.
What’s not cool is how is silly it seems that neither Hank nor Juliette has yet to be let in on Nick’s secret. After helping a woman remove a golden egg from her neck in the middle of the woods, I was hoping Nick would finally “come out” to Juliette. That is if she didn’t witness the whole thing when she arrived on the scene to rescue Nick.
Instead, we cut to Nick and Juliette, as their romantic weekend turned Zeltanvogel rescue mission comes to an end. Despite the ordeal in the woods, Juliette is none the wiser to what’s going on, though she knows something is up. Meanwhile, the easily influenced Hank is stalking Adalind. To what end, we still don’t know. There’s clearly something between Renard and Adalind but what exactly also remains a mystery. Really, the only thing we learned in this episode is that the Wesen world includes a bird-like creature capable of producing a golden egg and Klaustreichs are irresistible to the ladies.
A few other observations on “The Thing with the Feathers:”
– So Rosalee’s murdered brother, Freddy had a bunch of fake passports…Ok, I’ll bite
– Not sure how I feel about Nick’s use of Facetime to get help from Rosalee with the Zeltanvogel egg removal procedure. Is the iPhone becoming a kind of deus ex machina?
– The fact that Nick used the phrase “break a few eggs to make an omelet” gives me hope that things can only go up from here
‘Grimm’ has six more episodes to get its act together this season. It’s time to start paying off some of the storylines set in motion way back in the pilot episode. I’m hooked for now, but I’m not sure how much longer i’m willing to hang on.
