Grimm 2.03 “Bad Moon Rising” Recap

Comfort is not something in vast supply in the Grimm-verse. As much as it seems like every character has been looking to find some semblance of peace in a world that continues to crumble around them without their knowledge, nobody has yet to find the equilibrium they so desperately desire. Through issues of identity, sanity, memory, and family, the residents of Portland have slowly been confronting their personal demons, looking them dead in the eye and daring them to make a move. In “Bad Moon Rising”, an episode where every subplot found a character trying to get back to their idea of “home”, there was indeed some movement in that area.

Coyotl-la-he-hoo
The case of the week came in the form of Jarold Kampfer, a high school friend of Hank that makes the trip to Portland after his daughter Carly was kidnapped from her room one night. There’s not much of a lead to go on initially – Carly’s a good student willingly going on the advanced placement track to college, never having made trouble at home following the death of her mother some years ago and always doing the right thing in terms of helping her father. There are no witnesses to the crime, no tangible suspects, and no evidence of a break-in…

…until Nick discovers that Jarold is a coyotl, a member of a mean, nasty species of Wesen that believe in inbreeding. Once a female in the pack turns 17, a number that references immortality and a renewed strength to the Wesen, they’re forced to undergo a ritualistic display of sexual perversity, each male member of the pack getting his way with her. It’s a way to “introduce” females to the pack, but Jarold took his wife and daughter away from the rest of their pack in order for them to lead as normal a life as they could, all things considered. Hence the kidnapping, orchestrated by Hayden Walker, Carly’s uncle and one of the pack leaders, who sends his two sons to the city to bring her back to their Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esque abode (ironically, in Texas).

Jarold remembering his distant family sets off a chain of events that leads he, Nick, and Hank to the coyotl compound, where they eventually subdue the pack long enough to slap the cuffs on them (Hank punching Hayden one time and Carly helping to lure the others into the barn where Nick and Hank lay waited them.) and haul them to jail. (How Nick and Hank got to Texas and back from Portland by car during the same day and at a reasonable time, I don’t know.) Jarold gets reunited with Carly, who had previously been stored in a well and made to wear an all-white cult-ish nightgown, and Hank gets the satisfaction of being able to rescue his goddaughter.

Paranoia, Paranoia, Everybody’s Coming to Get Me
But “Bad Moon Rising” wasn’t that easy for Hank, considering that his increasingly paranoid behavior had been taking over his life. After a therapy session that turns out to do more harm than good, dredging up all the memories that made him this way, Hank gets the ultimate surprise of his character’s journey thus far; Nick actually comes clean to him about being a Grimm and having the same ability to see the creatures that Hank does. The two had brought Carly in from the well and into the old barn where her ritual was to be held, the pack outside dealing with Jarold in the meantime. Once inside, Carly freaked out about being in closed quarters with a Grimm, the fangs came out, and Hank’s gun ended up pointed at his goddaughter after the fear and anxiety that he had been harboring got exacerbated by witnessing another voga.

And you know what? You’d think that that would be it for Hank, the last vestige of his sanity and humanity going out the window through the reveal of secrecy from two of his closest loved ones. But Hank’s not mad, not upset, nor is his paranoia that bad anymore; well, he knows he’s a little off right now, but the fact that somebody else admitted to being off too, admitted that there are other people out there that are being affected like this, makes it a little easier to bear. We don’t know if Hank’ll have more of a reaction once the reality of the situation sinks in; he could very easily wake up the next morning, the trauma from the case finally melting off his psyche, and have to come to terms with the fact that there are creatures. Deadly creatures that are hiding within the people that you least expect and you may never know how close you’ve gotten to one of them at a point in your life.

For now, though, Hank’s mind is at its most peaceful point since around the midpoint of the first season of Grimm. And Nick, too, may have found someone to confide in from his human life, something that could be a tremendous load off an already overworked mind.

Remember When? Nope.
While Hank was getting another lesson in the ways of the Wesen, Juliette remained at the hospital trying to get over her magically-induced coma. For three days, the vet had been under Adalind’s spell, which seems to have specifically targeted her connection with Nick. Juliette can remember everything – holidays from years ago, dinner with Monroe, details about her workplace – except for her relationship with Nick. No pictures, no anecdotes, no visual stimulation can bring her out of this trance currently bewitching her unconsciousness, though she’s eventually released due to being back to normal in all other aspects.

All Nick can do right now is wait. The woman he loves and tries each day to defend is currently laying in their room by herself, unaware of the context of their years together and unable to bring herself back to being the Juliette that he once knew. Home might be a state of mind on Grimm, but for Juliette, it’s something deep in the distance that currently looks damn near unattainable.

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