One night, wealthy Donald Nidaria and his wife of six months Katherine are arguing about the dress she has on. He thinks that she should wear something black, she thinks he’s being too controlling, and the two end up fighting on their balcony. Words are exchanged, she inadvertently rips his shirt while struggling to get back inside, and Daniel throws her to her death as multiple people watched in horror. Surely this would end up being an open-shut case where justice prevailed fairly quickly, right?
Rosalee ends up on the jury of the Nidaria case, where he’s being represented by noted defense attorney Barry Kellogg, who is known for his charisma, influence over juries, and ability to turn a case on its head almost instantaneously. He’s a tough opponent for any prosecutor, especially since he’s a Wesen who emits a pheromone that has a psycho-hallucinogenic influence over people. No matter how good the prosecutor is, Kellogg is always just a little bit better, even though his antics tend to leave the jury member feeling ill after each successive day of mind control.
For example, Vera, the Nidaria’s cleaning woman who saw Donald throw Katherine off the balcony, is called in to testify and tells the truth about what she saw. Until, that is, she’s cross-examined by Kellogg, who implants memories necessary for his defense into her mind, controlling what she remembered through the power of suggestion and the pheromone he emitted. She eventually goes along with what he suggests, poking another hole in the prosecution’s case and inching Nidaria closer to freedom.
Monroe, who had driven Rosalee to court the second day of the case, follows Kellogg to the bathroom during a lunch break and finds out why exactly he’s such a good attorney. He’s a Ziegevolk, getting his power of persuasion through the tiny orange frogs that he eats before each day in court. He contacts Nick and Hank, who arrive just in time to watch Wu take the stand. According to Hank, Wu has been a witness countless times and should have no problems giving his testimony, but that’s proven to be wrong when Kellogg makes Wu remember that Nidaria was remorseful following the crime, even crying over the loss of his wife.
With closing arguments the following day and no way for any charge of malpractice to stick, the team has to create a solution to neutralize the effect the toads have on Kellogg and, therefore, the jury. Located below the hypothalamus, the Genick gland is what they’ll be targeting; when Kellogg eats a toad, his sweat glands are stimulated, releasing the pheromone into the air to be breathed in by those around him. Rosalee surmises that if they can negate the impact of the toad no matter how many he eats (a Wesen vasectomy, of sorts), everything he told the jury would be forgotten, justice would be served, and Nidaria would go to prison where he belongs.
The only thing is the antidote they need has one crucial element: Kellogg’s sweat. To get the sweat, they get (a wogied) Monroe to jump out on him one night and chase him down the street, where Bud (the Eisbiber) will be waiting. Bud will give Kellogg a ride to his hotel and offer him a handkerchief, which the lawyer will use to wipe his brow; the cloth will then be brought back to the shop and used to help complete the solution. Though it gets where it needs to go fairly easily, there’s still one more important element of the process: the toad. They have to inject the solution into the toad before the closing arguments of the case begin or else all of their work would have been for naught.
While Nick and Hank distract Kellogg with questions about the previous night’s attack, Monroe sneaks into Kellogg’s room with a syringe of solution. He opens the suitcase to find that the attorney carried two toads with him, a problem seeing as how they only have enough solution for one toad. Monroe makes his decision and hopes for the best when court is back in session less than an hour later. It seems that he might not have picked the right toad, considering how Kellogg is still emitting the pheromone that has won him countless cases and the jury deliberation didn’t exactly take long, something that tends to bode well for an innocent verdict. However, Monroe was right and Nidaria is found guilty, infuriating the defendant and leaving the attorney shell-shocked.
That night, Rosalee, Bud, Monroe, Nick, and Hank gather at the shop to celebrate over champagne when Kellogg stops by, looking for something to help what happened today. He gradually figures out that he had met all the people in the shop before and that they had conspired to take him down, causing him to lunge for Rosalee. Monroe throws him up against a wall and Nick arrests him for assault. In the cell next to him? Nidaria, who informs Kellogg that lawyers aren’t worth a damn there.
Thinking in Another Language
Nick has decided to allow Juliette to enter into the trailer in order to stimulate her memory of him. However, he doesn’t want to be with her when she gets her memory back, so he tasks Monroe with helping her figure things out. Monroe worries about not being able to answer her questions and how to explain everything that happened that night, but he ultimately agrees to do Nick this favor. Once they’re at the trailer, Juliette’s memories begin to come back slowly – she remembers how upset she was the night she was there, as well as the pouring rain. It’s not until she gets into the trailer and sees Nick’s desk from her visions that things accelerate; unfortunately for Juliette, things get way too out of control and after viewing the weapon cabinet, the bottles of ingredients, and the book of Wesen, she begins seeing several Nicks. The voices prove to be too much for her to handle, so she leaves the trailer and heads home with Monroe.
That night, Juliette can’t sleep for hearing overlapping versions of Nick in her head, which are mixed with memories of meeting the older Mexican medium from “La Llorona” who knew something was wrong with the vet before speaking with her. She then decides to bring her by the house and get insight into her current condition, given how things have recently worsened. The woman can immediately tell a difference in Juliette and mentions that she’s currently straddling the border between darkness and light, only her journey is just beginning.
Following the medium’s visit, Juliette goes to bed in hopes of silencing the voices and visions for at least a few hours. However, she has at least 4 different intersecting visions of Nick, all memories that have taken place in their bedroom.
Verrat Are You Talking About?
Renard lets Nick and Hank in on what happened at the Lotus Cafe with the explosive that nearly killed him (and presumably many others). The man that he shot is actually named Aguistin Kant, a former member of the French Foreign Legion who disappeared for eight years and emerged as Henry Leuser, a member of the Verrat. As a reminder, the Verrat is a protective force formed in 1945 and primarily comprised of Hundjagers; the main goal is to maintain stability throughout the Wesen world. But why did Renard tell Nick and Hank of his close call? “We all need to be on guard.”
Meanwhile, in Vienna, Eric is upset that Adalind didn’t get the key from Sean, doubting the “time” excuse and feeling that his brother just didn’t have the proper motivation. To help him with that, Eric is planning to come to Portland to meet with him face to face, only he might have a bigger problem to deal with now that Adalind has a distinctly pregnant glow about her.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-Although I’ve not been a fan of the Juliette storyline this season, I liked how the case this week tied into the concept of memory and how easily it can be manipulated.
-What did you think about Juliette’s reaction to the trailer? She seemed less shocked and more confused about what she was seeing, but I kind of thought that once she looked at the book, the idea of “Wesen” would come back to her.
-Nick’s mom e-mailed and said that she still has the coins. Are they planning on bringing her back, only this time the coins have taken over and turned her (more) evil?
-The CGI on the toads was…not good. But, this being a Friday genre show on NBC, I think it was harmlessly bad, not episode ruining bad.
-Much more comedy this week, especially Monroe chasing after Kellogg (nearly pulling a groin muscle in the process) and losing the toad while trying to inject it.
-Happy to see James Frain again, even if for a few minutes. However, if they don’t do something with him over the final five episodes of the season, it’d be a colossal waste, as he’s quite talented and could add a lot to the show.
-Grimm is a rerun next week, but on the April 19th episode, Shohreh Aghdashaloo guest stars as a gypsy who Adalind tasks with restoring her power, while there’s a fire demon unlike anything Nick has faced yet.
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