One of Grimm‘s main assets has been its ability to take a familiar concept and turn it on its ear. That fresh perspective has been a harbinger of good things for the show, in that it already has a fairly distinct point-of-view, even with the inclusion of various fairytales. Most young shows take a while to get their legs about them, so Grimm being fairly secure in itself barely out of its initial 13 episode order is quite promising. Even if an episode isn’t 100% crackling, just seeing how Grimm interprets the text in modern, visual form can make it worth a view.
“Plumed Serpent” did just that, by taking a fairly familiar trope/concept (the prince having to slay the dragon to save the princess) and putting a fairly interesting wrinkle in it to keep it fresh. It may have been inevitable for Grimm to pull out an episode like this, but I found its execution to be mostly strong, particularly in the latter half. A lot of that strength came from how they handled Ariel, daughter of a suspected murderer/arsonist and fire dancer at a local club. By letting the “dragon daughter” go from quivering, lonely girl looking for her daddy to a Fatal Attraction-esque femme fatale, it subverted cliche and pulled a fast one on the audience. I expected Ariel’s initial story, about her lack of connection with her father, to be the truth and the show to focus on Fred;seeing her end up in Nick’s bed and ultimately kidnap Juliette was the perfect tonal mixture of sinister and a little bit camp, enough to keep you on your toes while watching. And if making the daughter the actual villain wasn’t enough, Grimm managed two more twists by the end of the episode, with Ariel bringing Nick to the lair in order to kill her father and faking her own suicide to get Nick and company off her trail. A fault of Grimm‘s early episodes was that they left too many cases without any wiggle room, eliminating the possibility of a recurring villain, but Ariel storming out of the lair in the powerful last shot could mean that we haven’t seen the last of her.
But to get to that enthralling final battle, you had to wade through a pretty slow opening half of the episode, bogged down in the procedural elements of Grimm‘s complex identity. It’s a necessary evil of this type of show, the ground game to gather information and include Hank in the proceedings, but there are times that it cuts into the momentum of an episode. Getting a look at a gruesome crime scene or piecing together who may have been the culprit can be intriguing, particularly if it’s as fantastical as the body outlines on the wall in “Plumed Serpent”, but it crawled a little too much for me here. Grimm has to lean a little onto that part of itself, if only to set up the more supernatural endings, but if we’re going to spend that much time gathering evidence or just staying in the station, an appearance from Renard or a more integrated Wu or Harper could bring a little more life to the proceedings. I like Nick and Hank’s partnership, but their interaction could pop even more if other people were brought in to the fold more often.
And set against the exciting end of the episode, from the time Ariel snapped to her death defying ketonic vomit, the first half suffered even moreso.
But the main thing I took away from “Plumed Serpent” is that Monroe and Juliette now know each other, after the former saved the latter after she had been kidnapped by Ariel. It was a nice piece of serialization that brought both of Nick’s worlds/lives together for one of the first times, possibly indicating that they’ll be pushed together even more in the future. After last week’s reveals and history lesson on Nick Burkhardt, I thought that “Plumed Serpent” would back toward the procedural side, allowing Grimm time to recharge before hitting us with more serial elements. Thankfully, I was wrong and the show threw in a little nugget like this that fit in with the rest of the storytelling, thereby not confusing the casual viewer, and rewarded those of us that have been watching since day one. The thing I most liked about it is that while they were both nice and pleasant toward one another, Juliette’s kind of over the whole “being in danger” thing that has happened since Nick discovered his heritage. She and Nick have been the picture of domestic bliss until now, all sarcastic quips and grocery shopping, and they have some tension between them that could open up a lot of story possibilities. I still believe that eventually Nick’ll have to tell her what he’s really been doing, if only for her protection, and that’ll bring Monroe and Juliette back together in some strange, supernatural form of Three’s Company.
Grimm may have taken some time to get going, but once it kicked in high gear, it was a heck of an episode. Fun and surprising with a nifty final reveal, “Plumed Serpent” took the typical fairytale archetype and gave it a little twist, resulting in multiple about-faces and the possibility of a recurring big bad. The Nick/Monroe action was in top form and the mere hint of Juliette joining the fun was enough to really send the episode to the next level. Grimm may be covering familiar territory, but as long as they keep it modern and fresh, I say bring on the classics.
Thoughts, Quotes, & Observations:
-“I hope you’re not some kind of a tease.”
-“What does this girl do besides hitting young men in her backyard?”
-“Nice place for a lair.”
-“This girl takes being wired to a whole new level.”
-Monroe mentioning the reapers and the Grimm that got decapitated hints that the remaining episodes of season one will be more dangerous, given Nick’s raised profile. Can’t wait.
–500 Grimm-era fairytales have been found in Germany.
-Here are pretty fun interviews with Bitsie Tulloch and David Giuntoli/Sasha Roiz. Spoiler alert and whatnot.
-The tale of a former Grimm extra, who found the experience to be pretty enjoyable.
–Grimm will be hiatus (again) for the next two weeks, but the final eight episodes of the season will air uninterrupted, leading into the season finale on May 18th.
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