11-30-2013, 10:36 PM
Meh, I think this episode shot itself in the foot by setting up more than it ended up delivering. It invited parallels with La Llorona, of course, but then it ended up just being another Wesen-of-the-week. All the mysticism with Pilar just ended up turned out to be "villager superstition", which would be a little more palatable if they ever established what Pilar actually IS....why she knows so much, why she can sense supernatural things happening. Is she Wesen? Is she a Grimm? Is she something like a Grimm, but that can sense stuff instead of hunting it? Since she's just some ill-defined oracle, bringing her back this episode (and not just as a "Latino liaison" for Wesen matters) seemed to suggest there was more than just the usual Wesen antics going on, but that's all that it ended up being.
From a storytelling perspective, I thought the ending was extremely unsatisfying as well. They're just letting a known killer back on the streets? Its ok because she only kills "bad people"? None of the people she killed had done anything that most reasonable people would say warrants death...she wasn't killing murderers, she wasn't even killing child molesters or anything where she might be "justified" to mete out death. As a cop, that should bother Nick a lot more than it appeared to - its not the first Wesen vigilante we've seen, and he's not been so magnanimous with others in the past. And, from lots of other times, we know he's fully aware of how to play the "I cant settle this as a cop, so I'm going to settle this as a Grimm" card, even just as a bluff. It would have been nice to at least have put the fear of Grimm in her before they let her go, a kind of "you stay gone, or you be gone. You lost all your Portland privileges" moment.
Other quick points...Adalind: nothing new here. The baby's all weird? Well its 1/2 or 3/4 Hexenbiest, no crap... Juliette: thank you for not being worthless for once. Thank you for being rational about the email and just TELLING Nick instead of dragging it out for three or four episodes, talking to EVERYONE ELSE about it EXCEPT him and making it into a big thing. Although it was a little disconcerting how cheerfully she peruses the records of cold blooded genocide in Nick's ancestry, considering she just learned his mom is one of those same type of "old school" Grimms. The Doggy Style Duo: why are they so scared of telling his parents? Monroe's mom is a Blutbad, they eat people, she's going to get all pearl-clutchey about him moving in with a girl?
Overall: an OK episode, could have done with a touch more story-arc, and generally would have been better if it had just been OK with being a Wesen-of-the-week, but I guess November Sweeps demanded everything be hyped.
From a storytelling perspective, I thought the ending was extremely unsatisfying as well. They're just letting a known killer back on the streets? Its ok because she only kills "bad people"? None of the people she killed had done anything that most reasonable people would say warrants death...she wasn't killing murderers, she wasn't even killing child molesters or anything where she might be "justified" to mete out death. As a cop, that should bother Nick a lot more than it appeared to - its not the first Wesen vigilante we've seen, and he's not been so magnanimous with others in the past. And, from lots of other times, we know he's fully aware of how to play the "I cant settle this as a cop, so I'm going to settle this as a Grimm" card, even just as a bluff. It would have been nice to at least have put the fear of Grimm in her before they let her go, a kind of "you stay gone, or you be gone. You lost all your Portland privileges" moment.
Other quick points...Adalind: nothing new here. The baby's all weird? Well its 1/2 or 3/4 Hexenbiest, no crap... Juliette: thank you for not being worthless for once. Thank you for being rational about the email and just TELLING Nick instead of dragging it out for three or four episodes, talking to EVERYONE ELSE about it EXCEPT him and making it into a big thing. Although it was a little disconcerting how cheerfully she peruses the records of cold blooded genocide in Nick's ancestry, considering she just learned his mom is one of those same type of "old school" Grimms. The Doggy Style Duo: why are they so scared of telling his parents? Monroe's mom is a Blutbad, they eat people, she's going to get all pearl-clutchey about him moving in with a girl?
Overall: an OK episode, could have done with a touch more story-arc, and generally would have been better if it had just been OK with being a Wesen-of-the-week, but I guess November Sweeps demanded everything be hyped.