09-02-2017, 08:38 AM
Quote:I can understand why at the initial phase, their relationship was described as being somewhat like stockholm syndrome.I brought up Stockholm Syndrome and transference following the Nick/Adalind interaction in episodes 5-6-7. To me, Nick telling Adalind that Juliette’s return didn’t change the way he felt about her, that they immediately shifted from uncomfortable dinner conversation to a comfortable morning routine, the table conversation/kiss, all suggested that both, but especially Nick, was spurred to leap full speed ahead with the ‘relationship’ over the fear that Juliette’s return would destroy the peaceful arrangement they’d managed to establish.
Quote:My original post was about why I thought Adalind and Nick clicked. You implied that they didn't click, but only ended up together because they had no choice coz no one else wanted them.Technically, there wasn’t anyone who wanted either of them. Renard wasn’t interested in Adalind or family, it was BC, for some reason the show never substantiated, who wanted to create a family image for Renard. And who knows what the Juliette, Eve, and Juliette/Eve characters wanted or didn’t want. Because the creative team bounced that character combination around to fit the moment, there was never a clear distinction of who and what Juliette had become. The only fact actually established was that G & K didn’t want Eve and Juliette/Eve in S5 & S6 to have any connection to raging Hexenbiest Juliette in S4 - to the point that they ‘cleansed her soul’ with a stick whammy before returning her to Nick’s circle.
Quote:Yet Nick thought she was a good enough woman to be his girlfriend and maybe even his wife. Meisner seemed to have only good non sexual thoughts about Adalind, specifically about her being a good mother. Nick thought so too, when he told Monroe she was an amazing mother to Kelly. So you're wrong about that as well.Nick didn’t actually tell Monroe that Adalind was an amazing mother. There was a hint of sarcasm when he said: “Who would've thought that she would've made such a wonderful mother?" During the same conversation, Nick tells Monroe he doesn’t know how Adalind feels about him because they never talk about it. Nick omits that they at least touched on the subject during their table conversation in E7. But we should take into account that E9 was set up to introduce the shift in Nick’s behavior toward Adalind, and how it fit with the Nick/Adalind so far or that Nick was made to look like a arrogant jerk obviously wasn’t important to the creative team.
Quote:… Nick did fight to get Adalind back as was seen in season 6, he told Renard that Adalind was going with him. Why would he say that if he didn't care about Adalind at all?Nick’s feelings about Adalind were as indeterminate as who/what Juliette was supposed to be. Nick might have treated Adalind like a girlfriend and potential wife when they were alone, but not when in view of his friends. He was uncomfortable that Adalind used their first kiss to confirm he wasn’t Renard. So at that point it’s just as likely that Nick was pushing for Adalind to come with him because he knew his son would be wherever Adalind was as it was that he actually wanted Adalind with him. Nick decided with Renard, not Adalind, that Diana would stay with Renard, and told Adalind as much later in the episode. Nick had already stolen Diana from Adalind once, if his love for Adalind was in the forefront of his decision making process, he wouldn’t have agreed to any arrangement that made Adalind feel she was losing her daughter again. It wasn’t until Adalind refused to go along with the two men’s agreement that Nick shifted to Renard & Adalind sharing Diana.
Quote:Just because she fell in love with Nick doesn't make her a mouse with no life of her own.It shouldn’t have, but reality is that she did. Adalind became a shell of her former self. Becoming a devoted mother and/or falling in love shouldn’t rob a character of her identity. Adalind went from walking into the belly of her enemies to protect her unborn child in S4 to giving up on her first child in S5. The Adalind through S4 would have never passed up any chance to find her daughter, no matter how slight. Meisner’s unexpected appearance would have been an equally unexpected opportunity that she wouldn’t have wasted. Adalind eventually got Diana back through happenstance, not through perseverance, and especially not through any help from Nick or his friends.
Quote:There is no reason to criticise her for falling in love with a man that she likes, who is kind to her, and who has a baby with her.Gratitude, even loving someone for being kind and helpful, isn’t necessarily a basis for falling in love. The way it was presented on the show, Adalind was obsessed with maintaining the life she’d established with Nick. She was in love with the idea of being in a loving and committed relationship and being accepted into a supportive group. The reality was that Adalind was accepted by Nick’s friends because she was currently with Nick and the mother of his child. Had Nick decided to take Kelly from Adalind, his friends would have rallied around him and taken another child from Adalind. Based on S5’s characterization of Adalind, had she determined a relationship with Nick wasn’t viable, she would have likely made better use of her time with Renard and worked towards establishing an arrangement that benefited her and both children. Considering that she hated Renard for ‘giving their daughter away’ but was in denial that Nick took Diana, it was more about what she wanted and believed she could have with Nick than Renard giving their daughter away. The S3 & S4 Adalind didn’t put anyone ahead of her children, not even the central character.
There are many reasons Nick & Adalind would naturally click. Nick/Adalind could have been equally complicated, compelling, and entertaining. But it wasn’t. It was contrived, manipulated, and sidestepped for the sake of easy storytelling, cool action scenes, woe is me drama, and awesome reveals that fell flat. It was in essence a plot twist that forced the characters and their alliance/relationship to devolve and become stagnant. There was a smorgasbord of history to make the headstrong Grimm and feisty Hexenbiest the most interesting and formidable alliance on the show. Instead, Adalind was relegated to Juliette 2.0, the version of Juliette Nick wished he’d had, the one who accepted his Grimm life without wanting to be involved and needed him to be her knight in shining armor. Nick continued to pound his fists against the wind, never strategizing, never identifying who his enemy actually was while Renard continued to lead him by the nose until reality smacked him in the face.
And as a result, Nick and Adalind actually becoming a couple and Nick's long awaited 'I love you' fell as flat as the rest.
"If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well." Rainer Maria Rilke