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Grimm 2.12 "Season Of The Hexenbiest" TV REVIEW
THE ONE WHERE Adalind's return (and her new found allegiance to Euroroyals) brings varying kinds of trouble for Nick, Hank and Captain Renard. Meanwhile, Monroe gets a new roommate – and tells him exactly who Juliette has been kissing.
VERDICT The bitch is back – and goodness knows the Grimmverse has been missing her. Claire Coffee’s flirtatious and dangerous Hexenbiest is a welcome return, not least because she finally gets things moving on several fronts. Coffee can play both evil and demurely sweet well and here is given the chance to do both with aplomb. The fact she is credited as main cast for the first time can only be a good thing for keeping this momentum going.
Adalind is on the warpath following the death of her mother, and also looking for the key having hooked up with the Euroroyals. She manages to play both Nick and Renard and her sneakiness and genuine menace makes for an interesting dynamic, especially when Nick is interrogating her. It also begs the question of how much more irate Nick will be if she outs Renard as the Portland royal – bearing in mind his boss is likely to be off the Christmas card list already for snogging Nick's amnesiac love. Goodness only knows what he'll do if he trashes his trailer too...
For the first time in a long time every one of the main cast gets some great moments in this episode, with some cracking action scenes as well as some nicely-pitched emotional moments. Even Juliette is less annoying, although her exposition-friend of last week is clearly busy, leaving her to turn to Monroe for help having, erm, been busted by him cheating on his best friend. Shameless.
After a patchy few months – some brilliant episodes, interspersed by more straightforward (and often a bit dull) monster-of-the-week fodder, there's enough going on here to make even the grumpiest Grimm fan anticipate the post-hiatus return. The fact the final screen ends with an apology (“To be continued... Sorry”) is very apt; after half a season of waiting, so much is falling into place, but we're not getting any resolution for any of it until the new year at the earliest. And frankly, bearing in mind how they've spun out the Renard/Juliette/Nick triangle so far, there's no guarantees anything will be sorted even then. I guess this means we won't get to see Monroe's Christmas decorations though. Sad times.
BEST BIT Monroe trying to pluck up the courage to tell Nick about Juliette's public display of affection with another man. “How was your day?” “You really want to know?” “Yes, in that it will let me postpone what I have to tell you, and no, in that we might as well just get it over with.”
BEST LINE
Adalind: “I've seen your brother. All of him.”
Renard: “That's not much of an achievement.”
Narin Bahar
* Grimm season 2 is currently airing in the UK on Watch. This is the last episode of Grimm at US pace until early next year. See you in 2013!
• Read our other Grimm Season 2 reviews
• Grimm Game: Hunt Them Down
• Grimm Season One REVIEW
