Grimm - S4E21 - Headache

This post contains spoilers.

I noticed a couple things about this episode, and when I re-watched it recently, I found a couple more.

To some degree, this is also in the previous episode (and perhaps even in some before that), but it's very noticeable in this episode that Juliette is wearing a coat that is much darker than ones she usually wears:

The darker color seems to represent the darkness involved in her accepting and even reveling in being a Hexenbiest and in her joining forces with the royal family.  She's become a literal turn-coat.

She takes Prince Kenneth on a tour through the house she used to share with Nick, and when they get to the bedroom, she reaches out and touches the dresser drawer in which Nick keeps the ring with which he proposed to her:

There are a few other touches like this in the episode (like the slight hesitation before she tells Kelly to come in) that seem to indicate the old Juliette within her new Hexenbiest-self.

Meanwhile, Renard is being taken over by Jack the Ripper.  In one scene, he looks at himself in the mirror, which seems to spur Jack's taking over:

I think using mirrors to show a dual nature is a relatively common feature, but it works well here.  Like the original and the reflection, there's Renard himself, and then there's Renard as he is when Jack the Ripper takes over.  Using a mirror to illustrate this is particularly evident when - in a later scene - Jack the Ripper writes on the mirror with the blood from Renard's phantom wounds:

Finally - and this is just a minor point - when Nick and Hank find that Wu has been taken by Renard/Jack the Ripper, Nick calls dispatch and says, "I need to track patrol car 421."  421 is the number of the car, and this is season 4 episode 21.  Using the season and episode number in the episode itself is a common conceit in Grimm, but usually it's done in an apartment or hotel room number.  Here, there's not even a visual component.

Grimm - S4E16 - Heartbreaker

Originally, for this episode of Grimm, I had a vague idea about a visual element and its connection to the particular Wesen that the episode features, but after re-watching it recently, I revised that notion, noticed a lot of new things (many just in writing this post), and realized that what I thought was an error in my comprehending dialogue actually illustrates some character traits.

There's a lot in this episode.

First, I have a few points for which a short summary about the Wesen in this episode is critical.  When Nick and Hank talk to Monroe and Rosalee about the murder they're investigating (for which they - and Sergeant Wu - suspect Wesen because of the rare toxin involved), Rosalee posits that they're dealing with a Folterseele.  "They're kind of classically tragic.  Always beautiful, always deadly."  They woge when someone is attracted to them, and - as Monroe puts it when Hank compares it to "the old Frog Prince story" - "Yeah, but you kiss this frog, your face blows up and you die" because of the toxin, which works as a defense mechanism.

Until writing this post, I hadn't lookt into the name of this particular Wesen.  Seeing Folterseele in the closed captioning, I recognized Seele as German for soul, but I had to look up Folter.  Die Folter is the torture.  I think Folterseele is supposed to evoke something like tortured soul, although gefolterte Seele is a more accurate translation.  In any case, it perfectly encapsulates this Wesen.  They keep to themselves to avoid effecting this defense mechanism.  As Bella Turner (the Folterseele in this episode) explains later: "You don't know what it's like to never be able to experience love.  Never feel the touch of another person or be able to touch them."

This brings up what should have been obvious to me when I first watched this:  Bella's name also describes the Folterseele's situation.  Bella means beautiful in Latin.  Half of Rosalee's "Always beautiful, always deadly" description of Folterseele is literally in Bella's name.

Turner is part of a bicycling group, which I think the writers employ as an updated version of a spinster.  Merriam-Webster recently had an article about the origin of the term, explaining that unmarried women were poorer and that spinning wool was one of the few jobs that they could acquire.  Instead of spinning wool, the spinning here is the spinning of bicycle wheels:

To further connect the two ideas, in Bella's apartment, which is shown only briefly, there's a bicycle wheel positioned in such a way that it resembles a spinning wheel:

The Turner part of her name also seems to play into this.  There's the literal turning, referring to spinning wheels, but there's also a more metaphorical turning involved.  At the end of the episode, she drinks a sort of potion that Monroe and Rosalee made in order to prevent the secretion of the toxin.  In a way, she's turning away from being a Folterseele.

The other interesting thing I noticed in this episode pertains to the Royal Family story line.  Prince Viktor was recalled to Austria in the previous episode, and his replacement Prince Kenneth arrives in this episode.  Rispoli (the assistant who asserts he's "loyal to the family, not to any particular member") tells Adalind that she should change into something more appropriate than a bathrobe for Kenneth's impending arrival.  Adalind asks, "Prince Kenneth?  Do you know him?" to which Rispoli answers, "By reputation."  He ushers Adalind into a room to change as she asks, "What's he like?"  In the few seconds it takes for Rispoli to close the door before he answers, I understood this as "What is he like?" both times I've watched the episode.  Because Adalind just asked, "Prince Kenneth?  Do you know him?" her question has the sense of "What kind of character does he have?" or "What kind of person is he?"  In her dealing with Prince Viktor, Adalind started to be a little manipulative, so here it seems like she's asking Rispoli about Kenneth's strength of will, to see if she can wrap him around her finger too.

However, Rispoli's answer changes how Adalind's question is understood.  He replies, "Results," which renders her question as "What does he like?"  To some degree, this shows the same quality in Rispoli's character that his assertion of family loyalty illustrated earlier in the same scene.  He has the mind-set of a servant who wants to please his superior, so he knows Prince Kenneth's preferences, despite knowing him only "by reputation."  While Kenneth hasn't even arrived yet, his coming reveals traits in these two, already-familiar characters.

Grimm - S4E14 - Bad Luck

This post contains spoilers.

After a couple months of hiatus (because I've been busy), I've continued re-watching season four of Grimm.  I noticed what I think is a subtle reference to Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit in episode 14 - "Bad Luck."

At the very beginning of the episode, a boy named Peter is murdered.  Peter is a Willahara, and a Leporem Venator hunts him down to cut off his foot, which is believed to help with fertility.  As Nick explains to Hank and Wu after seeing Peter's mother woge, Willahara are "rabbit-like" Wesen:

The name Peter and being a rabbit is common to both, but in reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit, I found something else.  Mrs. Rabbit tells her children, "You may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."  In the show, Peter's father also had an accident (which appears to have been orchestrated by the Leporem Venator to acquire the father's foot too).

Most of the show is based on the fairy tales by the Grimm brothers, so it seems likely that Potter's tale, which has some similarities, was used as inspiration for this particular episode.

Grimm - S4E11 - Death Do Us Part

I'm still re-watching season four of Grimm.  Recently, I re-watched "Death Do Us Part," remembered something I noticed when it originally aired, and found something new.

There's a murder at an abandoned house (with the same MO as two earlier murders in the same house), and Nick and Hank talk to Mark Wilson, the detective who investigated the original case.  He explains that he thought it was a love triangle.  "During the investigation, we learned Patty Donovan was having an affair with her husband's co-worker, Theo Hinkley.  Well, Theo probably thought Patty was gonna leave Stetson for him.  But Patty decided not to, so, Theo figured if he couldn't have her, no one could."  And then he says, "Shakespearean, ain't it?"

I'm not sure how much stock I would put in his "Shakespearean" assessment, but what I thought interesting about that line is that isn't not the only Shakespeare reference in the episode.  Or at least I don't think so.

Two scenes later, Nick gets into bed with Juliette and asks her, "What are you reading?"  To which she replies, "A book."

That same literal answer is in Shakespeare's Hamlet.  In Act II, Scene II, Polonius asks Hamlet, "What do you read, my lord?" and Hamlet replies, "Word, words, words."  (II.ii.209-210).

There doesn't seem to be much in-show significance, but I think it illustrates that the writers were indeed thinking of Shakespeare.

The new thing I noticed in re-watching it recently is that the same effect from "Wesenrein" (S4E9) returns.  At the end of this episode, when Juliette goes to visit Henrietta, her face is multiplied as the camera looks through a pane of glass with bevels at the edges:

As it did in "Wesenrein," it indicates how Juliette is starting to splinter between her normal self and her new hexenbiest self.

Grimm - S4E10 - Tribunal

I recently re-watched the Grimm episode "Tribunal" and remembered something that I noticed when it first aired but had forgotten about.  Sergeant Wu is still learning about Grimms and Wesen, and before he sees his first woge (knowingly, at least), Hank talks to him.

Hank says, "You have to be ready for this," to which Wu responds, "And by ready you mean off the deep end?"  In his answer, Hank mixes metaphors:  "There is no shallow end in this pool.  This is not something anybody can wrap their head around until they have no choice but to get on board."

To some degree, having those three different descriptions (a pool, wrapping heads around, and a train) indicates the confusion and "other-ness" associated with knowing about the wider world of Grimms and Wesen.  There's no simple comparison to be made.  Like Hank tells Wu:  "You have to get a place where this is a new normal."

Grimm - S4E9 - Wesenrein

This post contains spoilers.

Recently, I've been re-watching season four of Grimm, and I noticed something in episode nine - "Wesenrein."

At the end of the previous episode - "Chupacabra" - Juliette discovered that the headaches and nausea she's been experiencing were portends of her becoming a hexenbiest.  Episode nine continues where episode eight left off, right after this discovery.  Juliette starts to call Nick but stops the call before it goes through and then looks at herself in the mirror:

Because of the bevel in the mirror, she appears to have two faces, so her new nature is visualized.  There's Juliette, and then there's the hexenbiest that she's become.

Later, after she woges again (or, more accurately, nach sie wogt wieder), the glass in picture frames breaks, and the mirror shatters.  When she looks at it this time, her reflection also appears shattered:

Again it's visually demonstrated how her turning into a hexenbiest has affected her and will affect events later in the series.

Grimm - S1E8 - Game Ogre

After three murders in this episode, Hank realizes that the victims are all connected to the arrest and conviction of Oleg Stark, who's since escaped and is tracking down those who sentenced him.  In researching his file, Nick discovers that Stark "displays signs of congenital analgesia, a rare genetic disorder which deadens the nerve endings, making it difficult to process pain" and has "abnormally dense" bones:

Later Nick discovers that Stark is a Siegbarste, which Monroe describes as "your basic ogre."

It's significant that his last name is Stark - the German word for strong.  Stark's deadened nerve endings and dense bones seem to contribute to his strength.  At the very least, they help to increase his persistence.

I think it's also significant that that characteristic is his last name.  It's sort of the opposite of the word Grimm.  In the show, it seems that the Grimm Brothers' last name has become the appellation of those who can see Wesen.

Grimm - S3E21 - The Inheritance

This post contains some minor spoilers.

After re-watching this episode of Grimm, I started thinking about the name of one of the characters - Rolek Porter.  It's not a very common name, so I thought that there had to be some sort of reference hidden in it.  I couldn't come up with anything for Rolek, but the Porter part is actually pretty descriptive of the character.

Rolek Porter is dying, and before he's gone, he wants to give Nick a trunk of some Grimm-related things and an-other key.  Like Nick, Porter is a Grimm, but he doesn't seem to be as involved in the Wesen world as Nick is.  Porter tells Nick that he (Porter) "couldn't do what [his ancestors] did" or what Nick does.  So while Porter has a trunk of Grimm things, he doesn't really use them himself (and his son isn't a Grimm so he wouldn't have a use for them).  This is where the Porter part of his name comes in; he just carries the stuff.

That section of his name works especially well in that Porter came from Pennsylvania to Oregon to give Nick the trunk.  It's also interesting that Porter is first introduced in a hotel, so there's a tenuous connection to hotel porters:

Grimm - S3E15 - Once We Were Gods

Episode fifteen of season three of Grimm starts with some construction workers finding an Egyptian sarcophagus in a secret room:

They call a professor named Vera Gates to investigate it:

It occurred to me how appropriate the name Vera Gates is for a scientist.

I'm fairly certain that Vera comes from the Latin word verum, which means truth.  It's the same root that the word veracity comes from (also the word very, which I found interesting).  So truth combined with gates seems to name a character who is a guardian of knowledge.  It's especially apt considering her dedication to her job, which doesn't falter even after her lab has been broken into and vandalized.  She asserts, "This is science.  I won't be scared into not doing my research."

Grimm - S3E11 - The Good Soldier

This post contains spoilers.

I've been re-watching season three of Grimm, and I noticed a small but significant detail in episode eleven - "The Good Soldier."

After a murder, Nick and Hank investigate Jim McCabe, a coworker of the murder victim.  They visit him at his office, where he has a statue of a lion on his desk:

After two similar murders, Nick and Hank discover that the murderer they're looking for is a manticore.  (Unbeknownst to them, there are actually two murderers.)  In the trailer, they - along with Juliette - learn that the manticore has the body of a lion (or a Lowen, in the Grimm terminology) with the tail of a scorpion:

The lion statue on his desk appears innocuous early in the episode, but it seems to function as a sort of fore-shadowing that McCabe, who committed two of the murders, is a manticore:

The episode's plot mostly revolves around Frankie Gonzales, an army specialist who was raped.  (Her colonel kills one of her rapists as a sort of vengeance, and McCabe kills an-other of her rapists and his wife in order to prevent a confession that would reveal him as a third rapist.)  Gonzales carves the date of her attack (November 11, 2010) into her arm, and - in one instance - blots the wound with a napkin so that the date transfers in her blood:

She then gives this to one of her rapists in an attempt to get him to confess.

I think the date is significant.  November 11 is Veterans Day, so it has a connection to the military.  It's also the date of the Armistice in World War I (which Veteran's Day came out of), but in the episode, it marks the opposite, as it's the beginning of all the problems.

Grimm - S2E18 - Volcanalis

This post contains some spoilers.

By episode eighteen of season two of Grimm, Juliette is starting to regain some of her memories.  What's interesting is how that's portrayed visually.  At first, it's completely black and white:

Then Juliette herself is the only element that has any color, and even that is sort of washed out:

But as she continues to interact with her memory, more things start to gain color.  At first, it's Nick:

Eventually, the whole room is in color, although it's still a bit desaturated in order to differentiate between the memory and what's happening in the present:

It's a subtle shift, and I don't even think I noticed it the first time I saw the episode.

There are also some interesting things in the police part of the episode.  While it's not really Wesen, the suspect in the episode is Volcanalis, a priest of the Roman god Vulcan.  An-other person of interest in the case is Markus Hemmings.  Markus (spelled more normally as Marcus) is a very Roman name - apparently it derives from Mars, the god of war - so it fits well with the other element of Roman mythology.  Also, the derivation from Mars (and the bellicosity which it implies) fits with what Nick finds in the books in the trailer about Taureus-armenta (the type of Wesen that Markus is): "Many have been found in the front lines, first to volunteer, willing to face down any enemy, with nerves of steel under fire."

There's also a possible reference in the name of the geologist at the very beginning of the show - Jill Pembrey.  A lot of episodes of Grimm come out of fairy tales, and the Jill in this one, along with the mountain, seems to suggest the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill."  The other geologist is named Tom though, and there aren't any other elements in common between the nursery rhyme and the episode, but I still feel it worth mentioning.

An-other minor point is the name of geology business - Eon Industries:

An eon is a unit in the geologic time scale, so it's an apt name.

Grimm - S2E16 - Nameless

In re-watching season two episode sixteen of Grimm, I discovered that the name of the video game that's fairly integral to the plot is called Black Forest 2:

I didn't pay any attention to this at all the first time I watched the episode.  While the game is sort of important in the episode, it's more important for what it causes than for what it is.

In any case, I'm pretty sure the name is a subtle reference to the Black Forest in Germany (der Schwarzwald in German).  German culture informs a lot of the stories that the show adapts (like the Grimm fairy tales, which resulted in the show's name) and the history in the show itself.  In one episode, I think Monroe even mentions some ancestor of his who lived in the Black Forest.

Grimm - S2E15 - Mr. Sandman

The Wesen in season two episode fifteen of Grimm is a Jinnamuru Xunte.  They blow sand in people's eyes, which blinds them, and then lick their tears.  So eyes are pretty important in the episode.

One of the locations in the episode is the Santa Lucia High School.  In one shot, the sign is visible, although it's at a not-super-legible angle:

I realized that this was a reference to light, as Lucia comes from lux - the Latin word for light, but then I looked up Santa Lucia and discovered that she's the patron saint of the blind.  It's a very subtle reference to the specific characteristics of the Wesen in the episode.

Speaking French in Grimm

In re-watching season two of Grimm, I've noticed how frequently Captain Renard goes to his office to talk on his secret phone in French.  At first this struck me as kind of odd because so much of the show has to do with things that have their origin in Germany or at least German-speaking places (Vienna starts becoming more significant in season two).  But then I realized that he speaks French because he's a Royal.

I recently re-read my textbook (A Concise History of Modern Europe) for the class I took on the History of Modern Europe, and the author (David S. Mason) mentions that "French culture was admired and mimicked by the upper classes throughout Europe, and French was the language of the aristocracy and royal courts all over the Continent, including in Russia."  Later in the book he writes that "French was the most widely used international language, the language both of diplomacy and of most of the royal courts of Europe."

Since Renard is a Royal, he still uses French when he's dealing with those sorts of aristocratic and royal issues.  I'd thought that his use of French was just an-other way to conceal what he's doing, but it also has historical precedent.

Grimm - S2E7 - The Bottle Imp

This posts contains some spoilers.

Early in season two of Grimm, Juliette has awoken from her coma but can't remember Nick.  She's also starting to have feelings toward Captain Renard because he's the one who (unbeknownst to her) woke her up from the coma.  In episode seven "The Bottle Imp," there's some interesting movement that tacitly illustrates this.

Juliette comes to visit Nick at the precinct in the hopes that seeing him at work will help her to remember him, and when she leaves, first she faces away from Nick for a fraction of a second:

They aren't face-to-face anymore, which reflects how Juliette has no memory of him.  After that brief pause, she spins around so that she avoids seeing Nick:

(It's hard to capture the movement in a screen shot, but I hope this gives an idea of it).

She doesn't look at him, as if she's trying to hide something.  Something that could very well be her growing attraction to Renard.

Grimm - S2E5 - The Good Shepherd

As far as subtleties go, "The Good Shepherd" is a really good episode of Grimm.

This post contains spoilers.

Early in the show, there's an account named Norman Brewster, who later turns out to be a Seelengute, which is like a sheep.  After he finishes his accounting work, he closes his laptop and yawns:

It might just be a coincidence, but there is the connection between sleep (or tiredness, in this case) and counting sheep.

The first part of the detective bit in this episode occurs when Reverend Lance B. Calvin comes to the precinct with a claim that Norman embezzled church funds.  I'm not sure how much there is to this, but Calvin's name suggests some connection with Reverend John Calvin.

As Hank and Nick investigate the case, they find that the same situation occurred at an-other church over which Calvin presided.  Captain Renard describes it as "Scapegoat parishioner embezzles church funds and disappears." "Scapegoat" is a common term, but it was also a religious practice, as described in Leviticus 16:7-10, so it ties into the religious aspects of the episode.

After discovering Brewster's body, they decide to see how Calvin reacts to the news of his (Brewster's) death, so they go to the church, where Calvin is telling the board about the embezzlement.  An interesting thing about the board (and later the congregation) is that they're all wearing very neutral colors:

This is a visual indicator of the "herd mentality" that's mentioned later in the show, and it might have something to do with the board's being Seelenguter too.  It's like their clothes are the same color as their wool when they are wogt.  (I think I'm using the terminology correctly.)

It's also interesting that here and in a later scene, Calvin is seen as just a gesturing hand at the edge of the frame:

It shows that he's manipulating them while at the same time not revealing his true (whole) self.

In the scene with the board, Calvin's skill as a speaker shows itself.  His speech to the board contains alliteration:  "This is not the time for vitriol and vindictiveness" and "This is a dark day for us."  He also seems to use religious imagery, but he doesn't always get it right.  He tells the board that "with faith as our armor, we will march forward."  Ostensibly, this is a reference to Saint Paul's armor of God in Ephesians 6:

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. (Ephesians 6:13-18).  

However, in Paul's metaphorical armor, faith corresponds to the shield, not to the armor as a whole.  Calvin's error seems to speak to the quality of his character.  While both reverends and con-men might make use of rhetorical strategies, reverends would be familiar with Paul's armor and probably wouldn't mess it up.

When Calvin talks to Hank and Nick alone, he continues playing this part.  He talks about his "personal journey of enlightenment and reformation" as a reformed Blutbad.  For someone who seems so conscious of his speech, it's an interesting choice of words.  If you capitalize them, you get The Enlightenment and The Reformation, which seem somewhat contradictory, as The Enlightenment was concerned with reason, which could be seen as the opposite of religion, and The Reformation was a religious movement.  In some ways, it seems to indicate the conflict within Calvin - between his persona of the upright reverend and his actual position of conman.

When they ask where he was between 5 and 10 PM on Friday, he says, "Oh, now enlightenment comes.  I’m a suspect.  Well, good.  Let the truth be told."  Again, he uses rhetoric.  More specifically, he employs passive voice.  "Let the truth be told" rather than "I will tell you the truth."  But he still doesn't tell them the truth.

When they leave, he tells Nick that since he (Calvin) is a Blutbad and Nick is a Grimm it "could be the beginning of a beatific relationship."  Again there's the alliteration, but the word choice is also significant, as beatific suggests the Beatitudes of Matthew 5.  As they leave, Nick even comments that Calvin "talks a good game."

Since Calvin claims to be a reformed Blutbad, Hank and Nick go to Monroe, an-other reformed Blutbad, to get his opinion.  From him, they learn that the sheep wesen are called Seelengut "or if there's more than one, Seelenguter."  (Calvin also tells them about Seelenguter, but Monroe is a more trustworthy character.)  Seelengut means something like "good souls."  Seele (plural: Seelen) is the German word for soul, and gut for good.  This too plays into the religious aspects of this episode (including the title), not only with the mention of the soul, but also because sheep are an important symbol in Christianity.

Monroe agrees to go undercover in order to investigate Calvin more fully.  In his conversation with Monroe, Calvin keeps up his persona.  There's some alliteration in the phrase "delved into the darkness," and there's duplicity in "You’re no trouble; you’re a blessing" because Calvin wants to use Monroe to take the fall for his crime (killing Brewster and embezzling the money).  It becomes even more obvious when, in a later scene, after Calvin's explained his plan to his secretary, he tells Monroe, "You have no idea what a blessing it is that you arrived at our church when you did."

Grimm - S1E19 - Leave It to Beavers

In re-watching episodes of Grimm, I found some interesting things in "Leave It to Beavers."  The man who's murdered at the beginning is named Robert Grosszahn, and the construction company that he runs is called Grosszahn Construction.

In German, groß Zahn means big tooth, so it makes sense as the man's name; he's an Eisbiber, and they have the distinctive dental features of beavers.  Additionally, the groß part might indicate that the business is prominent.

Also related to the Eisbiber/beaver connection, the Lodge to which some of the characters in the episode belong convenes in a dam.  In the show, it's referred to as "the old power plant at the Bull Run Dam." It's also the location where Nick confronts the reapers.  In some shots, the hydroelectric generators are visible.

The beaver/dam connection might be a bit obvious - as some of the other Wesen/animal traits on the show are - but I figured I would mention it as long as I was going to write about Grosszahn's name.

Grimm - S1E17 - Love Sick

I recently re-watched a lot of episodes of Grimm, including the deleted scenes.  In one of the deleted scenes (actually, the only deleted scene) for "Love Sick" (season 1, episode 17), Nick has a dream in which Adalind stabs Hank with a giant needle.

While it's not what actually happens, it makes sense that Nick would dream about this because in the pilot episode, Adalind does the same thing to him (although she was attempting to do it to his aunt).  There's even a flashback to that scene in "Love Sick."

According to the deleted scene, it would seem that Nick subconsciously thinks that Adalind will go on stabbing people with needles, but what actually happens is beyond the scope of his nightmare.