Kyle’s Thoughts

“A Reptile Dysfunction” worked on many levels (not the least of which was the puntastic name), but the weekly wesen fell flat. I loved seeing the return of Grimm’s police procedural roots—they haven’t done anything with Nick and Hank on a case in a while—and a lot of the side stories swirling around gained some clarity.

Eve isn’t a resurrected Juliette; we saw Juliette’s body as proof. Instead she’s a constructed wesen, think of a Grimm take on Frankenstein’s monster. Even though I liked this distinction, it’s a bit of a cop out: we didn’t want to bring back Juliette because of storyline conflicts but we didn’t want to get rid of Bitsie Tulloch, the actress who plays Juliette/Eve. It also doesn’t help that Eve works for the mysterious, government organization Hadrian’s Wall.

It’s well established that the Black Claw, also known as Schwarzkralle, plan to reshape the world into a place where wesen don’t have to hide their true selves. I had forgotten the Nazi party, according to Grimm lore, wanted to do the same thing in the Thirties and Forties, so it tracks that the Black Claw would borrow more than a thing or two from their predecessors, but we don’t know much about Hadrian’s Wall besides that they’re part of the government and they oppose the Black Claw. This powerful organization remade Juliette into Eve and has copious amounts of funds in order to turn Trubel into a secret agent Grimm.

Grimm continues to hold back pertinent information but it’s only aired seven or eight episodes, so it’ll be a while before we some real resolution. Until then, we’re left with Nick and Hank solving a crime and this is where “A Reptile Dysfunction” comes into play. I liked Nick and Hank going back to work, but the wesen they pursued were either unintelligent, juvenile, or both. When the gang raids the groups’ hideout, the two culprits point their fingers at each other and said he did it. I half expected Nick to say don’t make me turn this car around.

Overall “A Reptile Dysfunction” provided some much needed clarity, for the Black Claw and Eve’s identity in particular, but the weekly murder mystery held it back from being a great episode. Even so Grimm’s trending upward.