Kyle’s Thoughts

Grimm had a lot of plot points that came out of hibernation this week. As a result, “Map of the Seven Knights” simultaneously came out of left field and felt familiar. The title suggests that a map’s involved but we hadn’t seen a new key (for the illusive map where something awesome is buried, which happened to be a major driving force in season two or three) for at least a season and a half, if not longer. The episode started with strange new texts and as soon as they opened one of the books, Grimm intended to reinvent Nick’s trailer—and they did by the end of the episode. Everything worked out too well for Team Grimm to be completely believable.

Somehow the new set of wesen, reminiscent of Anubis and his jackal head, factor into the Black Claw, and that’s a good thing. I didn’t like the idea of a one-off wesen, and these guys will show up again. But why haven’t we heard from them or hear about them before? The convenience of this character placement less than a week from the Gods of Egypt release smells of exploitation.

Despite this probable marketing tie-in, “Map of the Seven Knights” worked for the most part. Any time you can center a story on the criminally underused Monroe is a good thing. Silas Weir Mitchell got to show off some range this week, when the jackal wesen killed his uncle. I also liked how the gang finally got to visit Nick’s new home, or fome, as Adalind calls it: half home, half fortress. Nick opened up to Monroe, admitting that he doesn’t know how he feels about Adalind. This is great development. Juliette’s ghost should haunt Nick, for at least a while longer, and the show shouldn’t rush into hooking up Adalind and Nick. Kudos.

The gang eventually tracks down the box of Grimm lore and weapons, and while I could’ve done without reconstituting Nick’s trailer, I did like the wrinkle of a ledger with all the Grimms’ names written in it. This brought up a lot of questions. Who made this list? Why did they make it? And it also tied into the Black Claw which is usually a good thing.

I wasn’t sold on the group finding the new keys. Again, we haven’t met a new one of these things for over a season—Grimm had all but abandoned this story thread—and Team Grimm found three keys in one blow. I always thought Grimm should return to the map story, but it also struck me as a series ending mystery; they’d find the treasure and take a season to wrap up the series. Of course what happens after this story ends is conjecture on my part. Just because Nick and the gang only have two more keys to go doesn’t mean that we’ll see a resolution to this story or that the show will end any time soon. Actually, this season has been a pretty solid one for Grimm (the odd Juliette-Eve story aside), and “Map of the Seven Knights” was a strong episode.

Thanks for reading.