Emily Rios

Grimm is back to its usual breakdown of serial and standalone this week, as Nick and Hank investigate their case of the week while Adalind gets up to some mischief abroad and Rosalee and Monroe take their turn filling the romantic subplot quota. The procedural scenes benefit from some notable guest stars, including genre and TV-fan favorites Emily Rios (Breaking Bad, The Bridge) and Kirk Acevedo (Fringe, The Walking Dead), and it’s surprising how refreshing it is to see Nick and Hank work a case that at least initially appears odd, rather than specifically Wesen-related. The Wesen of the week, manticores and a steinadler, are interesting and creative and in a rarity, writer Rob Wright and director Rashaad Ernesto Green manage to surprise viewers with the solution to the case. Grimm only occasionally manages to do this, often revealing Wesen perpetrators early on so the audience can spend time with them as they elude capture, and it’s nice to have a mystery element added in here.

This week’s episode is a crucial one- after “Take the Ride, Pay the Toll” wrapped up the season-long mystery last week, we’re left with only two episodes this season. That’s too much time if the PtB are only going wrap up the hanging threads from the Tate arc and potentially not enough time for them to start something new. For the show to succeed over multiple seasons, though, a new border-spanning case is necessary and we get just that this week with the abduction and rape of Eva in Juarez by a mysterious Texas-plated car. This case feels like a bit more of a stretch for calling in our favorite international crime-fighting team than the half-bodies posed on the literal border, but given our previous relationships with the characters, it’ll work.