Hank Griffin: Friendly Neighborhood Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen

[Actionmage]

Russell Hornsby plays Nick's partner on the force, Hank. A thrice-married-and-divorced ladies man, he has fallen under the sway of Adalind Schade once and is close friends to a Coyotl family.

[Actionmage]

The Husband and I found S1 dvds on sale and have been "group" watching. One of the ones we saw last night was Three Coins In A Fuchsbau.  I thought the shift from pre and post-coin Hank to Coin!Hank was great. Russell was able to signal to the audience, as well as Nick, that something was off.

Actually, I hope that Season Four will let Nick and Hank do the cop thing, but with crimes that stem from logical wesen interactions. S1 gave us crimes that made sense because of how certain wesen  perceive other wesen/expect them to act.  The Gyres(sp?) from Organ Grinder shook Hank and the other cops because it was about organ theft and seemingly using them to eat/make other gross items. Hank was great in his not knowing, but know that he knows, Hank is an even better partner for Nick and is still willing to protect his city, regardless the threat.

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

The character of Hank bugs me somewhat. Forgive me for repeating what I wrote about him on TWOP, but his role of the show is very much like that of a compliant girlfriend. Not a real-life girlfriend, that is, but a character girlfriend who invariably sacrifices her own wishes and welfare and defers to the wishes of the leading man, Nick. Whatever Nick wants to do, Hank is okay with it. "Kill this badguy even though we're cops? Okay. Hide that dead body even though we're cops? Sure. Let this captive go even though we know he/she is guilty? I'm on-board. You didn't warn me Adalind was a witch beforehand, and waited months to tell me afterwards that she made me sick? I guess it was for the best. Let me go half-way out of my mind before finally confirming that I wasn't crazy? Oh, you!" Every person is the protagonist of his/her own story, and yet Hank goes through life as if he is aware that he is a sidekick, and is okay with that role. I'd prefer that he was a more fully realized character in his own right. 

[Actionmage]

I am not reading Hank the way you seem to be.  I read Hank, from Season 2 to the end of Season 3, as being Nick's Jiminy Cricket. Hank is shown having misgivings when Nick is skating between Grimm and cop- as we saw in the run of T. Rubel episodes. Hank and Nick have been partners long enough that Hank and Juliette joke about Nick between themselves, as friends do.

 

Hank Griffin has been the lone dissenter of the group consistently when it comes to Wu as a direct result of his experiences at the end of Season 1, up to the reveal of his best friend and goddaughter in S2Episode 3 (Bad Moon Rising). Hank does not just acquiesce to Nick. When it appeared to Hank that Nick was beating a high school kid to death, Hank was the one to snap Nick back to awareness with a very sharp, " Nick! What are you doing?!"  Regardless of the need at the moment, the world at large saw a cop whaling on a teen for nothing more than running from the cops. Hank helps Nick stay connected to society at large.

 

The love spell and the breaking of it happened in Season 1-- would you tell someone that their girlfriend just tried to murder them on orders from their boss? It was supposedly awkward enough for Monroe and Rosalee to explain and exit.  Also, Nick had less than a year of Grimm experience at that time. He tried to explain things to Juliette and she wanted Nick to find psychiatric help! What could Nick have said that would have been more helpful? Nick, with a major assist from Rosalee, helped to save Hank's life. The 'you didn't tell me' is moot simply because Nick did. When he felt Hank needed to hear it and when Hank could wrap his mind around it better. That happened in the field, trying to save Carly (Hank's goddaughter).  Hank has never seemed blasé about what's happened.

 

Hank uses his sarcasm to deal with the growing inanity that wesen bring into his life. He has made good friends with a few. Hank hears what his partner has in mind, when it comes to potentially messy legalities. When he disagrees, he does so. When Hank cannot think of a better way to handle a situation, he defers to Nick. Hank trusts Nick to not leave him hanging in a work situation. The same works with Nick. Hank was the one to settle Nick when Teresa was unofficially undercover to stop the thieves led by the worm/eel  wesen,. Plus, he awesomely drove the car through the doorway to ensure they could help T.

 

Yes, I wish they'd let us know more about Hank-I've written  about how I want to know more about the four former Mrs. Griffins. Yes, he and Monroe suffered less screentime lately, which sucks. Yes, I wish the Kempfers would reappear and show us a smidge more about coyotls. I want Hank and Zuri, the physical therapist, to work out and be a couple, or at least have her brother show up once in a while (like he and Hank are going to watch a Trailblazers game, for instance.) Does Hank have siblings and living parents and grandparents? There are tons of things I could ask, so I feel you on the "more fully realized character" thing.  I understand  wanting Hank to do more.

 

It's just that, to me, after three seasons, Hank is still the furthest from a character that "sacrifices their wishes and welfare".He is happy with "just" a mugging. Hank is okay with not dealing with Grimm business where he doesn't have to.  I get a feeling that Hank has a life away from Nick and Nick's Grimming. 

[Actionmage]

There could be interesting beats for Hank coming up.

 

A) He, like the rest of us, are tired of the feet-dragging and tells Wu the truth about wesen and Nick. After some anger at everyone, he and Hank actually are a tight unit at crime scenes where wesen activity of whatever kind has gone down. Wu helps settle civilians and curious cops, stuff like that. Since Wu is a uniformed cop, he can get some stuff that plainclothes cops can't--cop groupies, some press, the average citizen that wants to help but is shy around Nick and Hank.

 

B) Wu figures out on his own and Hank gets harder hit because he's human and knew and didn't tell. Hank can acknowledge his reasons aren't the strongest, but he (Hank) never had a situation like this come up (telling someone else they saw real "monsters") and really thought he was protecting Drew. It's icier at crime scenes for a while, but Wu respects Nick and Hank's work, realizes the balancing act they have to live with, and starts to thaw.

 

C)Wu catches a call, needs back-up and sees Nick and Hank do their thing taking down a really bad wesen ( maybe a troll or other nasty customer), and they have to explain to him because time has officially run out.  Wu is still more angry at Hank ( see B).

 

It could be fun on a meta-level, as both actors were up for Hank. Still, Wu is pretty awesome, so maybe he won't stay angry at Hank, at least not longer than Nick?

[Actionmage]

Could Hank be the one who took the shot? We were kept looking at Monroe, Rosalee, Nick and Juliette. Juliette just tossed the gun away, but we've been conditioned to understand cops have back-up guns, right?

 

I have enjoyed Hank this season. He has been a wonderful friend and partner, as well as a  voice for, literally, the common man.  Mr. Hornsby is just knocking Hank's growth and inner strength out of the park, but he was excellent in  "Mishipeshu". Too bad  that there haven't been more scripts for him to stretch in.

 

I would have enjoyed Hank meeting Henrietta; I don't think she'd have to use her hexen powers.

[OtterMommy]

One good thing that came out of this season finale is I think they have finally given Hank a role in this group.

 

We have Nick, the Grimm; Monroe, the BF/guy from the other side; the Wukipedia; Rosalee, the knower of things and doctor; and Renard as the sort of "high power." But what about Hank?  I mean, he started out as the partner in the dark for Nick and then he found out and then he was just sort of "there."  I really thought he might be one of the casualties this season, simply because they didn't have a use for him...until they did.

 

Wu may have all the facts, but Hank is the one who puts two and two together.  It seemed pretty clear that Hank knew that Juliette was the one who lured Kelly back to Portland and that Kenneth would make a good Jack the RIpper, yet in both cases (more the former, simply because we saw more to the scene), he waited until the main person (Nick or Renard) came to the realization and then he sort of helped them put that in action.

 

I get the impression that Hank was a detective for a while before Nick came along and I think he probably was his mentor at some point, but then that got pushed aside.  I think/hope the writers can carve more of a niche for him as the guy who sees the big picture and puts the facts together.  I like Hank as a character and Russell Hornsby as an actor and I'd like to see better use of him.

[ShadowFacts]

 

I get the impression that Hank was a detective for a while before Nick came along and I think he probably was his mentor at some point, but then that got pushed aside.  I think/hope the writers can carve more of a niche for him as the guy who sees the big picture and puts the facts together.  I like Hank as a character and Russell Hornsby as an actor and I'd like to see better use of him.

 

I agree with all you said, OtterMommy, especially this.  Hank probably does have more police experience and life experience (outside of the Grimmverse) and he has that quiet dependability.  I think he is maybe a little too deferential to Nick but I guess that can be explained by him being kerhrseite.  I really like the character and actor, especially after the Mishipeshu episode, where he really came across well in scenes that could have been cringeworthy if done by a lesser actor.

[Goakes]

I've had a theory on Hank for the last couple of seasons and his mysterious history kind of feeds in. Look at his name--Hank Griffin. A Griffin is a mythological beast also used by the brothers Grimm in their story "The Griffin". Within that story, one of the main characters name is Hans--which translates to Hank (really).

See where I'm going here. I think Hank is Wesen and for some reason doesn't know it; or he is such a bad-ass Griffin that he is able to hide it from everyone.

If that's not the eventual storyline, it's a rediculous coincidence.

[formerlyfreedom]

I think Hank is Wesen and for some reason doesn't know it;

 

That would actually be brilliant - if they could have some traumatic event or other 'trip' it.

[ShadowFacts]

That would actually be brilliant - if they could have some traumatic event or other 'trip' it.

 

I couldn't buy that he knew it and was hiding it, because of the trauma they showed him going through when he thought he was going crazy and before he found out the truth about Nick and wesen.  Him not knowing it and having some sort of admixture of human and wesenality who doesn't 'blossom' until later in life, could be interesting.  He did have a good friend from high school who was wesen and was part of that group that was going to rape their own niece, right?  Ewww, that was awful. 

[OtterMommy]

Him not knowing it and having some sort of admixture of human and wesenality who doesn't 'blossom' until later in life, could be interesting.  

 

There is actually a precedent for this one the show...the Krampus guy had no knowledge that he ever woged.

 

Could be interesting...and a nice change from "When Adalind Raped Nick..."

[neuromom]

In my eyes, Nick is no longer the badass Grimm he used to be. I like Nick. I love David. But, if TPTB decide that a "reboot of the reboot " is on order, I'm ALL for Hank taking over the reigns as the badass hero!