S06.E10: Blood Magic

[formerlyfreedom]

After a series of brutal and deadly attacks, Nick and Hank find an unlikely lead in a local nursing home. Meanwhile, Eve goes to Adalind to get answers that only a Hexenbiest can provide. Elsewhere, Capt. Renard confronts Nick about the mysterious symbols and tries to strike a deal.

 

[Morrigan2575]

Damnit show. You made me cry

[Straycat80]

Well, that was sad. Also sad that they didn't get any further with what's suppose to happen with the symbols and Diana, etc...unless Juliette/Eve going through the mirror has something to do with that. I hope they don't throw everything at us on the very last episode. 

[merylinkid]

Definitely Season 1 ep where we learned about how the Wesen manage things to keep their secret.   But why wasn't that little old lady in the Wesen Old Folks Home?   While Nick tries to figure out how to do his job and be a Grimm.   I liked how he got cooperation by saying he didn't want an innocent man to be convicted.   

Renard needs to just file for custody of his daughter instead of yelling at Nick.  

[djinn]

Sad, sad episode. But also very good Wesen of the week story.

Where has Juliette gone to? On the other side of the mirror? How is it connected to the symbols?

[tpel]

That was oddly satisfying. It presented us with something I hadn't thought of as a problem before: wesen dementia causing unintended woging, and worse. That totally makes sense; people with dementia loose inhibitions and become confused and sometimes aggressive, compound that with being wesen and you've got serious trouble. Then, just as I was thinking, "Hey, wait a minute, wouldn't that be noticed and blow the wesen's cover", the show gave a reasonable solution -- and one that we plausibly might not have heard about heretofore. I liked it that the mercy-killing-bug-doctor was a good guy, and that Nick flat-out let him do his thing. It was kind of cool that the bug-guy was (presumably) a gerontologist, and did try other methods of stabilizing his patients before taking that final step.

[thuganomics85]

That ended up being more interested then I expected.  I figured both of the cases would be connected somehow, but the idea that the Wesen community as a particular Wesen whose sole purpose is to give peaceful deaths to Wesen inflicted by dementia is a sad, but understandable idea, because I have to imagine that Wesens with dementia could easily woge out, cause havoc, and expose them to humans very easily.  I also liked how Monroe and Rosalee were actually concern about telling Nick and Hank, because they didn't think it would be right for them to arrest the guy.  At least Nick ended up agreeing at the end.

Hopefully they got him off, but I do feel bad for the orderly who will probably still be known as the guy who attacked an old dementia patient in the orderly community (assuming there is one.) 

I kind of laughed over how ineffective Renard was when he confronted Nick.  Dude, the chances of you being able to just boss him around are long gone, buddy.

All this talk amongst Rosalee and Monroe about their children and danger is really getting me worried.  I hope it is simply just a case of the show preparing them to leave Portland series finale time, instead something much, much worse.  Don't do it, show!

Of course, Eve/Juliette goes through the mirror alone.  As Adalind pretty much said, this is her version of "redemption", no matter how dangerous it is.  And I'm sure Nick is going to go right after her, making her own lone wolf ideals moot.

[Enero]

I really liked this episode. It was sad but interesting. It felt like old school Grimm. 

The Juliette/Eve story is straight up boring. I do not care what's stalking her through the mirrors. 

 Also, I know Adalind has her kids to think about so she can't just go running head first into this mirror mystery but would she really be so passive about this considering Diana's connection to what's happening? I would think not. But the show is obviously presenting it as if she would be. 

Overall, good episode.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Enero

[Darklazr]

What an excellent and moving episode with the wesen's and dementia.  Grimm really should have stayed with the WoW format!

JulietteEve and Diana can hop into the mirror and not come back!

Aweee.  My sexy pants Renard is still peeved at Nick.  Boo!

Edited March 11, 2017 by Darklazr

[Ottis]

Wow, well done, show. How sad and also sweet. One of my favorite episodes, because it has a counterpart in the real world. 

Then there was Eve. Sigh. Can she stay in the mirrror?

[catrox14]

Oh my gosh. This was really good. I cried so much. My mother suffered dementia at the end of her life. This was almost too much for me to watch.

Where has THIS Grimm been for two seasons?

[Frozendiva]

I agree with it being a sad episode.  And well done. The Wesen and dementia also parallels doctor assisted suicide - which applies to many, many painful diseases and health conditions. Felt badly for the orderly/nursing assistant. The Wesen doctor seemed highly compassionate.

No idea why putting brown grocery bags over a mirror will er, work. I'd like to shake a book and have it come up with new stuff! Don't really care that Juliette/Eve has activated the demonic Stargate and gone into the wormhole, er, mirrorhole, whatever it is.

Renard, you really do have to stick your fingers into all the pies. He must be really feeling left out.

[LittleIggy]

Every time I see that dismal loft, I want to scream. I know the reason Nick and Adalind are there is because of that effing tunnel, but can't they have Adalind get it painted and furnished so it doesn't look like a halfway house?

[Dobian]

Very touching and a nice job of exploring another aspect of Wesen life.  This is what they should have been doing all along, but it's good to see them finally getting back to it at the end of the series.  I assume the final three episodes will be entirely devoted to the main plot, so I guess this was our final WoW episode.  If so, it was a good one to end with.

So the focus now is all on those symbols and Juliette/Eve.  Are they even going to address Black Claw anymore?  They kind of made a big deal out of this gigantic conspiracy to make Renard mayor of Portland and bring the Wesen Third Reich to the Northwest, and now... well he's the police captain again and Black Claw, what Black Claw?  It seems like the show has gotten amnesia about that, lol, which isn't new.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Dobian

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The scenes with the wife were so sad and sweet. Dementia is hard enough to deal with for humans, but imagine how much worse it must be for wesen who fear that their family members may hurt someone and expose their entire community. I like the Grimm episodes where we learn about wesen life (not just track down whichever wesen killed someone). I was hoping at the end of the episode that Monroe would explain to Nick what kind of wesen the old man was and why he was killing people (as in, was that normal behavior for that type of wesen or was he just freaking out because he was confused?).

Ugh, Eve. When she opened the first spell book and brushed out some dried up seeds I was sure that was going to have some sort of negative effect. Even though it didn't, those were probably in there for a reason so leave them there!

[Suzysite]

Quote

brushed out some dried up seeds

Were they seeds?  I thought they were dead bugs - like the kind that crawl into old books...silverfish, maybe?

[ShadowFacts]

Why oh why did they deviate from doing stories like this?  I even liked Nick again.  All the atmospherics of old were there, we got to look at Monroe and Rosalee's wonderful house (too bad it was with Juliette in it), there was minimal Adalind and Diana is best kept behind closed doors.  This episode makes me want to go watch all the early ones again. 

[Latverian Diplomat]

Maybe it was just to add drama, but I was a little surprised the Assassin Bug Wesen freaked out when meeting a Grimm.

it's been previously established that some Wesen don't have a conflict with Grimms. Bauerschwein for example. These Assassin Bug Wesen seem peaceful and perform a useful service that reduces the danger to humans, I would think Grimms would be cool with that. Maybe they just didn't know and had some bad encounters in the past?

Anyway, Nick needs a better publicist to get his "friendly neighborhood Grimm" message out there more. :-)

[Darklazr]

If the show can track cell phones, why did Bonaparte need Adalind's help in finding Nick's home?

If Renard wants to find the tunnels, why not track Adalind's cell phone and realize it's Nick's home?  Renard knows Nick was dead during the fight at the frome and he can't put two and two together to find the tunnels?

If Adalind is the love of Renard's life during his campaign appearance on TV, why isn't anyone at the station making the observation that she IS the woman on the hospital surveillance camera when Marie died?  We should see the officers suspicious and gossiping about the Captain and his nefarious activities, especially the guy that was trying to find Kelly and ended up being killed by Kenneth.

Why hasn't anyone at the station pointed out that they saw their Captain carrying a baby through the precinct three years ago and now she's an 8 year old?

Gossip IS gossip.  So, why is the show dismissing any of the fallout or FBI investigation into the 9th precinct deaths, dead police officers in the hallway and garage?

I would think there would have been multiple deaths due to wesen dementia's in Portland.

Edited March 12, 2017 by Darklazr

[Dobian]

10 hours ago, Frozendiva said:

No idea why putting brown grocery bags over a mirror will er, work. I'd like to shake a book and have it come up with new stuff! Don't really care that Juliette/Eve has activated the demonic Stargate and gone into the wormhole, er, mirrorhole, whatever it is.

I was waiting for Bad CGI Demon Head to start talking in muffled tones behind the brown paper, "Hey, who's out there?  Is that you, Eve?  Somebody say something!"

[Darklazr]

11 hours ago, Dobian said:

Very touching and a nice job of exploring another aspect of Wesen life.  This is what they should have been doing all along, but it's good to see them finally getting back to it at the end of the series.  I assume the final three episodes will be entirely devoted to the main plot,k so I guess this was our final WoW episode.  If so, it was a good one to end with.

So the focus now is all on those symbols and Juliette/Eve.  Are they even going to address Black Claw anymore?  They kind of made a big deal out of this gigantic conspiracy to make Renard mayor of Portland and bring the Wesen Third Reich to the Northwest, and now... well he's the police captain again and Black Claw, what Black Claw?  It seems like the show has gotten amnesia about that, lol, which isn't new.

A wesen uprising should have taken place quietly in the background over the entire length of the show.

[ShadowFacts]

35 minutes ago, Darklazr said:

A wesen uprising should have taken place quietly in the background over the entire length of the show.

Yes, that would have made sense and been a good overarching story.  Plus, last season's big deal was supposed to be the worldwide Black Claw uprising that we saw video clips of, and that just went splat when Black Claw and Hadrian's Wall x'ed each other out in Portland?  That should have been continued instead of the dead man's grip and Crusader stick and symbols. 

[CCTC]

12 hours ago, Darklazr said:

Grimm really should have stayed with the WoW format!

I remember the first few seasons, I thought the weakest episodes were at the end of the season when they moved from the WoW to focus on the season-long arc.  I thought the last couple of seasons were weaker in general, because of more emphasis on the big over-arching story.  This year is better than it has been in awhile, because it plays more to the strengths of the show, the mixing and sometimes clashing of the human and wessen cultures vs. things like royal plots, soapy pregnancy story lines, and the quest to rule Portland.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Are they even going to address Black Claw anymore?

I'm guessing no. They seem to have dispensed with it, along with the Royals and the Resistance.

While this was an admittedly touching episode, it still bugs me how the rules of woging have been blurred over the years. At first it was only Grimms who could see it, then other people under extreme and rare circumstances (Monroe specified how hard it was to do a "full-on" woge that others could see), and now it's like anyone can see a woge so what's the point of the Grimm? You wouldn't expect a geriatric with dementia to have the strength and willpower to do a "full-on" woge involuntarily if it's really hard to do.

As for this dumb mirror thing - what makes Eve so sure it's a portal you can walk through? I mean, obviously she was right but if I saw a demon staring at me through a mirror I wouldn't automatically assume he was physically on the other side of it in some kind of mirror dimension. I'd be more inclined to think he had the power to spy on people by using mirrors.

[cuppasun]

7 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ugh, Eve. When she opened the first spell book and brushed out some dried up seeds I was sure that was going to have some sort of negative effect. Even though it didn't, those were probably in there for a reason so leave them there!

6 hours ago, Suzysite said:

Were they seeds?  I thought they were dead bugs - like the kind that crawl into old books...silverfish, maybe?

A couple days ago I was bitten by a beetle that looked a lot like those dried-up husks (it had gotten into the sleeve of my shirt, ew ew ew), so I thought they were bugs too, and had a full physical shudder/screechy yelp reaction to seeing them : )  Hmmm...suppose I should hope it wasn't a magical beetle since it actually drew blood!

This ep seriously choked me up. My mother has Alzheimers and often doesn't know who I am when I call. Her father had it too, and his deterioration took years and was horrible (including the day he looked at my grandmother and said "where's my wife?"...that moment really got me from this ep and was so accurately done). My grandmother had non-Alzheimers dementia at the end of her life. The possibility of this happening to me scares me more than most other things. I found myself wishing there was a compassionate, gentle, painless option like the episode's for us ordinary humans... I particularly liked the fact that Rosalee and Monroe have discussed this and made a sort of Wesen advanced directive plan with each other; so sensible and loving. Really, really well done.

[Darklazr]

6 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

Yes, that would have made sense and been a good overarching story.  Plus, last season's big deal was supposed to be the worldwide Black Claw uprising that we saw video clips of, and that just went splat when Black Claw and Hadrian's Wall x'ed each other out in Portland?  That should have been continued instead of the dead man's grip and Crusader stick and symbols. 

We enter the final season of Grimm after ten years and Nick has acquired the last key, BC has made inroads all over the world, the Resistance against the seven Royal families have their own internal conflicts, and HW is trying to contain BC.  What if the final and last key resets the world back to pre-wesen uprisings or unleashes a full out war between humans and wesens?

[Blue Plastic]

19 hours ago, Straycat80 said:

Well, that was sad. Also sad that they didn't get any further with what's suppose to happen with the symbols and Diana, etc...unless Juliette/Eve going through the mirror has something to do with that. I hope they don't throw everything at us on the very last episode. 

It's looking to me like that is what they are going to do - wait until the last episode and then speed through all the plot points they've been hinting at but putting off.

16 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Every time I see that dismal loft, I want to scream. I know the reason Nick and Adalind are there is because of that effing tunnel, but can't they have Adalind get it painted and furnished so it doesn't look like a halfway house?

I saw Adalind sitting at what seemed to be the dining table and thought it looked like she was sitting at an interrogation table down at the police station or something.  It's hard to believe she wouldn't have wanted to put some feminine touches around here and there at least.

Well, this was a very sad and poignant episode.  Where have THESE writers been the last few seasons?!  They have it in them to do good episodes, apparently.  Very sad and makes sense that it would be an issue the Wesen community would need to address, plus it can be extrapolated to real-life issues so it's not completely a make-believe, throwaway topic.  Totally makes sense that a Wesen like the Gotvatter Tod (spelling?) would be employed as a medical director (or other employee) at a nursing home.  It's too bad, though, that the Wesen in charge of Wesen euthanasia couldn't be less scary looking!  Just what you want your last moments to be like - some giant BUG sticking his probosces up your nose!

[jhlipton]

22 hours ago, tpel said:

It was kind of cool that the bug-guy was (presumably) a gerontologist, and did try other methods of stabilizing his patients before taking that final step.

That was very cool.

22 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Of course, Eve/Juliette goes through the mirror alone.  As Adalind pretty much said, this is her version of "redemption", no matter how dangerous it is. 

You misspelled "stupid"... I hope she gets stuck over there with all the other dead things.

13 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I was hoping at the end of the episode that Monroe would explain to Nick what kind of wesen the old man was and why he was killing people

Just before they headed to the Stanton house I think Rosalee said what type of wesen he was T__something__-D__something__.

[hincandenza]

21 hours ago, Dobian said:

So the focus now is all on those symbols and Juliette/Eve.  Are they even going to address Black Claw anymore?  They kind of made a big deal out of this gigantic conspiracy to make Renard mayor of Portland and bring the Wesen Third Reich to the Northwest, and now... well he's the police captain again and Black Claw, what Black Claw?  It seems like the show has gotten amnesia about that, lol, which isn't new.

Technically, it wasn't amnesia but rather the show has had severe dementia for the last couple of seasons, leading to muddled and frequently forgotten plotlines.  Fortunately, a kindly Geverten Tod named "Dr. Low Ratings" will be around in about three weeks to ensure a peaceful passing.

This week was good as a WoW- and for once, did not end in the Portland PD shooting someone and then just covering it up or ignoring it- but yeah the mytharc part was yaaaaaawn inducing.  There goes Juliette, blasting on through to the mirror world- and doesn't even leave a note for MonRosalee!- showing that at best she is useless and at worst is dangerous and (self) destructive.  Some redemption arc!

[tpel]

11 hours ago, iMonrey said:

While this was an admittedly touching episode, it still bugs me how the rules of woging have been blurred over the years. At first it was only Grimms who could see it, then other people under extreme and rare circumstances (Monroe specified how hard it was to do a "full-on" woge that others could see), and now it's like anyone can see a woge so what's the point of the Grimm? You wouldn't expect a geriatric with dementia to have the strength and willpower to do a "full-on" woge involuntarily if it's really hard to do.

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I never got the sense that it was especially difficult for wesen to do a full-on woge, just that it required a conscious decision to do so, as opposed to the stress-woges that happen involuntarily and are only visible to Grimms. There have been hints that full-on woges boost the strength of some wesen, so perhaps they are often done when attacking "prey" or defending oneself from a threat. Thus, the seniors with dementia may have been acting consciously, but confusedly.

One thing the writers have definitely been inconsistent about is the deleterious effects on humans of witnessing a full-on woge. Early on, we were told that this would result in insanity, and indeed, we saw Hank and Wu suffer pretty severe reactions, though they recovered. Maybe the writers had to downplay the insanity factor as the series progressed, to make it plausible that all the major characters got over their symptoms, and also to avoid having the psych wards bursting at the seams following Black Claws public antics. So, my interpretation is that the "full woge + human = permanent insanity" idea was somewhat exaggerated by wesen and grimms in order to discourage wesen from revealing themselves to humans (and thereby endangering the community). In fact, there are a wide range of human reactions, from temporary freak-outs (Mason the orderly, this week), to severe but recoverable psychosis (e.g., Wu), to permanent insanity. I take the fact that Mason coped with the experience relatively well to be explained by two factors: (1) He was able to fight off the "monster" himself, thus diminishing its nightmare potential. (2) It takes a rather resilient personality to do what he does for a living -- take care of dementia patients.

[merylinkid]

That is a ... brilliant explanation.   It actually goes quite well with the world building of "we have to keep this world secret or out come the pitchforks and torches."  So the story gets exaggerated, including "only Grimms can see you and Grimms want to take off your head" part.   

You clearly put more thought into it than the writers.

[Prevailing Wind]

...then there're the Hallowe'en bullies that Monroe scared shitless by woging at them. I would have loved to see/hear them try to explain to other people what they had just seen.

[tennisgurl]

If I just totally ignore all the boring Eve/myth arc stuff, this was a really good episode! Very sad, but interesting episode, and was actually about some GOOD world building, instead of just boring political bullshit. I really liked the bug guy, and the service he provided to the Wessen community. I was also glad that Nick decided to let him do his thing.

This show is really just so much better at MoTW stories, its too bad they always sucked at the politics/myth arc stuff, because it seems like they always tried to do those and failed miserably. So now we get closer to the end, and the best parts of the episode have nothing to do with getting close to the ending.

[ShadowFacts]

Recently there was the convenience store clerk who saw the baby-killing wesen woge, and felt bad that the guy might have been the victim of a nuclear accident.  Portland must be full of people with strange encounter stories they must largely keep to themselves.

[hincandenza]

4 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

Recently there was the convenience store clerk who saw the baby-killing wesen woge, and felt bad that the guy might have been the victim of a nuclear accident.  Portland must be full of people with strange encounter stories they must largely keep to themselves.

Portland has a popular slogan called "Keep Portland Weird".  That must be why the Wesen are so common there; they fit in!  And for those of you who've never been to Portland, yes, this is a picture of a man in a kilt and Darth Vader costume playing flaming bagpipes while riding a unicycle.

[neuromom]

I really like the doctor! Very kind and compassionate. And he didn't do his Wesen job until family or loved on specifically asked him to. Hopefully he can convince the district attorney about the cause of death so as to drop charges against Mason.

This episode did make me cry for the first time since,,,,,I don't remember when.

I wonder if Sasha is getting bored with being relegated to "desk duty " ?

[tpel]

14 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

...then there're the Hallowe'en bullies that Monroe scared shitless by woging at them. I would have loved to see/hear them try to explain to other people what they had just seen.

 

12 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

Recently there was the convenience store clerk who saw the baby-killing wesen woge, and felt bad that the guy might have been the victim of a nuclear accident.  Portland must be full of people with strange encounter stories they must largely keep to themselves.

Were the Halloween bullies kids? I thought Monroe said something about kids coping OK with seeing woges, since they have a more flexible line between fantasy and reality, or something like that. And adults seem to do OK when they believe there is a common-sense explanation for what they saw, like it was a mask or a mutation. I think the main problem for woge witnesses is supposed to be an extreme form of cognitive dissonance; they are unable to mentally process what they've seen. 

[Mrs. Stanwyck]

Quote

Portland must be full of people with strange encounter stories they must largely keep to themselves.

I thought it was funny when the ME said something along the lines "If there are giant death bugs, it makes sense that Portland would have one."

Quote

There goes Juliette, blasting on through to the mirror world- and doesn't even leave a note for MonRosalee!- showing that at best she is useless and at worst is dangerous and (self) destructive.  Some redemption arc!

I thought it was incredible selfish to open the mirror portal in M/R's home; she didn't understand how the portal worked - what if she opened it and it stayed open?  She should have taken a mirror somewhere where it was unlikely that the pregnant lady who has been so nice to her could get sucked in. 

[Darklazr]

4 hours ago, Mrs. Stanwyck said:

I thought it was funny when the ME said something along the lines "If there are giant death bugs, it makes sense that Portland would have one."

I thought it was incredible selfish to open the mirror portal in M/R's home; she didn't understand how the portal worked - what if she opened it and it stayed open?  She should have taken a mirror somewhere where it was unlikely that the pregnant lady who has been so nice to her could get sucked in. 

You mean the pregnant lady that has helped everyone with her potions and remedies?  Juliette is a selfish troll.

LOL.  The ME's comment about giant bugs was hilarious.  I really wish the show had kept an ME for all of Nick, Hank and Wu's cases!  

[Prairiemakeup]

I'm a lurker coming out to ask: What ever happened with those damn keys? Don't they still have a couple to find? 

[Eliza422]

3 hours ago, Prairiemakeup said:

I'm a lurker coming out to ask: What ever happened with those damn keys? Don't they still have a couple to find? 

If I'm not mistaken, the keys had a map, and that map pointed to where the magic stick was buried. They were able to find it without the rest of the keys.

 

so you can tick that box off.

[Darklazr]

7 hours ago, Prairiemakeup said:

I'm a lurker coming out to ask: What ever happened with those damn keys? Don't they still have a couple to find? 

We were told there were seven keys for the seven Grimms that found the "treasure" and hid it from the seven Royal families.  LOL.  Anyhoo, Nick had Marie and Roland's keys, and the Royal's had three keys per Renard.  In s5, during the BC storyline, there was a Grimm that died who owned a box of books, weapons and several keys that were eventually sold to Nick.  In the end, there were nine keys (yeah, I know!) and those keys along with Monroe's map was used to find the location in the Black Forest where the seven Grimms hid the treasure (a stick wrapped in a cloth).