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After last week’s episode, Grimm is still firing on all cylinders with “The Law of Sacrifice.” Like the previous episode, the show forgoes its typical procedural format and is all the better for it. That’s not to say I don’t miss the Wesen of the Week, but such shenanigans are in the back of my mind when the show is putting so much attention on the big picture.
The episode opens where we left off last week: Renard cradling his demon love child with Adalind. Sasha Roiz and Claire Coffee handle their characters’ banter very well, but the back-and-forth dies down when Nick arrives at the apartments. Adalind saying they should kill our hero kinda kills the buzz, you know? Back in Austria, Viktor is busy being an all around a-hole and calls up C. Thomas Howell—who’s doing a guest appearance as a Verrat plant in the FBI. As soon as he appears, I don’t like his character, named Weston, and the episode doesn’t do anything that endears me to him as the story progresses. The scene’s close up shot of an FBI jacket is meant to be super dramatic, which it is, but I already know the guy is bad news, regardless of his connections.
Nick and Renard meet in the halls of the captain’s fancy schmancy apartment building. The two have a rather sassy back and forth about Nick’s mom and Adalind, but things quickly calm down—for the most part. Weston’s already on the scene too; Kelly spies him while she’s being all stealthy and stuff. In Renard’s apartment, the sass continues, with Adalind joining in. She woges and Nick makes a crack about Renard finding her attractive that suggests he’s wearing his sassy pants extra tight this week. He quickly lays everything out there and leaves. Of course, his departure coincides with Weston informing a couple of Verrat enforcers of Adalind’s whereabouts.
We get a really fun scene with Kelly slamming his head into a car door. If I could, I’d watch it on repeat; I can, so I did. Nick gets all antsy about FBI agents being involved, but Kelly doesn’t have time for any of that. They rush back to the apartment building to stop the Verrat, while Adalind and Renard do some more bonding. “You slept with my brother,” he says; “And you slept with my mother,” she responds. It’s one of the soapiest exchanges I’ve ever heard on the show, and I love it. Fortunately, said brother and mother are both dead, so they can’t get in the way of Renard and Adalind. Of course, Meisner’s off somewhere in Austria waiting for an upgrade to season four regular, but that’s beside the point.
Apparently, Nick’s Grimm powers include dispelling the soap opera and getting to the matter at hand: Verrat. He shoots Renard a phone call and things get serious. (More serious? I mean, they’re already pretty serious.) Renard and Adalind proceed to haul ass, where they meet Nick in the hallway. There’s a nice reminder here that Nick still has zombie induced super-hearing, which allows him to predict the Verrat attack and use one of them as a human shield. The other guy runs away, but Kelly, being a total bad ass, kills him. Don’t mess with Mama Grimm.
Another of Nick’s amazing powers is the cock blocking emergency phone call. While everyone evacuates the apartment building, he gives Monrosalee a call, interrupting some late night nookie. As is often case, the Wesen couple are used as a point of entry just in case you missed last week. Silas Weir Mitchell and Bree Turner are especially funny as Monroe and Rosalee—their exasperation with Nick is real as is their shock about the circumstances in which he’s calling. Did I mention Nick’s mom is in on the call too? The moment when Kelly reinforces that she didn’t kill Adalind’s mom, because “for the record, she fell on a shard of glass.” Kelly is such a fantastic character. I didn’t know how much I missed her until they brought her back.
The unlikely fivesome arrives in front of Monroe and Rosalee’s place. The banter is the usual, but the littlest member of said fivesome, manages to pull off some more demon baby magic and claim Kelly’s locket for herself. Not gonna lie, purple eyed demon babies are adorable when they steal people’s stuff. Inside the house, things are just as awkward as one would imagine. Some really interesting one-(or-two)-on-one scenes follow: Kelly and Renard, Monrosalee and Renard, Kelly and Adalind, and Monrosalee and Adalind. As a fan, it’s rewarding to see characters interact in unexpected combinations.
Everybody orbits Nick, but they don’t necessarily connect with each other. I hope we get more of this leading towards the season finale. Kelly and Renard’s scenes are arguably the most important, because they lay the groundwork for the turn this story will be taking in its second half. Her painful honesty about the dangers for everyone and the baby hit harder than any weapon in the trailer. (Not really. That stuff looks like it would hurt.)
Back at his place, Weston is, understandably, hitting the booze. I love the scene, because you have Kelly and Nick popping up and being all Grimm and vaguely menacing, but Renard is the one who punches the guy in the face. Weston tries to throw some sass in their general direction, but he’s tied to a chair, which makes him less than threatening. Pretty soon, Weston is spilling his guts once Renard and his Grimm buddies explain how he’ll end up in prison and likely killed by a Royal agent if he doesn’t cooperate. Renard apparently wants to give up the baby, but the plan, at this point, is pretty sketchy. Nick and his mom break off with talk of meeting up with Hank.
Kelly’s reaction to Hank knowing Adalind is pretty funny, but Hank’s reaction to Adalind having a baby is downright hilarious. The relief he shows when they confirm the baby is Renard’s is almost an additional character in the scene. Kelly throws shade—or Schade—with another snarky quip about the brief paternity scare, “Popular, this Adalind.” Do you want Kelly to show up more often after this episode too? I’m not saying regular, but damn would a nice recurring one or twice a season thing be great.
At Monrosalee’s, the precious little demon baby is having another telekinetic freakout. I don’t envy Monroe here, because you know he’s going to be spending a lot of time getting his clocks back in order. Kelly suddenly appears and eases the baby’s tantrum. The next morning, after what I’m sure was a troubled night’s sleep for our heroes, sees Viktor’s arrival in Portland. Hank’s taking pictures and Weston and company are slinging German. While Hank plays paparazzo, Nick and Juliette research trucks. Why? It’s probably part of the vague and unexplained plan. We don’t get much of Juliette here.
The same goes for Wu, who pops up in the next scene at the precinct and introduces Viktor and his epically long name. Viktor threatens the lives of everyone Renard holds dear—typical mustache twirling stuff. Viktor leaves and Renard says something about making an arrest. At first, you think Weston or Viktor will get picked up, but that’s not the case. Instead, the cops rush Monrosalee’s place and, right in front of Adalind, arrest Kelly for the murder of her mother. My head’s still spinning here.
Things get even weirder from there. Renard tells Adalind that she needs to come down and make a statement, which, considering all the other stuff going on, seems pretty ludicrous. Clearly, everything is part of some bigger plan, but at this point, it’s just a confusing mess. Adalind is just as confused as me; she’s also super fast, because she makes it to the precinct in record time. Not only does she arrive quickly, she arrives with a now named demon baby.
Her name is Diana and Renard is about to hand sweet little demon Diana over to his evil cousin. Adalind has an intense exchange with Kelly about giving up Nick to save him. It doesn’t take long for Adalind to realize what’s really happening, but by the time she gets out of there, Renard has already handed over the baby. Claire Coffee’s performance here is phenomenal. She plays Adalind light years away from the one note Wesen from the episode’s pilot and the vindictive villainess that followed.
Of course, the episode isn’t over. Viktor and his people arrive at the airport after another creepy moment involving demon baby magic, only to be held up by a bunch of guys dressed all in black and speaking in German. At this point, I’ve watched enough Grimm to recognize Monroe’s voice, but Viktor doesn’t realize who’s playing him, and that’s all that matters. They take the baby and escape, leaving Viktor and his entourage at the airport. It isn’t until these last moments that the plan fully becomes realized: Adalind has to think Viktor took the baby and Viktor can’t have the baby.
The elaborate scheme is convoluted and makes the episode a little less than the one that precedes it, but it still works. In the end, Kelly is driving off in the truck Juliette picked up from her research with the baby in tow. Kelly promises to train Diana with her powers and part of me desperately craves the wacky spin-off that such a premise would generate. The rest of me is just happy that Kelly gets to play mom again, a role she clearly loved and had to give up due to her powers.
“Law” wraps things up, yet leaves them open. I can only anticipate what the rest of the season has left to show us. The next episode appears to return to the episodic procedural format with a twist: a new Grimm! Clearly there are some tricks left up the show’s sleeves and I’m excited to see how they play out. Until then, I’m going to rewatch this one on loop.
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