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“Synchronicity,” Grimm’s latest episode, might just be one the season’s strongest efforts in developing the ongoing mythology and story arcs of the show. There isn’t a Wesen of the week stirring up trouble in Portland—unless Adalind counts. Instead, we get a return visit from Kelly, Nick’s mom, with said Hexenbiest and her demon baby in tow.
Meanwhile, a lot of personal stuff is going on with Nick. He finds out things about his Grimm powers he never knew, we get a flashback into his childhood, and he almost asks a pretty big question. I’ve got to say, as much as I love the episodic nature of the Grimm as a procedural, it’s fantastic to see the show explore the tapestry it’s been weaving for itself these past three seasons.
The episode opens with Nick talking to Hank at the precinct; he’s worried about being Monroe’s best man. In one of the biggest ‘Why didn’t you ask that question in the first season?’ questions on this show, Hank suggests Nick find out what Wesen see when he sees them. I love Nick, but seriously? You should have found this out ages ago.
Nick heads over to Monrosalee’s place, where they’re doing some menu planning for their wedding—Rosalee is skeptical of choosing eggplant casserole as their vegetarian option. Monroe and Rosalee both assume he’s there for a case, which, given how so much of his visits are, makes sense. Unfortunately, he’s there to shoot down Monroe’s best man offer. When Nick explains he’s scared that he’ll hurt someone, his Wesen buddies finally explain what they see when he sees them. His eyes go black and their true Wesen nature is reflected back at them. The remedy? Sunglasses. David Giuntoli does a great job capturing Nick’s sincerity and bewilderment here. It’s a great character moment. Now if he could only start digging into those zombie powers he had earlier this season that we haven’t seen in a while. Or explain what the hell eggplant casserole actually is.
The bulk of the action this week takes place in Austria. Adalind and Meisner are close to meeting up with the mystery person who will shepherd them to safety. Meisner wanders around the woods and is eyed by some sketchy Europeans and a dude who clearly plays in a Milli Vanilli tribute band. Meisner dispatches Rob (or Fab), the sketchy Europeans get Adalind. And then a mysterious figure in black gets them. You guessed it. It’s Mama Burkhardt!
Kelly, Adalind, and Meisner trek in the snow to their getaway plane, where the latter two separate. Not going to lie, my shipper heart ached a little for them. I’m hoping we see them together again at some point in the future. Of course, as soon as the ladies depart, Meisner calls Renard and fills him in about the goings on—including poor dead Sebastien. Let’s pour another one out for him, shall we?
On the plane, Kelly and Adalind begin to bond. Of course, neither knows who the other really is, which probably makes it easier than being saved by the woman who killed your mother or saving the woman who nearly killed both your sister and your son’s girlfriend. Of course, they have being mothers in common, even if Kelly shies away from identifying herself as such. The women continue to bond and Kelly explains how interested the Royals are in Adalind’s little purple eyed menace. She puts on her mothering hood and tries to entertain the baby, an effort which causes it use its powers and mess with the flight. Kelly was teasing the baby with a locket, which the child telekinetically opens to reveal a picture of little Nicky.
After a flashback sequence that I’ll get into in a little bit, Kelly and Adalind make it to Oregon, where they steal some guy’s car and make a getaway. Adalind assumes they’re in Oregon because of Renard, but Kelly hasn’t a clue who Renard is. The unlikely pair make it to Portland in a downpour—which Adalind whines about—before making it to Nick’s doorstep, interrupting a very important dinner. (I’ll get to that in a bit). Things get very awkward, very quickly. These four characters have a lot of messed up history and both the writers and actors play the hell out of it.
Words are spoken, information is shared, and Grimmsters are thoroughly entertained. The whole scene is both incredibly entertaining and provides a nice little info dump on the show’s mythology. My favorite bit of banter is Kelly saying she didn’t really kill Adalind’s mom. She impaled herself. Kelly Burkhardt is both hilarious and a bad ass; I love it. The scenes between Adalind and Juliette are also very good. One minute Juliette is calling her a bitch and the next she’s consoling her baby. When Juliette leaves her to catch up with the Burkhardts, Adalind escapes with her baby. There’s a nice reminder that it’s a creepy demon baby though, what with the ‘I’m a baby, now I’m a pillow’ trick it pulls on Juliette.
While Kelly and Adalind play a new variation of the Odd Couple, we get Nick and Juliette pulling at a plot thread that dates back to the first season: the engagement ring. While I love the two of them together, the fact Monrosalee are engaged and planning a wedding makes me think it’ll be a while before the plot fully develops for them. Nonetheless, both characters are at the point where it could be a reality. They’re both well aware, however, that it would take away from their friends’ upcoming nuptials; it doesn’t stop Nick from putting on his best puppy dog face to push the issue. It also doesn’t stop Juliette from looking at wedding dresses while Rosalee tries on hers.
There’s a lot of back and forth about Rosalee’s dress. Just for the record, it’s not a good look, but who am I to judge a Fuchsbau for her grandmother’s ugly wedding dress? Later that evening, Nick and Juliette are about to sit down to a nice plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine—but not without some scheming on Nick’s part. Despite it being clear to both Juliette as a character and myself as a viewer, he plans on popping the question. Of course, we both know that doesn’t happen because this is where our two big plot threads intertwine. Mama Grimm and Mama Hexenbiest mean no proposal this week!
Remember that locket? The picture and Adalind’s questions about Kelly having kids triggered a flashback sequence during their flight. It’s an interesting glimpse into an innocent pre-Grimm Nick and the sacrifice his mom made. Nicky’s not allowed to bring everything and he doesn’t know his destination. Seeing young Kelly and Marie is totally trippy. Although this scene is very brief, it gives me hope for further flashbacks to flesh out more of our hero’s story and that of those around him.
As the episode creeps towards its conclusion, you get some great scenes of Nick and Kelly bonding over the craziness of his life in Portland. They’re heading towards Renard’s place—where Adalind has just arrived. As Nick heads to Renard’s apartment solo, Adalind introduces the nameless demon baby to her father. It’s not quite a cliffhanger, but the episode fades to black here. I think the folks at Grimm only like to taunt us fans when there’s more than a week’s weight. You know, salt the wounds.
Did I mention Viktor is sending more people to hunt Adalind and the baby down? That happened and will continue to happen next week. Things are really amping up and I couldn’t be more excited. This week’s episode injected a little soap opera into the usual procedural drama and genre shenanigans, and I loved it. “Synchronicity” is easily the best myth driven episode of the season so far. Now that Adalind is back on the scene, I’m curious how she will integrate into the larger group of characters. Also, how will it change Renard’s relationship to everybody else? I’ll be waiting excitedly to find out!
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