‘Grimm’ Midseason Finale Review: ‘Chupacabra’

I know, I know. I didn’t catch you up on last week’s Grimm and now you’re two weeks behind! Well, before I break down the midseason finale “Chupacabra” for you, I can bring you up to speed with some of the major things that happened during “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas.” First, Shaw, the Wesen who Trubel confronted after a plan to harm a powerless Nick was exposed, is a member of the Secundum Naturae Ordinem Wesen. That’s the organization that’s been harassing Monrosalee over their interspecies marriage. Second, Josh helped Trubel figure that out. Third, the two of them left in Marie’s old car to confront Josh’s problems in Philadelphia, leaving us yet again at one Grimm and missing Trubel, who has been a fixture of the season so far.  Fourth, it’s Christmas time and there are some holiday themed Wesen of the Week troubles that Nick and company handle pretty effectively thanks to the powers of fruit cake.

Now that we’re caught up, this brings us to “Chupacabra.” In the Dominican Republic, we are introduced to Diego, a young eager doctor returning home to his wife in Portland. We’re also briefly introduced to the mosquito that bites him and really gets the Wesen of the Week ball rolling. Diego arrives home and things seem… calm. However, we know that won’t last past the commercial break. Waking up in bed with his wife, Diego wanders outside in pain and proceeds to woge into a terrifying dog creature. Simultaneously, a bearded Portlander is walking his dog. As you can imagine, things don’t end well for the man or his pooch. This is evidenced by the fact Diego wakes up the next morning with blood all around his mouth looking like a small child in a cherry pie eating contest. He’s a mess.

While Diego is poorly adjusting—to say the least—to his return home, Monrosalee are packing up for their long awaited honeymoon. Meanwhile, Nick and Juliette are adjusting to Trubel’s departure with takeout and beer. The banter between Monroe and Rosalee about avoiding the ceaseless barrage of Wesen calamities and between Nick and Juliette about having enough food now that Trubel’s gone is why I love these couples. The writing is organic and the chemistry is natural.  Unfortunately, we can’t have constant charming relationship moments, which means Nick has to take off his “adorable boyfriend” hat and put on his “tough detective” one and check into the dead man and his dog with Hank and Wu. Wu’s sass levels are at staggering new levels of fed up: he says the killer could have been a vampire or the wolfman.  Not bad guesses, honestly. Wu then introduces Nick and Hank to the man who found the body. Although he didn’t see the murder taking place, he offers one proclamation: it was the Chupacabra. While this is going on, messy Diego shuffles back to his home and concerned wife. It’s  unclear if he knows what he did, but either way he’s concerned about missing work and goes to get ready. Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank research the victim as well as the legend of the Chupacabra. It doesn’t really lead anywhere beyond the fact Chupacabra means “goat sucker.”

While everything is going down in Portland, in Austria, the Legion of Doom is researching Nick’s mom Kelly. Viktor tries to jab at Adalind for not trying to kill the Grimm, even claiming she’d probably still have her child. Of course, with Viktor making this argument, you can’t take it seriously, and neither does Adalind. In fact, even Viktor lets that one slide since his main agenda is to claim the baby for himself. There’s talk of “trust” between Viktor and Adalind, but that’s a laugh too. I’m looking forward to the downfall of these characters. When it comes, it will be satisfying.

At the Spice Shop, Rosalee and Juliette are talking about the possibility that Juliette might be pregnant considering her strange behavior following the cure for Nick’s powerlessness. Juliette brushes off Rosalee’s concerns, though she takes the herbs her Fuchsbau friend prescribes and leaves wishing Monrosalee a happy honeymoon. Unfortunately, as soon as she departs, Rosalee gets an anonymous call from a Secundum Naturae Ordinem Wesen thug. He tells her that her marriage is against nature and that she should check her back door, because her blood would be spilled next. Outside the door, a fox is strung up dripping with blood. It’s scary and disturbing. I’m ready for these bigoted Wesen to get their comeuppance, but I get the feeling that will be a while from now yet. Nonetheless, Monroe has rushed to his wife’s side and threatens to kill the racists, all while his eyes glow red.

While we have a lot of stuff going on, that doesn’t mean Wu isn’t going to add to it. He confronts Renard in his office regarding a wide range of “weird” cases solved by Nick and Hank, which only gets praise for the detectives and a dismissal when the phone rings. It’s Tavitian, a familiar voice from the Resistance, which leads Renard to making a clandestine meeting that night.  Meanwhile, this week’s “weird” case continues. Diego, unsure of what he’s been doing, talks to his friend Gabe about not feeling well at work. Clearly, the guy shouldn’t be there, because far away in the woods, Nick, Juliette, and Hank are in Marie’s trailer finding a diagnosis for the disease he doesn’t know he has. Together, they figure out that the Chupacabra isn’t actually a Wesen unto itself, but instead the result of a Wesen disease called the Wældreór. Once that’s figured out though, Nick gets a call from Monroe about what happened to Rosalee. While they head over to check on their friends, Diego is back in the grips of the disease. He stumbles out of his office and around the parking garage looking all sweaty and gross, which leads his concerned co-worker and travel buddy Gabe to approach him. Bad move. Horrible move even. Diego attacks him, but while he chews on his friend’s neck, moves in their direction, which halts the attack, but extends the terror of the situation to the woman driving the car.

At the Spice Shop, Monroe explains to Nick and Hank what’s happened to Rosalee. Monroe proclaims he’s going to kill whoever did it, before Nick explains to him that the guilty culprit found out through someone at the Monrosalee wedding.  While they angst over what to do, Wu calls in to tell them about the attack at the garage. Wu keeps getting sassier and sassier, while the Wældreór gets mangier and mangier. It chases down an older woman, having escaped from the scene of his friend’s attack. However, after one of those brief commercial break cliffhangers, we soon find that the woman made it inside and had a couple of men there to protect here. Sure, they’re armed with baseball bats and screaming “Chupacabra!” but whatever works, right? Wu, now combing the streets for the attacker with his partner, displays more than his share of justifiable frustrations. When they come face-to-face with Diego in his Wældreór state, Wu hops out of his car and chases him down. However, when Wu finds him moments later, Diego has returned to normal.

After visiting with Gabe in his hospital room, Nick and Hank depart. Elsewhere, Renard meets up with Tavitian. They talk about the Resisistance and Renard’s daughter, which seems to be setting up even more conflict between the Resistance and the Royals in the near future. However, we have more pressing matters than that right now. Nick and Hank arrive at Diego’s home and meet his wife, who, as it turns out is a Coyotl, like her husband. Diego shows up around this time, though he spends his time throwing up at the side of the house, giving Wu a chance to show up too and chew out Nick and Hank and then quit. Of course, this isn’t the most opportune time for any of this, but the flood gates have opened. Wu demands information about Trubel. Meanwhile, Diego wanders into the house and his wife finds him. She calls an ambulance, but by then, he’s woged into the Wældreór again. Her screams alert the cops outside and they come running.

Nick and Hank grab the Wældreór while Wu freaks out.  At this point, they’ve admitted that what he has seen his real, but he slips away after nearly shooting Diego. Hank chases after him, but Wu is too determined to get the hell out of there. Nick gives Monroe a call and everybody meets up at the Spice Shop in order to cure Diego and nip this whole Wældreór situation in the bud. Unfortunately, they soon discover his wife is infected now too and they only have enough of the cure for one person. Diego gives up his chance for the cure and injects his wife with what remains, before begging Nick to kill him. Nick refuses, but Diego turns into the Wældreór again and Hank takes him out. It all makes for a sad ending to a sad case.

Elsewhere, Wu is drowning his sorrows at a bar while having some pretty nasty flashbacks to a variety of past cases. He snaps when he starts to see an Aswang and destroys the mirror behind the bar. He proceeds to get into a fight with some fellow patrons and later gets hauled into the drunk tank. Not a good night for Wu, but he isn’t the only one having a rough go of it. A police officer is left to watch over Monrosalee the night before they leave for their honeymoon. However, when Monroe goes out to check on him, he is surprised to find the officer is a member of the Secundum Naturae Ordinem Wesen and he gets taken. On top of all that, the true cause of Juliette’s suffering of late isn’t an impending pregnancy. As she recovers from her latest attack, she looks into the bathroom mirror and woges. Juliette is a Hexenbiest! She also isn’t especially happy about it, as her scream echoes out to end the episode.