‘Grimm’ Review: ‘Cry Luison’

Picking up seamlessly from the revelation last week that Juliette is the final ingredient required to restore Nick’s powers, “Cry Luison” is one of the most brilliantly bizarre episodes of Grimm to date. Monrosalee inform an utterly bewildered Juliette that Elizabeth has engineered the curse that Adalind used and to cure Nick, all she needs to do is do everything Adalind did. Yes, everything. Or maybe that should be “everyone”? There’s a catch though. Adalind transformed herself into Juliette, so Nick will have to sleep with a Juliette who looks like Adalind. You follow that? It’s a little weird, watching a group of friends and acquaintances discuss the curative powers of shape shifting sex, but fortunately Nick and Juliette are as put off as one would imagine. As much as I want Nick to regain his powers, this set up isn’t any easy one to agree to. I like that David Giuntoli and Bitsie Tulloch get to play the struggle. As a fan, I know what I want the end result to be, but making it easy doesn’t make it satisfying.

Meanwhile, Adalind is still drowning in the tears of those faces in the wall. Well, she was. Before she’s toast, she’s suddenly elsewhere and greeted by her demented tour guide Hofmann. He insists that she follow along and ignore everything, but soon enough she’s a baby’s cries and chases what appears to be herself around some stairs. The sequence of events in this episode makes what Adalind did to regain her powers last season seem like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show in comparison. After chasing her own tail, Adalind ends up finding herself with Hofmann’s head on a platter. Don’t worry, he’s got rats to keep him company and his lack of body doesn’t keep him from speaking up. Adalind’s long strange trip continues when Hofmann reappears and wakes her up; he then challenges her to make it through the next room without stopping and turns into a key. Unfortunately for Adalind, she’s distracted by what she thinks is her baby. However, it turns out it was just an adorable little pig. Because she stopped, the door won’t open and the ground collapses. Once she lands, she’s back in her prison cell, broken and malleable to Viktor’s demands.

In addition to the world’s worst sexual role play as magical cure and Adalind’s trippy stay in the castle, there’s a Wesen of the Week to deal with too. This week a woman named Ava Diaz gets the gaslight treatment from a distant cousin of the Blutbad known as the Luison. This particular Wesen gives off some serious “Most Interesting Man in the World by way of werewolf” vibes. Ava, on medication for mental illness, wakes up in the middle of night and is being haunted by this wolf man. Understandably terrified, she tries to escape in her car, but the Luison is in her car. The crazed woman ends up hitting a late night jogger and then crashes. Sorry to see you go, dead guy!

The morning after the cure is revealed, Nick and Trubel have a heart to heart about her status as the only Grimm. She’s considering leaving town to keep Nick and Juliette safe. Before they can continue, there’s a knock on the door. It’s Bud! Our favorite stammering Eisbiber is there looking for Trubel; he offers a weak story about Wesen bullies at school, which changes immediately once Nick leaves work. Bud spilled the beans about Nick’s current powerless state to one of his friends over a couple of beers. Now the word is out and certain Wesen want to come after Nick. The story that follows has me crossing my fingers for a Trubel and Bud spin-off, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. First, we get a glimpse of Juliette eavesdropping on the exchange; you can almost see her position on being “normal” start to disintegrate. Of course, Trubel and Bud can’t, because they have to find Bud’s friend Joe and find out what happened with Shaw, an angry Wesen who wants to kill Nick. Joe, shaken up by Trubel’s aggressive demeanor, explains what happens. Soon, Trubel is confronting Shaw with to Eisbibers in tow. Trubel lives up to her name when she confronts Shaw. Although he talks a good game, the moment he calls her “this bitch,” you know he’s about to get his ass beat. Once she whips out her machete it becomes a game of “Good Bud, Bad Trubel.” I won’t lie. When she saunters off having effectively threatened Shaw and says “I should have cut off his head,” I cackled.

If all that wasn’t enough, we get a view into Renard’s luxurious new home. He and his mother continue to catch up. It’s such a bizarre dynamic, seeing Louise Lombard and Sasha Roiz play mother and son, but it really works. They swap info about Trubel and the whereabouts of demon baby Diana. At the same time, Nick and Hank arrive at the scene of the car accident. They too are talking about Trubel, but specifically Wu finding out more than he can possibly handle about her. Wu explains the details, punctuated with even more sass than usual. There’s what I would call a “stabby” tone to his voice when he talks to Nick and Hank. His eyes are certainly shooting daggers. After collecting some necessary info, they head to the hospital where Ava is staying and start interviewing her husband Gabriel. He fills the detectives in on her instability. Gabriel sells a pretty good story, but even here, something doesn’t seem quite right. Gabriel accompanies Nick and Hank to his home, where they get more back story. Ava’s rich! Gabriel worked with orphans! There’s definitely something not quite right going on, which Nick picks up on. He laments the fact that he can’t see what he assumes to be the Blutbad terrorizing the woman. They then make a visit to her psychiatrist, where they pick up a drawing of the Wesen in question. Looks like Grimms aren’t the only ones with some talent for capturing the creatures within.

Bringing the drawings to Monrosalee, Nick quickly finds out the wolf Wesen’s mystery species. Monroe volunteers to help find the Luison. Can I just say how excited I am that Monroe is going to be involved in this week’s case? It’s a welcome throwback to the dynamic from the first season. However, before they can take immediate advantage, Nick gets the news that Ava’s awake, so he and Hank depart for the hospital. She shares the story of the torment she feels from the “hallucinations” while surrounded by her husband and psychiatrist. If that doesn’t sound like a recipe for being gaslighted, I don’t know what does. Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank fill Renard in on the case, but the conversation quickly redirects towards Trubel’s possible role in finding the Luison. It’s an interesting exchange, heightened by Wu’s growing interest in Trubel, which Renard acknowledges as well.

Monroe finally gets to do his part when Nick sends him to Ava and Gabriel’s home to sniff out the Luison.  We see three identical suits and three pairs of shoes together; sure, it’s weird, but not that weird. Well, not that weird until Monroe looks out the window and spots Gabriel. A flabbergasted Monroe calls Nick to explain what’s going on, but Gabriel is still at the courthouse for the hearing determining the fate of Ava’s fortune. It looks like Twins isn’t just a movie starring Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, folks.  Back at the spice shop, the gang brainstorms a way to cover up the existence of the Luison. They find a convincing enough mask and head to the house, where Monroe draws out the twin in a little back and forth woge action. Hank, however, is the one who knocks him out. Things take an even weirder turn here. There are two more brothers! We’re talking a full blown litter, with Gabriel still inside the house prepared to finally drive his wife mad. Shyamalan has nothing on this twist. Fortunately for Ava, her husband is arrested along with his brothers and her mental health is no longer in question. That said, I’m curious what happens with the case of the guy she ran over. Oh well, like Law & Order, not every aspect of a case can be satisfied.

In a surprising twist, another layer gets dropped on top of everything else going on this week: Josh Porter. If you don’t recall, Josh is the human son of a now deceased Grimm who first popped up last season. He was a little infuriating in his disbelief, but eventually came around. Having traveled across the country with his father’s ashes, he returns home to find his home ransacked.  A pair of Wesen in search of Josh’s father’s key here him and descend the stairs to attack. Josh flings the urn containing his father’s ashes at the closest attacker and it shatters into fragments and dust. I guess even in death, Rolek is causing trouble for nasty Wesen.  Josh manages to escape and later calls Nick from hiding, but drops the call when the bad guys get close again. Later still, Nick gets another call from Josh, who has made it safely to a bus station and is heading anywhere but where he was. I imagine he’ll be popping up again soon enough.

After such a packed episode, I don’t blame Nick and company for breaking open a bottle of wine. In one of the episode’s best moments, Nick confesses how he feels about normalcy and being a Grimm. The writers and Giuntoli deliver an incredibly memorable character moment and reminding us how strong the Nickroe bromance actually is. This moment is cut short though, when someone sets the Wesen equivalent of a burning cross ablaze on Monrosalee’s lawn. Here’s where Tulloch gets her own moment to shine, as Juliette decides she’ll do what it takes to make Nick a Grimm again. It’s a strong development for the character and reaffirms what I loved so much about her last season when she finally found out about Nick’s secret life. The promise of a cure next week makes me incredibly excited, but I’m so glad the show has let the move towards Nick’s restored powers take the pace it has. The actors really have gotten a lot out of it and the writers have clearly found their sweet spot for developing extended character arcs. Here’s to the next episode!