Wes's Guide to Grimm: Lonelyhearts

“There she paused

For a while thinking…

The the temptation was so great

That she could not conquer it”

Welcome back to Grimm. Apologies for not getting back to this as quickly, but like I said, we have six long seasons to go and we’re just getting started. I need to pace myself here. In any case, our episode opens with a woman in her night gown breaking out of a window and running for her life. She appears to be running from some kind of buzz saw tentacle monster, we can assume that she’s either tripping balls or this is the work of a Wesen. Actually, in this case it’s both but we’ll get there eventually. The woman, clearly not in her right mind, jumps in front of a car and gets slammed, the driver freaking out that he may have killed someone. A passerby whose face we don’t see implores the man to call 911, but this was only to distract the other guy. The mysterious man places his hand next to the woman’s face, clearly putting some kind of whammy on her as the woman immediately demands that he kiss her. However, the man instead chokes the life out of her, very discreetly since this doesn’t even get the attention of the driver who apparently has zero peripheral vision. When the driver finally looks to his left, the man is gone. The next morning, Nick and Hank are on the scene questioning the driver but he’s not able to offer any helpful information. Just that the other man disappeared. Upon examination of the body, Nick and Hank see glass in her wounds and since the driver’s windshield didn’t break, that means she broke through a window, likely because she was running from someone.

Elsewhere, a mysterious man, though not the same one from earlier, pulls up in a cab outside a Portland hotel. After looking at an article about how Nick shot down the man who attacked him and Aunt Marie back in the pilot, he pulls the same scythe weapon that the attacker had been weilding out of his briefcase before revealing himself to be a troll-like Wesen called a Hässlich.

Back at the station, the Coroner says that the dead woman is clearly showing signs of intense intoxication but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary in her system. More significantly, it’s clear that the woman did not die as a result of the accident but was rather choked to death. Hank, meanwhile, has found the victim’s ID, Faith Collins. Hank seems to believe that Faith was running from her husband, Roy, who has a history of spousal abuse. The two detectives go to question Roy, and while Roy admits that he and his wife got into an argument that prompted her to leave the house, he certainly didn’t kill her and adamantly denies any such accusation. Further investigation reveals that Faith was at a bar called Blue Moon and her social media profile seems to indicate that she visited nearby Bed & Breakfast called the Bramble House. In an amusing moment, Hank inquires if Nick has heard of the place and Nick responds that he almost never has time for a bed or breakfast.

At the Bramble House, Nick makes special note that the proprietor owns a Royal Blue 1967 MGB Roadster, the most desirable model ever made according to Nick. After a humorous moment where some departing guests assume that Hank and Nick are a gay couple, Billy Capra, the owner of the Bramble House, says that he saw Faith, but claims she left without staying the night, despite no record of a cab picking her up. Billy also shows Nick and Hank the pride of his establishment, the garden, filled with all kinds of exotic plant and wildlife, including a rare endangered species of toad that Hank nearly steps on, much to Billy’s annoyance. However, when Billy gets upset, Nick catches him morphing into a Goat-like Wesen. After Nick and Hank leave, Billy grabs one of the Toads and eats it in one bite.

Back at the station, the Hässlich from earlier, who speaks with a very thick French accent, shows up claiming to be looking into the death of a friend of his, wanting to know the name of the officer who shot him. Wu goes to the Captain to ask him how to handle this. Renard tells him not to give up Nick and insists Wu do a background check on the man.

Later, in the trailer, Nick learns that Billy is apparently a Ziegevolk, a Goat-Wesen with a reputation for placing women under a sort of hypnotic spell. However, the Grimm Diaries don’t appear to have any information on how they’re able to attract young women, especially since Ziegevolk’s tend not to be especially attractive in their human form. For more information, Nick heads to Monroe’s place, who is at this moment playing the cello, and rather well I might add. I have to say, Monroe’s reaction to once again finding Nick on his doorstep is Hilarious to me. All he says is “really” in this resigned and frustrated tone. You can tell Monroe likes Nick but helping him on the job is starting to grate on him. Still, Monroe invites Nick in without complaint and fills in the blanks about Ziegevolks. According to Monroe, they tend to work as preachers, game show hosts, the kind of guys that hog the spotlight. Monroe actually knew one in High School, who, despite being rather short and fat, managed to get all the hot girls. Apparently, they secrete a highly potent pheromone in their sweat that makes them irresistible. While in theory, the Ziegevolk pheromone could be used in much the same way as a date-rape drug, most Ziegevolks don’t abuse it to that point, settling for being likable and popular. And, if the occasional attractive member of the opposite sex wants to come home with them, they can’t help the fact that they’re naturally irresistible and they’re not exactly complaining.

Later, we get a very cute scene in a grocery store where Nick is wondering why certain people are attracted to one another. This prompts an absolutely adorable conversation between Nick and Juliet in which they compare their terrible exes. As someone who had a run of bad girlfriends prior to finding the girl who introduced me to this show, I sympathize.

Back at the station, Hank has been looking into Billy. While there’s nothing concrete, they do find a string of missing person’s cases that coincide with Billy’s arrival in Portland as well as similar cases in other cities. The really disturbing part, all the women were eventually found alive and pregnant, the DNA all matching the same person, meaning that Billy is some kind of serial rapist. There’s never been a positive ID since he changes his identity every time he moves from city to city and he apparently uses some kind of hallucinogenic gas to keep his victims disoriented, explaining Faith running from Buzzsaw Cthulu at the beginning of the episode. And indeed, we see Billy going into the basement of the Bramble House, leaving food for the three women he keeps caged up down there. Later that night, Hank plants a tracker on Billy’s sweet Roadster so he and Nick can follow him. Unfortunately, Billy doesn’t take the care when he heads out for the evening, meaning Hank got a grease spot on his shirt for nothing. Nick follows Billy on foot while Hank searches the house. Nick tracks Billy to the Blue Moon bar where she sees him eating one of his toads, while Hank spots that one of Billy’s windows recently had new glass put in, meaning this is definitely their guy. Nick calls up Monroe and asks him to walk into the bar to keep an eye on Billy, Nick not being able to go in since Billy would recognize him. This time, Nick has the good sense to offer to pay Monroe for his service which includes covering his bar tab. And just like that Monroe is on his way.

Elsewhere, the Hässlich returns to his hotel room only to find Renard waiting there for him. Renard demands that the Hässlich shut the door, and we learn that Renard is apparently fluent in French. He tells the Reaper that he made a huge mistake coming to his city and an even bigger mistake by not kneeling before him. Apparently realizing that Sean is not one to be trifled with, the Hässlich obliges Renard and kneels. Sean insists that the other Reaper brought his own death upon himself but the Hässlich insists that the other Reaper was within his rights as it is the sacred duty of his organization to hunt down Grimms. Sean insists that the Reapers need his permission to operate in his city and denies the man his right to revenge. The Reaper seems very surprised that Sean would be protecting a Grimm, but before that can sink in, Sean chops the Hässlich’s ear off with his own scythe, a reminder that when Renard speaks, he must always listen. Sean leaves the apartment, threatening the Reaper with worse if he ever catches him in his city again.

Monroe arrives at the bar and Nick briefs him on the situation. Monroe will apparently be able to identify Billy by smell. Nick also mentions the whole toad eating thing. As it turns out, eating toads can increase the potency of a Ziegevolk’s pheromone tenfold, but it’s only ever done if they’re after something far more sinister than general popularity and attention. Meanwhile, Hank has managed to locate the missing girls, but Billy’s gas gets ahold of him and he starts seeing snakes and lions and all sorts of creepy stuff before passing out. Monroe enters the bar without arousing suspicion despite loudly talking to Nick on his Bluetooth earpiece with all the subtlety of an elephant on a unicycle playing Ave Maria on an enormous tuba. Monroe can smell Billy from all the way on the other side of the bar, meaning that his pheromones are extra strong. Even Monroe considers buying him a drink while he listens in on Billy putting the whammy on his next victim. Monroe can’t take it anymore and gets out before he ends up going home with the creep. Billy leaves the bar and looks to be heading home. Nick pursues while Monroe decides to spend the rest of his night getting drunk at the bar. Nick tries to warn Hank, but Hank is still passed out.

Back at the Bramble House, Billy returns, followed shortly by the woman he was hitting on at the bar, who was so charmed by her, she couldn’t wait a second longer to see him. Fortunately, Nick arrives and attempts to save the woman by bullshitting up an excuse to get her out of the house. While Nick is dealing with the woman, Billy, realizing that the police are on to him, immediately starts packing and turns the gas all the way up. Nick finds Hank in the basement but he’s still woozy from the gas. Billy locks the detectives in the basement and heads out, only to be confronted by his would-be victim, who he convinces to take a drive with him in his sweet roadster. Nick and Hank turn off the gas and free the girls but Billy is in the wind. Fortunately, the tracker Hank put on Billy’s car is still working and they are able to find Billy at a National Park in the next town over. Billy gives chase and using the his mountain goat like agility, manages to elude the detectives, but that doesn’t save him from getting hit by a bus, the same fate as Faith from the beginning of the episode. And so our episode ends with Nick taking satisfaction in the fact that Billy will know what it’s like to be locked a cage like his victims.

Lonelyhearts is not quite as strong as some of the earlier ones, but it’s still good. Billy played an appropriately creepy antagonist, Nick and Monroe had some great scenes together, and we learned more about Sean while still leaving us with plenty of questions. While we now know that The Reapers are indeed a separate faction from Sean and Adalind, we don’t know why Sean is protecting Nick from them, especially when he was so keen on killing Aunt Marie. And just what is Sean to the Reapers that a vengeful blood-hungry scythe wielding troll monster would kneel before him. I also appreciated some subtle bits of character development, such as Nick being someone who appreciates classic cars and Monroe playing the cello. Neither are terribly important to the story nor do they come up all that much, but little things like that just add so much to the characters and makes them feel that much more real. More answers will come in time, but for now, be sure to join us for the next episode, Danse Macabre.