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Hey, we've been busy, so here's a two-fer. A new episode of Grimm airs tonight.
Grimm, Season 1, Episode Five: "Danse Macabre"
Beast of the Week: Reinegens, a race of working-class, bottom-feeding rat people who disguise themselves in human society as plumbers, exterminators and, lowest of all, dubstep DJs.
Source Material: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," as well as the lesser-known legend, "Deadmau5 Was Sick Last Night, Bro!"
The Procedural: A teacher at the prestigious (and totally made up) Von Hamlin Music Academy is found dead in his car, eaten alive by rats. "I can't stand rats," says Hank, which, after the last few weeks of being attacked by bees and gassed by rape-goats, ensures he'll find himself in the company of several hundred rodents before the end of this episode. He and Nick don't have to search long for their first clue: They find cages casually tossed in the bushes, helpfully labeled as the property of Geiger Pest Control. That takes them out to a trailer underneath the St. Johns Bridge, where they find Roddy, a violin prodigy and, as Nick soon discovers, a reinegen recently suspended from the music academy for fighting. He recognizes Nick as a Grimm and takes off running. Eventually he and his father are apprehended and brought in for questioning. Roddy's alibi: "I was at a rave down by the river!" Indeed he was, because in the cold open we saw him don a pink mask and drop some totally sick bass on a warehouse glowstick-waving teens under his nom de dubstep Retched Katt (looks like somebody on the writing staff went to a Deadmau5 show and got an idea).
An analysis of fibers found in the killer rats' stomachs reveals the little bastards were chewing on the carpeting of an automobile much more expensive than the one the victim was found in and much fancier than a lowly son of an exterminator could afford. Hank traces the fibers back to a German SUV belonging to Carter, a rich douchebag violinist who also attends the music academy. This leads to one of those expository scenes where the perpetrators of a crime stand around and, for no reason at all, recap to each other exactly what they did and why: Carter was jealous of Roddy's musical talents and his girlfriend, so he and some other students got him suspended from school, then tried to frame him for murder. What a bunch of no-goodniks those classically trained musicians are!
In a rage, Roddy burns down his trailer, saving only his violin and his cat mask. He leads a rat parade to Front Street, where he's convinced Carter and the gang there's going to be a rave that night. When they show up at the warehouse, they find Retched Katt alone in a candlelit room, playing violin in the DJ booth. Soon, hundreds of rats descend upon them. Hank and Nick, who learned of the rave after paying a visit to Carter's girlfriend's house—where she conveniently left her cell phone—bust in soon enough to scare off the rats and bring everyone into custody. And...that's pretty much it, except for Hank getting fucked with once again this week, as Nick scares him with the old "plastic rat in a pizza box" trick. Poor Hank can't ever catch a break.
Other Developments: Hank grabs a drink with Sgt. Wu and on his way out runs into Adaline Schade (the Hexenbiest, remember?), who seduces Hank into getting dinner with her. Meanwhile, Captain Renard sits outside and does what he's done for most of this season: stare inconclusively. What does it all mean?!?
Best Line of the Week: "I've never been much of a do-gooder, Nick. The only bleeding heart I ever had...well, that's in the past." — Eddie Monroe, who was otherwise useless in this episode outside saving us another trip to the Magic Winnebago of Knowledge and Mystery.
Worst Line of the Week: "He's the biggest raver in Portland!" — Sgt. Wu talking about Retched Katt. I'm not sure if this was meant to sound as stupid as it came across, but it sounded like someone on the writing team didn't cross-check that bit of phrasing with their kids.
Grade: C. Very little supernatural activity this week, as this played out more as a "ripped from the headlines" Case of the Week from a generic cop show. I do like furthering the idea proposed in the "Beeware" episode that not all creatures in the Grimm universe are inherently evil, and modernizing the Pied Piper story by associating it with raves and electronic dance music was a decent touch, but overall: Meh. Oh, something I just noticed: Roddy "the Pied" Piper? Nice one, writers. That almost makes up for the "biggest raver" line. Almost.
Grimm, Season 1, Episode 6: "The Three Bad Wolves"
Beast of the Week: Bowerswine (or something like that), vengeful pig-folk locked in an eternal blood feud with Blutbaden, a.k.a. "Big Bad Werewolves."
WWeek 2015