Grimm: Oh, no! Juliette sure is burning bridges…among other things…everywhere she goes these days, isn’t she? (My thoughts on episode 4x19 “Iron Hans”)

Before I get started talking about my thoughts on this episode of Grimm, I feel like I should give a warning that I’ll also be mentioning a spoiler regarding Grimm’s upcoming season four finale as well as something that happened in the most recent episode of Once Upon a Time, which aired on 4/26/15 in this review. If you would haven’t watched the most recent episode of Once Upon a Time and you would prefer to remain spoiler free regarding that episode or Grimm’s season four finale, I wouldn’t suggest reading this review; that being said, here are my thoughts on this episode.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I absolutely loved this episode for a lot of reasons. First off, I thought that the case of the week was very interesting, and there were some interesting developments regarding both Juliette and Adalind’s storylines. The case of the week was a homicide that ended up being connected to a Wesen hunting camp that young teenagers who were just reaching the point in their lives where they were really discovering their Wesen nature. What I liked the most about this aspect of the episode is the fact Monroe and to some extent Rosalee both helped contribute to helping Nick, Hank and Wu with their investigation instead of being sidelined for the most part like they have been in some episodes this season.

Once the people who ran the Wesen camp formally met Nick, Hank and Monroe, it was established that the main guy who runs the camp (Elder Bowden) had heard about Nick before and how he’s not like most grimms and that he’s also friends with a Blutbad (Monroe). Personally, I really like that Monroe was completely unapologetic about choosing to be friends with Nick despite the fact that he’s a grimm. Elder Bowden asked Monroe if he would be willing to talk to the group about his experiences as a Blutbad. He agreed to talk to them since he, Nick and the others thought that it would help with their investigation. Monroe talked to the group, telling them that they have to make a choice about what kind of life they want to live as Wesen, and whether they want to go around killing other Wesen or choosing not to. He also told them that he’s basically gone down both paths, but he’s ultimately chosen not to be someone who kills other Wesen. I have to say that I really liked Silas Weir Mitchell’s acting in the scene where he was talking to the group.

In the end, Maggie, Bowden’s daughter, ended up being behind the murders. She also took an interest in Monroe and tried to get him to join their side.  Maggie ended up being injured towards the end of the episode, and I think we’re suppose to assume that she was going to die from her injuries. As she was dying, she told Bowden that she had always felt left out of the hunt since Bowden had apparently always let her brother join him in hunting, but he didn’t let her join the hunt. The whole thing was definitely rather tragic, but I thought that both Jeff Fahey (Elder Bowden) and Hillary Tuck (Maggie Bowden) did a great job in this episode.

Prince Kenneth told Adalind that she needed to decide who she wanted to claim was the father of the baby she’s carrying, and after talking to Kenneth, she decided to tell Nick and the others that she’s pregnant with Nick’s baby. This aspect of the episode really reminded me why I’ve always loved Grimm so much. I’ve always loved how Grimm has the perfect blend of drama and humor, and everybody’s reaction to finding out that Adalind’s pregnant once again was the perfect example of that. I thought it was pretty funny that Renard promptly denied that he could be the baby’s father pretty much the second he learned she was pregnant.

Rosalee visited Juliette at the jail, telling her that she’s sorry about everything that’s happened to her, especially when it comes to how she’s become a Hexenbiest now as a result of what they had to do in order for Nick to be a grimm again. However, Juliette told her that she’s happy that she’s a Hexenbiest now and then pretty much pushed Rosalee away. Juliette was eventually bailed out of jail by Prince Kenneth, because he apparently wants her to help him and the other royals since it’s looking like Adalind wants to align herself with Nick now. He was also the one who informed her that Adalind is pregnant with Nick’s baby. Personally, I loved Kenneth’s line to Juliette about being invited to Adalind’s baby shower. I thought it was pretty funny.

I know that a lot of Grimm fans are saying that the writers are pretty much assassinating Juliette as a character with her current storyline, and I definitely won’t deny that the writers have pretty much completely torched any chance of Juliette and Nick ending up together, especially after this episode, I’m personally loving the whole thing with Juliette becoming a Hexenbiest. I think it has given both Bitsie Tulloch and David Giuntoli a lot of really great material to work with lately. Tulloch is doing a great job of portraying Juliette as somebody who has really gone to the dark side, while Giuntoli is doing a truly fantastic job of portraying Nick’s ongoing struggle with the guilt and horror he feels as a result of Juliette becoming a Hexenbiest.

Just when I thought the Nick Burkhardt angst train was already over capacity, Adalind told him along with everybody else that she’s pregnant with his baby. I love that his immediate reaction to finding out that Adalind is pregnant again was a bit on comedic side just like pretty much everybody else’s reaction was in this episode. Once Nick realized that the baby is his, his reaction took a very dramatic turn where he was pretty much shocked speechless. I know some people are speculating that the baby is actually Nick and Juliette’s baby since Nick slept with Adalind when she was pretending to be Juliette in order to take away his grimm powers, but I’m actually really hoping that’s not the case. Unless it ends up being revealed that’s actually the case at some point down the road, I’m just going to assume that Adalind is pregnant with hers and Nick’s baby.

Adalind also told Nick that there might be a way to suppress Juliette’s Hexenbiest side, but she told him that there was one ingredient that’s almost impossible to get. It apparently requires the body of a dead Hexenbiest, and after a brief awkward pause where you could just tell they were all thinking that they could just kill her, she told them that the dead Hexenbiest they use couldn’t be fresh. Fortunately for them, Adalind said that they could use the body of her dead mother. They all agreed that they would dig up Adalind’s dead mother to do whatever she was talking about.

This brings me to what’s pretty much my only real complaint when it comes to this episode. It really bugs me that they all acted like the decision whether or not they should do what Adalind was talking about to suppress Juliette’s Hexenbiest side was completely up to Nick. First off, when Juliette saw Adalind and Nick together at the police station and discovered that Adalind really is pregnant with Nick’s baby, Adalind tried to tell Juliette that she had a way to help her, but Juliette told her that she had absolutely no interest in Adalind doing anything to help her. I also really think that Rosalee should have mentioned that Juliette might not want to go along with the whole thing given the conversation that she and Juliette had had earlier in the episode when she visited Juliette at the jail. By not having Rosalee mention what Juliette had told her, it was as if that conversation served no purpose to the overall story other than to have Juliette try and drive Rosalee away.

It seemed pretty clear to me that there was at least a part of Juliette that wanted to kill Adalind when she saw her with Nick at the police station. However, Nick came to Adalind’s defense, telling Juliette that regardless of the circumstances, the baby was innocent. Naturally, this pissed Juliette off and she went to visit Kenneth where she told him how Nick came to Adalind’s defense despite everything that Adalind has done to them. Kenneth told her that now that Nick is going to be a father, his protective instincts are emerging, He proceeded to ask Juliette to work for the royals, saying that if she did, they would give her anything she wanted.

Kenneth then mentioned the idea of drawing Nick’s mother out of hiding by doing something to put Nick in mortal danger. There was a spoiler that TVLine’s Michael Ausiello released a while back regarding the season four finale, saying that someone is going to die in the season finale (Scoop on the season 4 finale). At first I was thinking that the character who’s going to get killed off was Renard given all of the weird hallucinations that he’s been having throughout the season as a result of being shot in the season three finale. However, the flashback that Monroe had a few weeks ago to when he was talking to the Wesen tribunal about his marriage to Rosalee along with the conversation that he had with Rosalee about time running out briefly had me suspecting that either he or Rosalee will be the character that’s going to get killed off.

That being said, given the fact that it has always been a very well known fact that Monroe is essentially the most popular character on the show, and I’d say that Rosalee’s pretty popular too, I don’t think that the producers of the show would be dumb enough to kill either of them off. These days I’m really starting to think that Juliette is going to be the one who dies in the season finale, especially after watching this episode. I’m thinking either Nick will find himself in a situation where he himself thinks that he has no other choice but to kill Juliette, or Juliette will end up inadvertently getting herself killed trying to carry out a plan to bring Nick’s mom out of hiding.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I’d like to comment on something that happened in this week’s episode of Once Upon a Time (Episode 4x20 “Lily”, airing on 4/26/15). If anybody reading this doesn’t want to know what happened in that episode, feel free to skip over this part. At the end of the episode, Robin told Regina that he couldn’t leave with her despite the fact that he now knows that it’s actually Zelena who has been pretending to be Marion because she’s pregnant. I can’t help but think that particular storyline is a lot like Adalind being pregnant with Nick’s baby. After all, in both cases the baby was conceived when the woman was using some kind of magic to make the guy think that they were a woman that he would ordinarily willingly have sex with. Adalind was using a potion to disguise herself as Juliette in order to take away Nick’s grimm powers, while Zelena had used some kind of magic to disguise herself as Marion on a more long-term basis simply as a way of keeping Regina and Robin apart and getting revenge on Regina.

In both cases, many viewers have described what happened as Nick and Robin being raped since Adalind and Zelena used means of deception in order to get Nick and Robin to sleep with them. I definitely think that discussing the subject of rape can be a very tricky thing when it’s being talked about in relation to TV shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time where magic and various other elements of fantasy play a huge role on the show. That being said, while I definitely think that committing an act of rape or any form of sexual abuse against a person is a truly despicable thing for a person to do, I really like this latest plot development with Adalind being pregnant with Nick’s baby.

Since the revelation that Zelena is apparently pregnant with Robin’s baby was revealed at the end of the episode, I suppose it’s possible that the whole thing will end up being a trick on Zelena’s part and that she isn’t actually pregnant, but for now I’m just going to assume that Zelena is indeed pregnant with Robin’s baby. That being said, I don’t like the idea of Zelena being pregnant with Robin’s baby at all. It just seems like a really contrived plot device to keep Regina and Robin apart. However, I personally love the fact that Adalind is pregnant with Nick’s baby, and I’ll explain why in a moment.

Back when season two first started, I really found myself liking Grimm more than Once Upon a Time, and I still feel that way. Without going completely off topic, most of my complaints regarding Once Upon a Time are due to the fact that I think the show has too many characters and the writers are frequently bringing in new recurring guest-stars, causing many of the series regulars to constantly be sidelined. I also feel like the creators of Once Upon a Time don’t really have a long-term plan for the show and that they are just making things up as they go along, especially after they decided to introduce characters from Frozen into the show for the first half of the show’s fourth season.

The executive producers of Grimm on the other hand have often given me the impression that while there might be some things that they are tentative about when it comes to some of their plans for the show, such as how long it would be before Nick would get his powers back, the 2014 Grimm Comic Con panel once again left me feeling like the executive producers have a better idea of where the show is going since they mentioned that they already had some plans for season five related to the keys even though season four hadn’t even started airing yet. Every time I read or watch an interview with the executive producers of Once Upon a Time, they’ve often come across as being very undecided about the long-term direction of the show, if you ask me.

When it comes to the complaints that I’ve had regarding Grimm in the past, most of them have been resolved by now. I thought the whole amnesia storyline with Juliette dragged on way too long back in season two and until late last season Wu was definitely the most neglected character on show. After all, they didn’t reveal that his first name was Drew until the episode “Mommy Dearest” last season. The other complaint that I’ve had regarding Grimm is that ever since Adalind/Claire Coffee became a regular presence on the show, Adalind/Claire Coffee constantly felt almost completely splintered off from the rest of the show since most of the time Adalind was off with the royals, namely Victor. It always seemed like she didn’t actually interact with Nick and the others very much at all for the most part. I always felt like I was watching Adalind on her own TV show that was almost completely separate from the main events of the show. Now that Adalind is pregnant with Nick’s baby and is saying that she might have a way to help Juliette suppress her Hexenbiest side, but she’ll need Rosalee’s help to do it, I’m hoping that those particular plot developments will allow Adalind/Claire Coffee to become more integrated into the show than she has been in the past. Plus, if this episode was any indication, I think that Adalind spending more time with Nick, Rosalee and the others could lead to a lot of very entertaining moments on the show.

The other reason why I personally really like the idea of Adalind being pregnant with Nick’s baby is that I think it’s great way to have the whole storyline with Adalind taking away Nick’s powers to still have lasting consequences on the show for characters other than just Juliette now that Nick is a grimm again. Personally, I really feel like the whole thing with Nick being turned into a zombie was resolved and dropped pretty quickly last season, so I find the fact that while the matter of Nick becoming a grimm again has been resolved, Juliette and pretty much all of the other characters are now having to deal with the aftermath of Nick getting his powers back to all be very refreshing. Just when I thought the writers had done everything they could for plot twists related to that storyline in terms of it having long-term consequences on the show, Adalind learned that she’s pregnant with Nick’s baby. Sure, a big part of why Adalind is now pregnant is because the writers decided to write Claire Coffee’s real life pregnancy into the show, but I’m really glad that the writers found a way for that storyline to have long-term consequences for Adalind as well.

At the end of the episode, Juliette went to Nick’s trailer and ransacked the place before completely torching the trailer. She then called Nick telling him that he should go to the trailer, but she didn’t tell him why. All she said was that she had lit a fire to keep herself warm since she doesn’t have anybody to keep herself warm now before she hung up on him as the episode ended. I’ve read a lot of comments online where people are saying that the writers are ruining Juliette as a character with her current storyline, but personally, I don’t completely agree with that. That being said, from the standpoint of Nick and Juliette having a chance of working out as a couple and possibly getting married at some point in the future, I would say that any chance of that happening definitely went up in flames the moment Juliette torched the trailer, pun not intended.

After all, it’s not like the contents of the trailer can easily be replaced since a lot of the books in the trailer were handwritten accounts by his ancestors about their encounters with various kinds of wesen. As for being able to replace all of the weapons and other equipment that he had in the trailer, while I’ve continually been surprised by what kind of things people can buy on Amazon over the years, I highly doubt that even in the world of Grimm, Nick would be able to replace all of the weapons and equipment that were in the trailer simply by going on Amazon or to some store located in Portland. Plus, I seriously doubt that Nick or anybody for that matter could easily forgive Juliette for destroying something that represented a big part of his family’s history. As far as I’m concerned, Juliette truly crossed the line by setting the trailer on fire.

It’s definitely hard for me to truly put myself in Juliette’s shoes when it comes to figuring out what it was exactly that pushed her over the edge and made her decide to set the trailer on fire since she’s fictional character on a TV show involving numerous elements of fantasy. If I had to guess, it was probably a combination of finding out that Adalind is pregnant with Nick’s baby, seeing Nick with Adalind and the fact that he came to her defense despite everything that Adalind has done to the both of them being the straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back for Juliette. Plus, I think the trailer could definitely be viewed as a tangible reminder of all the problems that Nick being a grimm has caused the both of them. I’ve also heard that from a physiological standpoint crimes related to arson are often at least somewhat driven by the arsonist desiring control and power. Despite Juliette’s comments to Rosalee earlier in the episode, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a part of her that’s feeling powerless and as if her life has spiraled out of control and setting Nick’s trailer on fire was her way of trying to regain control over her life. Maybe I’m reading too much into the whole situation, but that’s just my take on the whole thing.

Honestly, at this point if Juliette isn’t going to be the character that dies in the season finale, the only way I see her being able to remain on the show is if she becomes the main ongoing antagonist that Nick and the others have to deal with, especially since it looks like Adalind wants Nick on her side now that she’s pregnant with his baby. Personally, I think that Juliette serving as an ongoing antagonist on the show could be very interesting and entertaining.

All things considered, I really do think that this was a truly great episode. The case of the week was very interesting, and I’m glad that Monroe played a significant role in helping Nick, Hank and Wu solve the case. There were several episodes earlier this season where I felt like Monroe and Rosalee were being sidelined, and I personally think the show is at its best when everybody’s working together in order to solve the cases that Nick, Hank and Wu have to solve.

I’m continuing the enjoy Juliette’s current storyline, and I can really tell that Bitsie Tulloch is having a lot of fun with it. It has also given David Giuntoli a lot of great material to work with lately, and he’s definitely doing a truly fantastic job with it. As I said earlier, my only real complaint when it comes to this episode is the fact that nobody acknowledged that Juliette specifically said that she didn’t want Adalind’s help with suppressing her Hexenbiest side. The fact that the whole plot development with Nick and the others learning that Adalind is pregnant with his baby had the perfect blend of drama and humor to it felt like classic Grimm to me, and this episode really reminded me why I love the show so much. Plus, the whole thing with Juliette setting Nick’s trailer on fire at the end of the episode really got me excited to see what’s going to happen next.

That being said, my final score for the episode is 9 out of 10.