'Grimm': Will Hank be a member of Team Grimm now? (2023)

View full sizeScott Green/NBCNick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) work together to free a kidnapped girl (Maddie Hasson) in the "Grimm" episode, "Bad Moon Rising."

Nick's

What-is-she-up-to? mother

is nowhere in sight.

Captain-not-what-he-seems Renard

is laying low. And Juliette may be awake, but she still has no memory of Nick.

, "Bad Moon Rising" returned

to the monster-of-the-week procedural format from last season.

But with a difference. In another encouraging sign that Season 2 of

is going to keep pushing the story forward, and taking us deeper into the inherent conflict between Nick (David Giuntoli) coping with his abilities as a Grimm, and doing his job as a Portland Police homicide detective, "Bad Moon Rising" gave us a pretty momentous reveal.

A word of warning, if you haven't watched the episode yet, a spoiler is coming up.

Have we gotten the DVR collective away from the screen? Yes?

Whew. What a relief to see poor Hank (Russell Hornsby) no longer thinking he's lost his marbles. After dipping into the depths of paranoia, and even -- gasp! -- seeing a therapist, Hank finally learned the secret Nick's been keeping from him. And in another good touch, instead of going the cliche route of Hank being angry or hurt that Nick's been hiding his true self, Hank reacts with refreshing pragmatism.

After the episode's bloody, violent, mind-spinning events have reached their climax, and Nick has revealed that he's seen all the bizarre creatures -- and so much more -- that Hank has seen, the two colleagues sit at their desks in Portland police headquarters. Nick starts to apologize/explain to Hank about the strange day they've had, and Hank responds with a look of satisfaction.

"Today's been one of the better days of my life," he says. Nick is caught off-guard by this and asks, "Why?"

"Because I might be crazy," Hank says. "But now I know I'm not alone."

This scene, so long in coming, was both surprising and completely right. In Season 1, the show itself mirrored the struggle Nick's been having -- how to combine police case procedural elements, which resolve within the episode, with an ongoing story about the discoveries Nick is making about what it means to be a Grimm, and the mysterious forces that are trying to kill -- or use -- him.

Part of that struggle led, in Season 1, to viewers wondering when Hank was going to wake up to the fact that some weird stuff was beginning to happen on a regular basis in Portland. Now that Nick has taken Hank into his confidence, it seems like the most natural, organic development possible. They're partners -- why shouldn't Nick trust Hank to share his secret? Especially since Nick is increasingly finding his job and his Grimm world are intertwined.

In the episode, this climax comes about when an old friend of Hank's named Jarold (played by "Lost" veteran Mark Pellegrino), comes to him for help in finding his daughter, Carly. She's been kidnapped by, we come to find out, a pack of "Coyotls," the Wesen equivalent of a gang of thugs, who band together and punish those who try to leave the pack. Nick sees that Jarold is a Coyotl, too, and lets him in on this info. Jarold and Carly left the pack after Jarold's wife died, but the pack wants Carly back for some skin-crawlingly awful rite of passage process that happens when a female pack member is 17.

The search ends when Nick, Hank and Jarold find the Coyotl pack at their rural home base -- and this isn't a spot that Oregon tourism's going to be promoting, since the men are sitting around a scraggly bit of ground, with a trailer nearby and beer bottles scattered in the dirt.

Nick and Hank find Carly dangling from a rope in a well, and haul her up while Jarold is fighting the Coyotl gang. They take her inside the barn, where Carly reacts to spotting Nick, who she recognizes as a Grimm. She morphs into a Coyotl, terrified that Nick will kill her. Hank pulls his gun, and aims it at what he thinks is a monster, but Nick protests. Hank, reverting to his paranoia, yells that Nick can't see what he sees. Nick reassures him that he definitely does. "I see what they are," he says, trying to calm Hank down. "But right now, she's just Carly." Hank is stunned that Nick sees the transformation from human to creature. "Then you're crazy, too," he tells Nick. "I thought I was," Nick answers, adding that things are more complicated than that.

Carly apologizes for her Wesen freak-out, but says she thought Nick would kill her, because he's a Grimm. A what?

"It's sort of a family problem,"

Nick says, which is as good a way to put it as any, I suppose.

They all escape from the Coyotl gang when Hank and Nick get the drop on the gang and Carly hits the Coyotl gang leader with a poker as Jarold subdues him.

Back at the police station, Hank is taking down the police report facts from Jarold and Carly, noting that this is the first time he can't put what he really knows happened into the report. He and Nick share their moment, and for the first time in a while, Hank looks grounded and confident.

Helping make this major plot development work is how well Hornsby and Giuntoli work together. Neither overdoes the moment of revelation and confession. The characters both seem more relieved than anything to finally be able to share the secret. It makes me wonder how Hank will partner Nick, now that the effort for Nick to hide who he really is has been removed. These two could be a potent dynamic duo -- unless Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) finds out that Hank is in on the secret, in which case, I'd start worrying if I was Hank.

The other plot thread in "Bad Moon Rising" had to do with Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) being awake and looking totally recovered in the hospital after her coma. She remembers everything and everyone -- except Nick. She even remembers, and warmly greets, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) when he accompanies Nick to her hospital room. As if that isn't hurtful enough, she even remembers their dinner and Monroe asking her for

the honey pepper cedar plank vegan salmon recipe.

Ouch.

Despite Nick's attempts to unlock her memory by sharing photos of them together, Juliette still regards him as a stranger. At episode's end, Nick drives her home from the hospital to the house -- their house. But Juliette still remembers nothing.

Points to Ponder:

*

Who can see what now?:

So, if you don't have to be a Grimm to see Wesen, what that does say about Portlanders? I thought Nick's Grimm powers gave him the ability to see the creatures when they're in their human stage, and then when they're in their Wesen form. But Hank sees Wesen when they creature out. If everybody can do this, wouldn't Wesen be morphing when they're annoyed by traffic, standing in a too-long, slow-moving line at Fred Meyer, or otherwise losing their cool? And wouldn't everyday Portlanders see them turn into monstrous looking creatures and wonder about it? How come nobody's talking about this?

*

Monroe's way with words:

We didn't see much of everybody's favorite reformed blutbad, but he did get off a few good lines. My favorite: when Nick is wondering about the fertility symbols they come across researching Coyotls, and wonders what they're about, Monroe pauses, then says, "When a Mommy Coyotl and a Daddy Coyotl love each other very much..." We also learn nights with a full moon aren't good ones for him, which makes sense.

Next week: Monroe and Rosalee (Bree Turner) go on a picnic! But it looks like things take a nasty turn.

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