‘Grimm’ Season Premiere Review: “The Ungrateful Dead”

When we last left Detective Nick Burkhardt he was stuck in a coffin and about to be shipped off to Europe, while Portland had a serious zombie problem just as Juliette was starting to get her memory back and accept Nick as a Grimm. There's a lot of drama going on in 'Grimm' and the season premiere is stuck trying to tie much of that up.

The episode opens with the quote "But if I stand at the sick person's feet, he is mine." The episode opens with the last moments of the season 2 finale as we see Sean Renard's brother Eric get into a car to leave Portland, followed by Sean, Juliette, Monroe and Rosalee hiding and escaping in their car, and Nick being caught and poisoned by The Baron. Sean shows up at the stockyard following his brother as Monroe ditches the zombies stuck on his car. Monroe crashes the car, so they abandon it and climb the nearby shipping containers. Sean sees the Baron loading Nick into a truck when he's assaulted by zombies, as are Monore and the gang. Back at the station Wu and Hank socialize and note that it's quiet. Hank then gets a call from Juliette and she asks for help. But she, Monroe and Rosalee (though they are doing their best) are way outnumbered.

Sean is getting choked out, but he Wesens out and fights back successfully. Monroe goes for the same strategy and then the cops show up. Sean gets a phone call from Hank and tells him this was Eric's fault. The Baron is about to unload Nick as Sean grabs everyone to head to the airport. Renard explains that the Baron was really after Nick, while Rosalee explains that the Baron's poison might not effect a Grimm the same way it does a Wesen, while Hank gets the cops to stop the private jet from taking off. But the two cops who show up are poisoned. Adalind gets a witch heart (still beating) and a ceremony is enacted to get her powers back. Back at the airport, Renard and company are too late.

Sean explains he can't stop the plane, while Wu tells them that they've got the zombies mostly contained. On the plane, the Baron takes a drink and has a smoke when he hears something. Nick starts pounding on his coffin door. Adalind, to get her powers back, has to mutilate the hexenbiest whose heart she's taking and go into a forest where she must dig to find out if she will be accepted. Nick is able to break free, so the Baron poisons him again, but it doesn't work. Nick then beats up the Baron and the pilots, which causes the jet to crash (thankfully into trees... Hrm, Portland to Europe... international waters... well, who cares).

Rosalee starts mass-producing a cure. Monroe wants to go to Europe, and Juliette agrees with him, but Rosalee argues they're too weak to fight the Royals, while Monroe wants to raise an army of friends to help Nick. When Monroe breaks a glass, Rosalee thinks they can make the cure in gas form and get the zombies to inhale it. Sean goes back to his office where he calls his Royal contact. Sean wants his brother dealt with, discretely if possible. Hank comes in with the flight info, and Sean tell Hank that he'll take care of the whole thing. At the crash site, the Baron is dead and Nick has survived and looks very pissed off. All the zombies are contained at the stockyard when Juliette, Monroe and Rosalee show up with the cure. Monroe distracts the zombies and they're able to throw the cure in. Back at the station, Hank gets a call about the plane crash. Back at the crash area, Nick is running around like a crazy person when he sees a car.

Nick then sees a bar and goes towards it. Back at the stockyard the zombies are returning back to normal when Monroe gets a phone call from Hank about the plane crash. The crash site isn't that far away, so Hank shows up with Renard and they find the Baron's body. They plot to check nearby 911 calls. Nick goes into the bar and when a patron tries to start something Nick quickly beats the guy down. He then decides to take on almost everyone in the bar, partly using his super-hearing (hey, that's back!)

Juliette and company show up at the crash site and find out about the bar. Then everyone goes to the bar where Monroe sniffs a trail. Adalind digs deep enough and then buries the witch's extremities and heart. She waits and then the area's plants all start dying as vapors rise around her. Adalind's a Hexenbiest yet again. Cops show up at the bar, when Renard warns that he can only help Nick so long as he doesn't kill anyone. Nick's moving around the forest with voices in his head when he hears people talking at a house. The screen then says "This ain't over yet."

Okay, so this was a lot of motion, but as a whole, it was pretty empty. It was fun to see the show get away from the monster of the week episodes that it's often stuck doing, but -- though it was great to have the gang back -- this was about getting the pieces back into place, something that won't happen for at least another episode... possibly two. That said, it was probably necessary to do that. This doesn't suggest much about the season at large, there doesn't seem to be a bigger or smaller budget, and all the chemistry is there, but... meh. as many shows and serials prove, it more fun to get into trouble than get out of it, and this was fine for that, but I can't wait until Nick is back to normal, and the show can deal with the emotional fallout of Juliette's yearlong amnesia, and all that other stuff. 'Grimm,' it's good to have you back, but please, wrap it up ASAP.