‘Grimm’ Review: “A Dish Best Served Cold”

After two episodes, it looks like 'Grimm' is ready to have a good old-fashioned wesen/killer of the week episode. Not to say we haven't enjoyed the last two weeks, but now that most of the zombie Nick stuff is wrapped up, we want to see what the show is going to do with its characters now that everyone close to Nick (except Wu) knows he's a Grimm.

The episode starts with the quote "'Tis Death's Park, where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet." Nick is getting a physical (looking good, David Giuntoli), and though he keeps jogging harder and harder, his heart rate and blood pressure don't change. The doctor questions if he's done anything different lately, which leads to a pause. Monroe and Rosalee go out for a nice dinner, and Monroe asks Rosalee if she wants to move in. He also tells her that he loves her. She says that's a relief because she loves him too. Just then Sam and Kimbers show up, they're friends of Monroe as he fixed Sam's watch. Back at their place, Juliette and Nick discuss the results of his physical, and she suggests they monitor him and hope it's temporary, but Nick is worried that it could be permanent. He says he feels more aware. Then we see a wesen running through a forest as his stomach expands and then explodes.

Back at the precinct, Hank and Nick gets the call for the corpse, which is still in a tree. Renard gets a call on his secret phone, and is told the police are investigating his brother's place. Frau Pech is mentioned, and might be in play. Just then Adalind shows up to talk to Renard's contact. The body is identified as Ned Klosterman. Nick and Hank talk to Ned's wife, where they find no leads, other than that they went out for dinner. In a park two teens make out, but when they notice blood they find another body in a tree.

Back at the precinct, Nick investigates the man he killed, Mitchell Zinc, the one with the knife. He remembers the incident, but then goes to Renard's office. Nick feels bad, while Renard points out that Nick's killed plenty of wesen as a Grimm, and then heads out. Touche. Then he and Hank are called out to the new body. This time it's a woman, and the cops find a receipt for Raven and Rose, a super fancy restaurant. It turns out that's the same one that Ned and his wife went to. Back in Austria, Sebastian (Renard's contact) breaks into a place and tells Renard that he can't find Frau Pech. Nick and Hank go to Raven and Rose, where the head chef and all the employees are wesen, Bauerschwein to be precise. They're pigs.

Nick and Hank show pictures of the victims to the head chef, and asks for the names of his employees and what the victims ate. Back at the station, they're told that there's no poisons in the food. Nick asks Juliette what it could cause it, and she suggests it could be breed-specific bloat. Which leads Nick to note that it could be a fight between the Blutbads (the wesen wolves) and Bauerschweins. Nick is then supposed to go to Monroe's to get the last of his stuff. At Monroe's, they reminisce about last season's events and Monroe points out that he's a Blutbad and that he just ate at the Raven and the Rose. As Nick's about to leave, Monroe throws Nick a surprise moving out party when Monroe gets a call. Sam (remember him?) has gone missing, and the gang put the pieces together. Rosalee heads off the to shop and finds the poison (black despair), which is Blutbad-speicifc, as Sam goes to a state park and rolls around as his stomach expands.

Nick, Hank and Monroe pull up to the state park and find Sam in a tree just in time to see his stomach explode. Monroe then tells Nick he's going to kill the pig. Nick goes to the restaurant and confronts the chef. The chef then reveals that, yes, he is doing it and it's going to keep going on because there's nothing Nick can do to stop it legally. Nick talks to Juliette, and he doesn't know what to do as he turns white-ish. It passes quickly, though. Monroe is furious as he talks to Rosalee, and then Nick shows up at the shop. Monroe storms out to go take care of it.

Back in Austria, Adalind investigates the death of Eric Renard as she cries a blood tear. Room service shoes up at her door, and someone videotapes her. The chef inspects his mushrooms, leaves his business, and walks to his car. He's followed by Monroe and other Blutbads. Just then Nick and Hank show up. Nick and Monroe go at it, and when Monroe won't back down, Nick shoots Monroe as other Blutbads start howling. Nick tells the chef that either he confesses or the Blutbad will kill all the Bauerschweins. finaly the Chef confesses and they arrest him. Monroe then gets up because it was all an act, and Nick and Hank get their arrest.

For an episode that dips back into the Big Bad Wolf/three little piggies well, this does a good job of playing with our knowledge of that, and on the episode from the first season. Actually, this seems like a good season long arc, all things considered, the minor skirmishes between angry wesen, with Nick call in the middle, heck, that's better than the amnesia plot in a walk. Perhaps it's something that can be revisited at a later date, but it's good to see the show get into the swing of things, and here, though Wu still has painfully little to do, we see each team player get their moments, including Juliette. Perhaps love interest suggested that the part should be bigger, but frankly I'd rather spend time with Monroe and Rosalee.

Speaking of, aren't they one of the most charming couples on television right now? And because they're not teenagers, because Monroe's not the most dashing of figures it's got a charm to it. The Nick was a zombie thing and Adalind's European adventures will surely pay off over the season, if not in the next couple episodes, but at least neither are all that obnoxious. Like Portland, the town it's set in, 'Grimm' is at its best when it's both mellow and funky.