Grimm Season 4 episode 16 recap: “Heartbreaker”

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Aah, domestic bliss. Renard is sleeping in his bed when Juliette comes storming into his room, furious. After she cut her hand to open Adalind’s little book, there is nothing in it that can fix her. She want’s her life back, and if she doesn’t get it, she warns, something very bad is going to happen. Poor Renard hasn’t even had his coffee yet.

Meanwhile, a group of mountain bikers are racing along a trail. They stop to take a breather. A guy starts to get fresh with one of the riders, Bella, but she’s having none of it, because dude is a total creep, and seems to do this often. He taunts her when he doesn’t get his way and she takes off to get away from him. A second rider follows her further down the trail,.

Bella hits a rut in the trail and does a faceplant. The second rider, concerned, rushes over to check if she’s okay. She claims to be. This dude now confesses that he’s in love with Bella, but she really doesn’t want to hear that and basically tells the guy to go. He won’t, which makes her agitated and she seems to have a bit of a breakdown. The guy tries to comfort her, but she tries to stop him. Too late. His hands have been slimed on contact with her. She turns and Woges, becoming a frog creature. His face breaks out in sores and he chokes, then rolls down the hill and dies. The frog/girl flees, upset.

Nick and Hank meet for breakfast. Nick is still bummed out and when Hank presses him, confesses that he can’t reach Juliette, oh, and she’s a Hexenbeast! They get the call from Wu. At the crime scene, it appears that the victim, one Zack Blumenthal, has had a severe allergic reaction. Wu cracks wise that Zack is an organ donor, “but I think that ship has sailed.” Wu is a real cut up. Nick and Hank pay a visit to Zack’s apartment, where they find his laptop as well as pictures and drawings of Bella. Poor kid had it bad. Pity Wu isn’t there to make a few more jokes.

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Back at the ongoing Royal plot thread, Renard and his double agent, Sam, have a chat. Sam gives Renard the rundown on Viktor’s return to Vienna and that there is a replacement coming to town, which means that they’re going to have to show some progress on the hunt for the Super Baby and Nick’s mom.

Bella calls her mom distraught. Her mom reassures her that the whole thing with Zack is not her fault, and while that is technically true, Bella is still upset. Her mom tells her to cool it and to do and say nothing or else she’s going to end up like mom: With a huge gnarly scar on her face?

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Back at the station, Wu has found more pictures of Bella on Zack’s laptop and on his “socialsector” page. They discover the connection to the bike club that he and Bella belong to, the River City Riders, also a good name for a cover band. Hank and Nick drop by the Riders meetup place. Neither Zack nor Bella show, because Zack is dead and Bella is freaking out. The riders confirm that Bella was a bit of a loner and confirm that Zack was probably in love with her. They only know where she works: City Bikes.

Wu calls in with information that Zack died from a rare, badass toxin resembling those found in several species of Colombian frogs and birds. Wu is immediately onto the fact that it’s likely a Wesen thing. Wu has really taken to the idea of Wesen, to the point where if he giggled and danced I wouldn’t be surprised.

Nick and Hank pay a visit to City Bikes to ascertain whether or not Bella is indeed a Wesen. They lean on Bella pretty hard and she does admit that she might have been the last person to see Zack and that he did hit on her. She’s agitated and shaken up, but no matter how hard Nick leans on her, she doesn’t Woge.

Back at the Royal subplot, Prince Kenneth has arrived and is interrogating Adalind. She informs him that not only has Nick become a Grimm again – something that wasn’t supposed to happen – but also that Juliette has become a Hexenbeast. Kenneth, being much more sly than the rest of the Royal bunch also discovers that Adalind is knocked up. She, like the idiot she is, tells him that the baby is Viktor’s.

Nick and Hank hit up Rosalee and Monroe at the Apothecary hoping to glean more info on their Wesen. After some speculation they believe that Bella is likely a Folta Zela (a name I am only guessing at because they didn’t pay a visit to the trailer). Rosalee informs them that this type of Wesen doesn’t Woge normally, but only in the presence of someone who is attracted to them. Bella likely can’t control it, so Rosalee suggests whipping up something to neutralize the poison.

Sam the spy pays a visit to Kenneth to turn in his bogus progress report, which apparently worked on Viktor but Kenneth is having none of it. He outs Sam as a double agent then kicks Sam’s ass. Kenneth then informs Adalind that Viktor is sterile and maybe she wants to amend her lie.

That night, at City Bikes, Bella gets a visit from Ricky, the creep we saw hitting on her during the ride. Of course Ricky is nor ordinary creep and has decided to get all rapey now that Zack is out of the picture. Bella fights back but Ricky Woges and quickly overpowers her to steal a big fat creepy kiss, which as we know is really bad for your health. He breaks out in the familiar sores and she Woges into the toad. He collapses. Bella calls 911 and jets.

Meanwhile Nick is at home. He get an email from Trubel but he doesn’t reveal his problems, likely because she would come back to Portland and start kicking some Wesen ass. Juliette comes in to grab some things, expecting Nick to be out. Nick still want to fix stuff and make things work but Juliette goes total bitch on him an laughs in his face. Nick takes a call from Hank, another body has been found, so Juliette mocks him, telling him to go and be a good little Grimm and do his Grimmy Grimm stuff – which is thematically appropriate for an episode about love gone bad, but wow is she ever horrible.

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At City Bikes, Nick and Hank make the assumption that the latest victim is Bella’s. She was the last one there, the door was unlocked and her keys are on the floor. They get her home address from the shop owner. They check her place out but nobody is home. They do, however, find a photo of Bella and her Mom, showing her Mom’s nasty face scar.

Meanwhile Renard’s bad day continues. He gets a call from Sam who sets up a rendezvous, but Renard doesn’t realize that Sam’s cover has been blown and he’s making the call at gunpoint from a script provided by Kenneth, the Prince of Darkness. After the meeting is set, Kenneth shoots Sam, killing him. FYI: Kenneth seems to be a total dick.

Back at the station, some detective work by Wu has turned up the fact that, 24 years ago, Bella’s mom was a rape victim herself and her assailant died at the scene of a suspicious allergy attack. It was ruled accidental by the ME. Rosalee calls with the news that she and Monroe have developed a concoction that could block the poison in Bella’s system but there is a huge potential for side effects. Wu provides the detectives with Bella’s mom’s address.

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Bella has decided to cool her heel’s at Mom’s, kicking it in the shed out back. Her mom offers to take care of her, but when Mom goes back to the house, she sees smoke coming out of the chimney. Mom rushes into the house where there’s a hot poker blazing away in the fireplace. She confronts Grandma who is up to no good. Mom tries to snatch the poker out of the fire so Grandma knocks her out and withdraws the poker from the fire. Turns out, the poker is a branding iron that looks a lot like the scar on her and her daughter’s face, and Bella is going to be next.

Nick and Hank arrive on the scene to find Bella’s mom sprawled on the floor. They bust in to the house. Mom is still alive and she comes to warning them about the Grandmother. The boys hear a scream from out back and Nick hustles out to the shed where Gramama is attempting to brand Bella’s face. Nick tells the old lady to back off so she goes after him with the red-hot poker which he ducks, disarming Grandma in the process. Hank and Mom arrive and Nick tells them all that they might have an alternative to facial mutilation.

At the Apothecary, Nick, Hank, Rosalee and Monroe are with Bella, giving her the lowdown on Rosalee’s strange brew. Basically, the potion is one of a kind, which means it’s untested, likely dangerous and almost certain to have side effects of a negative nature. Bella tells them that her life couldn’t get much worse because she’s either going to have a brand on her face or be a target for rapists for the rest of her life or kill her lovers. She chugs the brew.

Renard arrives at his meeting with Sam only to find the poor guy dead and chained up. Kenneth reveals himself. He and Renard have a fight, and while Renard is one tough SOB, Kenneth throws down with a terminator vibe, eventually besting Renard who ends up flat on his back bleeding form his gunshot wounds. Kenneth gives him the ultimatum: Join me or die. He drops the mike and splits, leaving Renard to his thoughts.

Epilogue: Bela is at dinner having a nice time with a nice boy. It’s revealed that there were side effects to Rosalee’s concoction and Bella’s face has become scaly, though she looks the same. Everything is okay though, because her dinner companion has a face tattoo!

Case Closed.

New episodes of Grimm premiere Fridays at 9/8CT on NBC.

Photo by: Scott Green/NBC

 

 

1 Comment

  1. Scott, the Wesen is called a Folterseele and it’s a German word, so the “s” is pronounced like “z”. You actually weren’t very far off with Folta Zela. Here’s a suggestion, watch the episode with the subtitles turned on, and you’ll see how they spell these crazy Wesen names. Almost all of the names are German words, so it helps if you know a little German.

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