After last week’s Halloween-themed episode “La Llorona,” we’re interested to see how ‘Grimm‘ starts to move forward (if at all) the growing tension between Captain Renard and Juliette. We’re also hoping for more Monroe, who’s been sidelined for the last couple episodes. Tonight’s episode is entitled ‘The Hour of Death,” which promises something intense. Does it deliver? Read on for our recap of the latest episode of ‘Grimm.’

The episode starts with the quote “And the brand upon the beast, the mark of his kin. For none shall live whom they have seen.” We then see a brand being heated as we hear voices in Detective Nick Burkhardt’s head as he dreams about a missing person. Juliette wakes him and his anger about the case and sleeping on the couch annoys her. We then see someone burning photos in a wood stove, and talking about how there’s a person practically drooling for the girl, and that he’s going to get paid well. Just then Nick and Hank show up looking for the missing girl. Nick notices a burning photo, and the man turns into a Wesen. Nick wrestles him outside and knocks him out and keeps punching him until Hank has to pull him off.

Back at the police station, Nick and Hank interrogate their suspect, when Wu calls them out. With the photos burned they have no evidence, and so they him go. When Nick points out he’s a Grimm to the suspect, the suspect freaks out and says that if he dies it’s Nick’s fault. Nick then says he’ll go it alone, and goes to his camper to get weapons. Juliette calls Adalind’s law firm to find out about Adalind, but Adalind quit and it’s a dead end. Renard then calls Juliette and says he’s concerned about Nick because he’s been on edge. He uses it as a way to meet her for coffee the next day. At the shop, Monroe looks up a “confess your sins” potion for Nick, who plans to use his crossbow to get it in his suspect. Nick shows up at the suspects house, crossbow in hand, and breaks in. There he finds the suspect dead and tied up in what looks to be a ritual. Just then Hank shows up and asks what Nick did.

Nick denies involvement, and Hank says this doesn’t look good for Nick. Then the Portland PD show up saying that the suspect confessed to everything and the location of the girl, and that leads the other cops to wonder why Nick and Hank are there. They go back to the station to listen to the call, which is filled with the suspect screaming as he gives out the information. They focus on the branding symbol, but have no leads. Renard gives a press conference, and we then go to the house of Bud, one of the beaver Wesens, and to Monroe’s house. They know what the symbol is, and Monroe calls Nick to talk to him about it, and so does Bud. The Wesen are panicked.

Nick and Hank show up at Monroe’s house, and Monroe says they’ve got real trouble. The symbol is that of a kind of Grimm who has no empathy. Monroe calls these types dinosaurs, but also deadly. Monroe also warns that this new guy could ruin Nick’s reputation with the Wesen. Renard calls a European about the uber-Grimm to see what he knows, but his contact has nothing. Back at Nick’s house he gets a call from the uber-Grimm, who likes that Nick brought a crossbow, but isn’t convinced Nick isn’t a total failure. We then see a cloaked figure watching a video of the kidnapper being tortured, and the video being uploaded to youtube. The clip goes viral. At the station Nick tells Hank go to talk to the kidnap victim. and her family, but their only clue is a paneled van, and so they chase it down. We then see the van and its owner about to take off with a duffel bag, but the police stop him – only for the suspect to shout that Nick killed his kidnapping partner.

They bring the suspect in as Renard meets Juliette for coffee. Renard asks if Juliette remembers anything from when she woke up (she doesn’t really), and then says that Nick is distracted and he wants to help. Juliette says that the memory loss of Nick makes everything really difficult, and she Freudian slips a reference to dating Renard. He goes to touch her hand, which sends Juliette out, but she left her sunglasses, which Renard holds on to. The suspect won’t answer questions, because he thinks Nick will just kill him, but in the van, they’ve found enough evidence to convict the guy. When they go back to question the suspect they find him gone. And at the suspect’s apartment a SWAT team finds the suspect dead and burned with the mark of the uber-Grimm. Just then Nick gets a call from the uber-Grimm who says that Nick’s not much of a Grimm. Ouch.

Back at the station, Bud stops by to tell him that his community is freaked out and they need this dealt with quick. It turns out the person who freed the suspect is Ryan the intern, who we then see confronting Bud and drugging him. Nick and Hank go to Ryan’s place and find his mother, who’s a drunk. Hank tells Nick to come to the bedroom, where Ryan has been collecting articles and pictures of Nick. Nick calls Bud’s house, but he’s not home, so Nick and Hank drive off.

Ryan has Bud tied up, and gets his brand heated up. He plans to film the torture, and Ryan talks about how Nick should have killed Bud because of the old order. Ryan says an example must be set, and that Nick is a traitor to his kind. Just then Nick and Hank show up at Bud’s shop. Nick chases after Ryan, and Nick punches Ryan in the face. Ryan then reveals that he’s a Wesen who wants to be a Grimm, and begs for Nick to kill him. Back at Nick’s Renard shows up to give Juliette her glasses back, and the two make awkward small talk until Renard goes in for the kiss, which then flashes Juliette back to waking up from her coma, and then she goes for another kiss before backing away, closing the door and freaking out. And that’s a great way to end an episode.

At this point the Juliette/Renard storyline (as we’re about halfway through the season) is starting to come to the fore, and it’s good because they’ve been playing footsies with it for most of the season. It does give the supporting players something to do, which is nice, but the conflict has been stagnant. From tonight, and the preview of next’s week’s episode, it looks like something interesting could come of this, and come of this soon.

As for this episode, the show has always had a subtext about modern living with outsiders/minorities, and the idea of a self-hating Wesen is probably as close as the show will come to acknowledging that subtext. That it’s Ryan the intern feels about as sloppy as the cook’s close-up in ‘The Hunt for Red October,’ but at least they waited a couple episodes to pay that character off, and his Wesen design was intriguing and disturbing. * All in all a solid episode that’s biggest demerit is that Monroe is still in cameo mode. And with Adalind’s character making a big return next week, it’s likely that Monroe will stay sidelined for a bit.

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