Grimm season 4 episode 6 review: Highway Of Tears

This review contains spoilers.

4.6 Highway Of Tears

To paraphrase Nick Burkhardt this week, “It’s back!”

Grimm treated us this week to plot development, some delicious dialogue, and the best laugh-out-loud line of the series so far. This was all a relief, particularly as we were all expecting the most awkward sex scene in TV history.

To recap, we discovered last week that Juliette must sleep with Nick in the guise of arch nemesis Adalind in order for Nick to regain his powers.

In fact, Juliette treats the whole situation with surprising good humour, and even a little sass. I mean, Nick has to find Adalind’s physical presence sexy enough to enable him to perform, but without enjoying it too much, presumably. That’s one a tightrope that our hero’s walking.

The group dynamic really shone this episode, with our heroes all rooting for Nick’s transformation back to Grimm, while trying not to think about their friends getting it on. They offered a mix of nervousness, encouragement and a forced cheeriness that was attempted to hide how weirded out they actually felt about the whole “creepy” situation.

Also, pairing Monroe and Rosalee with Trubel was a clever move, as they all anxiously tried to distract themselves from thoughts of Nick and Juliette/Adalind’s tryst. It also highlighted Trubel’s innocence with a hilarious interaction with Monrosalee that proves she really doesn’t know the meaning of ménage à trois.

On a deeper level, the intimidation suffered by Monroe and Rosalee at the hands of Wesen fundamentalists has inflamed the group. The burning wolfsangel symbol on their lawn – of course a metaphor for the burning crosses of the hateful Ku Klux Klan – was the tipping point for Juliette, convincing her that Nick must regain his powers to protect his friends. I pity the fanatic that takes on a tooled-up Juliette and Trubel on protection duty at the Spice Shop.

Incidentally, the group out to terrorise Monrosalee are a centuries-old society that believes intermarriage between Wesen is unnatural and whose goal is to “keep Wesen pure”. So you imagine there’ll be some pure blood spilt when Nick finds them, because… drum roll… Nick the Grimm is back, hooray!

As someone in the comments rightly pointed out last week, there wouldn’t be much point watching a show called Grimm, when the lead character was just a regular guy (whose only power seemed to be having good hair.)

Incidentally, when Juliette morphed back from ‘being Adalind’ she experienced crippling stomach pains that initially made me think the potion had imbued her with her own magical powers. This would be an inspired move from the writers! It really would add some extra dimension to her character, and provide her with an insight into Nick’s life.

My second thought was that she may become pregnant from the encounter – and if a baby was conceived using Adalind’s body, what effect would that have on the child? Hmmmm.

Over in Austria, Adalind decides to ally with Viktor in the hunt for her daughter – and it probably beats sleeping on a stone cell floor with weeping walls. She brings him up to speed on Kelly Burkhardt, her Grimm identity, and the death of Viktor’s men. It’s not long before he realises they should start with Kelly in their hunt for baby Diana.

As does Elizabeth, who is resolved to finding her granddaughter. If all interested parties come together at the same time, it could lead to a massive three-way – it seems to be a theme this week –  battle for the child. Or it even more excitingly, Kelly and Elizabeth could team up to kick Verrat ass, which would be something to look forward to.

Before Elizabeth departs she flags the importance of the witch’s hat that Adalind used in her spell on Nick. Shall we take bets on whether this idea is ever developed, or will it go the way of the keys storyline, or Nick’s intermittent dying sessions last season?

Elsewhere, it turns out David Icke was right all along about secret lizard people! The Phansigar is a Komodo-like dragon that abducts and sacrifices young couples to their god. With so much going on the Wesen storyline this week seems a little bit of an afterthought, but it is good to see veteran TV actor Erick Avari playing the lead lizard.

But wait, there’s more.

Trubel shows some efficient flick-knife skills when dealing with one of Chavez’s goons who’s dispatched to follow her.

Also, Josh Porter, on the run from the Verrat, turns up at Nick’s house. His wide-eyed bewilderment at everything that’s going on around him is actually endearing – as is his interaction with Trubel.

Next week is Grimm’s Christmas special, and the return of “St Nick” – but I suspect from the preview it won’t be all Christmas cheer in Portland these holidays.

Read Christine’s review of the previous episode, Cry Luison, here.

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