Grimm season 4 episode 13 review: Trial By Fire

This review contains spoilers.

4.13 Trial By Fire

“Bring it on, bitch!”

Picture this: You’ve been lied to, drugged, cursed, put in a coma, lost your memory and been cheated on.

Now the minx responsible for four seasons of misery turns up on your doorstep, confident she can once again manipulate you for her own purposes. But what she doesn’t realise is that you’re now more than a match for her scary-face powers – and have recently discovered you don’t give a hoot about killing Wesen that pose a threat.

And so begins the biestfight we’re all been waiting for – where Juliette substitutes a fortune in therapy sessions for an explosive fight with Adalind that shows us what the newly-formed Hexenbiest has really got. The two really go at it, smashing Nick and Juliette’s living room to pieces once again. (It makes you wonder if their neighbours are extremely tolerant, of just hard of hearing.)

Adalind barely escapes with her life, having received the kicking we’ve all been waiting for since Juliette discovered her new identity.

More importantly perhaps, the fight prompts Juliette to confess all to Nick who, as you may imagine, is more than a little shocked at his girlfriend’s transformation from vacant vet to Hexen-killer.

It’s probably not the best Valentine’s gift he’s ever received.

There were lots of other things worth mentioning this episode too – not least the return of a character from season one that enabled us to see how much Nick’s character has progressed since those early days back in Aunt Marie’s Airstream.

The character is question is Peter Orson (Daniel Roebuck), a cop and Bauerschwein who killed Monroe’s friend Hap, after Hap’s sister (and Monroe’s ex-girlfriend) Angelina killed his brothers in season one’s The Three Bad Wolves. Orson is now serving time thanks to Nick, who back in season one actually tried to stick to the law, instead of handing out his own Grimm justice. Interestingly, Nick acknowledges he was still just a rookie back then, and may have handled it differently today.

Incidentally, last week we wondered if Wu would have a problem with Nick and his manipulation of the law, and his job, to suit his role of Grimm. It turns out, no he doesn’t. He seems perfectly happy to join in with the subterfuge. In fact, Wu just appears to love the whole secret world of Wesen and Grimms.

Nick and Hank ask Orson for help in tracking down an arsonist they believe he has history with, and it turns out to be a well-handled story that shows that again shows that not everything is black and white when it comes to Wesen, and their ancient feuds.

It’s more than a little awkward when Orson encounters Monroe at The Spice Shop, as apart from their obvious personal resentment towards one another, the bad blood between Bauerschwein and Blutbad runs deep.

In a rarely-seen display of toughness, Rosalee tells Monroe he’s being ridiculous, pointing out the absurdity of Wesen fighting because of some ancient slight. “Didn’t I just nearly lose you to that kind of old world stupidity?” she asks, pointing out Monroe’s close call with the Wesenrein.

Although Monroe and Orson are unlikely to forgive one another for the deaths of their loved ones, the two found a way to work with one another that could actually teach the Wesen Council a thing or two about building bridges.

The other great thing about the hunt for the culprit – and ancient fire starter called an Excandesco believed to be the basis of the phoenix – is that the gang bring him down with water blasters filled with their own bright green flame-retardant potion.

Nick adding the toy gun to his weapons store of swords, crossbows and flails after the fight was a great touch, and a sign that Grimms have to move with the times.

Elsewhere, Renard continues to use Sam Damerov for his private investigation into Kelly Burkhardt – not knowing that Damerov is delivering the same information to Prince Viktor and Adalind across town in what Viktor describes as “back channel diplomacy”.

Or maybe he does know about the double-cross. It’s not often that the Captain is caught on the back foot, so that’s one to watch carefully.

Also, Renard doesn’t seem to have been troubled again by his bullet wounds weeping blood since occurring two episodes ago. Will it be an occasional affliction, like Nick’s greying out, or will it be picked up later in the season?

Juliette’s revelation to Nick is a proper cliffhanger, as Grimm’s now on a break until the 20th of March.

We know this, however: Juliette has demonstrably more power than Adalind, and is capable of causing great damage.

The trailer for the next episode reveals more double-crossing, and a potentially huge spanner in the works for Nick and Juliette’s relationship. As if finding out your girlfriend’s a witch isn’t bad enough.

The countdown begins here.

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

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.