Grimm season 4 episode 7 review: The Grimm Who Stole Christmas

It's Christmas time and there's a need to be afraid... Here's Christine's review of a particularly bonkers festive episode of Grimm...

This review contains spoilers.

4.7 The Grimm Who Stole Christmas

You know that old saying, “nutty as a fruitcake”? Well that could easily be applied to this week’s Grimm (and if you’ve seen the episode, this works on a couple of different levels.)

While last year we had the Wesen version of Bad Santa in KrampusThe Grimm Who Stole Christmas is this year’s nod to the festive season.

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The mystery centred on three little goblins who wreaked havoc on the festivities. However, they turn out not to be Wesen but pubescent boys – awful smell and all – which are afflicted by a rare genetic, seasonal disorder that makes them go as bonkers as if they’ve consumed an family-sized tin of Quality Street.

“Are you really telling me this is all about raging hormones?” asks an incredulous Hank. Yep, apparently so, Detective.

It turns out these creatures, called Kallikantzaroi, can only be cured by one thing… fruitcake.

Even weirder is that Portland, apparently at the forefront of the food truck movement, has a dedicated fruitcake truck. But it’s Christmas, so perhaps we should just allow for the fact the writers may have had one too many glasses of sherry, and give a pass to the nonsense of this storyline?

Luckily, Christmas is Monroe’s favourite time of year and, yes, the brilliantly over-the-top decorations are back! This year there’s even more cause to celebrate as he and Rosalee look forward to their delayed honeymoon. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for a start there’s the Wesen version of the KKK, who aren’t likely to give up their campaign of intimidation towards the couple. (It seems the Secundum Naturae Ordinem Wesen have been attempting to “root out impurity” within Wesen society since the time of the Spanish Inquisition.)

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With Bud’s help, Trubel manages to identify the culprits – none of whom look clever enough to organise a kid’s birthday party, let alone a campaign of terror. This makes me suspect something bigger, and much more sinister, is behind the threats.

Elsewhere, Sergeant Wu’s much-loved sarcasm is evolving into a series of barbs aimed directly at Nick, since he’s certain his friend is keeping information from him. When investigating a home invasion by the Kallikantzaroi, Wu asks “What invaded” the house, rather than “who”, and tells Nick: “strange is your speciality”. With the mid-season finale only a week away, it could be Wu is gearing up for a long-overdue confrontation with Nick.

One person who won’t be there next week is Trubel, who alongside Josh, this week departed Portland for Philadelphia. Our Grimm-in-training is all grown-up as she tells Nick she wants to help protect Josh from the Verrat that are pursuing him. We don’t know if Josh will ever develop into a Grimm, but it’s clear that Trubel has graduated from student to teacher, and will teach him how to protect himself from Wesen.

Getting out of Dodge is also a clever move on Trubel’s part, with Wu already viewing her as a murder suspect, and Special Agent Chavez pressuring her to join her secret task force. Perhaps there’s room for a spin-off?

The comic relief (apart from the silliness of teenage boys, Goblins and fruitcake) came from a conversation between Renard and Nick about their mothers, where the Captain says: “I don’t want my mother to kill your mother”, to which Nick replies the same. There is so much potential here for ‘your momma’ jokes. Please keep it up.

The cliffhanger, if you could call it that, is that it does indeed seem Juliette is pregnant. (The possibility dawns on her after a bout of nausea that lasts about four seconds before she’s fine again and chasing down four foot tall Grinches.)

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Of course, her worry is that she fell pregnant while in the guise of Adalind, which makes the whole thing quite confusing. I may be alone in feeling it’s a little too soon for another baby storyline, but it’s a way to keep Juliette in the show I suppose, without having to write in her veterinary skills to aid the plot.

Until next week’s mid-season finale!

Read Christine’s review of the previous episode, Highway Of Tears, here.

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