Grimm season 5 episode 6 review: Wesen Nacht

This review contains spoilers.

5.6 Wesen Nacht

The Biest is back!

Thankfully we experience a welcome return to form for our favourite fairytale-based detective series this week. There was heaps of exposition, plenty of pace and a midseason finale shocker that will, no doubt, leave some fans wailing and gnashing their teeth over the winter break.

With Trubel safely back under Nick’s roof we finally discover more details about the shady government organisation with which she’s been working …for an entire year! Yes, we find out that after Trubel left for Philadelphia with Josh she was recruited to a government agency so secretive that not even the government knows much about it. So for the past twelve months she has been acting as a secret agent, fighting an “underground war” against Wesen from all corners of the Earth. (Which explains the kick-ass motorbike kitted out with buttons that release oil slicks and smoke, a la Wacky Races.)

These white hats call themselves Hadrian’s Wall, which is about as random as anything else Grimm throws at us on a weekly basis. As Trubel explains to Nick: “They want people like us on their side.”

We also discover how Trubel found Nick’s safe house – her employers have been tracking him for months.

But what is the most interesting snippet of information is that Trubel didn’t randomly turn up at Nick’s house and save his life last season – she was sent back to Portland ‘for’ Juliette, although it’s not clear if she was ordered to kill her.

This is because… Juliette’s not dead! Yes the Hexenbitch makes a surprisingly heroic return from the afterlife, dressed in latex and a blond bob, to rescue Nick and the crew from a gang of bloodthirsty Wesen!

Juliette has never been a fan-favourite due to a serious lack of personality and purpose for the first three seasons. Then the writers took two-dimensional Juliette and (rotting) fleshed out her character in dramatic fashion – unfortunately making her into someone deeply unlikeable. (You think we’re going to forget her trying to kill Monroe?)

So there will undoubtedly be groans emitting from many a viewer at her return – this house included. But with her dramatically different image, and an apparent attitude adjustment, her return may be just the thing to counter the yawn-fest that is Nick and Adalind’s domestic set-up.

Speaking of which, Adalind’s eyes light up at the mention of Meisner, and later pumps Trubel in-an-oh-so-subtle-way to find out if he has mentioned her. He hasn’t.

Trubel also looks uncomfortable talking to Adalind about Diana, as she obviously knows that her daughter isn’t being held by the Royals. Adalind appears to have turned into the new Juliette, in that everyone just lies to her now.

Most of the action this week though centres on a series of coordinated attacks on Wesen businesses by the Occultus Liberare. Although the reasons behind the attacks aren’t yet obvious, it’s likely they are attempting to pit Wesen against humans, as it turns out they are historically practiced at causing social unrest.

Not only do the gangs wear black shirts – probably a nod to the Fascist movements of the 1930s – but the two dangerous Wesen are called Trump and Cruz. Just saying.

It was also great to see veteran TV character actor Bob Clendenin playing the blobfish-like Hasenfussige Schnecke (which rather fittingly translates as cowardly slug.) The Occultus Liberare use him to set a trap for Monroe, although we don’t know why our favourite Blutbad is singled out. It does provide an excuse for Rosalee to show her ass-kicking skills.

Another point of note is that Wu sees Renard woge for the first time, which produces the best reaction from Wu.

So while we’re denied the annual Monroe Christmas extravaganza, we are left pondering Juliette’s shock return from the dead, and what that will mean for Nick’s poor battered heart.

Maybe we should all ask Santa for the show to keep to this path upon its return in January? (And maybe a little stocking filler of Meisner?) Grimm is at its best when it gathers its fantastic ensemble cast together in big, action-filled storylines that peel away a little more of the curtain between the human world and Wesen. Let’s hope for more in 2016.

Read Christine’s review of the previous episode, The Rat King, here.