Grimm Recap: Fight Club!!

Hi Gasmii! It’s so good to be back after all of the site issues. We missed you!

Let’s jump right in to a recap and discussion of the most one of the most recent episodes of Grimm. In this episode, Monroe and Nick accidentally join a fight club! I hate it when that happens. One minute you’re at a mini mart buying milk, the next you’re know you’re circling a stranger in a dark alley and taking a fist to the face just so you can finally feel alive again. Or is that just me?

The episode begins with a weathered and creepy dude who looks like a former Meatloaf Roadie / Braveheart extra sniffing dirt. Either he’s tracking someone, or he’s just a weirdo. Who else smells dirt? Apparently he’s found what he’s looking for; he and his buddies take off through the forest on horse. We’ve got dirt sniffing and horse transport; I’d say these are our bad guys.

Creepy Beard, Leathery Skin, Sniffing Dirt? Yep, all the hallmarks of a bad guy

Meanwhile, an elderly couple is doing old people things in a cabin in the woods of doom. I’m beating a dead horse here, but I cannot believe that people are still occupying the woods of Portland after all of the murder that seems to happen within said woods.

“I know the murder rate in these woods is 80%, but we’ll be FINE!”

The elderly are preparing dinner and worrying about their dog, who is barking outside. Mr. Elderly takes a flashlight outside to look for her. He doesn’t hear the ominous music like we do, so he doesn’t know he’s about to die.

He sees movement in the bushes and assumes it is the dog. Old man should watch more horror movies to learn what it means when bushes are moving outside your house in murder forest, but he’ll never get the chance because the bush monster mauls him. He staggers inside the cabin, holding his guts!

“Good news! The dog is fine. As for the bad news, I think my intestines speak for themselves”

His attacker is hot on his heels – it’s carnivorous turtle man. This would be the type of trauma that would haunt a person for years! Old lady doesn’t have to worry about years of expensive therapy because turtle man takes her down toot suite. One the elderly couple is dealt with, turtle man goes straight for the raw steak that was supposed to be elderly dinner. I bet they would have shared with you, turtle man! You didn’t have to kill them!

Also, King Koopa called. He needs you to guard the castle against some Italian plumbers.

Turtle man is busy gnawing on his treat when the horsemen arrive and catch him medieval cowboy style with ropes and drag him away. Carnivorous turtle reverts to his human form as he is being dragged off.

I would stick to this look when talking to the ladies, my friend

Nick and Hank-Dre arrive on the scene the following day. Officer NotWu is there – WHERE IS Wu?!? I miss that sassy sarcastic Asian. NotWu explains the crime scene to our boys. Nick notes that it looks like the old guy was ripped open, the old lady was clawed to death and someone was gnawing on the steak. That’s disturbing! Were they killed by an animal, or were they attacked by a human and then gnawed on by wildlife. We know – BOTH!

Nick notices the horse tracks; apparently he is a tracker now. Is that a Grimm skill or was someone an eagle scout? He and Hank-Dre figure out that the horses were dragging something and Nick finds a piece of hardware from a saddle. Hank Dre is not a horse guy, so he’s got nothing.

What’s Juliet up to? Who cares! I know, but we get to find out anyway. She’s at home doing laundry and calls Nick to get his request for their anniversary dinner! AWWW. AS she is putting away laundry, Juliet finds the engagement ring from the pilot episode that Nick did not do a very good job of hiding in his sock drawer. Nick, you better step up your hiding skills.

You know where a good place to keep the engagement ring would have been? YOUR SUPER SECRET TRAILER.

Juliet seems pleased; he’s going to propose. OR IS HE?

Back to the investigation! One of the bloody prints at the cabin yields a suspect, a Dimitri Scantos. Dimitri has a record of drug use and related arrests, but nothing violent. Hank-Dre and Nick pay a visit to Dimitri’s parole officer, Leo Taymor. Mr. Taymor seems pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. He doesn’t think Dimitri is capable of murder, but Dimtri was having a hard time. Since he’s phoning his job in, Leo didn’t violate Dimtri for skipping his last check.

“You think Dimitri killed those people? Guess I should have called him. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.”

 

“Tell that to the elderly. And their steak dinner.”

So Leo made a bad call. He tells Nick and Hank-Dre that Dimitri worked at a boxing gym, so our guys head off. I would dismiss the PO as story furniture at this point, but the camera lingers on him a bit after Hank-Dre and Nick leave, so we know he’s totes involved!

At the gym, Dimitri’s uncle concurs with the PO – Dimitri is not the murdering kind. He hasn’t seen Dimitri in a few weeks, but he’s not worried. He suggests Nick and Hank-Dre talk to another boxer, Brian. Brian is friends with Dimitri, and he is also part rhino!

Brian the Rhino, or Bri-No, is startled by the presence of a Grimm, but Nick calms him down – he’s there as a cop not a Grimm. Bri-No is cool and says he’s willing to help. He hasn’t seen Dimtri in a since they worked out and went running in Forest Park. In fact, he is willing to take them with him now! Jogging in the murder woods – not a good idea. I don’t care if you are part rhino, EVERYBODY DIES IN THERE! He even says not many people are in the woods; um, YEAH BECAUSE THEY ARE TRYING NOT TO GET MURDERED!

Bri-No takes off running and Nick and Hank-Dre eat his dust on a leisurely walk along the trail. Thanks to his smartphone, Nick figures out that the murder site is 6 miles from the path. Even more suspicious, there’s horse manure on the trail! It’s not hard evidence, but it’s a lead.

So, who’s going to bag this up? 1-2-3-NOT IT!

The poop investigation is interrupted when Hank-Dre gets a call – Portland PD found Dimitri’s car at an abandoned warehouse. Ah, the abandoned warehouse; another site where one is likely to get murdered.

Elsewhere in the woods, Bri-No is violating the number one rule of jogging safety, he’s got his ipod on cranked to full volume.

It’s like he’s TRYING to get murdered

At the warehouse, Officer NotWu shows Hank-Dre and Nick the remains of Dimitri’s car, which has been stripped clean. They’re going to go over the car for evidence anyway since the only other evidence they have right now is horse shit…literally.

Nick sees someone watching them, and he and Hank-Dre follow the guy into the warehouse. They don’t find their peeping tom, but they do find the remains of what appears to be a fighting arena. There’s blood all over the place and a creepy drawing in the center. The text is in Latin, which neither of our boys speak.

What has four thumbs and didn’t go to Catholic school? THESE GUYS!

There’s more – the wall is adorned with crazy symbols written in what appears to be blood, and a trail of blood leading to a broken mace lodged into a wall. Not Wu yells that they have a suspect on foot! NotWu tried to chase him down but got hit in the face with something.

Bri-No is still jogging and jamming to his iPod, blissfully unaware that he is being chased by thugs on horseback. He finds he’s got company once they capture him. THIS IS WHY WE DON’T JOG ALONE WITH EARPHONES IN, PEOPLE! You never know when a bunch of thugs on horses will be waiting in the woods to rope you and kidnap you for their weird fighting ring in an abandoned warehouse!

What is he listening to that drowns out the sound of horses? If he lives, Bri-No will be facing serious hearing loss.

At the station, Hank-Dre does some online research on medieval weapons and deduces that they are dealing with some kind of underground gladiator fighting. But does it relate to the murders in the woods? I bet someone who reads Latin can help! And guess who reads Latin? Renard, the Police Captain / secret Vesen King of Portland!

Renard tells them that the Latin translates to “man’s first happiness is to know how to die, the second is to be forced to die”. A little long perhaps, but it would still look good embroidered on a pillow AND would creep your guests out, so win-win.

Renard tells Hank-Dre and Nick that he took a little Latin back in high school, when he wanted to be a doctor. Two problems here:

One, nobody asked and the fact that you are volunteering info makes you sound like you’re trying to hide something.

Two, you took A LITTLE Latin in HS and you managed to retain enough to read it 25-30 years later? I took A LOT of Spanish in HS and I still can’t read half the shit I see in Spanish.

“I wanted to be a Doctor, I’m not like, king of the creatures or anything. Oh, in case it comes up, I learned French when I wanted to be a…um…maybe you two should go back to fighting crime while I think of something.”

Nick and Hank-Dre don’t seem perturbed by points one and two, probably because they’re still trying to wrap their minds around the secret gladiator fighting ring where people equate happiness to forced death. I can’t blame them, that’s pretty crazy.

The investigation finally turns up a connection between the murders and the fight club! Turns out Dimitri’s blood was on the scene at the warehouse AND the strap in the woods. Since most people don’t go around bleeding all over the place, it’s probably not a coincidence. The next step? Finding out who owns the warehouse. Hank-Dre volunteers for property research duty.

Let’s check in with the shady parole officer, Leo Taymor. Leo is in the police department garage, walking along minding his own biz when he gets pinned to the wall by Renard’s SUV. Turns out Renard knows about the fight club and was allowing it to exist. Renard handpicked the fighters from gang members and drug addicts in his canton. The Lowen (Lion Creatures) get their fight and Renard’s job gets a little easier. It’s a win-win!

Sounds like it stopped being win for the Lowen; Leo is all whiny because gang members and junkies don’t make for an exciting fight. Dimitri, on the other hand, is apparently awesome. Renard orders Leo him to shut down the fights, but Leo’s feeling pretty big for his britches and he refuses. It’s 2012 and money means more than royalty nowadays. He even alludes to blackmailing Renard, pointing out they they are both involved. It certainly would not look good for the Police Captain to be associated with an illegal fighting ring. Renard lets him go, but I have a feeling Leo is going to regret his hubris before this episode is over.

“You are going DOWN, Leo the PO. DOWN.”

While Hank-Dre sifts through real estate records, Nick is at the Grimm trailer investigating his weapons cabinet. He finds a leather piece similar to the one they discovered in the woods. Naturally there is an entry in the Grimm-o-pedia about gladiator fights involving Vesen and the Lowen:

I knew there were Lions in the Gladiator games, but I didn’t realize they fought with weapons…

Monroe shows up as Nick invited him to get the Vesen perspective and Monroe is way honored – his at the Smithsonian of Grimmology! He promises Nick that he won’t blab about the trailer and what he’s seen.

Nick wants to get down to business, as usual. We learn that the Lowen are fierce lion-like creatures, and back in the day, the Romans would capture them and make them fight in the arena. Apparently the Lowen rolled with it and now it is a major a part of their culture. Nick asks Monroe whether it is likely that the Llowyn could be running a modern day gladiator fight club. Monroe isn’t sure, but he might now know someone; his train of thought is derailed when he sees a mace:

which transitions nicely to….

…the Gladiator Fight Club!! In the ring, Dimitii is fighting Bri-No, which sucks because I like Bri-No and he’s probably not going to win this one. Dimitri is of course kicking Bri-No’s ass. One Dimitri bests Bri-No, Leo the PO gives the thumbs down a la Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator, and Dimitri drives his sword into Brian’s chest. BOOOOOOOOOOOO. Jamming a sword into a dude’s chest is a terrible way to say thanks for all the jogging and friendship.

“SWEEP THE LEG JOHNNY!”

Not cool

Monroe rolls into a bar undercover style to talk to a bookie; he shows his blutbad and it looks like the bookie is either a mouse-vessen or rat-vessen:

Mauzhertz or Reinegen? You decide.

The bookie starts telling him about normal human gambling, but Monroe isn’t interested; he gets to the point: where is the REAL action? The bookie denies covering Llowyn games, so Monroe slips him a hundred bucks – did Nick ever pay him back for the ground up human organs? Right about now, Portland PD and NIck owe Monroe $400 by my count!

As usual, money talks and the bookie tells Monroe to be at an address by 6pm to get directions to the fight. He also tells Monroe he can place a bet at the fight. I don’t like this at all; why wouldn’t the bookie take his money? I smell a trap.

Monroe calls Nick to give him the deets. Nick tells him to callback as soon as he knows where the fight is, and he doesn’t want Monroe to go to the fight because it’s too dangerous. I agree, and I would like to take that a step further and point out that it is also too dangerous for Monroe to go meet some Llowyn ALONE at 6:00pm! So far Monroe has been jumped at a clock tower and he’s had to calcify an ogre, now he’s got to risk being forced into the ring with a bloodthirsty carnivorous turtle man. Seeing as how Monroe is my favorite, I am getting tired of Nick putting him in danger. Send someone less likable on one of these errands already!

Hank has been researching the warehouse and it’s a dead end. No one owns it at the moment, so it is truly an abandoned warehouse, which makes it a perfect place for the fight.

Renard interrupts the warehouse discussion to ask if Nick and Hank-Dre have heard of Bri-No; they acknowledge that they met him at the gym and that he is a friend of Dimitri’s. Renard has bad news – there was a missing persons report filed for Bri-No the night before and his car was found abandoned by the warehouse.

Renard points out that Bri-No and Dimitri have the same parole officer. Something tells me that Renard is delivering the info about Bri-No instead of NotWu just so that he could bring up the PO. Cross Renard and you’ll pay! In fact, Renard tells Hank-Dre to visit the Leo at home. He couches it as office politics, but you know he wants Hank to find something. Sneaky!

“Make sure you go to his home. With your gun. At night. Shoot to kill.”

Nick goes to check out the stripped car, where Officer NotWu is on the scene. Nick gets a call from Monroe; they’ve got him waiting off St. Helen’s Hwy. They baddies are on the scene – the arrive with a truck pulling a horse trailer. Nick tells him to get out of there ASAP but it is too late. Monroe gets jumped AGAIN. Nick arrives at the scene just in time to catch the guy in charge of moving Monroe’s car.

Monroe is being marched to the fighting grounds. He insists he is there as a spectator but they throw him in a cage anyway. Leo the PO shows up and tells him that he’s going to be fighting. That little rat bookie told the Lowen that he had a blutbad for them. JERKFACE!

NOOOO! Not Monroe!!

Monroe notices Dimitri in the cage next to him; Dimitri is struggling with something. Turns out Dimitri has some metal lodged in his hand, and Monroe offers to help him get it out.

That’s going to leave a mark

Monroe is trying to talk to Dimiri like a normal person but Dimitri is really far gone mentally. Monroe also gets to meet Bri-No when the Llowyn bring by dinner. He’s been dismembered for the fighters to snack on. GROSS!

Monroe tells Leo the PO that he refuses to fight, but the Leo doesn’t care. Monroe is going into the ring whether he likes it or not. To get him riled and intimidate him, they electrify the cage.

Thanks to the tip from Renard, Hank rolls up to Leo’s house. Obviously Leo is not home, so Hank does what they always do on the show and starts investigating without a warrant. He checks out the barn on Leo’s property and what does he find? An assload of bats! And what does he find after the bats scare the bejesus out of him? Why, medieval fighting weapons! It appears the Leo has a very violent hobby.

This is going to be tough to explain in court

Nick arrives at the fight just as Hank-Dre calls him to share his findings. Nick tells Hank-Dre that found the fight thanks to Monroe, who got a lead on the fight from a bookie.

Okay, TIME OUT. I know Monroe helped out with the watch in the Ogre case, but at that time Nick and Monroe went to great pains to pretend that they didn’t really know each other. Now Nick is casually dropping Monroe’s name into a conversation about the case, a conversation that indicates that he is sharing information on the case with Monroe. So what does Hank-Dre have to say about this? NOTHING! Really? Nothing at all? Did I miss something? Please let me know if I did, it’s 100% possible. I just think Hank-Dre would find it more than a little odd that Nick was discussing this murder case with a clockmaker they investigated once in a missing persons/murder case and who also happened to know Hap. Maybe he’s read the writing on the wall and has come to accept that he and Nick have an additional partner.

“Monroe got a lead? You’re just gonna throw that out there like it’s not weird or anything? We can talk about this later after I calm down from the bat-scare.”

Hank-Dre does tell Nick that Leo the PO is probably at the fight and he should be careful.

It’s time for Monroe to fight. He gets marched into the ring as Leo fires up the crowd in Latin. They bring in the reigning champ, Dimitri! Dimitri gets his shield and weapons; I guess the first aid help doesn’t mean much at this point. While Monroe tries not to get his ass handed to him, Nick sneaks in the back of the barn where the current fight is being held. He quietly walks in as though he is there for the fight, and no one really notices since they’re all watching the action.

Dimitri takes Monroe down and it’s time for Leo the PO to decide his fate. Before he can give the thumbs down, Nick shows up and puts a gun to Leo’s head. He tells Monroe to get out, and Leo realizes that Nick is a Grimm. How did he not see that before?

“You’re under arrest! Also, I’m going to need you to front me 400 bucks. You can make the check out to Monroe.”

Nick orders Leo to free Monroe or he’ll shoot. Leo doesn’t care – today is a good day to die, and all the Llowyn in the room will immediately avenge him! Sensing he’s got the upper hand, Leo gives the thumbs down. NOOOO!!! Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Nick volunteers to fight in Monroe’s place. Now this is going to be a fight that gets the people riled! It’s going to be a Grimm again Dimitri! I think we all know how everyone in the room wants this to go.

Nick gets in the ring but they don’t let Monroe out. I guess it’s Nick and Monroe vs. Dimitri, which doesn’t seem like a fair fight since (a) Dimitri is a amateur boxer by day, (b) he’s awesome at fighting to the death, and (c) dude just ate his BFF. This is not someone they’re going to be able to reason with. Someone is going to get bloodied up here.

Let’s take a break from fighting to go to church with Renard! Renard is at confession, but he’s doing more asking than confessing. He is there to report Leo the PO for disobeying him. The priest asks if Renard has given Leo a chance to repent and return to the fold, and Renard says he’s tried to no avail. It’s time for wrath, not forgiveness. The priest is very stoic and asks for a few minutes to change out of the priest getup and into his wrathful ass beating duds.

“I confess…that I’m a badass, LOLZ! Seriously, I need you to deliver a beat down for me.”

Back in the ring! It’s Monroe and Nick against Dimitri. Monroe tells Nick it’s time to dig deep into his soul and channel all of his Grimmness for this fight. Also, Dimitri’s right hand is weak.

It’s clobberin’ time! Nick isn’t doing great, but he isn’t getting his ass handed to him either. His weapon is a giant mallet, and he gets a few hits in. The police are rushing to the scene but will they make it?!?! Nick takes down Dimitri and has his sword to his throat but tells him he doesn’t want to kill him. One of the Llowyn gets in the ring to take down Nick but Monroe gives him a shield to the face! Just when the crowd starts to get nasty, Hank-Dre and the calvary arrive. They start cuffing folks, but Leo the PO managed to flee the scene.

Remember what night it is? Yeah, neither does Nick. It’s he and Juliet’s three year anniversary night, and Juliet is home alone looking sad and lonely. She gives up on dinner and goes back into the bedroom to examine the ring. Her inner monologue is probably “is this worth it?” Just then, Nick calls and tells her he is on his way home, and he hopes it is not too late. She says it’s not, but her voice says “you’re a dick.”

The answer is not in the ring, Juliet. It IS the ring. Take it or leave it. Love, LB

Leo the PO, meanwhile, is at home collecting some cash, presumably to go on the lam. Renard walks up and Leo threatens him. His anger is short lived as the priest comes in, takes him down, and appears to start eating Leo’s face. You can’t really tell beacuse the shot is super blurry, but that is what it looks like…and sounds like.

Renard -1, Leo – 0

AND THAT’S THE END! My oh my that was an interesting episode, and way to stressful for Monroe fans. Every time Monroe is put in jeopardy, I freak out. I know they won’t kill him off as he is a main character, but something about Monroe just makes me want to protect him.

We got to learn a little more about Renard. We knew he was royalty; it appears that a perk of his title is having his enemies taken out with extreme prejudice by priests. He also maintains law and order on the side by donating criminals to the fight club, which is presumably disbanded at this point.

As for Juliet and Nick, is the latest incident going to put their relationship on the rocks, or will Juliet be able to accept the fact that her husband will be drawn away from home because of work? You would think that this is not a new thing for her; this can’t be the first time he’s been delayed because of a case, he’s a homicide detective. If their relationship isn’t stressed going forward, including her storyline in this episode was a waste of time.

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