Grimm Recap: Snakes, Mice and Crapbags

Hello my Gasmii Grimmies! As of this recap, we’re all caught up on Grimmisodes, and we have a new episode to look forward to on Friday. I’m so excited!

This episode, “Of Mouse and Man” gave us a smidgen of plot development on the Grimm World / Normal World collision sprinkled on a giant muffin of mouse-man sob story. This episode starts all creepy, as per usual, but to mix it up, it does not start in the forest. Some dude who sounds like Harrison Ford and dresses like a teenager is looking for someone he calls “maggot” in a parking garage. I think it’s safe to assume he’s a douchebag. Not just because he’s abusive and calls people “maggot”. We’ve also got this to go on:

Exhibit A: Chain Wallet

 Exhibit B: Hot Topic Necklace.

Mr. Doucheman stalks his prey through the garage and disappears behind a car; beating noises ensue. It’s safe to assume that Douchebag is kicking some ass, right? Wrong! “Maggot” buried a screwdriver in Douchbag’s chest. Not only did it kill him, it apparently aged him up about 30 years, which makes his outfit even more tragic. The would-be victim, aka maggot, drags the body out to a dumpster and runs away.

Nothing ages you like murder

The next day, the garbage truck takes the body away. Guess who shows up at the dump to investigate? Nick, Hank-Dre and Wu! NiWuHan as they will now be known forever more, roll the body onto its side in the truck to examine it. Nick wonders aloud what killed him, and I hope he is being facetious because it’s pretty clear. Or maybe Nick has fully embraced his role as a Grimm and now thinks of criminals as “what” instead of who.

Turns out that the victim’s name was Leonard Drake and he has a record of violence. He’s also supposed to be 30 years old. He’s young again? WHAT THE WHAT? Nick and Hank-Dre want to check out the victim’s home so they head out.

And he’s young again! Still dead though.

At the crime scene, Hank-Dre and Nick find a trail of blood from the dumpster to the garage. The garage gate is down so they can’t get in, but they can see the blood on the ramp. Someone was sloppy with their body disposal! The building manager materializes and shows them around. He doesn’t have anything really nice to say about any of his tenants; they have “problems” that bring the police around quite a bit. You’re the one that rents to them, dude. Maybe you should spring for some background checks. Or hit up Google.

They ask the manager about Leonard Drake; manager is curious, so they explain that Leonard is dead. Mr. Manager tells them that Leonard was indeed at the building the night before. Apparently Leonard was fighting with another resident named Mason. He also hopes that Natalie is okay; he mentions Natalie as if Nick and Hank-Dre know who she is. This isn’t Mayberry, buddy!

Natalie is Leonard’s ‘live-in lady’! According to Mr. Manager, she’s a great gal with bad taste.

No shit.

Mr. Manager continues spilling the beans. Natalie is at work, that’s Lenny’s car, blah blah. He wants to know how Leonard died, and Nick says he was murdered. Manager is not surprised because Leonard was kind of a dick.

Nick and Hank-Dre tell Mr. Manager that they want to see Lenny’s apartment and they need the deets on all the residents, including this Mason person. Lenny’s apartment looks like crap; he’s either a slob or there was some serious unpleasantness going on. They find a pic of Natalie and Lenny in happier times:

Natalie and Lenny in douchier times.

Meanwhile, Natalie is nursing a black eye and a bloody nose somewhere. The police find her and bring her downtown for questioning and OMG SHE IS WEARING A SHIRT I WANTED TO BUY AT TARGET BUT THEY DIDN’T HAVE MY SIZE!!

I’m still mad. This shirt has the innocent victim look I’m always trying for.

Natalie has been so distressed about the fight that she hasn’t had time to wipe away the mascara residue under her eyes. That, or she’s all about the charming juxtaposition of cute flowery shirt and Alice Cooper makeup.

The fight she had with Leonard started when she asked why he had to take apart an engine on the kitchen table. Now I will never, ever defend or justify any domestic violence, BUT – we all know that what she really did was ask a passive aggressive bullshit question about what he was doing. Of COURSE he didn’t have to take apart the engine on the kitchen table. He never should have hit her, but I would get CRAZY irritated if someone said “Um do you HAVE to do that here” when what they meant was “quit fucking doing that because I hate it.”

“Do you HAVE to wear that shirt that I missed out on?” See how annoying that is?

ANYWAY, Lenny had been drinking and he answered her question with his fists. BOOOO. Natalie decided she was done so she started to pack her bags, which only made Lenny more angry. Marty, the downstairs neighbor, came up and interrupted the fight with a knock on the door. Lenny started yelling at Marty, which attracted Mason, another neighbor. At that point Mason started fighting with Lenny and Lenny threatened to kill him. Martin bailed because violence is scary, and Mason escorted Natalie to her car. That was the last she saw of her abusive douchebag boyfriend.

She asks Nick and Hank-Dre what Lenny said happened and she seems genuinely surprised to learn that Lenny was murdered. Natalie wonders if Mason killed him, but they don’t know. She finally realizes that she could be a suspect and maintains her innocence. Nick asks if Lenny had any enemies, and Natalie says that pretty much anyone who ever met him hated his guts.

Hank-Dre wants to know why she stayed with such a crapbag for so long. It’s none of his beeswax, but Natalie replies that at first he was great, and then it got worse and worse. Obvies. Most abusive men don’t show off their crapbaggery right out of the gate. They sneak it in here and there until one day BAM! You’re in a terrible relationship and you can’t find your way out.

As per usual, Hank-Dre and Nick give Renard the rundown. They’ve got one dead douchebag and two viable suspects, Martin and Mason. Martin is a junk shop owner and Mason is a lawyer.

They head to the junk shop. Hank-Dre hates places like the junkshop because it’s full of remnants from people’s lives, leftovers from when the good times run out. You’re thinking of a pawn shop, sweetie. The junkshop is where we send our useless crap after we buy new useless crap and the old useless crap won’t fit in our homes anymore.

Somewhere in this shop there’s entire wing dedicated to thigh masters

Nick and Hank-Dre find Martin hammering away at something. He looks super sad and pathetic.

Are you having a bad day, or do you always look like you’re about to cry?

They tell Martin about Lenny, and he’s surprised; he does admit to being one of the last people to see him alive. He recounts the events and they are the same as Natalie’s version. Rather than face a confrontation, Martin snuck off because Lenny was not exactly a “let’s talk this out” kind of guy. Like the building manager and Natalie, Martin says Lenny was a terrible person.

Hank-Dre and Nick ask Martin what he knows about Mason and Lenny, but Martin doesn’t know anything about their relationship. Sad-sack Martin then starts going off about how Lenny probably had a difficult life to turn out so mean and his deep pity for the dead appears to trigger his transformation into a mouse man. He’s less rat-like than the Reinigen, so Martin is probably a new creature.

Anyway, Martin felt sorry for Lenny, who he calls Mr. Drake. Interesting. I guess he didn’t consider Lenny someone he could interact on a first name basis. It’s probably smart to address the guy who can kick your ass with a little respect if you look like Martin.
Martin has pity to go around; he also feels bad for Natalie. Hank-Dre and Nick don’t really want to talk feelings, they want to know his alibi. Martin claims that after the argument he went back to his apartment. His dad can verify this as his dad lives with him. As they leave, Hank-Dre notes that Martin is as sad and twisted as the junk shop he manages.

The show takes a break from the case to see what Juliet is up to. She rolls up to the house on a bicycle. Juliet wears a helmet, so you can be assured that if she dies on this show, a bike accident is unlikely to be the way she goes. As she goes through the motions of settling in at home, she notices an old truck across the street. The people in the truck are taking pics of their house. She goes outside to confront them but they drive off. Well that’s weird, and probably pretty unsettling on top of the recent ogre attack in their living room.

Back to Hank-Dre and Nick. Now that they’ve checked out Martin, it’s time to pay a visit to Mason the attorney. He has the same version of events as Natalie and Martin and like everyone else, he thinks Lenny was an asshole. He doesn’t appear to be the greatest guy himself; he’s got a creepy vibe. And guess what? He’s a SNAKE! Like, literally a snake:

Eeeew! And obvious. A lawyer who’s a snake? COME ON!

Nick heads to the Grimm trailer; he’s got a lot of research to do tonight. He reads the memoir of another Grimm who confronted a snake-man, or a Lausenschlange (prounounced lozen-schlong hahahahahha). They look like Voldemort and apparently they eat people. Check out this drawing:

Chew your food, man! That’s just not going to feel good coming out

At first I thought that Grimm was reading his Aunt’s diary and I thought “what a badass!” but it turns out he’s reading the memoir of another Grimm. Ah well, I’m sure his aunt was still a badass. Now that he’s got the background info covered, it’s time to get the underground creature perspective. Off to Monroe’s!!!

Nick shows Monroe a drawing of Martin in his rodent form and Monroe recognizes Martin as a mauzhertz. Monroe says that Nick’s ancestors never wrote about them because they don’t do anything. Anything violent, anyway. They get scared and hide in their safe zone. Also of note,t hey have created an entire empire of animation that has raked in a kajillion dollars:

Mickey Mauzhertz

Monroe insists that mauzhertz are harmless so it’s unlikely that Martin killed Lenny. The snake peeps are seriously bad news for humans and even worse news for mauzhertz. Then how have Martin and Lenny been living in the same building all this time? Were they united by their shared hatred of crapbag? Before Nick can continue with his questions, Monroe gets a call for a gig! Do clockmakers call their jobs “gigs”? I don’t know, but it’s adorbs.

Nick goes home and Juliet fills him in on their stalkers. Nick acts like it’s no biggie and writes them off as real estate agents until he finds out that Juliet went out to confront them. Nick, you need to cut her loose or have a talk with her soon for her own good.

Juliet got their license plate number so Nick could figure out who they are. He calls work to run the plates and as he tries to reassure her, he hears noises outside. Nick goes to inspect the noise and finds…a raccoon! FALSE ALARM. Nick says the raccoon needs to get his own dinner and Juliet defends the raccoon. Shut up, Juliet. That raccoon wouldn’t do you any favors.

Nick gets the name and addy of the truck and camera peeps. She wants to know what they should do about it, and Nick is like WE don’t do shit woman, just keep helping animals and stay out of trouble!

Later that night, there’s a heated x-change taking place at the Battery X-Change! Yeah, I went there. A mechanic is yelling at someone about a bill; he turns around and has an old man face like Lenny. What the WHAT??? The killer stabs the man with a tire iron.

Should have just given him the air filter for free dude.

Well this is interesting. I doubt that the killer is actually turning his victims into old men before he kills them, so what is REALLY going on??

Hank-Dre and Nick arrive at the Battery X-Change the next morning to investigate. The dead mechanic’s name was Andrew Salazar. One of the other mechanics found the body; no sign of a break in. The mechanic thinks it was a disgruntled customer because Andrew was a jerk. In fact, the mechanic is surprised that someone didn’t stab him with a tire iron sooner. Hmm, maybe our murderer is on a crusade to rid the world of shitty people. That’s not the worst thing ever.

Nick wants customer records, and Wu is on it. Hank-Dre wonders if there is a connection between Lenny and Andrew. Nick says that if not, the killer is making random choices. No he’s not! He’s killing obnoxious dickheads! Round up all the dickheads in town before someone else dies!

We see Andrew’s body in the dumpster and he no longer looks like an old man. Whoa! Does this mean that the KILLER sees the victims as an old man before he kills them? Is he projecting this face onto his victims, which then triggers his homicidal rage? Can you tell I’m an armchair psychologist?

Monroe arrives at his gig and looks thrilled to be working on what appears to be the Hill Valley Clock Tower. It hasn’t been working since some old weirdo hooked it up to some power lines to get a Delorean up to 88 miles per hour.

The sign on the door says the space is for rent. As Monroe tries to get someone to let him in, he gets jumped. I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! BOOO.

Juliet decides to do some investigating of her own; she drives to the address Nick got from running the plates. There’s a nice family playing tetherball in the yard and the mom FREAKS OUT when she sees Juliet; she rushes her kids inside as though Juliet were some kind of criminal. Juliet looks all upset. Should have left it alone, lady!

Martin the mouse man goes to visit Natalie; he’s been worried about her. She’s been busy packing; her boyfriend’s murder is kind of a downer, so she’s leaving. She thanks Martin for his bravery and gives him a hug. BIG MISTAKE SWEETIE. She’s giving him a friend hug but he’s clearly really into her. She wants Martin to take all of Lenny’s stuff to his shop and sell it. She asks about his dad, and he says it’s been hard. Snakey is at her house too! He’s helping her move. What’s his motive? Does he want to get some, or kill her? Or both?

Martin goes outside and Mason comes after him in the parking lot to say that Natalie is his, and so is Martin! I doubt he’s speaking sexually about both of them, and Martin seems to agree – he gets in his little hatchback and bails.

Monroe wakes up from his beat down at the clock tower area, and his attackers are long gone. I’m glad he appears to be okay because I love me some Monroe. He makes his way to his car and sees a symbol on it in blood. It looks like a scythe.

Reaperz  REPRESENT!

Hank-Dre and Nick DO find a connection between Lenny and Andrew – Martin. Martin got his car repaired at Andrew’s shop. So our mouse man is now the main suspect! They need to get his alibi for the night Andrew was murdered. They head back to the apartments to question his father. Manager bean spiller tells them that Martin’s dad lives with Martin since his back broke, and Martin’s dad is yet another douchebag.

Martin’s home smells of incense and our detectives note that he looks like a hoarder. Not really, you guys. He’s WAAAY more organized than the hoarders on “Hoarders.”

Where are the empty pop tart boxes and laundry piles? Hoarder my ass!

The cops start to smell something icky. Is Martin pulling a Norman Bates with his Pop-Pop? the answer to that question is YES! Dad is laid out on a bed, dead for two days. Dad is the old man the killer sees! Hank-Dre suggests that Martin’s dad’s death set him off, and Nick comments that perhaps it set him free. He’s been tethered to his dad, unable to have his own life, and his dad was a dickhead. Now that Dad’s gone, Martin can finally be the murderer he was always born to be!

Snakey McCreepy is on the phone with a client and it becomes clear he is having his client fake an injury for a lawsuit. Eew. He’s so engrossed in his phone call that he does not notice that Martin has shown up. Martin is there to tell Mason to leave Natalie alone. Mason wants to know if Martin is asking to die; I guess Natalie forgot to tell Mason what happens when you ask annoying passive aggressive questions. Mason is not having it; and tears into Martin, calling him a little rodent that will never be anything more. Snakey and Martin both change, and Mason starts insulting Martin some more, which is clearly a bad idea. Mason sees his dad’s head on Mason’s body, so it’s safe to predict that Mason is not long for this world. Sure enough, Martin clubs him to death with a paperweight.

Excited and thrilled to be free of his bullies, Martin finds Natalie; he rolls up to her in Mason’s car with flowers in tow. Natalie is confused, as are all pretty girls who live in a bubble when they find out that the dorky guy they know is being nice because he’s in love with her, not because he’s just “really sweet.” He’s not really sweet to everyone, blondie.

“I thought you risked your life because you’re like a brother to me, not because you want to see me naked!”

Martin pushes past her inquiries about Mason and Mason’s car to tell Natalie that he’s made them dinner reservations.

Monroe, meanwhile, calls Nick to talk but Nick is busy cleaning up the crime scene at Martin’s. The police found Martin’s car at Mason’s office. Upon arrival at the Lawyer’s office, they find Mason’s body and quickly put two and two together.

At the restaurant, the host tells Martin that they don’t have a table but Martin pulls a smooth move and gets them in. Martin is all pumped and he tries to get Natalie on the same page, and she seems to be impressed. He’s all confident now.

Blondie likey

At a nearby table, a kid spills and Dad is a douche – he starts berating his kid and making him feel like shit. Martin is on a role dealing with jerks so he stands up to rude dad. Rude dad is not impressed with Martin’s words, so Martin hits him. He finally snaps and sees his dead dad on the face of every male there. Yeah, someone needs some counseling.

Natalie and Martin bail and speed off in Mason’s Camero. Natalie is impressed that Martin stood up to the kid’s dad. She had an abusive dad too. Ah, that explains a lot. Martin creepily states that people like that deserve to die and then starts speeding like crazy. It’s cool that he’s having his breakthrough, but Natalie is clearly freaking out. A squad car goes after Martin and he’s not stopping! He loses the police and ignores Natalie’s pleas to stop the car.

NiWuHan find out that some other cops found Marty (so there ARE other cops in Portland) and Nick says they’re going to the junkshop, aka the safety zone.

Martin drags Natalie into his junkshop, and Hank-Dre and Nick arrive on the scene right shortly thereafter. They announce themselves, Natalie screams and Martin drags her deeper into the junkshop. I don’t think he has a plan.

Nick and Hank-Der try to reason with Marty; he should let her go because she hasn’t done anything. They find them finally in the back. Martin is restraining Natalie but he’s not really hurting her. He looks around in the mirrors around him and sees his dad’s face and screams that he is not his Dad. He lets go of Natalie and darts through his shop like a maze, with Nick trying to follow. He has to follow Marty down a corridor of doors that looks pretty damn creepy. Marty busts out of one of the doors and goes at Nick with a sledgehammer but Nick takes him down.

Nick tells him that they found his dad, and Marty says that he’s not dead, he’s everywhere, no matter how many times you kill him! Martin has clearly lost it. Nick says that he knows who Marty is, and Marty responds that NOBODY DOES! Poor, sad Marty grew up in a dysfunctional family and has no self esteem or emotional support.

At home, Nick chastises Juliet for going to the stalker’s home as she tells him what happened. Juliet does not understand what happened and Nick tries to explain it away. Maybe the lady thought she was someone else? Juliet wishes she knew who they thought she was, but at least she knows who Nick is! I bet someone feels pretty crapbaggy himself right about now, right Nick?

Well shit.

Nick heads over to Monroe’s house to catch up with him and he’s dismayed when he sees Monroe’s injuries. He asks what happened, and Monroe tells him that “Nick” happened to him. Monroe doesn’t know who did it to him, but if they wanted him dead, he would be dead. They were sending him a message. Monroe shows him a drawing of the scythe on his car, and Nick recognizes it; Reapers! Monroe was jumped by reapers!

Monroe explains to Nick that there are people in their world that do not like it when people rock the boat, and Monroe helping Nick is most definitely doing so. Nick tells Monroe that he won’t ask for anymore of his help. Monroe is NOT having it! He’s not running! Nick can ask for all the help he needs! Monroe has never been a status quo kind of guy, and next time, they’ll be ready for the reapers. The share a beer aanaand…SCENE!!!

CHEERS!

So what did you think? I liked this episode a whole lot more than the last one. Juliet still bugs, but it will be interesting to see how she reacts when she finds out what Nick has been hiding. More importantly, Monroe and Nick are like legit partners now!

Tomorrow night is a brand new episode of Grimm! If you want to catch up on the series thus far, check out the recaps here.

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