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Directed by: Darnell Martin

Writers: Cameron Litvack and Thania St. John

Picture from: Daemon’s TV

Today’s episode begins with passengers getting onto a crowded tram. Ominouse plays over the scene as we see a woman, dressed to the nines for a day at the office get aboard, along with a guy with a suspiciously big duffle. The crowded tram is the very picture of sardines in a tin can, and the woman notices the guy reach into his duffle, and instead of a weapon, he pulls out a stereo and YMCA starts to play as the passengers start to sing and dance – it’s a flashmob, with one very confused tram driver and normal passengers.

At the next stop, the tram empties, but the driver notices that the woman hasn’t left yet…mostly, because she’s lying dead on the floor of his tram. Hank and Nick arrive to examine the body – which we finally see is swollen and Seargant Wu explains that it might be because of anaphalactic shock. Wu believes there was no foul play to her death, asking if either Nick or Hank wants to take a bet with him. Hank is out, noting that a swarm attacked a dog in a park the week before, but Nick takes the bet, and shows the guys a puncture wound on the body behind her ear.

The ME, Harper, confirms the woman, Serena, died from bee venom and anaphalactic shock. She sent a sample for further analysis with a bee keeper she knows. In regards to the puncture wound, Harper can’t tell what caused it, but the strange thing is, there is nothing in Serena’s records that say she was allergic to bees, though she points out that records don’t always reflect what it accurate and contemporary with the patient. She also points out that Serena had way too much bee venom to be just from a sting. Harper bills the death as a homicide.

Hank, Nick and Wu view the camera tapes of the tram, which unfortunately don’t give them much information. Renard is in fine Captain mode, ever supportive of their case. He tells them to head to Serena’s law firm to interview her boss, Berman, and colleague, Camilla. Berman and Camilla are clearly devastated by her death, noting that everyone loved her. He gives them full access to anything they need for the investigation. Camilla also informs them that she was single, and happily so.
As the guys leave the office, Harper’s bee man calls with information. At his place, the Professor Bee Man explains someone harvested the venom to inject Serena, and that the bee toxin has no known origin. Interestingly, the Professor provides an alibi for his presence at the time of the murder, though he wasn’t asked for it. He also gives the guys more possible suspects.

Back at the station, 22 members of the flash mob have turned up, thanks to the TV coverage over the murder, and the request for witnesses to come forward. Hank asks Wu to check out the Professor’s alibi, and Nick asks him to get a list of everyone who attended. Wu is only too happy to leave the 22 witnesses to Hank and Nick.
The witnesses tell Hank and Nick that a random tweet led them to the tram and the flash mob. As one witness is being interrogated, Doug, he receives a tweet on his iphone. Nick asks to see the tweet, but Doub refuses because he has personal stuff on his phone. Nick lets it go, and focuses on how close Doug was to Serena on the tram. Doug begins to grow uncomfortable, realizing Nick considers him a suspect and won’t give up on seeing the phone. And when Nick reaches for the phone, Doug does too and his arm changes, into something not-human, complete with spikes. Just then, Hank knocks on the door for Nick’s attention. Outside, as Hank updates him about the dead end regarding the tech side of tracking the email/tweet for the mob, Nick sees Doug change into something insectlike in the interrogation room, and another guy, sitting outside waiting to be interviewed changes as well.  Hank asks if Nick got something out of Doug, and Nick says he did.

They follow Doug to an abandoned paper mill, Primrose Paper, and suspect that Doug and another suspect, John know each other.  Inside, they find john and Dough talking to a third woman, confirming that they knew each other, and exchanging something that they can’t se eproperly. But before they can see anything further, Hank and Nick are attacked by a swarm of bees and take refuge in an office. Just as suddenly as they appeared, the swarm leaves. Hank and Nick leave, and Nick takes Hank to see Juliette to help Hank with his stings.

Nick and Hank decide to look through the files Serena’s boss, Berman, sent over. Hank is all set to keep searching, but Juliette insists he rest. Nick agrees, and Hank heads home while Nick heads off to do research. We do see a hint of how Hank and Juliette’s relationship is changing – or rather Juliette is realizing things are changing.

Nick heads to Marie’s trailer to do some research, but doesn’t realize that there is  bee outside – tracking him, I wonder? He sees a picture of the woman, who tried to assassinate his aunt in episode 1, in monster form. Nick identifies his suspects as Melafers, and calls Monroe and asks him to meet him at the mill.

Monroe educates Nick on Melafers, the creature-community switchboard, or social media, as Nick points out. Usually, it means that if they are sending out messages, something sketchy is going on. The discussion ends when they find the suspects’ footprints and Nick explains about the woman they met. Monroe is a bit put out that Nick wants him to do a Lassie, ie use his sense of smell to help Nick, but Nick provides a 78 Bordeaux in his trunk as a bribe. Monroe follows his nose, telling Nick that the Hexon-Beast is the Melafer’s natural enemy (this is more of the educating banter they have going), and then smells a women’s perfume, leading them to an office and a computer and a desk – Melissa Wincroft’s office, the owner of Primrose Mill.

Monroe and Nick go to her address – that they found on an envelope at the mill – and they enter the house through an already open door.

Can I just mention the fabulous chemistry between Nick and Monroe? Nick is so much the straight-arrow human, regular normal guy with Hank, but with Monroe, we see snark and humor and a little bit of the “real” guy peeking out. It makes Nick so much better as a character, Monroe too, and the humor it brings into the show is definitely needed.

As the progress through the house, they realize the floor is covered in dead bees. Nick leads the way upstairs, and bu the time they reach the top, his gun is drawn.
A door at the end of a narrow staircase is never good and when they enter it, they see hives. Lots and lots of hives.

The next morning, cops are there clearing up the place, and when Hank walks in, Nick tells him that the bees he found are a preliminary match to the toxin in Serena’s body. Melissa has disappeared, without a trace. Hank asks for an explanation as to how Nick found this place, and Nick says it was all in the files he was supposed to be reviewing. Nick explains that about a year ago, Serena represented a bigger mill that took over Primrose Mill, and despite the employees trying to fight it, they lost. John and Doug were employees of Primrose, and Melissa used them to take her revenge. But, then they get news of another flash mob murder.

At a park, the site of the other murder, Wu informs them that the victim was doing yoga when she died, and that a camera on the park picked up everything. Doug and John were not in the group, instead they had already been arrested. Renard is already there, and Hank informs him they have Melissa as their lead suspect. Camilla and Serena both worked on the Primrose class action and Nick remembers there was a third lawyer as well, Adelind Schade, their next victim.

But here’s where it gets unexpectedly interesting: when they walk into Renard’s office, Nick sees that Schade is the woman who tried to kill his Aunt. Nick is in shock, while Hank takes Schade for some coffee. Renard tries to pump Nick for info on Schade, but Nick insists he doesn’t know anything about her. Renard doesn’t push, and tells him to focus on keeping her safe.

Nick goes to Harper to look at the victim’s tongues – which Harper cut out because the bodies were so swollen and Nick finds marks on the underside of both, identifying them as Hexon beasts, as his research earlier led him to believe.

Hank and Schade are looking over Melissa’s testimony for the court case from the year before, and it’s clear Melissa was more than afraid of something greater than losing the mill, as it turns out the lawyers opposing her were Hexon Beasts, Melafer’s enemies. Nick walks in on the interview, and immediately attacks Schade’s comment that this is all about the case, for it seems more personal. The questioning gets more pointed, and it becomes obvious that Nick doesn’t believe anything she says. Hank calls an end to the interview, calling Nick out on his behaviour. Unbeknowst to them, Renard has a quick conversation with Schade when they leave her alone. Schade informs Renard that Nick definitely remembers her, but Renard assures her that he will keep her safe. Schade doesn’t believe him, pointing out Serena and Camilla are already dead and he didn’t keep them safe enough from the Queen Bee, Melissa, I’m guessing. But as a hint to a more personal relationship between them, Renard tells her that they were not her, but Schade isn’t interested in that – she just doesn’t want to die.

Hank and Nick can’t find any sign of Melissa anywhere, and Nick comes up with a plan to get Doug to call Melissa, so that they can find her. Neither Melissa or their suspects know they have Schade in protective custody. In the interrogation room, Nick and Hank play their parts, and deliberately leaving Doug’s phone behind him, they watch as he sends a message to Melissa – telling her to make a move on Schade.

At the law office, a woman in long blonde hair walks in, identified by the concierge as Ms Schade. Meanwhile, Hank, Nick and Schade are in a hotel room waiting. However things are getting more tense between Schade and Nick, as he thinks of Schade coming to inject Marie with something to kill her. Hank, doesn’t quite know what’s going on and is distracted by ordering room service just to have something to do. Once he is out of earshot, Nick drops all pretenses and calls Schade out as a Hexon-Beast. Schade keeps her cool, though, and doesn’t change. Nick decides to focus on the case, on why the Melafers want Schade and her sisters dead, but Schade doesn’t give him answers. Nick, tired of her holding back, isn’t above threatening her to get his answers.

Meanwhile Melissa and Professor Bee Man who was ever so helpful on giving the guys his alibi though he was never asked for it, are sitting outside the law offices. The Professor is losing it because he thought he was free and clear from being suspected in this case. Melissa is more interested in finding Schade, and released a swarm from her back seat to find Schade.

At the apartment where Hank and Nick are holding Schade, Hank is pottering about in the bathroom, checking things out when he sees a bee on his shoulder, and then the swarm at the open window. Out in the front room, a clearly emotional and afraid Schade finally shifts and calls Nick out on his assertion that he has no problems letting a Queen Melafer letting a Hexon-Beast die. Schade points out that he will also be a cop letting an innocent woman die.

Hold on, back-up: she tried to kill Marie, and suddenly Nick is falling for the “I’m a cop, and she’s innocent, so I must protect her” schtick? Up until right now, I was with this episode, but what to make of this scene? She’s not innocent, she’s a killer, and he’s a Grimm. Is Nick supposed to be filled with hot air in regards to doing what he should be doing? I mean, in all the episodes, he hasn’t actually met a clear-cut bad guy, save for the Grimm Reaper in episode 1, who he shot. Is he still not ready to do what he has to as a Grimm?

At that moment, Hank calls for help and Nick attempt to close the bathroom window. They eventually disappear from the bathroom, and Nick rushes out to find Adalind gone, but the window covered with bees. They search the building, Hank going up, while rushing down the firestairs, Nick follows her to the basement where instead of Adalind, he finds the Queen and more bees. Melissa says calls herself  and her bees ‘clarions’, sending out a warning call about something that is coming. It’s interesting, Melissa says she killed Serena and Camilla to protect “you” as in Nick specifically. The lawsuit, she says, was a conspiracy to get rid of her and her bees and stopping them from warining you. Melissa finds Adalind, and they fight, while Nick is held at bay by a swarm of bees.

It’s a tense scene, with Melissa telling Nick that being a Grimm is more important than anything else. When he believes that, he is able to walk through the bees, willing it seems to let them fight it out. However, Hank bursts in and Schade playing the victim gets his attention. When it seems that Melissa is about to attack Hank, which is when Nick shoots her.  As she dies, she tells him something is coming for Nick and it’s close. As she dies, so do the bees.

Back at his house, Nick is having another sleepless night, thinking about Marie, and what she said about hunting down the bad creatures like their ancestors did. Juliette wakes up and thinks that Nick is being troubled by shooting a suspect. She tries to reassure him, and he seems to believe her. She attempts to go to close the window, but Nick goes instead, and there, a bee lands on his hand stinging him.

I suspect I might be leaving the honeymoon phase of this show, and I really don’t want to. Don’t get me wrong, this is a tense episode, with an interesting case, that never takes the focus away from Nick – he gets something out of it by the end, to do with his heritage as a Grimm. But, are they really going down the tried and true and taken by every show with a character with a destiny that isn’t the norm, by having Nick angst over doing what he has to as a Grimm? I’m not advocating a blood bath every time Nick finds a bad guy, because one of the best parts of this is that the creatures are not clear-cut, but, there’s a Hexon-Beast that tried to kill his aunt and then himself, and her calling on his cop-nature and herself as an “innocent victim” is enough to make him pause – is he really that naieve? I understand that to have Nick accept everything detracts from the storytelling, but I’m bored silly with the required angsting over accepting new, supernatural destinies as most shows with characters like Nick write their characters.

We shall have to see how things go next week, I’m hoping for more Monroe! What about you? Do you think Nick should go down the angsting-over-his-destiny path?