Director: Steven DePaul
Writers: Alan DiFiore & Dan E. Fesman
Guest Starring: Danielle Panabaker woot and Daniel Baldwin
Picture credit: TVOvermind.com

“Said the dragon, “Many knights have left their lives here, I shall soon have an end for you, too,” and he breathed fire out of seven jaws.” (from The Two Brothers, one of the original tales collected by the Brother’s Grimm)

The episode opens with two guys coming to break into a “SchoolHouse Electric Supply Co” only to find at the gates that the padlock is already cut and that someone has beaten them to the punch and is already there. They’re pissed off that someone could have beaten them to this and they head inside to steal, as it turns out, copper.

Inside, one thief is afraid of going in any further and the other is determined to get their share of the copper. They creep through the factory floor searching for their copper and pretending to be security in order to flush the other thief out.

Then something growls in the darkness – alright it’s more of a cough – but then the two robbers are burned to a crisp in a flash of fire and we see Grimm’s version of a dragon – very, very cool, I think. A dragon is one of those creatures you would never expect to see in human form and I didn’t expect Grimm to be tackling it.

Outside the factory, a man scuttles across the road, into the path of a car and its headlights which show that one side of his face has been badly burned. He makes it to the train tracks and his – I have no idea what to call it, but it looks old school and travels on train tracks – it’ll come to me – and heads off into the darkness on it.

Is he scared? Is he the dragon?

The next morning the guys arrive on the scene and Wu does his usual expository thing. Wu is I think woefully underused on the show. He’s the patrolman often on the scene first, close to Hank and Nick and manages to give them an info dump of a case in a fun, peppered with one-liners – sort of way. Reggie Lee manages to accomplish a thankless task and is fun and charismatic onscreen when he does. I would LOVE to see him more involved in one of their cases, or promoted or something.

But, back to the case, the guys head down to the factory floor where they view the crispy dead bodies and talk with the arson investigator. Hello Baldwin brother not seen in a while onscreen – Daniel Baldwin that is. Essentially, there was no accelerant and the bodies were burned with the equivalent of napalm to get that crispy. OUCH.

The factory owner – Truman – is the first person to be interviewed. He has three factories that have been hit in the same way. Nothing he does keeps his copper safe. Nick notices that the area around the lock on the door to the factory is melted – neither he nor Truman know how that was done. Hank notices something on the ground and when Truman gives him a lighter, the something burns and turns out to be oil.

How do the Grimm writers come up with stuff like this – Jordan the arson investigator reports to Renard that the fire/burned lock at the factory was caused by something that include human lipids, fat cells. Along with other elements, that’s enough for Nick and Hank to start considering this a homicide.

Interestingly, the guys have also discovered that whoever is stealing the copper isn’t selling it.

Wu comes in with news of a witness – the driver from the night before who saw the man with the burned face. The driver suspects he was homeless. As this is going on, the same guy? Knocks out Truman at his factory. The guys head over to see him, while the driver finishes up his sketch.

It seems the guy is still at the factory and the guys, along with the patrolmen head in to corner him.

They go inside to find the shopping cart of copper from earlier is gone. Wu radios in that he’s heard something in his section of the factory and the next thing he knows, he’s been sprayed by the same substance the crispy robbers did before they got well done.

Nick tells him to run and to not fire his gun and he and Hank make it in time to his position to see the homeless guy approaching Wu. Hank pulls Wu out of the way leaving Nick to face the guy, and TOTALLY missing the homeless guy’s transformation into the dragon. Hank doesn’t ask HOW the guy threw fire at them, but then Nick’s phone rings and it seems an ID has been found from the fat lipids that were identified at the scene.

The dragon Wesen has already made his escape by this time, and I like that Grimm has given the dragon Wesen such a contradictory human identity – he is sickly, burned in his human form as we see when the guy escapes from the factory with his copper, but in Wesen form, he is a formidable opponent.

The lipids have been identified as belonging to Fred Everhart, a Desert Storm veteran, who has been in and out of a VA hospital for a couple of years. Jordan has also found his next of kin – a daughter, Ariel and Nick calls the phone number for her, which leads him to an answering machine for a club.

And right about then, while he’s occupied, Renards asks Hank if he saw how the guy started the fire, but Hank says it was too dark to see, and all he heard was a smoker’s cough. I shouldn’t be, but I’m actually getting entertained – in a good way – as how the explanations are being done of why Hank doesn’t see things and by the same token, keeping Nick occupied and not having to answer questions.

Ariel is already on stage performing, with fire sticks, to a crowded club when Nick arrives. He scans the crowd, seeing Wesen here and there, as enraptured by her performance as the humans in the crowd are.

He also sees Monroe in the crowd enjoying the show.

He tries to get nearer to the stage, when Ariel catches sight of him and she transforms into a dragon Wesen in front of him. She’s not afraid of him though, amused at his reaction more likely.
Nick takes the extra seat at Monroe’s table and is treated to him trying to play it cool and coy and totally not a regular there to watch Ariel’s show – and that doesn’t last long at all. Ariel is a Daemonfeuer, dragon creature, and actually seems to be worthy of the title “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” if the ink on her back is anything to go by.

Monroe isn’t exactly happy at having a conversation about her in a crowd where anyone can overhear, so they head outside as he explains. There aren’t many Daemonfeuers left and they’re a throwback to the old tales of knights in shining armour. They also have a dragon lineage, and Nick’s mind is pretty much blown I think, at the thought that dragons aren’t mythical. Monroe is quick to assure him that they are, and they do in fact come close to breathing fire.

His explanation goes something like this though: ketonic vomit. Essentially, they vaporise their own fat to create their fire. EW.

Monroe also drops another titbit on Nick – two days ago a Grimm was found decapitated in Antwerp in a back alley there. His head hasn’t been found, and rumor is that the Reapers were involved. With that last warning, Monroe leaves.

Here’s what I’d like to know – is being a Grimm a family affair? Is this someone who is related to Nick, or are people chosen to be Grimms in some other way?

Nick goes to see Ariel and is flirty and amused at him still. She recognises that he is a Grimm, her first to be exact. She expected someone more badass, which apparently a turn on for her. Nick starts questioning her about her father – she doesn’t know where he is, and he is a bit of a lost soul since her mother died. She hints that he blamed himself because he couldn’t protect her mother – did a Grimm kill her? She doesn’t explain why, but she does say she considers both her parents lost to her.

When she leaves the club, Nick is in his truck waiting for her and he follows her to her house. On the roof he notices copper arials and then at the back, he sees the flare of what could be fire. He finds oil like Hank did at the factory, before Ariel attacks him, destroys his shirt and kisses him. She explains she was doing a little purging, which again, ew.

But then Nick’s phone rings – it had fallen out of his pocket when she tackled him and Ariel answers. Only Juliet is calling. Nick finally manages to get the phone, and to try and explain, but Juliet hangs up.

Ariel taunts him as he leaves that he came for her and not the other way around.

Juliet makes Nick grovel, just a bit, before she buys his story, but outside, Ariel is watching them. She, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, sprays her fat lipids all over the window and draws a broken heart in it.

Research time – and it turns out that the children of the Daemonfeuer more fierce creatures than their parents. The Grimm diary tells of a cave, filled with treasures and bones of the dead and an “entrance to hell”.

Guess what Ariel does next? Walks into an modern day copper “entrance to hell” and a cave where her father is. He’s ill, extremely so by then and she tells him that everything will be okay because she’s found someone who will make him better.

The next day Nick and Hank visit Fred’s former employer who tells them he saw him last near an old line they don’t use anymore. At the station, Nick finds a map of the old railway lines and options to search for Fred. As they’re discussing options, Ariel calls inviting Nick for a special show and to her house later as she’s decided to help him find her dad. After hanging up, Nick makes sure that Hank is going with him to visit her, and that Juliet knows this.

That night, the guys visit her house, but no one is there. They think Fred might be a danger to her if he knew that she was helping them find him. Inside, they find her house decorated in copper, and everything in it copper.

A modern day treasure, I guess.

They rush outside when they hear a storm starting and Hank advises Nick to go home. When he does, he finds a trail of clothes leading from the door to the bed and he leans in to kiss Juliet, and then sees the dragon tattoo on Ariel’s back. He demands to know where Juliet is, and Ariel pretty much breathes fire on him to make her escape. He rushes out to see where she’s gone, but then Ariel calls him from Juliet’s phone. She won’t tell him where she’s taking her, when he already knows what she and her father are, and what they do. She explains she wants him to help his father, to offer him a chance at redemption. She warns him no cops, so he brings Monroe.

On the way to the lair, Monroe explains that Ariel has given him ye olde archtype to live through – the knight in shining armor off to save his princess from the dragon…which excites him, until he remembers someone always dies in the end.

At the lair, Ariel wakes her father and tells him she brought him someone just like her mother. Ariel tells him that someone worthy of him will come for her.

Nick’s plan is to distract Ariel and her father long enough for Monroe to rescue Juliet. Incisde, Monroe chooses a hiding place while Nick makes his presence known. However, Monroe finds tanks of acetelane as he tries to make his way deeper into the lair without being seen.

Ariel hears Nick calling for her and tells her father that someone is coming for “mom” (Juliet) and that he has to protect her.

TOTALLY manipulating him to die, because Fred looks completely out of it.
Monore makes it to the centre of the lair where he sees Juliet, still bound and gagged, who looks afraid of him. He warns her to be quiet and manages to free her hands before they hear Ariel coming back. He warns Juliet not to move, and returns to his hiding place. Ariel ungags Juliet, telling her it’s time for her to scream but instead, Juliet punches her out. She and Monroe finally escape.

At the front, Nick hears a cough and hides just in time to avoid fire coming out of the darkness. Fred is sick, switching back and forth between human and Wesen form, but Nick kills him in the end. Ariel arrives in time to tell her father he fought valiantly. She tells Nick he died with dignity because of him, but then prepares to burn Nick. She begins coughing, like her father did before he let loose with fire, and Nick starts backing out, making it out in time before she burns him.

Outside the lair, Nick embraces Juliet and Monroe and Juliet have a formal introduction. On the way home, Juliet asks him to pull over and in the ensuing conversation, Juliet and Nick’s problems get deeper in the space of a single conversation – he can’t promise that this won’t happen again and she can’t promise that she’ll still be around. Nick remembers Marie’s warning to let Juliet go again, and they leave the conclusion to this conversation for another episode.

The last image the episode leaves us with is a very alive Ariel walking out of the lair very alive and very pissed off.

Grimm scores again the the guest star department with Danielle Panabaker as Ariel. I’ve usually seen her in good girl roles, so her as Ariel was a pleasure to watch and as Ariel’s end is left open-ended, possibly a very formidable opponent for Nick.

The episode, in sum, was one of Grimm’s better ones. Ariel was crazy, but shrewd and that Fred was just her pawn in the end, was a surprise. Her love for her father was apparent and her manipulation of Nick so that her father could die with dignity speaks a little to the old school thinking Daemonfeuers still live by.

Monroe and Juliet finally met, which makes me wonder how that’s going to progress going forward. I like that those two halves of Nick’s life have touched.

So, Juliet isn’t sure she can stick around and in once episode their problems get deeper and Marie’s warning looms larger in his mind. Thier conversation is quiet, but filled with deep emotion – which was very well done.

My issue with it is now I am wondering if they have left the chance to build on Juliet as a character until too late. As much as Nick loves her, what we’ve been given is snippets of her in his home life until episode 14, and no real genuine depth to their relationship unless it’s because of the things happening with Nick. I would honestly love to have Juliet be revealed as Wesen, but at the same time, I really wouldn’t miss her if she were gone at this stage and I wish I could say differently.