The Televangelist: ‘Grimm,’ Season 1, Ep. 3

Despite its slow improvement, “Grimm” is still falling into undesirable narrative habits.

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Photo credit: NBC.com
*This is awkward buuuuuut ... is my demon face showing?

“Grimm’s” episode-opening quote this week turned out to be a rather creepy one from an obscure Joan Crawford pic from 1955, Queen Bee. Yes, I had to Google that. And in doing so realized I didn’t need to sweat through figuring out source of the quotes or the thematic thrust of the show or even the Grimm tale on which it’s based - NBC’s website does it all for me! I got grief from some last week for not picking up on it being the tale of Goldilocks that was featured, but to be fair it wasn’t anything like the bear tale as I remember it. Whereas the Red Riding episode at least clung to some familiar aspects of the original tale, the Bears had very little in common with Goldilocks’ tale besides, well, there being three bears (though technically there were five on the show, so …) This week’s “Beeware” says it’s taken from the Grimm tale “The Queen Bee,” which, by the way, bears almost no resemblance to the story being told (you can read the original tale here). NBC’s website also tells me that “‘The Queen Bee’ clearly carries a cautionary message present in the episode: don’t create disruption where it isn’t your place to do so.” Is that so?

What I do know for sure is that had I not known, via the title of the episode, that bees were going to be responsible for causing the anaphylactic shock and death of a woman to start the show, I would have thought she just had a severe allergic reaction to the lamest flash mob in the history of the world. And just as a side-note, I’m pretty sure that any time someone busts out YMCA a “flash mob” will break out with people dancing to it whether you planned for them to or not. (To quote “Game of Thrones” here: “it is known”). But as it was the buzzing mob was indeed a swarm of bee people (Mellifers, if you want to get official with it), who were trying to take down their natural opponents the Hexenbiests, reminiscent of the movie Shallow Hal, and junior high: really attractive people can sometimes turn out to not have souls. And if you have special sight, you can see their true demonic faces!

Speaking of these demonic faces, it seems that when these fantasy creatures get upset, they lose their ability to mask their appearance for Grimms. Presumably even though they’re morphing into hideous beasts in front of Nick they are still unable to be seen by us regular folk. An interesting point that makes the presence and question of Captain Renard, who appears to be a leader of the underworld, who in all of his years working with Nick has never once let his true face show. There are only two things saving “Grimm” right now, and that’s Eddie Our Friendly Neighborhood Werewolf and the mystery of Captain Renard. My friend Jenn, a confirmed Sasha Roiz fan, sent me an interview he gave before this episode, wherein he mentions that the episodes are being broadcast out of order. I can’t find any more info about this, but perhaps it’s to keep us semi-focused on the intrigue regarding Adaline the Hexenbiest, who, after Nick saves her, may turn into a character with more dimension than just an attractive henchwoman.