Grimm Season 5 Episode 9 Review: Star-Crossed

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Older does not mean better. Someone really should remind Black Claw of this little piece of advice.

In Grimm Season 5 Episode 9, one of the Black Claw disciples decided it was a grand idea to ritualistically kill a number of humans in order to end a drought. Nice. While one can't automatically discount the power of the ritual, surely there must have been a less bloody way to call rain?

Steps Behind a Killer - Grimm

At some level, the Case of the Week was vintage Grimm, featuring freaky Wesen ritual, our heroes hitting the books, and finally taking down the Wesen in question. I liked that the case actually intersected with the Black Claw arc, especially apparent when Monroe infiltrated the recruitment meetings.

Don't worry. I can be as good a brainwashed zombie-headed zealot as anybody.

Monroe

Monroe was hilariously awesome, though I found it a little strange that no one at that meeting apparently recognized him. He's a pretty prominent member of the local Wesen community these days, after all! Ah, well. Anyway, be sure to stop by our Grimm quotes page for some of the episode's notable lines.

One of the fun things about this case was the casual knowledge of foreign languages displayed not once but twice! First by Rosalee (her mother's family is Irish!) and later by Renard (it seems we can add Arabic to the list of languages he knows). Wow, did Nick luck out in his choice of friends.

On a side note, how many of you figured out that the whole "plow" thing was actually referring to the Big Dipper? I did by merit of the fact that my brain is full of random (and usually useless)  trivia -- in J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, the Dipper is referred to as the Plough. Couple that with the title of the episode and Grimm's penchant for punniness, and it's not a giant leap.

(Seriously, though. "Star-Crossed"? That's so on the nose it's painful.)

Meanwhile, on the Hadrian's Wall front, Meisner, Trubel, and Eve team up to take on some Black Claw foot soldiers and come away with a captive. That interrogation scene was rather horrifying, wasn't it? It reminded me quite creepily of that scene near the beginning of The Matrix when the Agents took away Neo's mouth... I literally had nightmares about that scene.

At some level, though, the incredibly casual way that Trubel and Meisner treated this form of interrogation was almost more disconcerting than what she did. Meisner went to get coffee and Trubel actually egged Eve on. Are these supposed to be the good guys?

Pretty much all of Team Grimm was in concensus that they want to know more about Hadrian's Wall before throwing in with them, which I think is almost certainly a good idea. It may turn out that the so-called "good" guys are just as bad, if not worse, than the Black Claw uprising that they are fighting.

Speaking of Black Claw, it seemed that they were turning to more normal cult-type recruitment tactics in this episode, with less emphasis on the whole "join or die" thing that had previously cropped up. And Trubel identified a Black Claw courier, plus Meisner now knows that Lucien Petrovich (that's Bailey Chase's character) is in town.

Some final assorted notes before I turn the discussion over to you:

  • Renard continued his sexytimes with mayoral candidate Andrew Dixon's campaign manager. I really wish they'd come to the point with that subplot, because right now it just feels completely disconnected from the rest of the show.
  • Trubel holding baby Kelly? Comedy gold. Trubel's just lucky that Kelly didn't do what a lot of babies do, and spit up all over her clothes.
  • Who half-expected the culprit to be the farmer's son?
  • Nick tried to explore the tunnel under his home-sweet-paint-factory, but was stymied by the sealed door. While it's a good idea to have an escape tunnel, I can't help but think that the door is probably sealed for good reason...

So, what did you think of "Star Crossed"? Did you like the Case of the Week, or did it just leave you cold? What did you think of Eve's interrogation technique? And what about Black Claw's recruitment tactics? Let us know in the comments section below!

If you missed this episode, you can watch Grimm online to catch up! Grimm Season 5 Episode 10, "Map of the Seven Knights," is scheduled to air February 19, 2016 at 9/8c on NBC.

Star-Crossed Review

Editor Rating: 3.7 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0 (37 Votes)
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Grimm Season 5 Episode 9 Quotes

Look, Nick, I really think we need to find out who these people are before we sign off on anything.

Rosalee

Some very bad things live a very long time.

Adalind