Episode Title: 'Tarantella'
Writers: Alan DiFiore & Dan E. Fesman
Director: Peter Werner
Story:
After meeting at an art opening, a man (Nicholas Gonzales) takes an initially resistant woman (Amy Acker) back to his apartment. There, he transforms into a Fuchsbau and forces himself on her. The woman then turns into a spider-like creature and attacks him, spewing a kind of venom into his mouth, killing him. She leaves the apartment having lost a finger in the altercation.
Nick (David Giuntoli) talks with Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) about his rising celebrity among the creature community as a Grimm when he gets a call about a murder at an apartment. At the scene, he and Hank (Russell Hornsby) examine the mummified body of a man killed just the night before. Nick finds a woman's finger, which moves when he picks it up.
After identifying the man as Ryan Showalter, the detectives learn that his Rolex watch was stolen. The medical examiner determines the cause of death was ingestion of acid, which led to the mummification. The print from the missing finger matches those found at a Phoenix crime scene, five years earlier. The Phoenix victim was also mummified by a kind of amino acid found in spider venom.
While pouring over the books in his aunt's trailer, Nick comes across a Japanese scroll and a description of a creature with spider-like qualities. Elsewhere, the woman responsible for Showalter's death puts on make-up and a wig. She then meets a man at a cocktail lounge and kills him.
Nick stops at a house to confront Bud, the refrigerator repair man and his Eisbiber friends who've been watching him. Frightened, the men agree to leave Nick alone and he in turn, agrees to do the same.
The detectives investigate the woman's latest murder. When they learn of a similar string of killings in New Mexico, they begin to suspect it's part of some sort of ritual. Elsewhere, the woman stops by a soccer game where she meets her husband and daughter. Later that night, she gives her husband the Rolex she took from Showalter.
Monroe tells Nick the creature responsible for the murders sounds like a Spinnetod, a spider-like Wesen. He takes Nick to meet Charlotte (Dalene Young), a Spinnetod herself. She explains that Spinnetod need to feed on the bodies of young men in order to avoid rapid aging. Having abstained from the ritual, she looks elderly at age twenty-six.
The detectives get a call from a school principal about the stolen Rolex. They learn that a student named Sally took the watch from her father and gave it to another student. At the girl's home, the detectives notice the girl's mother, Lena and her bandaged finger. When Nick asks her to remove the bandage, they see her finger fully intact, leading them to believe she is not the killer.
Lena's husband tells the detectives he got the watch at a swap meet. However, when Nick learns that Lena's prints match the finger, he tells the husband he knows what his wife is. The man explains that he's alive because his wife loves him and therefore, won't use him in her ritual.
Now beginning to age, Lena meets up with another potential victim on a boat. When she hears a noise, the man leaves the cabin to check it out. Hank grabs him and takes him off the boat while Nick goes after Lena. He chases her onto another boat where she becomes caught in a net.
After arresting Lena, Sally asks Nick about her parents. He then notices her transform into a Spinnetod in the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, an aging Lena sits in jail.
Breakdown:
"Grimm's" interior logic is beginning to burst at the seams and this episode stretched the show's believability to a near breaking point.
I'm glad to see "Grimm" take us deeper into the creature world and its mythology but it comes at the cost of neglecting the human counterpart. We've seen Nick and Hank take on some increasingly bizarre cases but the freaky factor hit critical mass with "Tarantella's" murderous Spinnetod and her regenerating finger. Nick is in tune with the creature world but Hank and the medical examiner not uttering even a single "WTF" over multiple mummified bodies, a missing finger, a bunch of skin in a garbage pale and a rapidly-aging prisoner is beyond hard to believe.
Meanwhile, Nick is agonizing over whether or not to let Juliette in on his Grimm-ness, which is apparently all he needs to worry about since Hank and the rest of the precinct aren't questioning the bizarre murder parade that's taken over Portland. That and the kiddie creatures egging his house.
On that note, Juliette didn't think it odd to find kids egging her house when it's not even Halloween. Sure, people will make up stories to explain strange occurrences and there's been plenty of that to go around. Still, something's got to give and soon.
Meanwhile, we learned about a new breed of spider-like creature called Spinnetod in this episode based on a Japanese fairy tale. Joss Whedon muse, Amy Acker stepped into the black widow role but the character gave her little to work with, beyond talking about art and high school soccer games. However, Monroe's scenes and Nick's chat with Bud provided some relief to this hour's mostly monotone feel.
I don't usually find loose ends with "Grimm's" cases but I'm left wondering why Lena's daughter, Sally brought the Rolex to school. However, my real issue with "Tarantella," has more to do with the holes in "Grimm's" logic than its plot.
Crave Online Rating: 7 out of 10.
