Episode Title: "Quill"
Writer: David Simkins
Director: David Straiton
Previously on "Grimm":
Episode 2.03 "Bad Moon Rising"
Story:
After a parks department employees pick-up truck is rear-ended, the driver gets out to find the man who hit him covered in a rash and lunging towards him. After the attack, the sickly looking man flees the scene.
At home, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) continues to struggle with memory loss. She calls Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and asks him about her relationship with Nick but he's not sure what to tell her.
Nick (David Guintoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) arrive at the accident scene and go in search of the assailant, identified as Carl Stanton. They search a nearby office and find Stanton thrashing around in the supply room. He transforms into a Wesen and they shoot him when he goes on the attack.
At the precinct, Renard (Sasha Roiz) gets a call from a family member overseas, letting him know that they are sending another assassin to Portland to get the key. Meanwhile, Nick tells Monroe about Hank and Monroe tells Nick about his conversation with Juliette.
Renard assigns one of his officers to look out for a fugitive flying in Portland from Rome. At the shop, Rosalee (Bree Turner) finds Adalind's cat on the loose. When the cat tries to attack her, Rosalee opens the door and the feline escapes. Just then, Monroe arrives to ask Rosalee to go on a picnic. She tells Monroe about the cat when they hear it scream outside, presumably hit by a car.
Renard learns that the fugitive has arrived but has since gone missing along with a cab and its driver. Renard warns Nick and Hank about the man. Meanwhile, Rosalee and Monroe head into a park for their picnic.
After her memory is triggered by the refrigerator and the quilt, Juliette invites Bud over to ask him about her relationship with Nick. He lets it slip that Nick is a Grimm, but then tries to cover it up when Juliette asks him to explain.
In the trailer, Nick does research on the Stanton's condition. Meanwhile, Sergeant Wu (Reggie Lee) visits Stanton's wife who is suffering from the same thing. She attacks Wu and he shoots her dead.
While on their picnic, the parks employee, Ryan Gilko stumbles into the woods and attacks Monroe and Rosalee. The two manage to flee the scene and race back to the shop. There, Rosalee begins to kiss Monroe while he's on the phone with Nick. As he tells Nick that the disease Stanton suffered from is known to affect one's libido, he realizes that Rosalee is afflicted as well.
The detectives head to the park where Gilko is working and are followed by the fugitive from Rome in the stolen cab. At the shop, Monroe works on the antidote to the disease as Rosalee's condition worsens.
Nick and Hank arrive with Gilko and Monroe gives him the antidote. However, Rosalee flees and tries to attack Nick when he finds her outside. He manages to bring her in and Hank gives her the cure. Rosalee awakens and Gilko also recovers. Meanwhile, the fugitive watches from a window above.
Breakdown:
"Quill" was a rather quiet episode after the whirlwind visit from Nick's not-dead Mom and his big confession to Hank. The case of the Wesen "yellow plague" was one of the less interesting investigations the team has taken on but it did help move one trudging storyline along – Monroe and Rosalee's romance.
Renard is still as shady as ever, doing research on Nick's mom and taking phone calls from his pesky family overseas. Now that Hank is in the know, the pressure's on Renard to make some moves of his own. "Grimm" has played the "secret identity" game for so long now that it's beginning to hinder the show's pace. Having Hank in the fold helps a bit, but Renard's Wesen two-timing needs to end for the sake of the bigger story.
As for Juliette, her memory loss is frustrating Nick and it's a pretty tedious storyline for us viewers, as well. We didn't get any real movement on that end here, except for Bud's little slip up about Nick being a Grimm. We'll have to wait and see what Juliette does with that little tidbit.
Though the show has improved greatly since the beginning of its first season, "Grimm's" writers seem shy about doing any real world building, instead choosing to keep the characters tangled up in various deceptions and all too transparent secrets. Trouble is they're just not that interesting.
"Quill" was a fine episode of "Grimm." but it's nothing we haven't seen before from this show. We've got a couple of the more interesting characters, Adalind and Kelly, in the wind and some stalled storylines that need a good push forward. If you're the kind of viewer who likes to drop in and out of shows', "Quill" was a satisfying hour of "Grimm," but devoted fans may have found this installment somewhat lacking.
