Sunday, April 10, 2016

Grimm 5x16 Review: “The Believer” (The Devil Inside) [Contributor: Alisa Williams]


“The Believer”
Original Airdate: April 8, 2016

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”

Oh, subplots, how I’ve missed you. This week’s Grimm is back to its strategy of throwing 17 subplots at us and seeing what sticks. Let’s see what they had for us on this week’s episode.

THE SUBPLOTS


The team is back to trying to figure out what this healing wand is all about. Apparently, Monroe contacted a professor friend named Krieger a while back who, due to his busy schedule, is only just now returning the call. (Convenient excuse for not dealing with this subplot for the past few weeks.) Monroe didn’t mention the wand to Krieger – he only mentioned the cloth that the wand was wrapped in. He’s hoping that with Krieger’s fancy lab equipment, they’ll be able to read the faded writing on the cloth, which will in turn tell them more about the wand. After scanning the cloth, they are able to make out a few words of the ancient text, specifically “miraculous” and “dangerous.” I’m pretty sure they could have drawn that conclusion about the wand on their own, without the help of faded writing on a cloth.

Meanwhile, thanks to Eve’s detective work, Nick and Hank now know that Captain Renard is somehow mixed up in Andrew Dixon’s assassination. They’re not sure of the extent but they aim to find out. Meanwhile, Eve is hatching a plan of her own. Last week we saw her creepily morph into Renard after inhaling her special Hexenbiest potion. Now, she turns to Nick and the rest of the team to help her pull this off.

While Renard is busy helping Hank and Nick, Eve impersonates him and invites Rachel Wood over. Eve gets a bit of a surprise when she realizes Rachel and Renard have been sleeping together and Rachel is expecting a rendezvous this time, too. It does not go well since Eve has never morphed into a man before and is a little inept when it comes to, uh, physical intimacy. Awkwardness ensues. After that cringe-worthiness is over, Rachel answers all the questions Eve posed to her about Black Claw and the mayoral campaign, never realizing she’s spilling the beans to Eve and not Renard.

Back at the loft, Adalind is still ruminating on what Renard said to her last week about their daughter Diana. She enlists Nick’s help, asking him to track down Diana. She doesn’t reveal the conversation she had with Renard, even though she clearly wants to. But she promised Renard she wouldn’t, and she stays true to her word.

And last but not least in subplot land: Wu! Wu is starting to have some strange symptoms, including blurred vision and muscle spasms in his neck. He can’t figure out what’s going on and is clearly not making the connection to the fact he fought a werewolf a few weeks ago. Perhaps he should give that a little thought. Especially as the full moon approaches.


THE CASE


With everything else going on this episode, you might think there wouldn’t be time for Nick and Hank to work a regular Wesen case, but you’d be wrong! Dwight Eleazer (really, writers, that’s the best name you could come up with?) is your typical smarmy evangelist. He’s holding meetings in a rather circus-esque big top tent, preaching about Satan being in the tent among them and what not. As he calls on God to put the sins of his audience upon him, he suddenly transforms into a red beast with horns who resembles the traditional idea of the devil. The audience is understandably freaked out. I mean, you don’t particularly expect your sins to physically manifest before your eyes. One audience member has the presence of mind to covertly film the transformation with his phone.

The evangelist appears to struggle against the devil that has taken over his body, yelling for Satan to get out. He “wins” the battle and transforms back to normal. Singing, dancing, and praising Jesus ensues. The man who’d been shooting video tries to make a subtle exit, but a security guard catches up to him in the parking lot and demands to see his phone. They scuffle and the man pushes the security guard to the ground where he cracks his head on a rock and dies. The man runs off before the other security guards can catch him.

When Nick and Hank get to the scene, Wu fills them in. The dead security guard is named Luke, and the other two guards (Mark and John, because of course) have given Wu a description of the killer and his vehicle. Nick and Hank are more interested in why photos and video are prohibited than they are about the dead man. When they question Dwight Eleazer he tells them they could never understand what he does but he’ll attempt to explain. He launches into a tale about how he takes the sins of his audience into his body and lets himself be possessed by Satan and then casts him out with his faith. Nick still isn’t getting why Dwight insists on the no-photo rule. Dwight says what he does is dangerous and serious, and not something to be posted on the internet for all to see.

Meanwhile, the man who took the video runs to another cult-like group that he’s apparently part of, proclaiming that Dwight is the devil and that they must put an end to him. The female leader of this group replies that they’ll do their best to drive the devil out, and only kill him as a last resort. Well, that’s comforting.

Nick and Hank are able to track down the man, whose name turns out to be Benjamin McCullough. He’s just making his way out of the Church of the Word of God, where he’d been meeting with the other cult. The leader of the cult, who we find out is named Joan Vark (a not-so-subtle nod to Joan of Arc, I assume), had just gifted him with gold coins, which Nick finds in addition to the cell phone with the video footage.

When Nick and Hank show the video footage to Rosalee and Monroe, they explain that Dwight is definitely a Wesen known as a Furis Rubian, which, though super scary looking, tends to be rather mild mannered. Dwight is holding his last sermon in Portland tonight so the team decides to see his spiel in person. Monroe and Rosalee are more amused than anything else, while everyone around them is freaking out about the devil appearing among them. Afterward, Nick and Hank confront Dwight alone who admits that he’s a Wesen but claims he’s doing his followers a favor, leading them down a better path by strengthening their faith and belief in God. It’s not like they can arrest him for that, so Nick and Hank take their leave.

Back at the precinct, Wu discovers that Dwight and Joan used to be married, but it seems now they’re on opposite sides of the faith. She has followers like Benjamin who are convinced she’s the true prophet and are conspiring to help her expel the devil from Dwight in whatever way they can. Later that evening, Joan’s followers kidnap Dwight with the aid of Dwight’s bodyguard, Mark. The gold coins Joan gave to Benjamin were to pay Mark for betraying Dwight. After Dwight’s kidnapped, Benjamin goes back to the big top to pay Mark, but finds Mark has hanged himself out of guilt over the betrayal. How very Judas Iscariot of you, Mark.

Benjamin finds Mark’s body and books it back to Joan and the other followers, who have chained Dwight to a pentagram and have begun a ritual to expel the devil. Hot pokers are involved, as are chains. When they start chanting and stabbing Dwight with hot pokers, he woges and rips through his chains, attacking them all. Apparently even mild mannered Furis Rubian have their limits. Joan and her followers end up fatally stabbing Dwight and he dies just as Hank and Nick burst in to arrest everyone.

I really need the Grimm writers to start wrapping up a few of these subplots, because they’ve been out of hand for a while. Maybe they could give themselves a goal of tackling one subplot per week until they’re all wrapped up. What do you say guys? Does that sound doable?

Bonus Musings:
  • “Does Luke know his killer?” “Not according to Mark and John.” “Mark, Luke, and John? Really?” “I’m just the messenger. And not from on high.”
  • “Seems like during Dwight’s tent revivals, he actually gets possessed by the devil.” “This happens a lot?” “Apparently. Eye witnesses are quoted as saying they’ve seen Dwight possessed by Satan and then him casting him out.” “But the devil gets thrown out again and again and keeps coming back for more?” “It does make you wonder about Satan’s schedule.”

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