‘Grimm’ Catch-Up Guide: 7 Things to Remember About Season 5

At the end of Grimm‘s fifth season, things were looking, well, grim for the Grimm gang. Nick’s mom was beheaded. The love of Nick’s life went full Hexenbiest, and their confrontations ultimately ended with her dying in his arms. He thought that the royals had recaptured Diana, and her mom/his archenemy Adalind, the witch responsible for cursing Juliette, was now pregnant with his child.

Ultimately, Season 5 proved that the monster hunters of this modern fairy tale are no closer to their happy endings. Here’s a guide to how the story unfolded as a new big bad intends to make a power play next season. (Warning: There are most definitely spoilers ahead.)

1. The Revolution Will Be Televised

Hinted at in the fourth installment, Black Claw, a well-organized and well-funded Wesen group, is recruiting monster members and trying to establish a new world order by any means necessary. Tired of living in the shadows, they devise a plan to infiltrate the government at all levels. Standing in Black Claw’s way in Rose City are Nick and company, as well as Hadrian’s Wall, a heavily armed resistance group led by Meisner that recruited Trubel.

2. The Witch Is Back

Actually, both of them are.

Juliette isn’t dead after all, but she now goes by the name of Eve. Hadrian’s Wall patches her up, breaks her down mentally, and teaches her to focus her rage for their cause. She blocks out all emotion and refuses to engage with Nick about their past life together. She needs to stay sharp and unattached if they are going to have any shot at winning this war.

Adalind and Nick welcome Kelly — a son named after his mom — move in together, and somewhere between trying to gentrify a warehouse neighborhood and co-parent, they wind up falling in love. When Rosalee’s druggie ex shows up and threatens them, Adalind’s powers return involuntarily. Even though she begged Rosalee to let her tell Nick herself, Adalind keeps it a secret for weeks. Eve, who is psychically connected to Adalind, senses the comeback, warns Nick and threatens her nemesis. (Uh, oh, Eve, a little bit of your Juliette side is showing.) She returns to working at the evil law firm and kicks off her search for daughter Diana once again.

3. Keys to Success

With five of the seven Crusade knight keys in their possession, the Scooby Gang narrows down the treasure’s location to somewhere in the Black Forest. Nick and Monroe go to Germany and eventually find the ancient box and unwanted attention. Monroe is bitten and develops blood poisoning. When they return home, they are able to pick the locks and dissolve the seal with Nick’s Grimm blood. A seemingly plain wooden shard is wrapped in a cloth inscribed with a super-ancient version of Latin that warned of miracles and danger. But it heals Monroe with one touch. Only the inner circle knows about the stick. Hadrian’s Wall, Renard, and Adalind had been kept in the dark.

4. Hairy Situation

Wu gets scratched while pursuing a murder suspect/infected Wesen and contracts the Lycanthropia virus. After a series of weird dreams and possible sleep hunting, he develops the ability to morph into a cavemanlike primal version of himself. He is attacked by a Black Claw operative, loses control and ends up killing the guy before blacking out. After seeing a taped transition, he begins to learn how to control his beast mode.

5. Campaign Trail

Just like in the real world, it is an election year in Portland. Renard is helping an old friend/muggle run for mayor, but Black Claw has other plans. They have the human candidate assassinated and then groom Captain McChesty to step in. With a horizontal push from his sexy ginger campaign manager, Renard’s monster instincts kick in and he joins the opposing team.

Diana, who is pretty darn powerful now, has also joined their ranks. She is shipped into town to get her parents back together because politicians need families. Between her big blue demon seed eyes, Renard’s manipulation, and Claw’s threats against Nick, Adalind leaves with Kelly under the cover of darkness and joins Renard onstage for his acceptance speech. The Black Claw co-founder, Conrad Bonaparte, a full-blown Zauberbiest, wants Adalind to do more than keep up appearances. He puts a cursed wedding ring on her finger. Diana also wants to see the exes reunited and uses her power to take out the ginger competition and her voodoo dolls to make her parents kiss.

6. Finale Fireworks

Black Claw ramps up its efforts to eradicate the Grimm problem, including putting someone undercover as Hank’s girlfriend and framing him for murder. It leads them to Hadrian’s Wall’s secret lair, and Conrad starts killing Meisner slowly and painfully. Renard, who owes a lot to Meisner for getting Diana away from the royals a few years earlier, shoots him out of compassion. But that is the last straw for Nick, who attacks Renard at the precinct and gets himself thrown into jail. Black Claw-affiliated police officers take him to Conrad, who first offers Nick the option of joining their cause and then tortures him to find out the whereabouts of the Grimm ancestry book. Eve takes a glass shard to the stomach during a showdown with Conrad. Nick takes her back to the loft and touches her with his magic stick. (Hey, minds out of the gutter!) She heals, then woges, then seizes. She feels weird and weak. We’re thinking maybe she has been cured of her Hexenbiest side.

Conrad is also done with playing around. He strangles Adalind until she reveals Nick’s address and sends soldiers. Nick sends his friends into the tunnel to escape and stays behind to buy them time. Nick fights everyone off until the last man standing shoots him. Renard and Conrad show up to gloat, but Nick has been healed by the magic stick in his pocket. Just as Conrad had attacked him, Renard stabs him through the heart, and a quick cut reveals Diana, with her voodoo doll, had made him do it. No one hurts her mom.

7. Silver Lining

There is one small bit of good news. Rosalee and Monroe are expecting a baby beast.

Watch the full Season 5 finale episode:

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