Grimm "Iron Hans" Review: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Hexenbiest Scorned

Grimm S04E19: "Iron Hans"

Grimm's obsession with the old ways of the Wesen continued in "Iron Hans" when a boys-only, get-in-touch-with-your-wild-side hunting trip wound up being a little bloodier than expected... and the lone girl in the group was responsible. Kind of takes "fight like a girl" to new heights, eh?

The set-up was appropriate, though, because despite the backdrop of a boys' campout providing the majority of this week's scenery, "Iron Hans" was very much an episode dedicated to the women of Grimm being total BAMFs. From Maggie mauling hikers to earn her daddy's approval to Adalind giving Kenneth the slip to Juliette torching Aunt Marie's airstream (!), boys' night out made for a girls' night in increasingly dire straits.

At a loss for what to do with his unstable hexen-girlfriend, Nick left Juliette in jail to think about what she'd done—beating the crap out of some rando strangers at a bar. She instead took the time to smoosh bugs with her brain and think about how much she'd like to smoosh Adalind instead. Atta girl.

Hexenbiest Juliette is basically the best thing to ever happen to Juliette, aside from when Grimm brought her into the Wesen-are-real fold. The show has continued to hit all the right notes with this storyline: Adalind can help, but there's no way to completely "cure" Juliette. Juliette's rage feels organic. While her current lack of control is certainly an effect of her physical and mental transition from human to Wesen, the fact that her justification for her actions is something as mundane as fear of the future—along with her resentment for her significant other's career or lifestyle—is what grounds Juliette's supernatural predicament in the boring old normal-natural.

It feels like this fight had been building, one way or another, for awhile. Juliette's exchange with Rosalee about giving up her Wesen powers for the sake of her relationship with Monroe really highlighted where Juliette was coming from. There were definitely some extenuating circumstances that drove Nick back to the Grimm life (with Juliette's blessing, at least at the time) and the reality of the situation is that Monroe and Rosalee haven't had to give up their powers to make their relationship work. However, once she was faced with the reality that, when given the opportunity to walk away from it all and spend his life with her, Nick chose his legacy... and then to protect Adalind and their child... it became clear that Juliette's cray cray had lots of fuel left to burn that wasn't entirely in her head.

Juliette torching the bookmobile of crazy also throws an interesting twist into Nick's path—one that will ensure that Grimm has plenty of story left to tell even heading into Season 5.

Nick's world has evolved far past the lonely, solitary mission of the show's early years. He has allies in the Grimm, Wesen, and human worlds, providing him with numerous resources and knowledge to draw upon. Grimm's strongest seasons have been its most recent ones, but we can't ignore the fact that, as far as cases go, things have gotten a little repetitive. To wit: Some weird crime goes down, Nick flips through a book or asks Monroe for help and BAM, our Wesen is identified and a solution is nearly instantaneous. Short of an afternoon spent in the stacks, where's the challenge?

Destroying the trailer thrusts Nick back into the world of the unknown. It removes the complacency and confidence that came with having every answer at his fingertips. Wesen are suddenly mysterious and frightening again. This is the sort of move we'd expect in a season finale (eh, close enough, right?) and in the context of Grimm itself, it couldn't have come at a better time—or a worse time, if you're Nick.

ALL ABOARD AUNT MARIE'S BOOKMOBILE OF EXTRA-CRISPY CRAZY

– All the jokes about Adalind's penchant for pregnancy were perfect.

– I'm so bored with the Renard stuff. It's dragged on for too long and even though it's finally starting to get interesting, I'm still like *yawn*

– Even though I think burning the bookmobile was a good move for Grimm, the nerd inside me is horrified by the thought of all that lost lore.

–I love when Monroe gets all nostalgic for his childhood—even when it's inevitably fraught with angst over his old urges.

– "Might be a Blutbad." "Excuse me? With those toes?" <3