Synopsis of 4×08: CHUPACABRA!! Oh and some other important plot related things, like a check-in with the resistance and Juliette turning into a hexenbiest.
Here’s a little known fact about me: I love the chupacabra. I don’t really know why, but it is one of my favorite mythical creatures. Also I really like saying the word “chupacabra.” I also appreciate episodes of Grimm where I actually know a little something about the monster of the week. All of these things combined made this week’d episode my favorite of the season so far. It is up there with the El Cucuy episode, though that one still tops the charts as my all time favorite.
The episode started with a couple of doctors doing a Doctors without Borders gig in the Dominican Republic. One of them, Diego, ended up getting bitten by a mosquito. As a result, upon returning home, he became the chupacabra at night. This meant he would turn into the nasty creature of mythical proportions and go on a murdering spree. In the morning, he’d wake up covered in blood with no idea what he’d done. His first murder was that of a neighbor and the neighbor’s dog and, of course, the case ended up crossing Nick’s desk.
Meanwhile, Rosalee and Monroe had the cute idea that they would actually get to go on their honeymoon. I called it from the beginning of the episode, but I feel like it was probably pretty obvious anyway: there’s no way they’re going to get to go. This show isn’t called Grimm for nothing, and two characters in the midst of ideological drama don’t just get to swan off to the tropics for a getaway. Sorry, guys.
Across the world, Viktor and Adalind were scheming. She said she was working with him but I don’t really think she is. Knowing Adalind, she didn’t actually plan to trust anyone. After all, it hasn’t gotten her anywhere, except in a heap of trouble by this point in the series. Nonetheless, she had very little choice at this point than to go along with Viktor’s whims. If she didn’t, she’d probably get thrown back into the dungeon and sent on another freaky acid trip. The poor woman just wanted her baby back, none of this other craziness.
Back in Portland, Juliette and Rosalee had girl talk. Juliette insisted that she wasn’t pregnant. She’d taken three tests and, as opposed to what I’d believed last week, they all came up negative. There is no evil baby in the works, at least not at this point. Yet that did little to soothe Juliette’s worries, since if it wasn’t pregnancy that was causing her to have headaches, nausea, and a number of other symptoms, then what was? Rosalee told her to get checked out by a doctor, but we all know doctors are for sick people and there is no way Juliette could be sick, right? Oh, if only she knew what everyone knew by the end of the episode. Poor Juliette.
Once Juliette left, Rosalee got a slasher movie-esque call, which informed her that her blood would be the next at the back door. Naturally, she went to check out the back door (why doesn’t anyone ever just call the police?) and found a dead fox hung at the top of it. The symbolism was definitely enough to get through to her and she called Monroe and then Nick. The jerks who objected to Monroe and Rosalee’s wedding took it a step too far.
Rosalee was not the only one who had a bad day. Throughout the entire episode, Sargent Wu got closer and closer to figuring out the truth about Nick. Let me just say this: it is about damn time. First he approached Captain Renard about it, since so many of the cases seemed to have weird circumstances surrounding them and were always assigned to Nick and Hank. Renard brushed him off to take a call with a member of the Resistance and Wu was left to try and figure things out on his own. So of course that was exactly what he did.
Wu became such an important character in terms of Nick’s slow descent into the life of a Grimm. At first, Nick was as clueless as Wu and everyone was sort of in the same boat. However, as Nick delved deeper into what life had to offer him, given his heritage, Wu mirrored the descent from the perspective of someone who had no idea what was going on. There’s a parallel to be found, I think. While Nick’s worlds are blending, so are Wu’s, except Wu offered the audience a more stark contrast between what was “normal” and what passed for normal in Nick’s new style of life. This episode definitely reflected the final leg of the journey, in the sense of Nick stepping fully into his Grimm-hood.
They finally told Wu what was going on, though not in enough detail to prevent our dear Sargent from going to a bar, getting drunk, and getting into a brawl. Whoops.
Back to dealing with the Chupacabra, Nick and Hank managed to track Diego down after another series of attacks. They talked to his wife and eventually Diego, who transformed into the Chupacabra, attacked his wife and the team sprang into action. They took him into custody and wrangled him long enough to get him to the spice shop where Rosalee was able to figure out a cure. Naturally there was a problem, since nothing could end well at this point, and Rosalee only had enough for one dose of the cure. That’s fine, right? There’s only one person infected after all.
WRONG. Plot twist! His wife got infected during the attack and now they can only save one of them. Of course the husband decided to use the dose on his wife, since it was “too late for him” and then attacked Hank which resulted in him getting shot. Diego died, his wife survived, and this week’s episode of Grimm was a bit darker than I was expecting. At least the Chupacabra was cool?
To end the episode on an even lower note, Monroe and Rosalee were ready to go on their honeymoon. Thanks to Nick, there was an officer stationed outside of their home to keep the crazies at bay. Unfortunately, that officer turned out to be one of the crazies. Monroe, trying to be nice, took out a snack to the guy and ended up getting himself kidnapped. I told you they wouldn’t get to go on their honeymoon. Bummer, man.
Finally, Juliette’s headaches came to a head (do you get it? I get it) and possibly the greatest plot twist of all time was revealed: Juliette appears to be a hexenbiest. That’s one hell of a side effect.
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