S1E17: link
Considering the titre I was a little bit surprised that neither the episode nor the fairy tale it was referring to, had an actual cat ou mouse. The fairy tale in this case is “Eisenhans” – Iron Hans ou Iron John. It is kind of a favori of mine, but less because it’s particular good, plus because there are so many unexpected changes in the character of Eisenhans, which don’t really make sense, but set him apart from the normal black/white approach in the Grimm stories. I hope that the montrer will revisit this particular fairy tale later on, because there is so much plus to it then what they took.
But what was even plus notable than the references to the fairy tale, were the countless references to the French Revolution. So I’ll mention those, too.
Reference Rundown
1. The name (naturally): The same way “John” is the English version of the German name “Hans”, “Ian” is the Scottish version of it.
2. At the start of the fairy tale, hunters are vanishing in the woods, until the king sends a hunter with dogs, which eventually leads to discovering Eisenhans, who drowned all the hunters who turned up before. Ian is forced to kill his hunters, while knowing very well that another one will be send in their place.
3. As mentioned above, “Eisenhans” is one of the few ambiguous fairy tale characters. Ian is similar ambiguous, considering his readiness to kill for “the greater good”.
4. And now to the French Revolution: I’m convinced that it’s no accident that the writers chose St. Louis as seconde station for Ian. ou that he has a Louisiana I.D.
5. It is very subtle, but I was very amused when immediately after Monroe mentioned that Ian is a journalist, they showed a scene very similar to this painting:
Marat was a journalist who was murdered because he was one of the leaders of the French Revolution.
6. “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” (Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)) was coined during the French Revolution. According to Monroe, the goals of the Lauffeuer are supposed to be very similar.
7. Far from agreeing with Walz, but what he a dit about one terror regime replacing another one that’s plus ou less what happened after the French Revolution. The new regime under Robespierre resulted in the death of many who had fought for their freedom, until he went the same way the nobles went before him (to the guillotine).
German Gebrabbel
I normally don’t complain about Monroe’s mangled German because he isn’t supposed to be good speaking it. But this time around, I have to object, since Walz is supposed to be fluent in German, and nevertheless, he messes up. No German would say “Wenn Sie verstehen, was ich sage, dann lassen Sie mich mal wissen.” The correct construction would be: „Wenn Sie verstehen, was ich sage, dann lassen Sie mich es wissen.“
But even plus gruesome is the name of the German weapon manufacturer they mentioned. “Deutsch Waffen Munition”. Okay, it might be somewhat explainable to ignore the German Grammar for Wesen names, but that’s supposed to be a real firm. toi just can’t put “German weapon ammunition” in the translator and expect to get a name which sounds realistic for German ears. “Deutsche Munitionsfabrik” ou “Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabrik” would be closer to what they wanted.
I’m not hundred percent sure about the name of the resistance, but I think they are saying “Lauffeuer”. Word to word “running fire”, meaning a feu which spreads unusual fast. We are mostly using the word in an idiom: “es verbreitete sich wie ein Lauffeuer”, “something spread like a running fire”. And exciting ou important news for example. I really like the word they choose there, because that is plus ou less the idea behind a revolution, it is suppose to spread fast, and feu can be something good, but also something dangerous.
With the “Freidenreden”, I’m not sure if I can trust Nick’s spelling of the word, but for now, I’ll translate it that way he wrote it. “Reden” means “to talk”, “Freiden” sounds like a mix out of “Frei” (free) and “Frieden” (peace).
That leaves the Hundjager. Some might remember from my translation of “Jagerbar”, “Jäger” means “hunter” (and the Umlaut as always got lost). “Hund” means “dog”, so basically “Dog hunter”, but the correct compound would be “Hundejäger”, not “Hundjager”. Plus, I think what they actually meant was “hunting dog”, so “Jagdhund” (which is, btw, a real German compound) would have been the correct order of words.
Highs and Lows
+ The villain
+ The whole interaction between Rosalee, Ian and Monroe
+ The showdown in the shop
- So, Hank apparently has no idea who was with him in the room when he woke up? And Wu? Has he amnesia too?
- So a foreign Grimm was able to made footage of a mass execution in Madrid and conveniently dubbed it in English?
- Why should Juliette be disgusted thinking about blood? She is a veterinarian!
The Grimmoire
No, Nick, don’t interrupt, I really want this Wesen history lesson. Damn! Oh well, at least we got some information. So there are the seven royal families, who seemed to be somewhat allied with everyone (the Reapers, the Verrat, the Grimms), but being allied with them doesn’t mean that they always follow the same goals. Plus, the royals are also fighting each other for power. And the Lauffeuer is basically fighting all of them, hoping to reach some kind of equality in the Wesen world.
The Verrat, it turns out, is basically a bunch a racists. The Wesen in Spain were killed because they married out of their own kind, Walz kills the bar tender not just because he needs a body, but also because he is offended that a Lausenschlange serves food, and he is totally surprised that Rosalee has the help of a Blutbad.
Marie Kessler once mentioned that she didn’t have any contact to other Grimms. Is that because they allied themselves with the royals, and she was basically a renegade Grimm? Her owning the key and keeping it from the royals at least indicates this possibility strongly.
The Final Judgment
I really loved the scene at the beginning, with Nick adding information to his “Grimmoire”. It’s good to see him accepting his responsibilities as a Grimm. And apparently, he also studies the livres whenever he has time, since he at least had an idea what the Verrat is.
Overall, the episode offers a creepy villain and with Ian a really compelling character. The basic good guy, who is on a very slippery slope after a long fight, is a fascinating concept, because that could be Nick’s future if he doesn’t draw the line early on. And I’m glad that he does. I always found so called heros, whose actions are barely better than the ones of the people they fight against very questionable. Violence and murder is not becoming better because it’s done for the right reasons.
I keep hoping that Ian will be back at one point. After all, the story of “Iron John” is far from over. In the story, he eventually gets captured and then freed par the son of the king, whom he kidnaps because the prince is afraid how his parents will react. The rest of the story is mostly about the prince, and how he finally becomes a hero and marries a princess with the help “Iron John”. It might be interesting to see a Grimm version of this “kidnapping story with happy end”.
But hopes for future episodes aside, this one really offered everything a good Grimm episode should have, including some insights into the Wesen world. The only serious complain I have is the way they brushed over the earlier episode, but I see the fault plus with those episodes not offering a proper closure to the story they told than with this episode. Because of that, 10 golden keys out of 10.
S1E19: link
Considering the titre I was a little bit surprised that neither the episode nor the fairy tale it was referring to, had an actual cat ou mouse. The fairy tale in this case is “Eisenhans” – Iron Hans ou Iron John. It is kind of a favori of mine, but less because it’s particular good, plus because there are so many unexpected changes in the character of Eisenhans, which don’t really make sense, but set him apart from the normal black/white approach in the Grimm stories. I hope that the montrer will revisit this particular fairy tale later on, because there is so much plus to it then what they took.
But what was even plus notable than the references to the fairy tale, were the countless references to the French Revolution. So I’ll mention those, too.
Reference Rundown
1. The name (naturally): The same way “John” is the English version of the German name “Hans”, “Ian” is the Scottish version of it.
2. At the start of the fairy tale, hunters are vanishing in the woods, until the king sends a hunter with dogs, which eventually leads to discovering Eisenhans, who drowned all the hunters who turned up before. Ian is forced to kill his hunters, while knowing very well that another one will be send in their place.
3. As mentioned above, “Eisenhans” is one of the few ambiguous fairy tale characters. Ian is similar ambiguous, considering his readiness to kill for “the greater good”.
4. And now to the French Revolution: I’m convinced that it’s no accident that the writers chose St. Louis as seconde station for Ian. ou that he has a Louisiana I.D.
5. It is very subtle, but I was very amused when immediately after Monroe mentioned that Ian is a journalist, they showed a scene very similar to this painting:
Marat was a journalist who was murdered because he was one of the leaders of the French Revolution.
6. “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” (Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)) was coined during the French Revolution. According to Monroe, the goals of the Lauffeuer are supposed to be very similar.
7. Far from agreeing with Walz, but what he a dit about one terror regime replacing another one that’s plus ou less what happened after the French Revolution. The new regime under Robespierre resulted in the death of many who had fought for their freedom, until he went the same way the nobles went before him (to the guillotine).
German Gebrabbel
I normally don’t complain about Monroe’s mangled German because he isn’t supposed to be good speaking it. But this time around, I have to object, since Walz is supposed to be fluent in German, and nevertheless, he messes up. No German would say “Wenn Sie verstehen, was ich sage, dann lassen Sie mich mal wissen.” The correct construction would be: „Wenn Sie verstehen, was ich sage, dann lassen Sie mich es wissen.“
But even plus gruesome is the name of the German weapon manufacturer they mentioned. “Deutsch Waffen Munition”. Okay, it might be somewhat explainable to ignore the German Grammar for Wesen names, but that’s supposed to be a real firm. toi just can’t put “German weapon ammunition” in the translator and expect to get a name which sounds realistic for German ears. “Deutsche Munitionsfabrik” ou “Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabrik” would be closer to what they wanted.
I’m not hundred percent sure about the name of the resistance, but I think they are saying “Lauffeuer”. Word to word “running fire”, meaning a feu which spreads unusual fast. We are mostly using the word in an idiom: “es verbreitete sich wie ein Lauffeuer”, “something spread like a running fire”. And exciting ou important news for example. I really like the word they choose there, because that is plus ou less the idea behind a revolution, it is suppose to spread fast, and feu can be something good, but also something dangerous.
With the “Freidenreden”, I’m not sure if I can trust Nick’s spelling of the word, but for now, I’ll translate it that way he wrote it. “Reden” means “to talk”, “Freiden” sounds like a mix out of “Frei” (free) and “Frieden” (peace).
That leaves the Hundjager. Some might remember from my translation of “Jagerbar”, “Jäger” means “hunter” (and the Umlaut as always got lost). “Hund” means “dog”, so basically “Dog hunter”, but the correct compound would be “Hundejäger”, not “Hundjager”. Plus, I think what they actually meant was “hunting dog”, so “Jagdhund” (which is, btw, a real German compound) would have been the correct order of words.
Highs and Lows
+ The villain
+ The whole interaction between Rosalee, Ian and Monroe
+ The showdown in the shop
- So, Hank apparently has no idea who was with him in the room when he woke up? And Wu? Has he amnesia too?
- So a foreign Grimm was able to made footage of a mass execution in Madrid and conveniently dubbed it in English?
- Why should Juliette be disgusted thinking about blood? She is a veterinarian!
The Grimmoire
No, Nick, don’t interrupt, I really want this Wesen history lesson. Damn! Oh well, at least we got some information. So there are the seven royal families, who seemed to be somewhat allied with everyone (the Reapers, the Verrat, the Grimms), but being allied with them doesn’t mean that they always follow the same goals. Plus, the royals are also fighting each other for power. And the Lauffeuer is basically fighting all of them, hoping to reach some kind of equality in the Wesen world.
The Verrat, it turns out, is basically a bunch a racists. The Wesen in Spain were killed because they married out of their own kind, Walz kills the bar tender not just because he needs a body, but also because he is offended that a Lausenschlange serves food, and he is totally surprised that Rosalee has the help of a Blutbad.
Marie Kessler once mentioned that she didn’t have any contact to other Grimms. Is that because they allied themselves with the royals, and she was basically a renegade Grimm? Her owning the key and keeping it from the royals at least indicates this possibility strongly.
The Final Judgment
I really loved the scene at the beginning, with Nick adding information to his “Grimmoire”. It’s good to see him accepting his responsibilities as a Grimm. And apparently, he also studies the livres whenever he has time, since he at least had an idea what the Verrat is.
Overall, the episode offers a creepy villain and with Ian a really compelling character. The basic good guy, who is on a very slippery slope after a long fight, is a fascinating concept, because that could be Nick’s future if he doesn’t draw the line early on. And I’m glad that he does. I always found so called heros, whose actions are barely better than the ones of the people they fight against very questionable. Violence and murder is not becoming better because it’s done for the right reasons.
I keep hoping that Ian will be back at one point. After all, the story of “Iron John” is far from over. In the story, he eventually gets captured and then freed par the son of the king, whom he kidnaps because the prince is afraid how his parents will react. The rest of the story is mostly about the prince, and how he finally becomes a hero and marries a princess with the help “Iron John”. It might be interesting to see a Grimm version of this “kidnapping story with happy end”.
But hopes for future episodes aside, this one really offered everything a good Grimm episode should have, including some insights into the Wesen world. The only serious complain I have is the way they brushed over the earlier episode, but I see the fault plus with those episodes not offering a proper closure to the story they told than with this episode. Because of that, 10 golden keys out of 10.
S1E19: link