GRIMM: Uncovers the Pied Piper

“Out they scampered from doors, windows, and gutters, rats of every size, all after the piper.” – The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Last night’s episode of GRIMM , “Dance Macabre”, was more gruesome than I’ve seen so far, but it uncovered a new creature for Nick to deal with. Actually there were two, but we only know the name of one of them.

The Reinigen was a high school boy named Roddy who had been expelled from school for fighting. Roddy was an outcast in a school filled with upper society snobs, but he was a very gifted violinist and the class he was in recognized this. Roddy was also poor and this made him “socially unacceptable” among those class members, and the perfect target for bullying.

When the music teacher is literally chewed to death by a car full of rats, suspicion goes to Roddy and his father who is an exterminator, also a Reinigen. Both father and son have terrible tempers which only serves to increase suspicion.

In the end it’s discovered that the bullies were actually the ones who put the rats in the teacher’s car for a joke, just to scare him. Roddy seeks revenge by luring the kids to a basement filled with rats. They think they are going to an exclusive party hosted by the popular DJ in town, DJ Wretched Cat, who is in fact Roddy.

I found it very interesting that Roddy was idolized by the teens of the town through his Wretched Cat guise, the same way the rats were enchanted by him when he played music on his violin. He was actually a very popular kid.

Music was the added character in this episode. The kids rocked out with Wretched Cat but Roddy played “[easyazon-link asin=”B0000041V6″]Danse Macabre[/easyazon-link]” on his violin and this was also the piece that the music group was practicing in the show’s opening scene. It ran throughout the show and added a morose feeling. I’m sure it was meant to, since “Dance Macabre” translated means “Dance of Death”. A perfect fit for the story.

Roddy was played by Nick Thurston who has had extensive training in acting, but I wondered if he had to learn to play the violin for this role. I am a person who is very moved by music so watching Nick play brought me to tears, and I don’t care whether that was really him playing or not. It was beautiful.

And what about the Reinigen? According to the Grimm Guide they are, “a rat-like creature that exists at the bottom of the Grimm creature food chain. Similar to rats in that they are scavengers, not being the least bit picky about what they eat, and are rarely violent unless pushed to the limit. They possess a musical ability that enables them to mesmerize and control rats’ behavior.”

Roddy recognized Nick as a Grimm right away and runs away from him, but Nick Feels concern for the boy and asks Monroe to go talk with him and reassure him that Nick will not harm him and would like to help him. As Monroe approaches Roddy’s trailer he hears him playing his violin and is very impressed. He encourages Roddy not to throw away a talent he was obviously born with and that others, like himself, would love to possess.

“Dance Macabre” was an interesting episode, though outside of the beautiful music, I don’t think it was my favorite. It felt a bit disjointed at times. Like what’s up with Adalind showing up at the bar where Hank and Wu were having drinks. Then she invites him to dinner – what? It came out of no where. And the plummer called in to fix Nick and Juliette’s fridge, what kind of creature was he? Clearly he knew Nick was a Grimm and nearly ran screaming from their house. Oddly enough he comes back at the end of the show to collect his tools, and he begs Juliette to reason with Nick so he won’t come after him. Juliette is stumped but is she starting to put some pieces together?

All in all, I can only give this episode 3 out of 5 rats tails.

Tonight is another new episode, “The Three Bad Wolves”, airing in its normal 9/8c time slot.