"You will face yourself again in a moment of terror."
No, seriously! The blue tie vs. red tie is on in David Giuntoli's directed episode of "Oh Captain, My Captain."
NBC’s 6-season running TV show Grimm takes its final stand and brings back a sense of hope through director and actor David Giuntoli's episode of "Oh Captain, My Captain," which aired on Friday, January 20th at 8PM EST. The episode follows right where we left off, with Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) and the Scooby-Doo gang are on the run from Police Captain (now-elected Mayor of Portland) Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz). As an admirer of the supernatural drama series based on Grimm's fairy tales, it has been a pleasure to watch 6 seasons worth of thrill, especially with such an amazing cast who spends time and energy having fun.
It has been a joy to see the cast bond over the years and admire the phenomenal work done by such a fantastic crew. Grimm has been dubbed "the little show that could," by Grimm key grip and Portland native, Bruce Lawson. The community of friendship on the set of Portland takes on a life of its own too, with different plot twists and layers of character dynamics, thus making Portland a place for local fairy tales. Also, what makes Grimm stand out in comparison to other TV fantasy dramas, is the perfect blend of local life mixed with traditional fairy tales. That is, the balance of current trends such as power, politics, propaganda, civil rights, nationalism and even identity mixes itself with fairy-tale stories.
As a result, we have a melting-pot, which then adds a deeper understanding of the world that surrounds the characters. Even more, this blending highlights hidden truths and allows both the characters and viewers to reflect upon their societies. And in the course of David Giuntoli's directed episode of "Oh Captain, My Captain," we see how the particular trend of politics is toyed with, particularly when Sean Renard rises to power as mayor-elect of Portland.
Episode 3 starts off with the opening lines, "You will face yourself again in a moment of terror," with tense music playing in the spice shop. Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) walks through the shadows and stares at the half-drawn windows, only to realize that the voice comes from a police radio and that the FBI are at their doorsteps. Monroe then crouches down low and rushes to the basement to warn the gang. Such an opening brings back memories of the earlier seasons when Nick worked on bizarre cases, the opening prologues suggestive of traditional fairy tales ("Little Red Riding Hood," "Hansel and Gretel," "Spinning Women," etc. in particular).
Episode 3 focuses entirely on Sean's rise to power and how that affects everyone around him, including Adalind (Claire Coffee). When asked how they're going to make this work, Renard blatantly tells her, "It's your problem. Like it or not, you're stuck with me and you better get with the program before I take office. I expect a lot of support from the first lady of this city."
David Giuntoli's relationship with the fellow actors comes into play when he transforms into Renard via the German-funky term for Polyjuice Potion. While Nick is in the process of turning into Renard in order to get the Captain to reach some sort of agreement with what Nick and the gang propose, the actors enter all-out humor mode. It starts when Monroe comes over to retrieve a piece of Renard's hair from Adalind. The hilariously rushed sequence uniquely combines humor and suspense, with Adalind hiding Monroe in the closet and handing Renard a new shirt after he gets blood on it. At the same, she tells him she's "just trying to get with the program." The humor reaches its zenith, when Monroe (Mitchell), Rosalee (Bree Turner) and Eve (Elizabeth Tulloch) instruct Nick on how to behave more like Renard, once Nick finally takes control of his body à la shirtless-rage style.
"You need to be a little more Renard-y," says Monroe.
Nick is able to test out his role as Renard by playing on Hank (Russell Hornsby) and scaring the heck out of him when he enters the spice shop.
"I told you to give me your resignation," says Nick as the Captain. Hank flips out and shouts, "I gave you my damn resignation!" Hank still flinches when he realizes it's Nick.
Sasha Roiz's performance as Nick in Sean's body and as the Captain is hilarious throughout. He perfectly balances classic Nick and the power-hungry Sean Renard, during their confrontation after Nick announces, as Sean, that he abdicates his mayor-ship.
"You'll always be contradicting yourself," Nick tells the Captain in the following scene linked here. "No one is ever gonna believe you. They might just think you're crazy and lock you up."
"Well, then I better have a talk with myself..." replies Sean.
Perhaps The Donald can take a life-lesson from Renard's existential crisis, and come to a sort of compromise.
David Giuntoli's directed episode of "Oh Captain, My Captain" does a marvelous job, combining humor and suspense, as seen in the liveliness of the actors. Albeit, the episode does have its pros and cons, but is overall not a complete disaster. Giuntoli works with the actors in order to enhance character development in, characters like Eve, Adalind, and Nick. Giuntoli also works to bring a compelling episode of satire, friendship and the corrupting influence of power (not only seen in Renard, but in Nick's addiction to the magical stick that strongly echoes the addiction of the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings) in Grimm. Lastly, he brings hope not only in regards to plot, but in regards to this humiliating time in our nation's history where we have a "man" in the highest position of authority in the United States, yet constantly contradicts himself, elects people who are frankly scatter-brained nitwits, and reacts childishly by tweeting and calling for an all-out "war" with the media when they give even the slightest critique about him or say something he doesn't agree with.
Stay tuned for the next episode, where Nick and the gang have to deal with a creature from Spanish folklore, called "El Cuegle", Friday at 8. Watch the preview here.
