Board Thread:General Grimm Discussion/@comment-26235944-20150425082530/@comment-69.91.87.55-20150430033533

Thanks Lurkenfrau for starting this thread! Lots of good comments above but, one overriding theme that everyone needs be cognizant of is that Juliette is losing her mind! I hate to play the "exprience" card but one can't unknow what they know so ... Juliette is displaying all the symptoms of someone in the throes of a severe psychosis. Unfortunately, I have experienced this in real life in the person of two close female realtives. All of this errratic and irrational behavior that Juliette has been displaying - misplaced anger, refusing to accept help or sympathy, unfettered spite and rejection of accepted norms of behavior - I have witnessed first hand. Bitsie Tulloch deserves an Emmy for how well she is portraying this. I couldn't sleep for two nights straight after that scene where she goes to the Spice Shop seeking Rosalee and Monroe's help and then ends up lashing out at everyone. That brought back some very, very bad memories. Argh!!

What you have to realize is that, even though much of what she is experiencing is understandable - jealously, resentment, etc. - she is just not processing those emotions like a normal person would. Syscrash53 said it best in a previous post when she said something to the effect that Juliette is beyond understanding or sympathy at this point. While many of her actions are worthy of condemnation - like burning the trailer - you just can't judge her like you would a person who is in a normal, even a normally agitated, state of mind. The other characters in the show are realizing this, and Juliette even realizes it herself to some extent, like when Nick yells at her to "Stop it!" and she says, "I can't."

And now that she's beginning to "accept" what she is in some sense, things are only getting worse. Right now she's exhibiting many of the characteristics of someone who experiencing extreme mania. It's almost impossible to reason with someone in such a state because what they are experiencing is shear euphoria. They just can't understand why anyone would think there is anything wrong with them. Witness when Rosalee tries to apologize to Juliette for what's happened to her and Juliette is like, "What do you mean. I'm on top of the world!" What distresses Rosalee is not that Juliette is accepting being Wesen. The problem is that Juliette resists Rosalee's attempt to connect with her on an emotional level and just blithely rejects the notion that she has any remaining feelings for Nick.

Of course, what makes the situation really dangerous in Juliette's case is that with her growing psychokinetic powers her delusions of grandeur aren't delusional at all! The normal physical contraints that might limit her actions just aren't there. And now that she is forming an alliance with the Royals and will have access to their wealth and influence, legal and societal constraints will have iittle signficance for her either. It's a perfect storm of loss of all normal inhibition meets unlimited power and ambition.

There is hope for Juliette but it doesn't lie in some medicinal rabbit that the Scooby gang pulls of a (witches') hat, and I'm glad that it appears that the writers will have her reject any such cure. If she is going to be "saved" it will have to be via a supreme act of self-overcoming. The closest real world parallel I can think of is the mathematician John Nash who, unlike most victims of severe Schizophrenia, was able to overcome his paranoia and delusional thinking by the shear force of his intellect and will. if the writers are going to redeem Juliette, I hope they have an arc like that in mind. Anything else would be grossly anti-climatic ( and unfortunately, they've served up plenty of anti-climax in the past.) If the writers aren't going to take that approach, I would just as soon that they let her remain "evil." She is defiintely the most interestng character on the show right now, and one the most interesting characters in network television. And I hasten to add that by "interesting" I don't necessarily mean likeable or praiseworthy.

Sorry if I got too personal at times there. I just felt like some things needed to be said.