The Other Side

"The Other Side" is the eighth episode of Season 2 of Grimm and the thirtieth episode overall. It first aired on October 19, 2012 on NBC.

Synopsis
The episode starts off with a school holding an academic decathlon trial. A boy, Pierce Higgins easily answers all of the questions while his mother watches.

At Nick ’s house, Juliette and Nick get ready to go to Nick’s work function. Nick warns Juliette that the function will be boring and Captain Renard will be giving a long speech. Juliette ’s expression wavers at the mention of the Captain, but she shrugs it off and goes anyway.

After the decathlon trial, Pierce and the rest of the kids go for dinner together. They seem to have no hard feelings against each other and joke around. After the meal, they split up and walk home. One of the kids, Brandon, walks through a deserted path and hears strange noises. He is attacked by a Löwen and it rips his throat out.

At the PD work function, Renard gives his speech, all the while throwing glances at Juliette. Juliette is just as captivated by him. After the speech, Renard has drinks with Wu, Juliette, Nick and Hank. The latter two are called in for Brandon’s homicide, and Renard offers to take Juliette home while Nick is away.

Nick and Hank arrive at the crime scene. Brandon’s neck is gruesomely ripped apart. His phone rings, and Nick finds it on the floor and answers it. It’s Jenny, who can’t sleep and wants to talk to Brandon. Upon hearing Nick’s voice and not recognizing it, she asks where Brandon was.

Renard drops Juliette off at her house, but doesn’t drive away. He watches Juliette enter the house. Juliette goes to take a shower. On the way in, she notices a framed photo of her and Nick. Renard sneaks into the house while Juliette is in the shower and picks up the frame. Juliette hears him, and thinks that it’s Nick. When she comes out to check though, there is no one in the house, and the framed photograph of her and Nick is cracked.

Renard drives away in a hurry, his emotions running wild. He is dangerously close to woge-ing, when he almost hits a guy with groceries. When the guy questions Renard ’s soberness, the Captain punches him before getting back into the car and driving away.

Nick and Hank question the kids who were in the decathlon. Brandon was apparently a very nice guy whom everyone liked. Upon exiting Pierce ’s house, Nick admits that he can’t tell if any of them were Wesen. They are confronted by Coach Anker, who is extremely angry about Brandon’s death and rude to Nick and Hank. He woges briefly into a Löwen before getting his temper under control and leaving. Nick informs Hank about Löwen– aggressive, competitive, and prone to violence.

They research on Anker, and share the findings with Renard. Anker is their main suspect. Renard is clearly on edge, and Hank and Nick both notice it. Later, Wu brings in their newest intern, Ryan Smulson. He clearly admires Nick and Hank, saying that it started when they’d rescued the little girl (Robin Howell) a year ago. While exiting the place, Ryan trips over the bin and falls on his bottom. Everyone laughs and claps to welcome him.

Eric Renard is at an opera house in Vienna with Wagner heard in the background when he is confronted by Adalind Schade. During their conversation, Adalind brings up the topic of betrayal, of which Eric asks her how much she knows about. She reveals her knowledge of Sean Renard and Nick.

Captain Renard enters Rosalee’s spice shop, which is still being run by Monroe. Renard asks Monroe for something to cure obsessive behavior. Monroe finds Renard familiar. Renard denies having ever met, and doesn’t leave any contact information, telling Monroe he’d be back tomorrow.

Pierce and Jenny talk on the phone. Pierce is apparently suffering from a headache. Jenny decides to go to the school bleachers, and Pierce agrees to meet her there. Jenny arrives first, and is attacked by a Löwen too.

Nick and Hank arrive at the bleachers to investigate. They recognize Jenny, having interviewed her in the morning, and find her wounds similar to Brandon’s. After finding Pierce’s watch clutched in her hand, they decide to pay the Higgins a visit. They question Pierce until his mother comes out. Upset, they both woge into Genio innocuo. As usual, Nick has to reassure them that he isn’t going to kill them, and they both retreat back into the house.

Mrs Higgins brings Pierce hot chocolate. His headache is getting worse. After his mom leaves, Pierce accidentally spills the hot chocolate onto his pillow. He takes the pillow case to the washing machine, and discovers that there are bloodied clothes in the washing machine. Mrs Higgins sees him and briefly panics before sending him away.

Nick and Hank are at the trailer, researching on Genio innocuo. Nick’s ancestors recorded them as “intelligent, compassionate, and thoroughly non-violent, which made dispatching them quite easy”.Hank is rather taken aback at the Grimm ’s killing of innocent Wesen, and Nick agrees. They discuss, and decide that the main suspect is Anker.

Pierce and his mom then get a call from Anker, saying he is canceling the competition. Anker wants to talk to Pierce but his mom quickly hangs up.

They arrive at Anker’s house. Nick peers through the window and sees blood. They break into the house and find Anker on the floor with his throat ripped out. They are completely stumped.

At a mansion, Eric and Adelind talk. Eric tries to flirt with Adelind, but she is more keen on talking. Eric talks about Sean’s history – Eric’s father was having an affair with a Hexenbiest, and Eric’s mother was unhappy about having a half-Hexenbiest in the premises, forcing Sean’s mother to move to Portland.

Pierce calls Nick, suspecting that his mom was the murderer. Mrs Higgins interrupts the call. In a fit of panic, Pierce goes to the washing machine and pulls out the bloodied clothes, only to realize that they were his. The Löwen side of him then emerges and attacks Mrs Higgins.

Nick and Hank arrive at the house. Nick is attacked by Pierce's Löwen side. He manages to subdue the Löwen part of Pierce, leaving him in his human form. Mrs Higgins admits to them that she had genetically altered Pierce before he was born, in order to give him Löwen traits. Pierce realizes what he’s done and escapes.

Pierce is found on the roof of a tall building. He remembers what he’d done to his friends. Nick tries to help him, but Pierce woges into the Löwen and, before he can lose control, jumps off the building. Nick catches his hand in time and pulls him back up.

Hank, Nick and Renard discuss the incident. The former two try to put it off as a gene-induced mental illness that made Pierce unstable. They sympathize with Pierce, as they think he’s going to have a hard time in prison.

Pierce is being bullied in prison, but the Löwen appears and attacks his inmates.

Renard returns to the apothecary. Monroe explains that while the physical urges can be contained, the psychological obsession is another story. Unless more is known about Renard’s object of obsession, Monroe and Rosalee can’t help Renard.

Renard is unwilling to share more information, but Monroe warns him that it could get dangerous for anyone who gets between Renard and the person of obsession. Renard realizes in this case, it’s Nick. He pauses and contemplates telling Monroe.

Press Release
Nick and Hank are called to the scene of a murdered high school academic decathlete and learn just how competitive some extracurricular activities can be, and the extremes some coaches and parents will go to give students the best chance for success. In other police matters, Captain Renard deals with an unwanted infatuation while we learn an old accomplice of his has been spending time with his family in Europe. Elsewhere, Monroe continues to manage the spice shop and gets a visit from an unlikely customer.

Wesen

 * Blutbad
 * Hexenbiest (former)
 * Löwen
 * Genio innocuo
 * Lebensauger
 * Half-Zauberbiest

Production Notes

 * Bree Turner (Rosalee Calvert) was not credited and did not appear.
 * The science of combining Wesen types, such as (Genio innocuo and Löwen), is confirmed.

Continuity

 * This is the second episode in which Sean Renard morphs.
 * Eric Renard verifies that Sean's mother was a Hexenbiest mistress of their father.
 * Footage from and  was reused.

Trivia

 * Eric refers to Portland as the farthest reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, even though the land acquired in 1803 went only as far west as the Montana-Idaho border. Technically it would be the Oregon Territory as established in the Oregon Treaty of 1846.