Board Thread:General Grimm Discussion/@comment-27720018-20160906015503/@comment-41.13.18.130-20180408192842

Saying ILY in S5 was definitely rushed and as emotional as Adalind was, it was still very too soon and they were only just getting to know one another in their new circumstance that didn't involve hurting one another, hence Nick never reciprocated and that was the right call on Nick's behalf. I would not have expected him to act differently. Nick couldn't articulate his feelings for Adalind when Monroe asked him but he certainly felt something for her. Honestly, I have always believed he found her attractive (their first scene together) but they made the worst first impression with the whole Grimm vs Hexenbiest thing exercebated by Adalind doing Sean;s bidding in S1 and working with the Royals between s2 and S4. Whatever he felt in S5, I believe that only intensified when he "lost" her to Renard and his rigged mayoral campaign. You never know what you've got until its gone and all that.

The Nick in S6 is one that is much surer of his feelings for her and the moment to tell her didn't present itself for whatever reason until they faced down the possible end of the world and Nick did the exact same thing Adalind did in S5. However, him saying ILY then didn't feel as rushed or out of nowhere by comparison. Even the way he said it, it seemed like a great weight had come off his shoulders since he'd been holding on to that confession for too long and Adalind didn't even come across as surprised that he'd said probably because Nick is better at expressing himself with action than with words, lol. In all of S6, Adalind didn't act like she doubted what was between them as we saw her often in the second half of S5, where she was constantly walking on eggshells around him regarding their almost relationship.

Was he waiting for the perfect moment to say it and it just never came? Nick has almost always been going from one crisis to another crisis since the show began. The difference between him with Juliette and him with Adalind is that he didn't meet Juliette when his life was in turmoil compared to Adalind. With the latter, it was hardly the best of time to begin a romantic relationship where they could do things the right way round like actually go on dates and all that. Their most romantic time together was hijacked by a disgruntled hotel staff bent on exacting revenge on the cop that arrested his father years ago. The oddest thing is that this would always be Nick's life, dealing with wesen crisis at the most inconvenient of times and Juliette couldn't handle the strain on their relationship as a result compared to Adalind, who was a wesen and understood even if they were from two opposing sides as Hexenbiest and Grimm. They were unconventional, this imo doesn't negate any strong feelings they had for one another. In fact they were the most unconventional couple I have ever witnessed on screen, sometimes real life works the same and doesn't follow a set script of relationship expectation. I have no problems with them being in love with one another at all. In many ways it's a tv trope of enemies turned loves but in other ways it isn't because of its execution, intentional or not (with these writer, I can't tell) and I liked that about them.

As for whether they were fated or not, I'm of two minds. The show never explicitly said they were. However, a lot of what happened in S6 ended up hinging on what came before. I don't believe the writers planned it that way, or else they did a crappy job of it. I do think that without meaning too, the writers kept Nick and Adalind tied together in some form or another since the moment they first laid eyes on one another. I think as viewers if we want to connect the dots, it's not so hard to link everything up, it doesn't make for one tiny pretty bow but there's something there nonetheless. Like they said, they were each other's firsts, the both stripped each other of powers and come from difficult backgrounds. There was that weird vision link during S4, both Kellys, even Diana who got weirdly attached to Nick's photo hanging on his mother's chain, you get the picture, pain, shared circumstances have forced them to adapt and grow that ultimately led them to each other. I know Monroe mentions fate at the end of S6, it is the simplest way to explain everything that happened in every season leading up to the end but I also feel it's a latent hand wave from the writers to unmuddy the waters.