The Good Soldier

"" is the eleventh episode of Season 3 of Grimm and the fifty-fifth episode overall. It first aired on January 17, 2014 on NBC.

Synopsis
A young woman, Frankie, sits in her car, clearly ill-at-ease. She looks out the car window, at a bar, then starts carving characters into her forearm with a knife.

Inside the bar, a man, Ron Hurd, chats animatedly with other patrons, when Frankie sits herself down at his table. Ron is perturbed, denying that he knows her, but she's furious about something she "can't put behind". A waitress comes over to take Frankie's order, but Ron snaps that she's leaving soon. Frankie rolls up her sleeves and shows Ron the cuts she had made, imprinting the blood on a napkin and tossing it at him. Ron flinches away, and then stands up to leave, with Frankie shouting threats after him.

At the spice shop, Monroe finds a letter from Rosalee's mother. He's surprised, given that Rosalee and her haven't spoken for seven years. Her mother wants to meet up for the aniversary of Rosalee's father's death. She is reluctant to, but asks if Monroe could come with her; to which he immediately agrees.

Back at his house, Ron rages into a phone, saying that "she's here". Just then, he notices a car pull up in front of his gates; it's Frankie again. He confronts and overpowers her, throwing her out the gates. He returns to the house to get his gun, but Frankie is gone by the time he comes out. Relieved, he goes back inside, only to notice his framed war medals smashed. Readying his gun, he is ambushed by a Wesen similar to a Lowen; except it has a scorpion-like tail with which it stabs him in the chest.

The next morning, Nick, Hank and Wu investigate Ron's death. They deduce that he wasn't killed by a bullet, and his gun was never fired, but he was clearly prepared for an attack. The detectives notice that the framed war medals remain shattered on the ground, albeit missing the actual medals.

Outside, they question Ron's colleague, Troy Dodge. He isn't of much help, until he receives a phone call and the detectives give him privacy to answer it. Nick figures out that Ron must have let his killer into the house, but without a murder weapon or motive, the detectives don't have anything to work on. Meanwhile, Troy continues talking into the phone. The man on the other end, Jim McCabe, informs him that "Frankie's in Portland", which leaves him shaken.

Snappy and nervous at the prospect of meeting her family, Rosalee is not having a good morning. She tells Monroe that her sister, with whom she certainly is not on good terms with, would also be at the dinner. At the precinct, Nick and Hank track Ron's credit card and cellphone, finding out that just before his death, he had been at a bar, and after that made three phone calls to Jim McCabe..

Troy returns home, to find Frankie chatting with his wife, who leaves to get refreshments. In their curt exchange, Frankie hints that the two of them may have had a sexual relationship before. Troy tells her to get out, which she does, but not before threatening him again.

Hank and Nick arrive at the bar that Ron was at the night before. The woman there mistakes them for a couple, but they manage to locate the waitress who was working the night before. She remembers Frankie, describing her to the detectives, and that she had found the bloodied napkin. The detectives find the napkin in the trash, but can't figure out what the symbols mean.

Rosalee stares at her mother's house through the car. She almost stops herself at the doorbell, but manages to push on with Monroe's help. Her mother answers the door, and seems geniunely glad to see her, but Rosalee's sister, Deeta Calvert, comes to the door with a cold and curt welcome.

Nick and Hank arrive at Jim McCabe's office. He seems eager to help the detectives, even putting together a file for them. They notice a photo on the wall with Jim, Ron, Troy, with another man, Robert Hammonds, and make a copy of the photo before leaving. They research Robert back at the precinct, but find out that he was killed in a similar way to Ron a week ago in Phoenix.

In a cafe in Vienna, Adalind works on some papers. She's not making much progress, since Meisner is sitting at the other side of the cafe and unabashedly staring straight at her. Adalind tries to ignore this and reaches for her coffee cup, but it moves away from her. Her shock quickly turns to joy, as she makes the cup fly into her hand. Just then, as she suffers from a sudden bout of labor pain, the lights in the cafe explode, as a bewildered Meisner watches.

Troy confronts Jim, saying that he had told his wife about what happened, and that he's going to confess. Jim tries to convince him otherwise, but Troy leaves, determined.

Captain Sean Renard listens to Meisner's report grimmly, telling him to be prepared. Nick and Hank enter just then, and they discuss the strange circumstances of Robert and Ron's death. Captain suggests they check with the mens' colonel, Adam Desai.

Monroe and Rosalee's mother try to make small talk at dinner, but all attempts are curtly shot down by Deeta, who does everything in her power, including insulting Monroe's line of work and Wesen heritage, to make dinner as awful as possible. Rosalee lashes out, and Deeta accuses her of not being there at their fathers' funeral, before Rosalee reveals that she was in jail at the time; it's haunted her for years. She runs out of the house, with Monroe following closely.

A hysterical Rosalee rambles about how badly the meeting went, but Monroe manages to cheer her up - "that's just family" - and the two embrace.

Betsy, Troy's wife, reads his written confession, and is appalled. She, however, tears it up and tells him to burn it. Troy is just about to light the fire, when he hears a crash from the other room. Betsy has been stabbed, just like Ron, and dies in his arms, just before Troy is also stabbed by a long, scorpion-like tail.

Monroe and Rosalee make their way back to the house, and Rosalee's mother hugs her tightly. Monroe watches, smiling, when he hears a snarl from behind him and woges in defense. It's Deena, who is also woged, and threatens to kill him if he breaks Rosalee's heart. She walks back to the house, leaving a flabbergasted Monroe on the lawn.

The detectives organize a webcam meeting with Colonel Adam Desai, who is apparently stuck in a hospital with terminal cancer. The colonel has no fond memories of the four soldiers; they were untouchable by the law. He tells the detectives that the four men had sexually assaulted Frankie, but got away with it, due to their positions.

The day Frankie was attacked was 11/11/10, which Nick realises is the numbers on the bloody napkin. Desai excuses himself, saying that nurses were calling him. He then hangs up, only to get up and take a swig of alcohol, revealing that he's not in a hospital at all.

At the precinct, Wu approaches the detectives with the cheery news of a double murder - Troy and Betsy Dodge. They arrive at the scene and deduce that they have the same kind of stab wound as Ron, but are still at a loss for how Frankie, whom they suspect, killed them.

Hank receives a call from Wu, when Nick notices ripped-up paper in the fireplace. Wu informs them that the medical report from the wounds are ready: the poison is something uncommon, but the closest match is scorpion venom. Wu jokes that they're dealing with a six-foot scorpion, but Nick and Hank exchange glances.

In the trailer, Juliette and Hank comb through Grimmoires  to find scorpion-like Wesen, while Nick attempts to piece together the paper he had found in Troy's fireplace. They find one that fits the category: the Manticore, a part-Lowen Wesen that had a venomous tail and no fear for death. Nick finally pieces together the paper - it's Troy's confession.

Frankie throws herself against Jim's car, screaming threats. Jim reaches for his gun, but puts it back when police cars arrive and surround Frankie. Nick and Hank arrest her.

In the holding cells, Frankie denies that she has killed anyone. Nick pushes on, revealing that he's a Grimm and that they know she's a Manticore. She's stunned, but woges to prove them wrong; she's a Steinadler.

With several officers tracing the call, Frankie phones the colonel. He knows that she's with the police, and lets them track his location before hanging up. The door opens, and Jim enters. Desai shows him the restricted complaint he had filed against the soldiers, and offers to "make it go away". Jim snatches the documents, but pauses when Desai says that he had killed Ron and Robert, but not Troy and Betsy; Jim was the one who murdered the latter two.

They woge, and have a close fight; both are immensely powerful but neither more so than the other. Desai manages to stab Jim in the tail before the detectives arrive. Just as Nick bursts through the door, Jim picks up the knife and stabs Desai. Hank arrests Jim, while Desai dies in Nick's arms, revealing that he had let Jim stab him so that now Jim could now be arrested.

Nick and Hank debrief Frankie, telling her what Desai had done. With justice doled out to her assaulters, Frankie leaves the precinct, finally having obtained closure.

Press Release
NICK AND HANK INVESTIGATE A SERIES OF VETERAN MURDERS WHILE MONROE MEETS ROSALEE’S FAMILY FOR THE FIRST TIME -- KIRK ACEVEDO AND EMILY RIOS GUEST STAR -- Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) are called to the gruesome murder of a veteran working in home security. During their investigation, they discover this might be one of several revenge killings regarding a horrifying cover-up involving members of the army and military contractors. On the domestic front, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) accompanies Rosalee (Bree Turner) during her long overdue reunion with her mother and sister. In Europe, Adalind (Claire Coffee) sees hints of what she thinks might be her powers returning. Bitsie Tulloch, Sasha Roiz and Reggie Lee also star.

Wesen

 * Blutbad
 * Fuchsbau
 * Half-Zauberbiest
 * Manticore
 * Steinadler

Production Notes

 * Filming for this episode began on November 5, 2013