A geologist, Jill Pembrey, is investigating a site in the mountains near Portland when a man attempts to steal her bag of samples. She peppersprays him and manages to drive off with the samples, but calls her boss, Thom, to let him know about the incident. Later that evening, she feels what seems to be an earthquake, and then sees Volcanalis, who attacks and kills her.
Meanwhile, Juliette is still surrounded by memory-Nicks in the house, and she can’t take it anymore. She rushes out of the house, seeing Nick again in the yard and then sitting in the passenger seat next to her. She hysterically tries to hit the vision of Nick and instead crashes her car into a parked car, knocking herself out. Nick comes to see her in the hospital, and she doesn’t think he’s real at first. She tells him that she can’t see him anymore, and Nick is devastated. He heads back to Monroe’s house, where Monroe and Bud try to cheer him up while they all watch a Timbers soccer game. The guys do their best but it doesn’t go well, and then Nick gets called out to the Pembrey crime scene.
Nick and Sgt. Wu look through the house. Nick notices the burn marks and melted items in random places, including the victim’s body – but there wasn’t an actual fire. It doesn’t make any sense. They also find Jill’s camera and watch a bit of the last thing she’d filmed on the mountain.
Juliette heads to Pilar’s house, desperate for some way to stop the visions of Nick. Pilar gives her a concoction to drink that will help improve her focus, then tells her to go home and concentrate on one memory. If she can step back into one memory, it will help. She’s reluctant, but she goes home and tries it, managing to focus in on the memory of when Nick moved in with her.
In Vienna, Adalind is enjoying a bout of morning sickness when Frau Pech shows up and tells her she has to get dressed. Adalind says no because she isn’t feeling well, but Frau Pech insists – she’s been able to make an appointment for them to meet with Zigeunersprache, the Queen of the Schwarzwald Gypsies, who can determine the baby’s worth. Frau Pech drives them to the Gypsy camp and introduces Adalind to the Queen, Stefania Vaduva Popescu. Stefania says that the only way to get an accurate price is to make sure the baby has royal blood – which requires the use of a nasty-looking ancient device. Adalind is held down by Stefania’s sons and Frau Pech as Stefania gets the sample, which unfortunately has to be taken while Adalind is awake and screaming.
With Hank on vacation, Sgt. Wu steps in to help Nick with the case, and they head to Geo, Inc. to see Jill’s boss, Thom Evan. He tells them about the incident Jill’d had the day before with man on Mt. Hood and agrees to take them up to the spot. They look around and gather other rocks, but when they return to Thom’s truck, it’s been badly vandalized. Sgt. Wu starts calling it in, but Nick sees something and chases after the man. He and Sgt. Wu finally manage to tackle and arrest him, but not before Nick sees him morph into a Taureus-Armenta.
The blood test proves that Adalind’s fetus is of royal blood, which she knew. Stefania offers her 500,000 Euros for a boy and 750,000 Euros for a girl, but Adalind isn’t interested in money. She wants her Hexenbiest powers back, and if that can’t happen, she sees no reason to carry the baby to term. Stefania says that may not be possible – but she doesn’t say no, either.
Back at the station, Nick discusses the case with Captain Renard, telling him that he’s never seen a Wesen like this guy. They find out that his name is Markus Hemmings and he’s a former archeologist with multiple arrests for assault and property damage on mountains throughout the area. Captain Renard and Nick go to interrogate Markus, but he claims that he’s never murdered anyone – he’s just trying to warn people not to take rocks off the mountains, because Volcanalis gets angry when they do. That’s what happened to Markus’ wife, too. Sgt. Wu then tells them that he’s found a correlation of violent attacks connected to people taking volcanic rocks from mountains on the ring of fire. They decide to check on Thom, Jill’s boss, since he’d taken rocks, and arrive just as Volcanalis is attacking Thom. They attempt to shoot him, but it does no good. Nick chases him out of Thom’s house, but he disappears.
Monroe and Nick go to Aunt Marie’s trailer and look through the books. Nick finds information on the Taureus-Armenta – they’re very stubborn and courageous – some might say bullheaded. They also find something on Volcanalis, but it’s in Latin, so they head back to the station so Captain Renard can read it. It turns out to be the story of Volcanalis destroying Pompeii. Unfortunately, there’s no information on how to fight off, let alone destroy the creature. They talk to Markus again, trying to get more information, but Markus has little. He’s never been able to find where Volcanalis lives in the mountains, and believes he is a force of nature that can’t be stopped. But when Markus says “until hell freezes over,” Nick gets an idea…
Nick, Monroe, Renard and Markus go up to Mt. Hood to gather the volcanic rocks, then bring then back to a warehouse set up with tanks of liquid nitrogen with hoses. They dump the rocks in the middle of the room, and Markus stands next to them as bait. Renard, Nick and Monroe each man one of the tanks, and they don’t have to wait long – Volcanalis shows up, ready to kill those who took his rocks. Markus taunts him and then the other three open fire with the liquid nitrogen, freezing Volcanalis solid. Nick then hands Markus a sledgehammer and he smashes the frozen creature.
Back at Juliette’s house, she takes a photo of Nick and herself out of a drawer and puts it on her dresser. She also takes out the engagement ring Nick had offered her and remembers when he asked her to marry him. She gets teary, but doesn’t go far enough into the memory to recall her answer…
This was a very interesting episode, but mostly because of the development in the plot arcs – the Volcanalis story wasn’t as exciting as some of the previous episodes. It seemed more like everyone was going through the motions and just wasn’t into it – but maybe that was just me.
Learning more about Adalind’s plans – really, who’s surprised that she wants her powers back? – was helpful, and Stefania seems like someone who’s either an incredible ally or a horrible enemy. The machinations between her and Adalind should be fascinating to watch. I still would like to know how the baby will help her get her powers back – is it simply that the baby is payment enough to be able to ‘afford’ such a service? And if she does get her powers back – will anyone in Portland or Vienna be safe?
The progress Juliette made with her memories in this episode was great to see, although I truly didn’t expect her feelings for Nick to switch on again so quickly. Does this mean she’ll finally talk to Nick and try to get back together with him? And will Nick be open to it, after being hurt so many times? Even though he knows it’s not her fault, she still has hurt him a great deal.
It was also great to see Sgt. Wu stepping up and filling in for Hank as much as he could. Then to see Captain Renard, Nick and Monroe working together – albeit somewhat carefully – was interesting as well. It’s clear that Nick and Monroe don’t trust him and likely won’t anytime soon, but they made a good team as they handled the Volcanalis case ‘off the record.’ Portland PD must have a lot of unsolved cases…
Don’t forget – Grimm moves to Tuesdays starting this week! Make sure you catch the next episode this Tuesday night!
