Grimm Season 6 Episode 12 Review: Zerstörer Shrugged

This Grimm review contains spoilers.

Grimm Season 6 Episode 12

“You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.” Psalms, 2:9

The next to last chapter of Grimm felt like a bait and switch. At the tail end of  season five, Eve was more powerful than what viewers have come to know as Diana’s powers at the start of season six. Nick developed a moderately strong sense of hearing, coupled with the protective stick that also resurrected fallen team members.

The ancestral Grimm and Crusaders storylines are a bit muddy heading into the series finale, which is both disconcerting and disappointing. Eve lost some of her abilities after having been shot and regenerated. In lieu of her being the most formidable superhero on the show, Diana was introduced with a stronger and varied skill set. My disconnect with Diana’s character began a few episodes ago when an intended kidnapping and ransom went afoul.

Diana had previously killed two people who she felt got in the way of her idealistic fantasy of Adeline and Renard as happily married. Murder is a big deal, and neither of her parents discussed this serious matter because they were afraid she’d harm them. The pint-sized, petulant girl of unknown power, not quite Stephen King’s Firestarter or Marvel’s Phoenix, was continuously underutilized when it would’ve mattered.

In The Other Place from last week and tonight’s episode, Nick and Eve are all but rendered powerless against the fallen angel who could’ve maimed or killed them, but didn’t for an entire episode and a few minutes at the top of the current one.

Viewers are to believe that Zerstörer is either a great poker player or psychic, when he began haunting Eve and Nick in dreams and mirrors. Could he have known that Eve would feel the weight of Team Grimm and Portland in general upon her shoulders and find her way through a portal for a rousing game of cat-and-mouse alongside Nick? Why not have the series end in a few epic battles between good and evil, as opposed to a waiting game until a portal reopened?

The exhaustive biblical and familial research in the assorted books at the spice shop and from Adeline’s mother had its place over the course of several chapters, however the assembled Wesen, Nick, Trubel, and Diana felt outmatched when it came time to deal with Zerstörer in Portland. In his human form, the skull creature was awkward and goofy, not diabolical as one would expect an apocalyptic world destroyer to be.

I readily admit I wanted, knowing full well that it wouldn’t unfold, two final episodes befitting the supernatural genre. When Diana’s powers would’ve been useful, she’s reduced to a scared, whiny child cowering between her parents because the big bad wants her for his bride. In most families, adults do their best to protect their children. Off to a secluded cabin in the woods they went, Diana the beneficiary of an invisibility potion perhaps as a last effort if her parents were to be slaughtered.

The Grimm writers have habitually overstuffed episodes with one too many storylines that are left hanging or intended to be red herrings. There are enough past and current shows and movies featuring children or teens with supernatural or extraordinary abilities that the writers could’ve taken their lead from with Diana. Her character arc is powerful, vindictive murderess, to precocious child who inadvertently gave passage to the bogeyman prophesied as her demonic husband.

Referring to the opening quote, perhaps it was meant that the team’s spirit would break over the span of the episode. Viewers understand the history and importance of the staff, and the unbeatable power it could wield if the skull creature were to get his hands on the missing piece. It was confusing at the end when the stick was unable do what it has before. Did the staff cancel out the stick’s power due to proximity?

I’m left feeling that tonight’s cliffhanger episode was setup for next week’s series finale. Will enough lingering mysteries be solved? Will more team members die? Will there be an ultimate showdown between Diana and Zerstörer as he attempts to take her as his own? How will Nick end the series? No spoilers. Stay tuned!