Grimm, Episode 1.13 – Three Coins in a Fuchsbau

“For me there are neither locks nor bolts, whatsoever I desire is mine.”

Three Wesen (I had thought ‘vessen’, pardon my non-Germanic vocabulary) rob a jewelry store (and kill the owner in the process) trying to find three valuable coins. But they find nothing after scouring through their stash when they get home because as Harper (Parker?) the Coroner discovers later, the store owner had swallowed them.

Harper/Parker (both?) tells Nick and Hank it was the coins that actually killed the owner and not the explosion the Wesen had used to break into the vault the owner was hiding in. Hank puts the coins in an evidence bag and takes it with him even though Harper/Parker is very hesitant to let him do that, wanting to wait for the toxicology report on them (or maybe because of something else?)

Nick and Hank get a call from cops after they find the BMW the three thieves used. Inside, the three Wesen are surprised by another man, also a Wesen, and also looking for the coins. Two of the thieves end up shooting each other and the man pins the longer haired thief to the floor.

Nick and Hank storm in and the longer haired guy transforms into his Wesen state and runs out the back door. The other man stands still and allows Hank to roughly take him to the floor. Nick tells Hank to cool it as he handcuffs the guy and sees his true form.

They bring him in and tell Renard about the case, but he is also very interested in the coins. Hank gets defensive about the coins, but he reluctantly hands them over to the captain. With the swastikas on the coins, Nick and Hank immediately assume they are German, but Renard tells them about how the swastika means good luck in Buddhism and Hinduism and eternity for the Chinese.

Hank wants them back to take to the evidence room, but Renard says he’ll take care of it. Nick takes Hank out of the office and Renard looks at the coin and gives some Frenchman a call. He tells the Frenchman that he’s got the coins of Zakynthos.

Nick goes in to question the man, Farley Kolt. Kolt tells Nick all about the thieves and the coins, how the swastika is a symbol of good fortune and the lion’s head on the other side equals power. The coins have a strong influence on men, a devastating effect on its owner. And they’ve had many owners in their lifetime, from Roman emperors to the Han Dynasty to the Nazis.

But only a few people knew of the exact whereabouts of the coins… Grimms. When the identity of the Grimm protecting the coins was found, they were killed. Nick asks who the Grimm was. Kolt says the woman protecting the coins was the sister of the woman he loved. When the Grimm was killed, the woman he loved left him to take care of her sister’s son.

Nick’s interest has suddenly piqued. He asks where the Grimm was killed… Rhinebeck, New York. Nick asks Sgt. Wu to find out more info on a Soledad Marqueza, the Wesen who had managed to run away.

He then takes to his computer to search for “Auto Accident Rhinebeck New York 1994” and he finds a newspaper article. Meanwhile, Harper/Parker leaves the coroner’s office to head to her car and home, but Marqueza pops in and forces her back inside.

Nick goes researching and Monroe arrives to help translate the German. The Schakaln (the thieves) eat babies. The Steinadler (Kolt) is a tricky fellow whom one is never sure of what his intentions are.

Meanwhile, a shirtless Renard plays with the coins. He later gets out of bed and looks down to find a crowd of people ready to worship him. He wakes up from his dream. Across town, Marqueza interrogates Harper/Parker about the coins then knocks her out after she tells him they are in police possession.

Next morning, Hank is feeling all better. He doesn’t know what came over him last night, being all hyped up. Nick tells him Kolt has been cleared by ballistics and that they have confirmation Soledad Marqueza is the third thief. Renard comes in dressed in full Captain’s garb. He calls for a press conference to talk about the “present state of law enforcement in the city.” In some motel room, Marqueza is changing his appearance and undresses the dead cop from the night of the robbery.

Nick and Hank search Kolt’s hotel room. They find some old tins of film reel as well as CIA-level papers about the finding of Imperial coins during World War II and how under no circumstances must they be handled because of their “toxicity.”

They then realize maybe the coins have some kind of adverse affect on whoever touches them, just like Hank last night and now Renard on his power trip. Nick heads to the evidence room, sees a box with room for three coins from the crime scene and stuffs it in his coat.

Nick and Hank stand through Renard’s grand speech. After asking her to research, Juliette calls Nick to confirm Kolt was indeed in Rhinebeck when he said, the same time, and place, his parents had died. Nick goes to talk to Kolt and asks the name of the woman he loved in Rhinebeck… Marie Kessler. They were engaged. Nick tells him she was his aunt. Now knowing she’s dead, Kolt says he wishes he could’ve seen her one more time.

Kolt offers to help and tells Nick that Soledad Marqueza was the one who killed his parents.

Kolt goes with Nick and Hank as they rush to the garage where Marqueza attacks Renard hoping to get the coins. Nick manages to pin Marqueza, who is shot, but he gets nothing out of him about his parents.

Nick goes back to Renard who is now desperate (and a little woozy) after it appears Kolt has taken the coins.

Kolt is back in his hotel room about to hightail it out of town, but Nick pops up and manages to take the coins. He puts them in the box and keeps them in Aunt Marie’s trailer. He then watches the film, presumably from Kolt’s hotel room, using the old projector in Aunt Marie’s trailer. It’s a film of one of Hitler’s speeches and Nick is shocked to notice two coins on Hitler’s coat.

He then sees Hitler’s true form… he was a Schakaln!

Episode Thoughts
Well, damn! That had to be my favorite episode of Grimm so far. Not only did it dig deeper into Nick’s own life and the world of the Grimms, we got a little bit of Renard’s random international connections and our first Grimm connection to our own, real world.

First off, Harper/Parker (which is it really?)… the coroner; is there more to her? Could she be a Wesen too? Or maybe a friend of the Grimms? She’s been awesome so far, it would be great to fold her even more into the greater arc.

We got some interesting insight into Aunt Marie’s life which in turn gave some surprising details about Nick’s life too. Maybe the best reason this was a great episode was that deeper look into Nick’s past, finally learning more about him since he is our hero and main character after all.

But for the biggest bombshell, Hitler was a Wesen!? That was probably the best big picture stuff Grimm has done. Very clever. And definitely trumps any of Supernatural‘s tongue-in-cheek references to celebs as Leviathans and the like.

Titus Welliver was awesome and hope to see him back in the future. Great, great episode.

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0 thoughts on “Grimm, Episode 1.13 – Three Coins in a Fuchsbau

  1. Great recap and review. Thanks for caring about the names. The Harper/Parker thing confused me, too. Also, every other reiew so far mispells Soledad’s name.

    1. Ah! Looks like it’s Marquesa with an ‘s’.
      And yeah, the episode guides and stuff all say “Harper” yet they distinctly say “Parker” on the show. Weird!

  2. Nice recap of a great episode; you seem to have covered all the salient points.

    Being myself a bit slow on the uptake, I noticed for the first time tonight that the Captain’s surname is Renard. We’ve seen beforehand that the Captain is someone of importance among the Wesen. Could he be Reynard the Fox from folklore?

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