'Grimm' recap: 'Face Off'

courtest NBC
BY MELISSA HARKNESS

Opening Quote: "The will to conquer is the first condition of victory."

Grimm is back from its mid-season break, everybody! It has been a long while, so let's start with a little refresher on where we last left Grimm and Gang.

Adalind the Hexenbiest hit Juliette with a curse that put her in a coma a la Sleeping Beauty. Of course she could only be awakened by the kiss of a Prince. And while Nick is many things, a Prince he is not. But you know who is, don't you?

Why Captain Renard, of course! So there is some kissing done on the sly, Juliette wakes up, but doesn't remember Nick at all. Awkwardness ensues. Adalind sneaks off to Europe and hooks up with Renard's evil brother. Hank gets let in on the big secret about Nick, and then Monroe. Monroe and Rosalee become a thing, and then she gets called off to help a relative and Monroe runs the Spice Shop for her. As a result of the Curse and the Kissing, Juliette and Renard start having these "urges" for each other, just as we think she is settling back down to life with Nick.

This prompts Renard to go to The Spice Shop looking for a cure. Monroe doesn't realize who Renard is and tries to help, but ultimately needs both of the afflicted parties to come in for treatment together. Renard being the sexy beast he is, finally convinces Juliette to go to the Shop with him. But they start making out and Monroe walks in to see that it's sweet little Juliette. She scampers away. After tears and sniffling, Juliette tells Nick that she is having feelings for another man. she conveniently leaves out that it's his boss. Nick packs up his stuff and moves in with Monroe. At this point, Monroe sees a newscast of Renard talking to some reporters and shows it to Nick. Hey look Nick, that's the guy your girlfriend was crawling all over in the Shop! Nick does not take this news well. Oh, and Adalind came back with an ultimatum for Renard: Get the Key from the Grimm or we tell him who you are. That girl is just one big 'ol good time I tell you!

So we start off right as Nick learns that Renard has been kissing his girlfriend and he is not amused.

"Your boss and your girlfriend? That's about as gnarly as it gets."

Ah, Monroe. He frantically tries to calm Nick down, but the Grimm isn't having it. As he barges out the door his phone rings and Monroe urges him to answer it.

"It could be good news!" Nick has been called to the scene of a quadruple homicide. Monroe thinks this is great news until Nick tells him where it is. "Oh, that quadruple homicide ... Well, at least you know who did it," he says helpfully. In case you forgot, Monroe helped Nick trap these assassins working for The Verat, and Nick did some serious ass-kicking on them. So, you know, he did it.

In the meantime, Renard has located Aunt Marie's Trailer. He gets a little Wesen help picking the lock and goes searching through all Nick's cool gear in there. Sadly for Renard, he doesn't find the Key.

At the murder scene, Nick and Renard get pretty snippy with each other. I really like this new snarkier version of Nick. He's never going to get anywhere being a damn boy scout all the time. Wu fills Nick in on the details of the murder scene with his wonderful quipy attitude. Nick gets a few veiled cracks in, too. And the best thing, Juliette calls Renard with Nick standing right there and asks him to come over. Poor baby is having a really hard time. Cry me a river, Juliette. Safely back in his office, Renard calls his friend in Europe and we finally find out that Renard's little group is somehow involved with the Resistance. Ah, you mean the hot Capt. Renard may not be all bad? Sign me up, baby!

Back at Monroe's house, he is cleaning his windows when Rosalee calls. He wastes no time spilling all the gossip to her. She is a smart little fox, and quickly figures out that it's the curse that's causing all these problems. She'll be home in the morning to fix the lot of them.

Uh oh, Renard has finally gotten over to Juliette's house. Nick, of course, was tailing him and sees him go into the house. He is marching up to the door when Monroe calls and tells him that Renard must have been the one who woke Juliette up. After the usual adorableness of Monroe, Nick slowly turns away and gets back into his car. But let me tell you, he still looks plenty pissed. He would be positively enraged if he could see what was going on in the house! Inside the snogging has gotten pretty advanced. There's ripping of clothes, biting, hitting ... This is getting kind of ugly, folks. You might want to look away. By the end of it, Juliette hits him with his own gun and then fires it several times. Don't worry, she didn't shoot the sexy Captain. He successfully runs away just as Sgt. Wu shows up.

Monroe goes on and on trying to convince Nick that Renard and Juliette are acting on a compulsion that they don't want and they head off to The Spice Shop to look up the recipe that was used for the purification potion that Renard used. After Nick has to break the news that his mother killed Adalind's mother so she couldn't help them, Monroe gets a headache. About this time Wu calls Nick from Juliette's with news about the gunfire. Juliette isn't talking. What else is new? Nick rushes off to the rescue. She is not very helpful, and claims it was an intruder. Nick tells her he knows about Renard. He goes home to Monroe who offers to make him some warm milk. such a sweet blutbad.

So, Renard gets Adalind released from jail. This is not exactly to her liking since she was relying on being in jail to keep her safe from the Grimm. She nervously makes her way down the street until she is accosted by Renard, who has seen better days. I mean seriously, he's starting to look a little unhinged. Adalind quickly sees this and offers to sex him up a little to help alleviate his symptoms.

Finally Rosalee returns and proceeds to figure this curse crap out. They start researching, in books. I'm getting a serious Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibe here folks. We just need Giles to show up. Remember the cat Adalind used to infect Juliette? Remember how it got ran over by a car? Oops, they needed it to reverse the curse. Never fear Grimmsters! There is always a Plan B. Looks like this one will involve Nick taking the oh so painful purification potion. He's a big boy, I'm sure he'll be fine.

While Nick is once again sidetracked with saving Juliette, Renard is searching his desk at the precinct. He finds the Key in Nick's desk drawer. As he tries to make his escape Hank comes in and tries to delay him but fails. Oddly enough, Renard tells Adalind that he couldn’t find it. She pityingly bids him farewell and trots back to his brother in Austria, but not before thanking him for "last night."

Oh, and Juliette calls and tells him that Nick knows it was him she was cheating with. He calls Nick and they tensely agree to meet out in the woods where they won't be disturbed. When the good Captain shows up, Nick is ready for a throw down. After a few hearty punches are exchanged the boys finally call a cease fire when Renard gives him back the Key. Finally, some honesty from Capt. Renard. He tells Nick that if Adalind gets that Key, they are both dead. He goes on to say that no one wants this "thing" with Juliette fixed more than him! So they trot off to the girl in question. They all end up at The Spice Shop where Nick finally gets to drink his magic potion. He collapses to the floor turning some very pretty shades of pink and purple. Juliette sits beside him and seems quite concerned. Go figure.

Lets pause for a swift sojourn to Austria, where Adalind has returned. You'll never guess what she's doing! Give up? She's taking a pregnancy test and its positive. Now excuse me for a moment, but how can you get a positive test that fast? So what do you think? Is this Renard's little fetus, or his brother's?

The next episode of Grimm, "Natural Born Wesen" airs Monday March 15 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.