The Mythology of Grimm: Season One
The NBC drama Grimm follows Portland police detective Nick Burkhardt as he investigates various crimes involving supernatural creatures from the realm of fairy tales. “We have the ability to see what no one else can,” his Aunt Marie explains of their shared skill set. “When they lose control, they can’t hide and we see them for what they really are. This is no fairy tale. The stories are real. What they wrote about really happened. You are one of the last Grimms.” There is more to the narrative, however, as the long tradition that Nick Burkhardt suddenly finds himself entangled within contains multiple hidden layers and components, many of which are revealed during the course of the show’s first season.
More significantly, Nick Burkhardt turns out to be a non-traditionalist when it comes to his duties as a Grimm. Because his Aunt Marie succumbed to cancer before she could teach him the ways of his calling, Burkhardt must rely on newfound friend Monroe for guidance—even though Monroe himself is one the creatures that were featured in the original fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. “Blutbad,” Monroe explains of his lineage. “Vulgarized by your ancestors as the big bad wolf. But as you can see, I am not that big and I am done with the bad thing.” Burkhardt likewise follows his own sense of justice in regards to upholding the law, even when that conflicts with the ways of the past. “Our families have never been enemies,” a Bauerschwein tells him. This particular “pig,” however, is seeking revenge against the brothers of a Blutbad who killed his own siblings, and Nick Burkhardt refuses to look the other way despite the injustices that Bauerschwein have endured at the hands of “Big Bad Wolves.”
“This Blutbad-Bauerschwein feud goes back centuries,” Monroe explains to Burkhardt. “We get blamed for every Bauerschwein death, even the suicides.” The two species of wessen—as supernatural creatures are called—are not the only ones caught in a cycle of tradition. “Eisbiber and Hasslich have lived by certain customs for centuries,” it is related in another installment of Grimm. “I can’t say that I like it, nor can I say that it’s fair, but what I can say is that as long as each of us lives by those customs, no one gets hurt.” Such a philosophy, however, is not good enough for Nick Burkhardt.
It is also an argument that does not carry weight for Sean Renard, Burkhardt’s captain in the Portland Police Department. Although Nick Burkhardt is not aware, Renard knows that his underling detective is a Grimm and often protects Burkhardt against outside forces like Reapers, whose main objective in life is to kill Grimms. Renard is also considered “royalty” within the wessen world. “Your first mistake was coming to my city,” he tells one such Reaper. “Second mistake was not knowing who you have to kneel before.” While Nick Burkhardt is not a typical Grimm, meanwhile, Sean Renard is likewise rebellious in regards to his own lineage. “It’s not just me, cousin,” a visiting relative remarks. “It’s the family. We’re very concerned things aren’t moving the way they should be.” Rather than deviate from his current strategy, however, Renard kills his cousin instead.
The royal family in which Sean Renard is a member apparently controls events in both the real and wessen realms and also plays a major role within the Grimm mythology. “This world is on the brink of war,” Ian Harmon, a leader in a resistance movement known as the Lauffer, explains to Nick Burkhardt. “The turmoil in the Middle East, the crises in Europe, the Arab Spring—all of it is tied together. Agents of the Verrat, working for the Seven Houses, have infiltrated the highest levels of all governments. This is not a new struggle, it’s been going on for centuries. With this struggle, the royal families recognize opportunities to gain more control. People driven by fear choose stability over freedom when their neighbors start to die. Your people changed the balance of power when they decided to work for the royal families. Evidently you don’t even know how valuable you are to the royals.”
Another element of Grimm is revealed in the episode “Three Coins in a Fuchsbau,” when a trio of medallions become the objects of a deadly robbery heist. “Eighth Century BC, gold was being mined on the island of Zakynthos in Ancient Greece,” Nick Burkhardt is told during the installment. “Certain coins that were struck from that mine were stamped with a swastika on one side, signifying good fortune, and a lion’s head on the other, symbolizing wealth and power. It would seem those who held the coins possessed a kind of charismatic influence over other men. As the Greek Empire fell, the coins found their way into the Roman’s hands, from Claudius to Caligula to Nero. From there, the coins made their way into China and the Han Dynasty. Then they just disappeared for centuries until they resurfaced in the Third Reich. We all know how that story goes. After the defeat of the Nazis, the coins disappeared again. Nobody but only a small handful of people knew where the coins were. Those people were your ancestors. Grimms are stronger than most, not so easily effected, and they have taken great care to protect the coins. They’ve been successful at it until eighteen years ago when the Grimm who was protecting the coins was found and murdered.”
The Grimm in question turns out to be Nick Burkhardt’s mother, who was killed in a car crash along with Burkhardt’s father. “A year after the accident, the case was reclassified as a homicide,” a police detective in Rhinebeck, New York, explains to Burkhardt. “We identified four suspects we believe were responsible for the deaths of Kelly and Reed Burkhardt.” Three of those were killed in Portland during “Three Coins in a Fuchsbau,” while the fourth arrives in Oregon looking for the coins that are now in Nick Burkhardt’s possession during the season one finale of Grimm. The assassin is not the only one searching for Burkhardt, however, as a mysterious “woman in black” turns out to be a very much alive Kelly Burkhardt, Nick’s mother.
Nick Burkhardt also has a key that was given to him by his Aunt Marie, the base of which contains part of a map. This key is also the object that Sean Renard and his family have taken great measures in order to obtain for themselves. “You are going to have to control this Grimm or get rid of him,” Renard is told during season one when he fails to secure the item. “Things are getting out of balance. A Grimm on his own is like a samurai without a master.” After reiterating that he is intent on proceeding as originally planned, Renard adds in regards to Burkhardt being a Grimm, “This one has a badge and a conscience.”
Whether breaking tradition with his past by befriending such wessen as Blutbaden and Eisbibers, fighting off Reapers intent on killing him, assisting members of the Lauffer resistance movement in their struggle against the Seven Royal Houses, trying to solve the mystery of the key or simply attempting to find the truth about the death of his parents, Nick Burkhardt is more than mere Grimm. The NBC drama, meanwhile, paints a vivid mythology for the series, with many of its elements converging on the city of Portland. There are questions that have yet to be answered on the series, but the first season of Grimm establishes a strong foundation for season two and beyond nonetheless.
Anthony Letizia (October 8, 2012)
