The Bottle Imp (Grimm)

"The Bottle Imp" is the 7th episode of the supernatural drama television series Grimm of season 2 and the 29th overall, which premiered on October 12, 2012, on NBC. The episode was written by Alan DiFiore, and was directed by Darnell Martin.

Plot

Opening quote: "Let me out, let me out,' the spirit cried. And the boy, thinking no evil, drew the cork out of the bottle."

The episode starts as Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) gets her memories of Nick (David Giuntoli) back. This is revealed to be Nick's dream, to his disappointment. A father, William (Josh Stewart) and his daughter, April (Jade Pettyjohn) arrive at a gas station where William's cards are rejected. Later, the cashier in the stop is killed.

As the police discover their truck's plates, William and April are forced to hitchhike. Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) continues to be in charge of the spice shop and receives instructions from Rosalee (Bree Turner) to deliver a recipe for a man with hearing problems. Monroe makes the recipe, but during the preparation he places an incorrect ingredient. This causes the man to cut all his things maniacally and Monroe forced to call Rosalee for help in an antidote.

Nick and Hank (Russell Hornsby) raid William's house to find his wife, Lilly (October Moore) bleeding. In the station, they deduce William kidnapped April. Juliette visits the station and while greeting everyone, feels a tension when she meets Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz). Renard gets a call from Adalind (Claire Coffee) to ask for her mother's murder. He refuses to talk about the murder and asks her what she did to Juliette. Adalind taunts him as Renard realizes he typed Juliette's name in the computer.

Wu (Reggie Lee) discovers that William may have been ordering things for an underground construction. While looking for clues in the trailer, Hank realizes Monroe was the one who saved his life from Stark and acknowledges that he owes him his life. The police discover April and take her while William visits his wife in the hospital. Nick and Hank ambush him in the hospital but discover that April was in fact the one who killed the cashier and attacked Lilly as she is going through an "early change".

April is accidentally placed with a foster family and attacks the father as Nick and Hank find her. A friend of Monroe takes April to the juvie while Nick joins Juliette for dinner. They dance and kiss but Juliette sees Nick's face is now Renard's and steps away, confusing Nick.

Reception

Viewers

The episode was viewed by 5.01 million people, earning a 1.6/5 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale.^[1] This was a 6% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 5.29 million viewers with a 1.6/5.^[2] This means that 1.6 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 5 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. With DVR factoring in, the episode was watched by 7.69 million viewers with a 2.8 ratings share in the 18-49 demographics.^[3]

Critical reviews

"The Bottle Imp" received positive reviews. The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland gave the episode a "B-" grade and wrote, "Judging by overall plot structure, 'The Bottle Imp' isn't just a formulaic episode of Grimm, but a relentlessly predictable hour that offers very little to viewers looking for something more than a show that can easily fade into the background while the rest of the country watches baseball."^[4]

Emily Rome of EW wrote, "Oh, Grimm, how cruel you are! Or maybe I should be saying the sandman is a very, very cruel creature. In any case, Nick's dream of Juliette remembering him and giving him a big smooch is just about the last kind of dream Nick would want to be tricked into believing is real."^[5]

Nick McHatton from TV Fanatic, gave a 4.5 star rating out of 5, stating: "One of Grimm's best assets is the ability to show someone’s true colors. What is just below the exterior of a character? 'The Bottle Imp' did just that, and in a way that made both the procedural story and the continuing character arcs richer."^[6]

Shilo Adams from TV Overmind, wrote: "In the world of Grimm, you never know what people are capable of. The show has continually hit on the idea that what we present to the public are merely facades, what we want them to see rather than who we actually are. We're all hiding something that we'd rather not share with anyone that we know, let alone the strangers that we encounter on a daily basis. Unfortunately for some, they have to hide an entire identity for fear of the reaction that other people would have to who they truly are."^[7]

Josie Campbell from TV.com wrote, "I think much of this is due to the semi-serialized, semi-episodic nature of the show. More than just a mythology-episodes-versus-monster-of-the-week series, Grimm straddles the line between television where what happened the week before doesn't matter, and an epic, over-arching story where everything matters. The show has been able to be both this season by throwing dashes of greater mythology into every episode, so here's hoping 'The Bottle Imp' is a bump in an otherwise smoother Season 2 road."^[8]

References