Grimm: Happily Ever Aftermath

In a twist on the Cinderella story, a young couple loses all of their money in a financial disaster.  So that his beloved bride does not have to suffer, the husband goes to his mother-in-law to ask for help until they can get back on their feet.

The Wicked Stepmother roundly turns him down and says she has earned the fortune she has and there is no reason to share it with the ungrateful "Lucinda."

That night, as Mavis (aka the Wicked Stepmother) rests in her large lonely mansion, she is awakened by that most dreaded sound...something is under the bed.  She looks beneath the blankets and a horrid bat-like creature screeches and a chase ensues.   Pinned against a railing atop a long staircase by the creature, all Mavis can do is cover her ears and scream as the creature emits a glass and eyeball shattering screech.  

Her body lying on the floor below where she has fallen and all of the shattered glass present detectives Nick and Hank with a puzzle.  There are no cuts on the victim's bare feet from all of the shattered glass.  How and when did she fall?  When and how did the glass shatter?  I love the way these creature crimes are always approached first as regular police cases.  Here is the evidence.  What can we guess happened?  Only Nick and the police captain ever know what is really occurring and the captain never ever gives the slightest visual clue that he knows any more than he would if he were a human (we don't actually know what type of creature he is).

Family friend Spencer reveals to Nick's Grimm eyes under duress that he is a Murcielago, a bat creature just like the one we saw under the bed and shattering the glass in the hall.   Nick can prove nothing of course but Spencer is a suspect for purely human reasons as well. 

This gives Nick some Aunt Marie's Trailer Time with Monroe.  They look up the creature, what it does and how it might be defeated.  A strange hand cranked device happens to be amongst the storehouse of weapons.  It emits an ultrasonic sound that should turn the soundwaves back at the bat creature.

As the investigation goes on, one of Lucinda's stepsisters rather greedily takes over the family business.  The second stepsister is in tears and quaking in fear.

Lucinda decides she should go see her stepsister Tiffany to give her condolences on the loss of her mother.  Lucinda's husband begs her not to go given the bad blood between them, but she is insistent.

Lucinda seems like a slightly daffy, airheaded, clothing obsessed girl.  There is a sweetness to her.  She seems slightly clueless that a bad past between herself, the girls and the stepmother could matter now.

Something about the second stepsister's fear and Lucinda's insistence on the visit made me suddenly think yikes, loopy Lucinda is the creature!   I wanted to be wrong, but a short conversation between the greedy domineering stepsister and the still smiling, mildly irked  Lucinda ended with Tiffany's head and car windows shattering while Lucinda in full Murcilago form looks on.

With one cowering stepsister to go, Nick and Monroe race to save her.  Spencer, the guardian Murcilago is there as well, hoping to stop Lucinda.   Lucinda, already closing in on her prey, is driven out of the house by the ancient hand cranked Grimm weapon.   Spencer finds her and uses his own powers on her to end the bloodshed, regretful that he has not been able to keep a promise to protect her, yet determined to stop her.  Not quite dead, she rises and sinks her long teeth into his throat, killing him just before dying herself.

Nick turns in the weapon to the police, explaining that Lucinda killed the others with its high frequency sound.   Once again the captain listens to the story as if it were an odd but true tale.

The Murcilago is the third legendary creature that I recall showing up in Portland.  Another was the Golden Egg laying Klaustreich from "The Thing With Feathers" and the third was the Spinnetod from "Tarentella".  Are these rare creatures being drawn to Portland for some reason?  Is there some connection to the upcoming war?  Coincidence?

A small segment of the show was given to Juliette's excellent research skills in the search for more information about the death of Nick's parents.  She manages to get ahold of the detective who worked on the case.  That detective contacts Nick and sends him pictures of four men suspected in the deaths.  Three of those men are dead as a result of the chase for the golden mind controlling "Three Coins in a Fuchsbau". The fourth man must be tracked down somehow.