Grimm Season 5 Finale – Recap

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

In a series of dramatic turns of events, the Grimm season 5 finale delivered the best ending we could have ever hoped for. Brace yourself for an amazing ride and read on for our recap of the Grimm season 5 finale, “The Beginning of the End.”

Nick talks to Meisner, still utterly upset after having seen Adalind at Renard’s side after Renard’s victory at the mayoral election. Thanks to the high positions obtained by its members, Black Claw will start making changes – and if the organization can’t have the support of the Grimms, they will take them down, along with their friends.

Eve comes back with the information she could get from Zuri: She was recruited specifically to go after Hank, and her contact inside Black Claw is Bonaparte, one of the organization’s founders.

Monroe and Rosalee, in the meantime, have to deal with a truck that’s constantly parked outside their house. Monroe goes outside to warn whoever is inside to go away, and although the truck drives away leaving him unharmed, Rosalee is scared something could have happened to him, and they fight about him needing to be more careful. Once inside the house, Rosalee doesn’t look very well, but she manages to write down the license plate of the truck to give to Trubel.

Back home, Renard receives congratulations from Bonaparte for his victory, along with a warning: His life with Adalind has to work in order for them to go forward. Upstairs, little Diana has a plan of her own: After her parents put her to bed, she takes out two dolls (one representing Renard, the other Adalind), and uses her powers to make sure her parents will not argue for the night.

Meanwhile in the Grimm season 5 finale, Hank and Nick are to a crime scene at Hank’s house. They find two men dead inside whom Hank has never seen before – but Nick has. They are Black Claw, and Nick killed them the previous night. Hank is obviously being set up, but it will be hard trying to explain that to the detectives who are investigating the two men’s deaths. Hank is now under investigation and has to give up his gun and badge.

Back at the HW’s HQ, Trubel shows Meisner and Eve what she found on Tony’s computer: photos of Nick, Hank, Rosalee, and Monroe. It’s then that Monroe calls Trubel to give her the plate number of the car that was parked outside his house. Eve finds out that the car belongs to the two Black Claw operatives they killed in Nevada.

Elsewhere, Adalind has a little chat with Diana. She finds out about the dolls and tells Diana she can’t push people together. Diana reveals she doesn’t like Rachel because Rachel likes Renard, and they fall asleep together.

Nick calls Wu to get some help clearing Hank’s name. He decides to talk with Hank’s neighbor, who claims she witnessed Hank killing the two men.

As the Grimm season 5 finale continues, Hank realizes the two detectives who arrested him are up to something else when they park the car near a house – definitely not a police precinct. Hank tries to attack one, but the other, who is wesen, stops him.

When Nick and Wu approach Hank’s neighbor’s home, it seems no one’s inside, and the back door is open. They enter and they find no one, but there is blood on the floor. If there’s no witness, the police can’t hold Hank.

Rachel and Renard spend the night together, but Rachel says their relationship can’t go on now that Renard is mayor. The family has to come first.

The next morning, Nick goes to the precinct to see Hank, but the only thing he finds is a group of wesen clearly not willing to help him out. Moreover, they all seem to be Black Claw – thanks to the new mayor, things are changing really fast in the Grimm season 5 finale.

As Grimm continues, Bonaparte threatens Adalind – either she cooperates and tries to be the best wife a mayor could ask for, or there will very unpleasant consequences for her and her children.

Back at his precinct, Wu informs Nick that no neighbor had reported a crime being committed at Hank’s house. They figure Hank must have been taken somewhere by Black Claw, and Nick asks Monroe and Rosalee for help. He figures Tony must know something useful to track Hank down, but Tony will only talk if he’s interrogated by someone who can really scare him. The right person is Monroe, who’s still angry that Tony tried to assault Rosalee and Adalind at the spice shop while he was in Germany with Nick.

It works: After a brief encounter with Monroe, Tony gives up the address where Hank is being kept.
Nick decides to ask for HW’s help and, along with Trubel and Eve, he sets up to go to Hank’s rescue. Freeing Hank is easy – far too easy. And that’s when our friends realize it was a setup to keep them away from the HW’s HQ.

There, a massacre is happening. Black Claw is killing and destroying everything they see. Meisner survives, and he finds Renard walking around what’s left of the HQ. Bonaparte is there too, and he kills Meisner, even if that wasn’t Renard’s intention. Our new mayor understands he’s in control of, basically, anything. In one of the best quotes of the Grimm season 5 finale, Bonaparte tells him: “You are compassionate, and that’s dangerous for all of us.”

Eve, Trubel, Hank, and Nick arrive at the HW’s HQ to find everyone dead. They are the only ones left to fight against Black Claw.

Back home, Bonaparte talks with Rachel and asks her to spend more time with Diana. They don’t know the little girl is listening to what they say. Later, Rachel is about to go to sleep at her house when suddenly Diana appears next to her bed. Diana tells Rachel to stay away from her parents, and then she kills her.

Nick and Hank come back to the precinct, where they see Renard. After a furious Nick attacks Renard in his office, Renard orders two police officers to arrest Nick and take him into custody. Nick understands they are all Black Claw and tells Wu and Hank to take their friends to his place. In the meantime, Renard calls Bonaparte to tell him Nick is now in a holding cell, and Bonaparte says he will take this opportunity to talk to the Grimm.

As the Grimm season 5 finale continues, Monroe is worried about Nick – he can’t reach him on the phone – while Rosalee is worried about something else: She’s pregnant. Before she has a chance to tell Monroe, Trubel arrives and breaks the news of Meisner’s death. She also tells them they are not safe at their house and should all go to Nick’s place.

At Nick’s house, Eve, Trubel, Hank, Rosalee, and Monroe try to find a way to free Nick before it’s too late. Eve tells Rosalee and Monroe to go back to the spice shop and hide everything they don’t want Black Claw to find. Eve, Trubel, and Hank will deal with freeing Nick. After, they will meet back at Nick’s place.

Renard discovers Rachel’s body, then comes back home and informs Bonaparte that Rachel is dead. Bonaparte understands immediately that it must have been Diana.

Wu calls Hank to inform him that Black Claw has found a way to free the precinct from all the cops, so Bonaparte can break in and take Nick. Hank tells him to lock up the precinct and wait for him, Eve, and Trubel. Wu is about to do that when he hears Nick’s phone, which was left on his table. It’s Adalind. Wu briefly informs her about what happened and tells her that Nick is under arrest. Adalind is giving Wu a message for Nick when Renard enters her room and tells Adalind that Rachel is dead.

Black Claw cops arrive to transfer Nick to another precinct. Wu tries to stop them, but there are too many even for a Lycanthrope. Eve, Trubel, and Hank arrive just seconds later, and with Wu, they go to the north precinct where they assume Black Claw cops are bringing Nick.

Nick is indeed at the north precinct, where Bonaparte is interrogating him. He wants to know about the book Monroe’s uncle Felix gave to him – the one that contains a list of all the generations of Grimms around the world. Bonaparte wants to track down all the Grimms still alive, and he tells Nick that he will give him his son back if Nick gives him the book. Otherwise, Nick will never see Kelly again. Nick is in quite a predicament in the Grimm season 5 finale! He asks Bonaparte how he’s going to deal with Adalind – she would never give up her son. Bonaparte tells him he will handle it. He proposes an exchange: Nick brings the book, Bonaparte brings Kelly. In that very moment, Trubel, Hank, Wu, and Eve storm in and attack. While Trubel and the others deal with the cops, Eve confronts Bonaparte, who manages to wound her with a piece of glass and escape. Our friends head to Nick’s loft and tell Monroe and Rosalee to meet them there.

In the meantime, Adalind wakes up in pain. She feels something is happening to Eve, that she is dying. Bonaparte comes back and asks Adalind where Nick is. She won’t say, so he threatens to kill her. Adalind is about to die (with Renard there watching), so she has to tell Bonaparte where Nick lives. Bonaparte says the Grimm and all his friends are going to die that very night.

At Nick’s house, Hank and Nick arrive with an unconscious Eve. Nick goes to the tunnel to retrieve the miraculous stick that saved Monroe’s life. He uses it on Eve, and the wound is healed. Eve wakes up, tells Nick she feels strange, and suddenly turns into a Hexenbiest. She falls on the floor screaming, then becomes unconscious again. Rosalee, Monroe, Wu, and Trubel arrive – our friends are all reunited. And then something happens.

Diana appears with a message for Nick from Adalind. Diana tells him that Bonaparte knows Nick’s address, that Adalind is sorry but she had to give it to him. Adalind thanks Diana for helping her, and that’s when Diana sees signs on Adalind’s neck. She asks her mom if her daddy did that, but Adalind says no – it was a friend of her father’s. Diana looks upset, but Adalind brings her back to bed.

In the meantime, our friends are in big trouble. Bonaparte’s Black Claw gang is surrounding Nick’s house, and everyone else is trapped inside. The only possible salvation is the tunnel, so Nick urges everyone to go inside it. Eve wakes up confused – she asks Nick what’s going on, and Nick calls her Juliette. Did the stick “bring back” Juliette, removing the Hexenbiest while healing her? Nick waits that all his friends are inside the tunnel, but he doesn’t follow them. Instead, he closes the secret door to it and stays inside his loft to confront the attackers alone. One of them shoots him, and Nick manages to kill him. Even injured, he keeps on fighting alone, as a true Grimm.

Meanwhile in the tunnel, our friends are trying to escape. Trubel wants to go back to help Nick, but Monroe convinces her that Nick is buying them time to escape, then come back to kill and defeat Black Claw. The group splits: Trubel stays with Eve to check that they are not being followed while Monroe, Rosalee, Wu, and Hank try to find a way out of the tunnel.

Back in the loft, another attacker shoots Nick again. Nick seems dead, so the attacker calls his boss Bonaparte to tell him that it’s over. But seconds after, Nick appears behind his back and kills him.

While Rosalee and Monroe are in the tunnel looking for a way out, Rosalee thinks this time is good as any to tell Monroe that she is pregnant. Monroe is over the moon, and despite the hard moment, he’s extremely happy he’s going to be a dad.

As the Grimm season 5 finale comes close to its end, Nick is alone. Everyone’s dead. He realizes the miraculous stick had been in his pocket, and it saved his life. In that moment, Bonaparte arrives with Renard and tries to kill Nick – but he dosn’t think about a little girl who’s at home… Diana had understood that Bonaparte was the bad man who attacked her mommy, and for that, he has to die. We see Diana at home with a sort of voodoo doll symbolizing Bonaparte. She makes her dad kill him.

The Grimm season 5 finale ends with Renard and Nick staring at each other. Is Nick thinking that Renard just saved his life, or does he understand something else must have happened? And what is Renard going to do now that he has killed Black Claw’s founder? Will he take advantage of the situation and take that position for himself? We’ll find out when Grimm comes back with season 6 this fall.

What did you think of the Grimm season 5 finale?