First thing’s first: I expect anyone who is reading this is either watching along with me, or has already watched season one. Everything is going to be spoileriffic, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now that we’ve gotten the disclaimers out of the way, let’s talk about the episode!

The pilot episode of Grimm does everything a pilot episode is supposed to do, and it does it well. It makes me root for the heroes, worry about the bad guys, and immediately engages me in the universe. Ending the episode with putting the hero in uncertain and possibly fatal jeopardy, thus making you thirsty for episode 2, didn’t hurt either.

The show seems to be taking on a crime drama/ monster of the week format. We see the crime happen, and then we see the detectives figure it out, except the perps are monsters. Not that I’m complaining. I like that format just fine.

First of all, I like how the episode starts off with a quote from Little Red Riding Hood, priming you for a new twist on the tale, and immediately you see a girl in a red hoodie attacked by a wolf in the forest. I like when shows start off with action, showing you what it’s about instead of filling the first ten minutes with dialogue and background. Those are important, but a boring way to start things off.

I also loved how nearly the entire episode took place in a forest and a quaint little cabin that looked like it came out of a fairytale. It created an atmosphere that allowed you to instantly accept that monsters exist.

So next, we meet our hero, normal homicide detective Nick Burkhard (David Giuntoli), who’s beginning to see monsters around him. Despite his hallucinations, he’s ready to hunt down the boot-wearing killer with his partner Hank (Russel Hornsby). And perhaps the citizens of Portland don’t often wear boots, because the detectives treat this like it’s the clue that could crack the case.

Nick’s rather creepy Aunt Marie (Kate Burton) drops in for a surprise visit to tell him that she only has a few months (maybe) to live, that fairytales are real, and that he comes from a long line of monster profilers called Grimm. Also, the monsters he’s been seeing aren’t hallucinations, his Grimm senses are starting to kick in because she is dying. After a Reaper (a Grimm Reaper, get it?) attacks her with a scythe and Nick shoots him down, she also gives him a key that he must guard with his life and tells him Reapers will now be hunting him down in order to get it from him. Thanks Aunt Marie!

Again I like that instead of going for a long passage of dialogue to explain how Nick’s world is going to change, they show it with a Reaper attack. And I like how Nick doesn’t waste time freaking out in disbelief, he just shoots down the beastie and goes about the next order of business.

After Nick gets his aunt settled in the hospital, he starts going through his aunt’s creepy trailer and trying to learn about his family from the books there. I don’t know if it’s just my over-active imagination or if I was supposed to get suspicious, but I don’t know why Nick’s girlfriend, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch), was watching him from the window while he was in the trailer. It makes me wonder if she’s somehow allied with the Reapers.

In the mean time, the big bad wolf (Tim Bagley) has been busy abducting a little red riding hood. As Nick searches for little red (who’s intials are R.H. like Riding Hood. Clever.), he comes across a wolf who’s given up killing named Monroe (who is rather suspiciously wearing boots). He learns from Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) that he’s called a Blutbad, and that everybody knows about and fears the Grimm. Monroe also tells Nick that the color red for Blutbaden is like blood to sharks. With help from his new ally, Nick is able to track and kill the guilty Blutbad, who recognizes him as a Grimm, and save the little girl. And can I just say that I like how creepy they made the killer with his pot pies and his needle point? Just goes to show that home economics is not normal.

Then, as he’s visiting his now comatose aunt, a Reaper (Claire Coffee) comes with an injection meant to kill her. But when Nick recognizes the Reaper as a monster he saw days before, the Reaper injects Nick instead. Then, unbeknownst to poor unconscious Nick, said Reaper then gets into a van with none other than Nick’s boss,  Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz). Thus thickening the plot. Which makes me wonder why Nick hasn’t seen the captain’s face change and if that means it’s possible that his girlfriend could be keeping herself in control as well.

What have we learned?: Since this is the pilot, we’ve learned a lot. Nick is becoming a Grimm, which are monster profilers, there is (of course) a secret organization called Reapers trying to kill them, and Monroe pees on his own fence every so often to mark his territory. Gross.  Also, the Reapers carry some pretty cool custom made collapsible scythes.

What’s going to happen?: Again, since this is the pilot, there’s not much that can be determined at this point, but I think it’s safe to say that Nick is gonna find himself in a big fight against the Reapers at season’s end. And I may be reading way too much into a simple transitional scene by suspecting Juliette.

So, those are my crazy theories. Let me know what you think will happen next in the comments.