Grimm 2-Hour Fall Finale Preview: 7 Reasons to Get Excited for “Cold Blooded” and “Twelve Days of Krampus” [+ David Giuntoli Interview] 

WARNING: Spoilers for tonight’s Grimm fall finale

Tis the season for the Grimm fall finale and NBC is celebrating with back-to-back episodes.

Hour 1 — Synopsis for “Cold Blooded” — As a deadly crime spree begins to surface, a century-old urban legend takes shape in Portland’s sewers and becomes Nick’s (David Giuntoli) latest case.  In Europe, Adalind (Claire Coffee) meets Prince Viktor (guest star Alexis Denisof), who’s come to bring those responsible for his cousin Eric’s demise to justice.  Meanwhile, Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) responds to the recent attempt on his life.

Hour 2 — Synopsis for “Twelve Days of Krampus” –  After a string of delinquent teens go missing, an old Wesen tale of an evil Santa who brings more than just a lump of coal may be the prime suspect. The investigation intensifies as Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) take things a little too far. Meanwhile, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) enlists Juliet (Bitsie Tulloch) to surprise Rosalee (Bree Turner) for their first Christmas together with unintended results. Elsewhere, Captain Renardís (Sasha Roiz) tour of Europe brings him closer to tracking down Adalind (Claire Coffee).

7 reasons to get excited for the 2-hour fall finale:

• Alexis Denisof begins his guest star run as Prince Viktor. It’s really great to see Denisof in what seems like is going to be a very devious role. He’s good at playing bad. Who knew? Of course, the actor is best known for his time on Buffy and Angel. On those shows he played stuffy Watcher turned Angel Investigations hottie Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. From Angel, we know Denisof can play dark so we’re looking forward to seeing what he’s going to do on Grimm. He’s definitely a Joss Whedon go-to-guy because he’s starred on Dollhouse as well as the big screen, black and white, present-day version of Much Ado about Nothing (he was excellent by the way). Denisof has also made several appearances on his wife’s [Alyson Hannigan] long-running comedy, How I Met Your Mother. Can you tell we’re excited for his Grimm arc? Actually, excited is an understatement.

• In “Cold Blooded” a giant-sized guest star is part of the action. Matthew Willig is involved in the case of the week. He looked so very familiar. It turns out he was Special Agent Simon Cade in several episodes of NCIS. Cade took a liking to Abby and was a member of EJ Barrett’s team, the one that moved in on Gibbs’ territory in season nine. Willig has also made guest starred on Chuck, The Nine Lives of Chloe King and Dexter.
• Renard is in Europe dealing with the family business and while we dig him when he’s interacting with Nick and the gang back in Portland, his European jaunt is proving to be interesting as well. Plus, he gets to speak foreign languages and Sasha Roiz is super sexy when he does that so we don’t mind.
• Speaking of super sexy, Nick continues to be badass. Ever since his zombie phase, his Grimm skills have gotten better and better. One day soon he might get scary. But, for today, we’re loving the fact he manages to be a formidable opponent to villainous Wesen. But that doesn’t mean he’s not still feeling the effects of what he did while in zombie mode.
• Probably one of our favorite aspects of this season is the fact that there are so many people that know about Nick and what he is. What’s fun is how we’re treated to scenes where Nick, Hank, Juliette, Monroe and Rosalee hash out the latest Wesen intel over takeout. Keep that coming, Grimm powers that be.
• Monroe and Rosalee have interesting perspectives on Christmas. They are such a cute couple and we like how even though they’ve moved in together, they don’t always exist on the same page. So the relationship drama is great but, please Show, don’t ever break these two up.
• The Grimm take on the whole Santa and naughty and nice of it all is pretty scary. And also brings back into play an interesting dilemma for Nick. That’s all we’re going to say about that.

Here’s another fall finale treat. TV Goodness was part of a press call with Grimm star David Giuntoli.

[WARNING: Mild spoilers for Grimm‘s second half of season three]

On continually Grimm-ing up fairytales and legends

DAVID GIUNTOLI: I think the thing that kind of throws a curve ball into what the audience is expecting is good for the show. I think that what we’ve done on Grimm is originally I was passed a book that had all these fairy tales in it, and that was what our episodes were based on. But as the show grows, as does the character Nick, and you discover that some of these other phenomena that take place in the world haven’t yet been added to the book of fairy tales, but they are being added by Nick now. So we are taking other myths and folklore and otherwise just kind of stories that have been told and putting the little Grimm spin behind them now, so I enjoy that.

On the legend of Krampus from tonight’s “Twelve Days of Krampus”

DAVID: There’s an actual legend of Krampus out there, and we’ve had German people asking us to do Krampus over and over again, and we finally tipped our hat to the fine people of Bavaria and we’re bringing this legend to life. We ruin Christmas for everybody and it’s gory and it’s wonderful.

On the evolution of the monsters Nick faces week after week

DAVID: Our show’s much like Mario Bros. But just like every level, they just get stronger, and stronger, and stronger, so obviously season three I’m dealing with some over-the-top, you know, resilient ruthless Wesen. Krampus is pretty wild. That guy. I mean he was – when I walked onto set and I saw the actor dressed – I mean first of all, we hired a gigantic guy to play this character. And then when I saw him as Santa with these horns, I actually had like a visceral reaction to him. I was kind of frightened in a way. It was a disturbing thing.

On whether Nick will continue to feel the effects of his zombie-fication in 2014

DAVID: We’re going to be playing on this one for a little while. There – it’s like funny. Every time Nick gets harmed, he’s left with this kind of useful side effect and we’re going to definitely be seeing more of that after the break.

On whether a big bad will emerge in the second half of Grimm’s season three

DAVID: The writers have done a very good job of this – what I like to call the slow reveal. You know, we have I would say coming towards the end of the mid-season – we still have probably two or three contenders for the villain. One definitely – we have kind of a new character that emerges who is one of the I’d say two villains, but we have a new character who is one of the greater villains that we’re going to have on the show. But I still place the Captain as a possible villain, and definitely Adalind as a villain, and then there’s one more guy who’s showing up here soon.

On so many people knowing Nick is a Grimm

DAVID: I think the show is better for having several more people know about Nick being a Grimm. There are still some people in the dark that I don’t want it to be revealed to just yet. The show can never become a big happy family. There needs to be a lot of problems – there are responsibilities and dangers that come with knowing about this world, and those who have found out who are not either Wesen or Grimm, there are dangers that come with that, and that’s going to be explored in this season. And, there’s a reason Nick doesn’t tell everybody. It’s not safer for me, the more standard, normal human beings that know about this. But, I am happy that a couple more characters are in this circle, so to speak. I think it opens up a lot of new character dynamics. Different people who can interact with each other for the first time. And I love those big dinner scenes where we’re looking at gory, bloody pictures and drinking red wine and kind of discussing it from all these different points of views.

It’s Friday the 13th — the perfect day to catch a double dose of Grimm. The action gets underway tonight at 9/8c on NBC.