TheBrothers' Grimm fairytalescome to life in the cop dramaGrimm, where fantastical elements are woven into a well-worn episodic narrative. Yet with all this excitement dashing across the screen, the character of Juliette (Elizabeth “Bitsie” Tulloch) becomes one of the most bland and frustrating elements of the show. Introduced as the protagonist’s, Nick’s (David Giuntoli) girlfriend, Juliette had the potential of becoming a nuanced and intriguing character but became the furthest thing from it.Juliette was one ofGrimm’sbiggest downfalls, as the creation and portrayal of her character simply failed in every transformation she had. From human to Wesen to assassin, each of her phases becomes lackluster as she is thrown into each extreme, never really able to become dynamic or complex. What is more infuriating is that other female characters in the series have been rendered successfully as nuanced, but Juliette is apparently exempt from this treatment.
A homicide detective discovers he is a descendant of hunters who fight supernatural forces.
Juliette Starts As Only Nick’s Girlfriend in ‘Grimm’
Making a pretty forgettable entrance to the screen, Juliette is introduced as Nick’s girlfriend and remains just that throughout the first couple of seasons. She is subject to thetraditional treatment of female charactersat the time, whereher personality does not extend beyond being a supportive and kind partner.She is there to hold Nick’s hand after a particularly rough case and to turn a blind eye every time he suspiciously hides away one of his Wesen books. Her lack of curiosity and just normal human reactions make each of her scenes, which tend to be tacked on at the end of an episode, fairly mind-numbing and anti-climatic.
But the most infuriating aspect of her character is that she isn’t one. Like many previous female love interests, she is a vehicle used to progress Nick’s plot and character arc. As she is being kidnapped, poisoned, and sent into a coma, the show frames these atrocious acts for us to sympathize with Nick. And afterward,she returns to her rightful place as Nick’s possession, complaining slightly and then meekly exclaiming her love and gratitude. While relationships require sacrifice and compromise, near-sacrificing your life at every corner is pretty extreme. This ties back into Nick’s aunt’s warnings for Nick to leave Juliette, something he refuses to do, which leads to these events and Nick actually trying to expose the Wesen world to Juliette.
However, after her memory loss, he changes tact and resolutely hides everything from her, even when she is starting to show interest in learning. Barring his friends from revealing the truth to her, Nick directly causes Juliette’s spiraling mental health, as she is constantlyexposed to a fantastical world that everyone refuses to explain.While this harrowing phase shifts the focus to Juliette a bit more, it is still in relation to Nick, as she is constantly worried about how she feels about Nick rather than the strange events before her. Compared to Hank’s (Russell Hornsby) unhinged hallucinations and dreams, the vague snippets of Juliette slowly picking at the truth become far more underwhelming, especially as it is dragged out throughout the season. As such, Juliette lacks the agency or conviction to become a compelling character, even when she is allowed more screen time.
Juliette Becomes Too Villainized in ‘Grimm’
While Juliette’s human form falls victim to the outdated treatment of female characters,her new Hexenbiest form becomes so skewed to the extreme that it is jarring and hard to believe. Once again, her trials are directly due to Nick’s actions, as she is required to turn into the woman who tried to kill her and then proceed to sleep with Nick in this form so he can regain his Grimm powers. If that isn’t traumatizing enough, she quickly discovers she has transformed into a Wesen and is too afraid to confide in her partner, who she gave her undulating support and love, even fearing he might kill her.This could have been an amazing narrative cornerstone for Juliette’svillain origin story,especially as her fears somewhat come true as Nick struggles to look at her, but, instead, she is stripped of any empathetic traits, villainizing her a bit too much.
From the beginning, both Nick and Juliette’s reactions to this transformation are slightly overblown, as Juliette rapidly becomes defensive and malicious when she provokes Nick by asking him to kiss her as she is transformed. No matter how Tulloch plays it, her performance is overshadowed by Juliette’s completely abrupt and ludicrous decisions. Thelack of believability of Juliette becoming a badass villainalso stems from her initial lack of personality. With only her devotion to Nick as a frame of reference,her villainous self is devoid of the delicious nuance we crave in villain origin stories. Instead, it feels like she has just gotten a lobotomy that drained her of all empathy, leading to the heartless decisions she makes and the murders she commits in Season 4.
This is compounded by how Nick’s initial responses are framed. Now that Juliette is powerful enough to defend herself, she doesn’t need his protection, and she is finally exhibiting some personality (even if it is just single-minded hatred), he decides there is something inherently wrong with her. Nick even starts blaming himself for her transformation, again not allowing Juliette to escape his spotlight. But it seemsGrimmis too afraid to paint these reactions in a negative light,leaving Nick the unrelenting hero and Juliette the overdramatized villain. This is doubled down by his hypocrisy of not only being close friends with Wesen but later dating his previous nemesis, who is also a Hexenbiest, Adalind (Claire Coffee). Their relationship is painted so beautifully by the show, especially with Adalind’stumultuous redemption arc, that it is damning thatGrimmcouldn’t put the same thought, nuance, or effort into Juliette’s own growth.
Why Can’t ‘Grimm’ Get Juliette Right?
While Juliette’s final transformation into Eve shows the most promise, it ends up becoming the most underwhelming as we grit our teeth through each redundant beat of her comeback. Inciting a collective groan from the audience, Juliette’s resurrection in themiddle of Season 5introduces us to the cold-blooded assassin Eve. While the first season may have accidentally stripped Juliette of her potential personality traits and likability, this season purposefully makesEve a shell of what Juliette once was, creating a hollow void that engulfs any remnants of emotion or humanity. Even when the show tries to create a cold moment that has an underlying tenderness in the final season, where Eve forgives Nick’s past actions and reactions, her robotic dialogue renders the scene superficial and arbitrary. Once again, Juliette/Eve is thrust into the realm of forgettable.
From the anti-hero transformation of Adalind to the genuine toughness mixed with the teenage petulance of Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni),Grimmhas proved it can create a dynamic and compelling female character. But the show propels Juliette into every extreme, from passive nothingness to red-hot rage to icy brutality,not allowing any hint of complexity to shine through. It’s as ifGrimmis over-compensating for initially falling into the trap of creating an antiquated female character, and as such, blindly stumbles throughevery other less passive traitthey can find and jam-packing it into a character that has too weak of a foundation to pull it off. Moreover, by glazing over Nick’s less favorable attributes, they do their efforts a disservice, dooming Juliette’s likability even further. Although overall,Grimm’scast does phenomenal work to sweep us away into this magical in-between land, for some reason,Grimmjust can’t get Juliette quite right.
