"The Waking Dead" was all about new faces, both literally and metaphorically. Starting with Juliette, we saw her come to grips with something she thought to be impossible: watching some familiar, friendly faces change right before her very eyes. Bringing Juliette into the fold has been something we have been playing with since the beginning and it was exhilarating to finally see that scene come to life. There were several different ways she could have witnessed her first Woge, but there was something special about it being in the company of Monroe, Rosalee and Bud. Another new face came through the introduction of one of our most favorite Wesen to date, the Cracher-Mortel Baron Samedi, played by the talented Reg E. Cathey. And, even though the face of Captain Sean Renard's brother, Eric, doesn't necessarily constitute as "new," seeing him in Portland for the first time is certainly something to write home about.

This time around, we wanted to play with the notion of a supposedly extinct Wesen, thus creating the Glühenvolk creature. Then we added a little case of mistaken identity, a la extraterrestrial, and voila. Our notion was driven home with the presence of an alien-hunter character, George Lazure, who also had a bit of mistaken identity of his own. We only later realize he is actually a Raub-Kondor, and his true intent is the pursuit of the Glühenvolk couple for their valuable skin. In terms of our overarching mythology, we felt it was time to lay down some serious map and key information that came from Monroe and Captain Renard, respectively. On the Juliette front, we got to make some strides with her memory by having her drop the G-bomb out of nowhere. Also we had some fun introducing the sauver sa peau (literally: to save your skin) concoction that causes a Wesen to stay in full Woge even after death for up to eight hours.

This time around, the majority of our focus was on bring-backs and lots of them. It was high time to bring back one of our favorite Wesen, one of particularly nasty ability, which is of course the Ziegevolk. We knew when we created the Ziegevolk way back in the beginning of Season 1 that he would have to show up again on Nick's radar at some point, and the thought of one exploiting his abilities while under the guise of a lawyer was just too good to pass up. Bringing Juliette back into the trailer was crucial for Juliette remembering Nick. Not to mention bringing back the wise woman from La Llorona, Pilar, to lay some knowledge onto Juliette regarding her memory. It was also important for us to hear from Nick's mom, Kelly, with regards to her quest to destroy the Coins of Zakynthos. And it's always a good time when our shining District Attorney Lauren Castro, played by the talented Lisa Vidal, shows up.

A lot of the thematic content in "Nameless" came directly from the classic Grimm tale "Rumpelstiltskin." In that story, Rumpelstiltskin was notorious for his infatuation with the concept of play, specifically the game he posed to the queen in which she was faced with the challenge of correctly guessing his name in order to keep her first-born child. We modernized the classic and fascinating concept of play and landed smack dab in the middle of video gaming culture, which served as a fitting backdrop for our tale. Nick and Hank's investigation was made into a game of sorts, drawing from other real life investigations like that of the famous Zodiac Killer case in California. On a separate note, we got to address Juliette's difficulty with the visions she has been having and how they relate to Nick by making Monroe and Rosalee more directly involved. On the Royal front, having Renard's spy pay a visit allowed for the transfer of some key information regarding some of the future developments in that arena, not to mention one gnarly assassination attempt. We also loved seeing actor Reggie Lee (Sgt. Wu) get some experience in the stunts department. All in all, first time Grimm director Charlie Haid did an amazing job.

The structure of this episode was both heavily character centric and procedural. We set out to create a very unique creature, the likes of which we haven’t ever come across before. We did this with the intention of exploring the possibilities of our visual effects this time around. This is not to say that any of our other creatures are less unique, or that visual effects has ever been in any way lacking, but we really had a lot of free rain here. A lot was written in that gave our visual effects crew the opportunity to create some truly gnarly stuff. We also got to introduce the Hexenbiest Frau Pech played by Mary McDonald-Lewis, who also happens to be our Portland based dialect coach. Mr. Sandman allowed us to play with the true-life phenomena of individuals that have lost their eyesight but subsequently experience a heightened state of their remaining senses. It has been important for us to consistently build Nick up as a force to be reckoned with, and his run in with the Jinnamuru Xunte did just that.

Our main focus this time was to bring back to the forefront a little bit of mythology and address what happens when insensitive Wesen jeopardize the well being of the overall Wesen community. The introduction of the Gesetzbuch Ehrenkodex (aka Code of Swabia) provided an opportunity to establish some interesting, Wesen-specific, sociological pillars within our world. We got to dig a little deeper into Rosalee's past and learn about her father and brother's affiliation with the Wesen Council, in which she now plays a role. It was also a really great opportunity to see some of our favorite Wesen faces from past episodes. Oblinger the Eisbiber, Nathaniel the Seelengut, and Leroy the Mauzhertz just to name a few. But, what really contributed to the success of this episode was the chemistry between the crazed Blutbaden couple Cole Pritchard and Krystal Fletcher (played by Callard Harris and Lili Mirojnick). Their fire, when coupled with the rational nature of their cohort Gus Campbell (played by Eric Reid), provided for some truly compelling drama.

In "The Face Off" we agreed it was time to address the dangerous ambiguity mounting within Nick and Captain Sean Renard's relationship. It was only appropriate to have the decisive factor pertain to the most significant area of our mythology: the key. We were able to have a lot of fun with the Captain this go around. Aside from nearly getting shot by Juliette and spending a romantic evening in the forest with Adalind, we were especially excited to see him finally get to explore Nick's trailer. However, the biggest complication that arose was Nick finding out about the Captain's infatuation with Juliette. The return of our lovely Rosalee Calvert allowed for our team to identify the foul hand in the peculiar turn of events and, not only explain the problem, but set it straight. On a separate note, we truly appreciate your patience during this long wait. It was very important for us to make sure we could roll out the remainder of the season virtually uninterrupted and are glad to report we're doing just that.

We were very happy with how the web series "Bad Hair Day" turned out. We were part of the initial story development, along with Producers Carole Angelo and Kiel Elliot, but for the most part let writer/director Nicholas Peet run with the project. The entire thing was shot in one day up in Portland on our spice shop stage. Several members of our main crew worked on the project as well, including our very own Director of Photography Elliot Rocket. His presence and eye made sure the series had the familiar Grimm look, which is something we all agreed needed to be central to this piece. It was a lot of fun seeing some of our favorite characters all together in one room for the first time.

We know that our fans aren't too happy about us being off the air, but our crew hasn't had a break since the pilot got picked up and a lot of us took this time to travel, especially the actors. David Giuntoli went traveling through Kenya, spending the majority of his time there in Nairobi. He was also in Paris for some time. Russell Hornsby was in South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania - mainly in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Windhoek, Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar. Silas Weir Mitchell spent time in New York, Vienna, Austria, and Venice, Italy. Sasha Roiz traveled through Australia and New Zealand. Bitsie Tulloch was in Austin, Texas working on a new film. Claire Coffee spent time in Piedmont, Italy. Reggie Lee was in Tuscany, London and New York. And, Bree Turner was in California getting more acquainted with the newest member of her family, Dean. Everyone loved their vacation time and met several Grimm fans.

In this episode, we really wanted to bring to head a couple different things that have been mounting since the beginning of the season. We did this by bringing a familiar face back to Portland: Adalind Schade, played by the talented Claire Coffee. Her presence provided for a great opportunity to expand upon Juliette's memory loss and obsession with Captain Renard, not to mention an opportunity to address Renard's unique position as a half-Hexenbiest, half-Royal. We picked up directly where we left off at the end of the last episode with Monroe realizing whom it is Renard has been obsessing over and ended with Nick finally coming to the realization that Juliette is romantically involved with his captain. We were also able to provide Renard with a huge realization, which was of course the trailer. All of these realizations are about to come crashing together, and we are sure it will provide for some captivating closure when we return.