Hank's been getting some more screen time of late, and I think that can only propel Grimm forward. He's had his share of incidents in the past on the show, especially the whole bit about loving Adalind so much that he'd do anything to get her; but that sort of felt forced, not an extension of his actual character but a storyline that stemmed simply because Hank is Nick's partner and it made sense for Adalind to target him. It wasn't directly involving Hank's actions, not even after he was cursed, because he had no control over them; in "To Protect and Serve Man", and slightly in "The Hour of Death", we see that Hank really does have motivations all his own, and that it's his turn to ask Nick for help instead of vice versa.
"The Hour of Death" centers around a missing persons case that has been plaguing Nick and Hank. The episode starts in medias res, when photos of the girl that was kidnapped a couple of days earlier are being burnt at a suspect's house. Nick can't prove it, but he knows the guy is a Wesen, so it makes him overly suspicious. My girlfriend pointed out some interesting character traits about Nick; when we first began watching Grimm, Nick played everything by-the-book, and was always hesitant to do anything other than what the law allowed. Now, however, he's hasty to break the rules at all costs - it's interesting what being a Grimm has done to him.
Hank's noticed this change as well, and he's a little reticent to allow Nick to take actions into his own hands. They find their murder suspect killed, and a strange symbol burnt into his flesh reveals an ancient sign evil Grimms used to use as a way to show that they were in town and on the hunt. As the case moves on, it's apparent that someone on the police force is either a Grimm or posing as one, because criminals wind up dead with no motive other than the fact that they are accused of a crime and that they're Wesen.
Hank really steps in here, because he wants to make sure that he can trust Nick. The best way to show how much Nick has changed is to get his friends involved, showing how shocked and distrustful they are of a guy who used to seem so bold and honorable. It humanizes Hank even more, but even moreso in "To Protect and Serve Man".
That's because Hank asks Nick for help in that episode; most of the time, it's the other way around. Hank wants to revisit a case from his past when he was a police officer. He arrested a man for harming two important individuals, and now that the guy's on death row, Hank's rethinking the testimony since it strangely resembled Wesen cases that he and Nick have been dealing with recently. There's insight here to Hank; for one, he's not afraid to ask Nick for help after all they've been through, and he's also coming to grips with the whole Wesen thing - almost naturally so. There's the fact that Hank thinks about these things well after they've happened as well - he's not a man to forget any of his cases, even if at the time he felt he was right.
"To Protect and Serve Man" is interesting because it's not dealing with a case assigned to the two, or a case that's happening in the present. It's a cold case investigation, something that Grimm doesn't really do, and since there's not as much emphasis on the case, it allows the episode to also focus on something very important - Juliette's new obsession with Renard, and his with her.
This B-story is coming to a head quickly thanks to Renard's swift wooing. Juliette recognizes it's wrong, but she's helpless to the urges - and Renard doesn't want anything to happen, but he's equally incapable of stopping it. So he brings Juliette to Monroe, although Juliette and Monroe don't realize they'll be working with each other. It leaves it open for a very intense and dramatic episode in the mid-season finale, and it seems that Grimm wants to wrap the "Juliette's Amnesia" thing up pretty soon.
It's all working rather splendidly though, and the characters all feel totally ensconced in the plot. We even got to see Rosalee just a little bit! While none of the episodes have been entirely perfect, even the worst of the episodes hit some sort of high note, making this one of the best shows on television in my opinion.
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