Of Mouse and Man - Recap

”I am impelled not to squeak like a grateful and frightened mouse, but to roar...”

Lenny Drake enters his apartment parking garage and warns the man he’s pursuing that he’s going to get what’s coming to him. Someone makes a noise and Lenny goes around a car to catch his victim. There’s the sounds of a struggle and then Lenny falls back, dead from a screwdriver in his neck. His killer sees Lenny as a different, older man, and tosses him into a dumpster. The next morning, the garbage truck scoops up the dumpster’s contents and leaves.

When the sanitation workers finally realize they have a body, they call in the police. Nick and Hank confirm the identity of the victim and learn that Lenny had three domestic assault charges filed against him. They trace the route of the truck and find the dumpster with the trail of blood. Inside, they talk to the manager, Forest McCleary, who confirms that Lenny had been there the previous night fighting with his girlfriend, Natalie Haverstraw. A lawyer, Mason Snyder, helped Natalie. The officers discovers that Natalie has already left and taken her clothing with her, and put out an APB.



The police quickly find Natalie at a hotel and bring her in. She tells Hank and Nick that Lenny beat her and she’d finally had enough. When she tried to leave, Mason and Marty Burgess, another neighbor, came to help. Marty faced off Lenny and left, and then Mason took Natalie to her car. Natalie insists that there was no way she could have driven a screwdriver into Lenny’s body, and admits that she used to stay with him because he was afraid to leave.

Nick and Hank report to Renard, who suggests that they talk to Marty at his junk shop. Marty, a quiet little man, appears surprised to learn that Lenny is dead. He confirms Natalie’s story and admits that he was scared of Lenny. As they talk, Nick sees Marty’s true self, a creature with a mouse-like face. Meanwhile, Marty tells them that his father can confirm that he went back to his apartment while Lenny was still alive.



When Juliette comes home, she sees a couple watching her from across the street. When she approaches their pick-up truck, they drive away and she manages to take a photo of their license plate.

Hank and Nick meet with Mason Snyder, a personal injury lawyer who is constantly on the phone making threats to the people he’s suing. He sees that Lenny was an ass and they argued, but that he didn’t murder the man. As Mason takes another phone call and gets angry, Nick sees him for a snake-faced creature. That night, he checks at the trailer and finds a journal entry written by his ancestor, Crawford Grimm, about a lausenschlange who feeds on children. Next, Nick goes to Eddie, who identifies Marty’s true face as that of a mausehertz. Mausehertz are harmless and scurry off to their safety zone when they’re frightened. As they talk, Eddie gets a call about a clock repair job and Nick leaves.



When Nick arrives home, Juliette tells him about the pick-up truck and shows him the photo of the license plates. He has the station check on the plates and they hear something moving outside. Nick goes to investigate and is relieved to discover that it’s a raccoon. Back inside, the station calls to give Nick the name and the address of the truck owner. He writes it down and Juliette gets a glimpse of the address.

The killer goes to a garage and meets with owner, Andrew Salazar. Salazar tells his visitor that he’ll have to sue him if he wants his movie. After a moment, the killer picks up a tire iron and stabs Salazar in the chest, seeing him as an older man. He then hauls Salazar’s body out and puts it in a dumpster. The next day, Nick and Hank are called to the crime scene and they figure the murder is connected to Lenny’s.

Eddie arrives at his appointment, an empty office. When he knocks at the door, two creatures in hoods jump him and knock him out while a woman looks on.

Juliette goes to the truck owners’ address and sees a woman and her two children playing outside. When the woman sees Juliette, she nervously gets her children inside and locks the doors.



Marty goes to see Natalie and discovers that she’s moving out. She thanks him for his help with Lenny and hugs him, and asks him to sell off all of Lenny’s stuff. Natalie asks about Marty’s father and he says that he’s about the same. When Mason comes out, carrying a box for Natalie, Marty is upset but hides it from Natalie. Mason is well aware of Marty’s feelings and winks at him. As Marty goes out through the parking garage, he admires Mason’s Camaro. Mason grabs him and says that Natalie is his, and starts choking Marty, well aware of what he actually is. However, he’s forced to break off when two tenants come in, and Marty quickly gets to his car and drives away.



When Eddie recovers conscious, he staggers back to his car and discovers that his attackers have drawn a Grimm scythe on the hood of his car, using Eddie’s blood.

Nick confirms that Marty had to pay $1,200 to Salazar for car repairs. The partners go to Marty’s apartment to talk to his father and confirm the son’s alibi, but get no answer. McCleary lets them in and they discover that Marty is a compulsive hoarder, having filled his apartment with shelves of junk. Marty is burning incense and the officers discover that he’s doing it to cover the smell of his rotting father, who has been dead at least two days. Nick figures that when the father died, Marty realized that he was finally free.

Marty goes to see Mason and demands that he leave Natalie alone. Unimpressed, Mason tells Marty that he’s the one in control and that’s the way of the world. He steps forward and Marty trips, cowering on the floor. As Mason looks at him in disgust, Marty sees him as the same older man as the others, his father, and goes berserk. He grabs a bookend and beats in Mason’s skull.



Later, Marty drives up to Natalie in Mason’s Camaro and offers her flower. When she wonders where Mason is, Marty says that the lawyer couldn’t make it and that Mason sold him the car because he couldn’t handle it anymore. When Marty invites Natalie to dinner, she accepts.

Eddie tries to call Nick, but the detective is busy at Marty’s place and says that he’ll get back to him later. Wu has received a report on the Marty’s car, parked outside of Mason’s office, and they go to there to find the lawyer dead. Realizing that Marty has taken Mason’s Camaro, they put out an APB on the vehicle.

A newly confident Marty tips the maitre’d to get a table at an exclusive restaurant. As they order, Marty tells Natalie that she can do anything she sets her mind to and that he has finally decided to move out and find a life for himself. However, a father at the table behind yells at his son and Marty takes offense. He gets up and tells the man to stop. When the father refuses, Marty knocks him down and looks around in horror as he sees all the men in the restaurant now look like his dead father. As he stares in shock, Natalie pulls him out. Outside, Marty drives away and Natalie tells him she admires him for what he did. She admits that her own father used to beat her, and Marty says that people like that deserve to die. He hits the accelerator and tells Natalie that he’s spent his life going slow but now he’s speeding things up. They evade a police car and Natalie begs Marty to stop without success.



When Nick gets the speeding report on the Camaro and the location, he realizes that Marty is heading back to his safety zone, his shop.

Marty goes to the shop and drags Natalie inside, insisting that everyone wants him to be meek and mild but he likes what he has become. Nick and Hank arrive and go inside, and tell him to release Natalie. As Marty holds the crying Natalie, he looks in a mirror and realizes that he’s finally become his father. Screaming, he releases Natalie and dives into the warren of aisle and boxes. Nick goes after him and finally corners him. When he tells Marty that they know the truth about his father, Marty insists that his father isn’t dead and that now he’s everywhere, no matter how may times he calls him. Nick says that he knows who and what Marty really is, but Marty says that nobody knows him.



Nick comes home and Juliette tells him that he went to see the truck owners. She wonders why the woman was afraid of her and Nick can’t explain. Juliette admits that she wants to know who the woman is, but hugs Nick and says that she knows who he is.

Later, Nick finally gets to see Eddie, who tells him that the creatures that attacked him know that he’s helping a Grimm. He shows Nick the scythe symbol and Nick tells Eddie that he won’t ask him for help anymore. However, Eddie refuses to run, offers his friend a beer, and says that the next time they’ll be ready for them.



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