Hansel and Gretel
Episode 3 of The Grimm Variations begins with Charlotte playing with dolls. Her dolls are siblings and her older brothers discuss how young she is. Jacob comments that just like her dolls, the story is about two siblings as well.
We are hurled into the world of two siblings, Hansel and Gretel, who live with many other children in what seems like a boarding school. They have two supervisors whom they call Mama and Papa. Papa teaches them about nuclear fusion and fission, while Mama does laundry and takes care of their meals. There are strict rules around the school and flouting them gets the children a detention. Hansel is bored of his lifestyle – wake up, have breakfast, study, play and go to bed. Nothing seems to happen. His only solace is his sister, Gretel, who is with her all the time. The two are caught out of bed yet again and Papa and Mama punish them by making them sleep in the forest.
Gretel tugs on her brother who’s a bit skeptical about spending his night in the forest. While wandering, they come across a little house. They enter and see sweets and cakes. Right there, they also meet an old woman who peaks their interest by saying that the earth isn’t round, there are ends to “this world”. She encourages them to check for themselves. She suggests that the next time they play ball, Hansel should go and retrieve it beyond the fence, which Mama tells them not to cross.
And so, the next time they play ball and the ball goes over the forbidden fence, Hansel rushes to retrieve it despite Mama’s call. The moment he goes out of the fence, he sees that the ball bounces back from an invisible force. Mama ushers him back and asks him whether he’d seen anything but he denies. The two are punished again for flouting the rules.
Hansel and Gretel make their way towards the lady’s cottage. Hansel is especially excited and curious to know the truth. The lady suggests that they look for unusual happenings in the school and gives them a jar of colourful candies, saying that it will help them.
Hansel and Gretel go back to the school. They notice that children have been going missing, one by one. Nobody seems to know why and other children aren’t really concerned. Thus,when everybody’s asleep, the two decide to look around. In the play area, Hansel accidently opens a portal with the help of the candy jar. They enter and find themselves in an entirely new environment. They open gates with the help of the candy jar.
With every use, one candy disappears from the jar. They eventually end up in a big room where they discover information about all the children on large screen. Right then, mama comes in and calls out to Hansel. The two siblings run out of the room, opening doors and with Mama chasing them. Mama sees Hansel in danger as one of the close threaten to close while he is passing by and so, she sacrifices herself for his sake. It’s revealed that Mama is a robot.
Hansel and Gretel then wander around some more and see space outside a window. They somehow end up in the forest and visit the lady. Hansel asks her to tell him the truth. The lady then take them back to the spaceship. It’s revealed that since Earth was not habitable, humanity found different methods to continue to exist. The spaceship where Hansel and Gretel are is one such project. The lady take the two to a spacecraft because it’s time for Hansel to leave.
It’s revealed that Gretel was just a figment of his imagination and now, that Hansel is more confident and recovered, he doesn’t need Gretel anymore. She bids him adieu and disappears. Teary eyed, Hansel boards the spaceship and lands on the newly rejuvenated Earth, where he meets other fellow children who had been missing from the school. He glances at the spacecraft and bids goodbye to Gretel before leaving with the others. Back at the spaceship, another child enters the lady’s cottage and the cycle begins.
The Episode Review
This chapter was very underwhelming and disappointing. The entire trope of Gretel being Hansel’s imagination was a completely off the track from the beginning. The episode suggests that Hansel hallucinated Gretel because he was not courageous enough. Although we see Hansel alone in a few clips, Gretel mentions that she only borrowed his courage and now, that he has become courageous, he doesn’t need her.
This logic seems to be weak and muddy, and gives no impact to what had been the greatest revelation in the episode. This revelation itself lacked drama and audience engagement owing to the poorly constructed sci-fi plot.
Moreover, the chapter did not give us any reason to empathise with Hansel, there were no hints or suggestions that he was having a difficult time in the school, and hence he conjured Gretel. He seemed more bored in his repetitive life and uninterested than emotionally vulnerable.
There needs to be a trauma or a deeper reason that’s conveyed to the audience to pull off a plot-twist like this, a little more emotion and character depth, where we know the character well enough to sympathise with him. The lack of time clearly played a part in the rushed ending and so, this chapter is no more than a disappointment: unimpressive and bland.
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Episode Rating
Hey Q, you are right. We all have different interpretations of the series since they are quite subjective. I am sure you have yours and that’s amazing! The best things about subjective shows is that everybody has their own version to like or dislike and that’s super exciting! I’d definitely read about the different perspective. Thanks for your comment, I hope you’ll give a chance to the other chapters! Have a great day ahead :D
You don’t understand this episode at all, pathetic.