Opening quote: "The beasts were loosed into the arena, and among them, a beast of huge bulk and ferocious aspect. Then the slave was cast in." A homicide investigation leads Nick and Hank to a boxing gym where they discover that the joint is really the supply source for a ritualistic band of brawlers, hosting fights called The Löwen Games. The group is led by a Löwen, to whom Renard had previously given a list of people to be paired in the series of death-matches, although the practice has become one of recruiting innocent people. Despite Renard confronting the Löwen, telling him to stop using innocent people, the Löwen continues, due to the money involved in the scheme. Meanwhile, Monroe goes undercover to find out more about the Löwen Games, but he is tricked and captured, instead finding himself a conscripted participant in the savage event. Nick must rush to Monroe's aid at the cost of missing his anniversary dinner with Juliette.
Reception
Viewers
Critical reviews
"Last Grimm Standing" received positive reviews. Nick McHatton from TV Fanatic, gave a 4.8 star rating out of 5, stating: "Wow. "Last Grimm Standing" was one crazy episode. There were moments big and small, and they all amounted to something more than what Grimm usually doles out every week. This is the sweet spot where procedurals hit their high points, when the case is interesting and it feeds into the progression of the serial elements." The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland gave the episode a "B-" grade and wrote, "An illegal underground fight club between vessen run by some lion creatures is an exciting premise, but it took Grimm half of the episode to walk through its cookie-cutter steps to even get Eddie Monroe through the door. With some firecracker previews that focused heavily on the fighting itself, watching Nick and Hank roll through the same steps was especially boring. First we see the crime in question, then the investigation, then some interviews, a jaunt to the Magic Trailer, then the obligatory scene where Nick and Hank repeat all of the information they know so far to Captain Renard, who gives his advice. I could make up a chart for people to fill in with steps to build the first half of a Grimm episode at this point." Shilo Adams from TV Overmind wrote, "I think Grimm finally shut me up, as “Last Grimm Standing” was the show’s first great episode. It’s had a couple of very, very good ones, but Grimm had yet to really put it all together like it did on Friday night. Part of that had to do with how interesting the case, involving an underground Hunger Games-meets-Fight Club Wesen fight club, was. A lot of the Grimm cases have been a little same-y and thus not very distinctive, but the Lowen Games capture just how good the show can get when it goes dark and strange. It brought a lot of personality and edge to the show that some of the more straightforward cases haven’t been able to do and raised the stakes from what we’ve come to expect on Grimm."
