Happily Ever Aftermath

The episode was viewed by 4.73 million people, earning a 1.4/4 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale, ranking first on its timeslot and fifth for the night in the 18-49 demographics, behind Blue Bloods, 20/20, Undercover Boss, and Shark Tank.[1] This was a 9% increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 4.33 from an 1.4/4 in the 18-49 demographics.[2] This means that 1.4 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 4 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it.

"Happily Ever Aftermath" received mixed reviews. The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland gave the episode a "C−" grade and wrote, "Cinderella is an odd choice for Grimm to use as the inspiration for an episode. It doesn't have any creatures to use as Wesen, and it's difficult to substitute any of the characters to solve that issue. Sure enough, 'Happy Ever Aftermath' is unquestionably the worst episode of Grimm's first season, and spoils a nice run of episodes heading into May sweeps. I guess my biggest problem with 'Happily Ever Aftermath' is that nobody recognizes the case resembles Cinderella exactly. I get that every case Nick deals with has a creature from some kind of folklore, but when he investigates this case with Hank, he has to make that connection. Somebody has to note that the case involves a stepmother and stepdaughter in the exact same setup as one of the most ubiquitous fairy tales in popular consciousness. I figured at least Sgt. Wu would make some kind of offhand comment about it, or that literally any character one the show would make a passing mention to how a great many of their cases resemble popular folk tales. Many of Nick's encounters with Wesen happen away from the police or don't draw direct attention to their equivalent Brothers Grimm tales, but like the Three Little Bears episode all the way back in the fall, this particular hour had too many similarities to go completely unnoticed."[3]

Nick McHatton from TV Fanatic, gave a 4.0 star rating out of 5, stating: "It's been a long time since Grimm actually had a true procedural case, that didn't have any serial elements baked into it. I'm a little sad 'Happily Ever Aftermath' decided to return to Grimm's roots a little bit."[4]

Shilo Adams from TV Overmind wrote, "Grimm went a little left in 'Happily Ever Aftermath' and while it didn't completely deliver, veering away from the events of last week and giving a fairly tired set-up to an intriguing case, it made up for it in ambition, the use of Juliette, and the callback to earlier episodes. I don't expect Grimm to suddenly become something other than a supernatural procedural, but when you're that bound to a specific structure, episodes like this help to expand what it can do and keep the show fresher. Every aspect of Grimm can make for a fairly good episode when executed well and given the spotlight, but relying on the same ratios of content and the same beats every week could make for a higher burn factor. There's only so many times that it can do the same thing in the same way and it be interesting, so something like 'Happily Ever Aftermath' gives Grimm a little more room to try new things and keep us on our toes. If that kind of growth means taking a flawed-but-pretty-decent episode every now and then, so be it."[5]