The further I get into my rewatch of season one for the Grimm Stats, the more early signs I see of Renard eventually turning out the way he is at the end of season 5. And I don’t want to believe it, because I still hate that it feels like none of the friendship and character development we’ve seen with him and the team the last three years has been real. But at the same time, I’m beginning to consider that it isn’t so simple. Perhaps it’s not so much that Renard’s friendship with the team wasn’t “real” as that it wasn’t as important as what Black Claw was offering.

In “Last Grimm Standing,” Renard goes to a severely creepy priest to get “justice” meted out toward Leo Taymor. And before they part ways, they say “as it was before, so shall it be again.”

Now on the surface he’s just paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 1:9 to a priest, but in the context of everything that happened after and everything we know about Renard’s life, maybe it’s more than that.

Taken with everything else we know, it seems like at his core, Sean Renard longs–and has always longed–for a return to “days of yore.” Perhaps not in the way most people would think of that phrase, but in a personal sense: a return to the security he felt as a child, to a world that treated him a certain way and afforded him certain things. But he wants it to happen in a very specific way: one that would recognize his importance as both a royal and a zauberbiest, without pitting one side against the other or demanding he limit himself in any way for the benefit of humans. In short, one that allows him to be powerful. Because power is what he values most.

Renard learned from a young age that loyalty, family, and friendship are conditional and changeable. On the whim of the queen, his life became forfeit at the age of thirteen, and he and his mother had to flee everything they knew and loved in order to survive. In his experience, no amount of affection or sentimental attachment can stand up in the face of power. Is it any wonder he would choose power over friends?

That’s why he wants the keys: they promise ultimate power. That’s why he wants the coins, too. And ultimately, that’s why he wants Nick on his side so badly: a Grimm is a powerful ally, and the more Nick proves himself a friend of Wesen and someone that Wesen respect and even like, the more powerful an ally he has the potential to be.

Power. Leverage. Common end goals, however temporarily. That’s why Renard aligns with Team Grimm, the Laufer, and Black Claw but not with the Royals, the Wesenrein, the Verrat, the Wesen Council, or Hadrian’s Wall. All five of those latter groups seek, from their perspectives, to preserve something. But none of them would benefit Renard in the end.

The Wesenrein would find him abhorrent. They wish for a return, to a (probably mythical) time of “Wesen purity,” and would view Renard’s very existence (to say nothing of his child’s) as an affront to that goal.

Hadrian’s Wall, the Royals, the Verrat, and the Wesen Council, on the other hand, are all dedicated to maintaining the current status quo in various ways. The Royals want to retain their power, and they shunned Sean as a child for being half-zauberbiest and a bastard. The Wesen Council want to maintain the secrecy of the Wesen world, which limits Renard’s ability to gain power and mobilize against his enemies. The Verrat are mostly just tools the Royals use to achieve their goals, and they only grudgingly acknowledge Renard’s limited authority. Hadrian’s Wall primarily fights to keep Black Claw at bay, thus preserving Wesen secrecy and limiting the rise of a significant Wesen institution that would upset the existing balance of power.

But Team Grimm? Everything about them flouts the rules and expectations of the Wesenrein, the Royals, the Verrat, and even the Wesen Council. He watches for over a year as Nick helps Wesen who are innocent and tries, as much as possible, to deal with those who aren’t within the confines of human law. He can’t help but note Nick’s friendship with Monroe and Rosalee, and their growing romantic relationship besides. And he realizes, when he finally reveals the truth of himself to them, that they mistrust him primarily because he’s done shady things, not because of who or what he is. To put it simply, they accept him. And that acceptance, while not a goal in the same way that power is a goal, is something that Sean Renard craves.

We see it in “Three Coins in a Fuchsbau”: Renard wants power, yes, but he also wants recognition, and adoration. He wants people to listen to him and follow him. He wants them to respect him, and yes, to love him. And none of those things are ever going to be gained if he isn’t first accepted. The team accepts him. And his bond with them, though tenuous at first, is truly based on trust, friendship, and mutual affection. He cares about them and appreciates that they care for him. The events of seasons three and four clearly show that this is the case.

His alliance with the Laufer is relatively brief, and much more tenuous. They could never be true, long-term allies because they mistrust his human side as much as the Royals mistrust his zauberbiest side. They are also suspicious of his motives, as he is of their methods. But at the end of the day, they have common goals–at least for the moment. So he works with them to achieve those goals, and then they go their separate ways in peace.

Finally, we have Black Claw. They come to him in season five and offer him everything he has ever wanted: acceptance, power, recognition, public adoration…and his daughter, back with him at last, safe and sound. He goes reluctantly, at first–he knows Nick and the team won’t like it, and I think he also knows they won’t follow–but go he does. As important as they may be to him, Team Grimm can only offer him friendship, and that is (sadly) not enough for Renard in the grand scheme of things. Not when Black Claw is offering him everything else.

Perhaps he tells himself he has no choice. Maybe he thinks he can eventually make other friends…or that some of them may yet change their minds when they see that Black Claw’s success is inevitable. He hopes for it enough, at least, to try and convince Nick to join him. But when it comes down to it, if he can’t have both, he’s going to pick the one offering him the thing that his experience says cannot be broken or threatened so easily.

Because sure, friends may be nice to have to a point, but at the end of the day, he also sees them as a potential weakness. After all, as he told Adalind in “Island of Dreams”: The way to a man’s soul is through his friends.