1×10 Organ Grinder
“We shall see the crumbs of bread… and they will show us our way home again.”
Two boys, Kevin Standish and Steven Bamford, run through the forest while two bird-like monsters pursue them. Steven is badly injured and his friend Kevin pulls him along. They come to the edge of the river and Kevin loses his grip, and can only watch as Steven falls into the water. As Steven is carried away, the monsters capture Kevin and haul him back to a house, where others of their kind are tossing corpses into a firepit. Meanwhile, Steven dies of his injuries and drifts down the river, where a raven plucks out his eyes.
Nick goes to see Monroe and asks for his advice about revealing the truth to Juliette of how he’s a Grimm. After the attack at their house, he’s concerned that it’s too dangerous for her to live in ignorance. Monroe warns that Juliette will either think she’s crazy, or think that Nick is crazy. When Nick suggests that Monroe show Juliette his true face, the blutbad warns against it, explaining that humans can’t process the information and go insane.
Nick gets a call about Steven’s death and goes to the river to meet Hank and Wu. They confirm that Steven apparently drowned after falling from a nearby waterfall. He has a puka shell necklace in his pocket and the detectives discover that the corpse has two puncture wounds on the neck. They take the body to the morgue and Dr. Harper informs them that the body was drained of most of its blood before drowning. The killers used an IV line, accounting for the puncture wounds, and the method seems similar to that used by Satanic cults in the 1980s. Her best estimate is that Steven passed out due to blood loss and then drowned after falling into the river.
Back at the station, the officers identify Steven by his prints. He had a minor criminal record, and his only known address is a post office box. They go to the building and talk to the manager, who informs them that Steven was rarely in and hasn’t been in at all in the last month. As the detectives leave, they see a street kid wearing a puka shell necklace like Steven’s and ask where she found it. She reluctant to tell them but, once they convince her that Steven is dead, the girl tells them that a girl named Gracie sells them at the square. They find Gracie and tell her that Steven is dead. Her brother Hansen comes over and defends his sister, and Gracie tells him what happened. All they know about Steven is that he got a job four weeks ago and the employer was going to pick him up. However, Steven never said who hired him. The last time they saw him was when they took him to the free clinic. Nick thanks them for their help and pays Gracie $20 for one of her necklaces.
The officers go to the Folter Free Clinic and talk to the office manager, Tom Daniels. He confirms that Steven was there five weeks ago and was treated for a spider bite. Dr. Levine was the attending physician. Hank and Nick talk to her but she doesn’t have anything further that she can add. As the detectives leave, they get a call directing them to a SUV motor accident. The driver is dying and the refrigerated cases that he was transporting are scattered around the street. Some contain fresh blood and others contain human organs. Nick goes to the dying driver and sees him as a bird-like monster.
Back at the station, Hank confirms that the driver was using a fake ID and stolen plates. His prints match up with half-dozen unsolved crimes through the state. Wu has checked the driver’s phone and tells the detectives that they need a warrant to get the call list from the service provider. Hank suggests that they check Steven’s DNA against those of the organs and blood and see if they get a match.
That night, Nick goes to his aunt’s trailer and finds a journal entry on the creature he saw. It’s a Grier, and the journal says that they hunt human beings and take their organs. Nick has dinner with Monroe and pumps him for information. The bludbat informs him that the Griers are herbalists and use exotic human organs much as humans use exotic animal organs, and he knows of a place where someone sells Grier merchandise. Nick convinces Monroe to go to the shop, where he talks to the owner, Freddy. Freddy is a fuchsbau, and has Monroe show his blutbad face to confirm who he is. Monroe buys some gallenblase and goes outside, and hands it over to Nick who plans to have it analyzed.
The next day, the officers get the report confirming that some of the blood DNA matches Stevens. However, the organs don’t, which means that the organleggers are harvesting from multiple victims. As Hank expands their search, Nick gets a call from the lab informing him that the gallenblase is made from pure human gall bladder.
Once Nick can get away, he goes back to the shop and confronts Freddy. When Freddy realizes that Nick is a Grimm, he tries to run but the officer quickly catches him. When Nick threatens to kill him if he doesn’t talk, Freddy gives him the phone number of the Grier that he calls when he needs supplies. The driver is the only person who makes the deliveries, and Nick tells Freddy that the driver is dead and implies that he killed him. He forces Freddy to show him his supply of human organ medications and then destroys them.
As Nick leaves the shop, the station calls to tell him that they’ve traced the number. He goes home and gives the necklace he bought earlier to Juliette, and then suggests that they take Hansen and Gracie out for dinner. They track down the kids and offer them a meal, and Gracie accepts even though a suspicious Hansen is reluctant. They go to a diner and the kids eat like they’re starved. Nick asks about their parents and Gracie tells him that their parents left. The detective then asks about any other kids who disappeared under similar circumstances, and Gracie confirms that her friend Kevin has also vanished after accepting a job. All she knows is that Kevin said a guy in a white van approached him and offered him the job. When the girl hesitates, Juliette sympathizes, noting that Gracie must have liked Kevin a great deal. Hansen isn’t happy that his sister was involved with someone else, but she assures him that she would never leave him. Gracie gives the kids his card and tells them to call him if they discover anything else. As Nick and Juliette leave, he thanks her for her help with Gracie, and Juliette admits that she knows about having a guy disappear on her. Nick apologizes for taking her to a diner and working a case, and starts to tell her his secret. However, his phone rings and the station gives him the address that matches the phone number.
It starts raining and Gracie and Hansen take refuge under a trestle. Gracie assures her brother that she wouldn’t have left him, and Hansen figures that Kevin is okay.
Somewhere, a doctor is removing organs from Kevin.
Later, Gracie catches pneumonia from the rain and goes to the free clinic. Dr. Levine treats her and confirms that Hansen is outside. The talk turns to Gracie’s diet and the girl mentions that Nick took her out and asked her about Steven and Kevin. Gracie tells Levine about how she’s helping the investigation and is supposed to call Nick if she learns anything.
Nick and Hank inform Renard that Kevin was reported missing, and disappeared the same time that Steven did. According to the driver’s cell phone, he called a location in the woods. The police take a team out there, and Renard insists on coming. They find a camouflaged RV and Nick and Hank knock at the door. The man inside opens fire on them, but Renard kills him with a single rifle shot. Inside, they discover that the RV is connected to a greenhouse, except it contains racks of human organs. Nick checks the dead man and confirms that he has the free clinic on his speed dial.
That night, it rains again and Hansen wants Gracie to go back to the clinic. Daniels approaches them and offers to buy two of Gracie’s necklaces so she can buy a room for the night. However, the white van pulls up and two Griers get out, grab the kids, and take them to the house in the woods. As the Griers take the kids into a nearby farmhouse, Hansen manages to leave a trail of shells from his puka necklace.
The police go to the clinic and serve a warrant. The only staff member left is a nurse, and Nick identifies her as a Grier. He talks to her privately and intimidates her into telling him where Levine and the others went. The address matches the one that belongs to the phone number Nick traced earlier.
Daniels goes to the barn and tells Levine about how he’s captured Gracie and Hansen. She decides to operate on them immediately and the Griers strap them to tables along with a dozen other kids. As Hansen and Gracie hold hands, drugged partially unconscious, Levine decides to operate on Gracie first.
The police go to the house and find the van, and Nick spots the trail of shells leading to the barn.
Levine orders Daniels to prepare to leave now that they’ve harvested enough kids to provide organs. He assures her that they’ve covered their tracks.
Nick and Hank approach the barn, and shots break out as the Griers attack the police. The two detectives burst in and Nick goes after Levine when she flees out the back, while Hank secures the kids. Levine takes refuge in a tree and then drops down on Nick when he passes beneath her. They fight and Levine falls backward into the firepit. Nick tries to catch her but she scratches his wrist with her talons and he loses her grip, and she plummets into the flames. Nick goes back inside and assures Gracie that her and her brother are okay.
Later, Renard goes to his office and finds a package on his desk. It has the mark of the reapers on it and contains a human ear. He gets a call from a representative of the Ferat, and the man tells Renard that they are making their point now that Renard has made his. The Ferat representative tells Renard to control the Grimm, who has no master and is out of balance. Renard warns the representative that Nick has a badge and a conscience and there’s not much he can do. The captain tells the representative to come in person next time and the man responds by saying that he will.