2×10 The Hour of Death
And branded upon the beast, the mark of his kin. For none shall live who them have seen.
Nick is disturbed by nightmares of the current case he is working on, the abduction of a young girl, Donna Reynolds. He wakes up on the couch and finds Juliette standing over him, and explains why he’s been working late. Juliette abruptly starts to leave for work and Nick apologizes, saying he’s trying not to get tired of sleeping on the couch. Juliette says that she has to get to work and they’ll talk later.
Adrian Zayne is at his house burning photos of the missing girl, Donna Reynolds. He’s on the phone with his partner, Richard, and tells him that he’s set up someone who will buy the girl in the next 24 hours. Nick and Hank knock at the door and Adrian reluctantly lets them in. They ask if he recognizes a photo of Donna, explaining that he works maintenance in the same building where Donna was abducted. While Hank interrogates Adrian, Nick looks in the back and sees the stove and the burning photos. He catches a glimpse of Donna’s face before the photo is consumed. When Adrian realizes that Nick is onto him, he panics and Nick sees his true face as a Schakal. The Wesen runs out the door and Nick chases after him and brings him down. He starts beating the abductor until Hank arrives to stop him.
The detectives take Adrian in but he denies everything, claiming that he was burning photographs of his ex-girlfriend. Renard watches the exchange and talks to them afterward, warning them that forensics turned up nothing at Adrian’s house. The captain warns them that they have nothing to hold Adrian with and that the DA will toss out any case they bring. Once Renard leaves, Hank suggests that Nick might have been mistaken and Adrian ran because Knick was a Grimm, but his partner doesn’t believe him.
As the detectives take Adrian out, Ryan the intern calls Hank away to sign some papers. Nick warns Adrian that it’s dangerous to lie to a Grimm and the Wesen yells that the officers have to get Nick away from him. As Adrian yells that it’s Nick’s doing if anything happens to him, Renard watches from his office. Once they’re alone again, Nick tells Hank what he said and Hank warns him that if they push Adrian and he is guilty, he’ll kill Donna and dump the body rather than risk exposure. When they wonder what to do, Nick says that he’s going to do it alone so that Hank doesn’t get involved. Later, the Grimm goes to the trailer and gets a crossbow.
After learning that Adalind owned the cat that scratched her, Juliette calls Adalind’s former law firm but the trail is several months cold. Renard calls her and asks for Nick, and Juliette says that he hasn’t come back yet. The captain says that he’s concerned about Nick because he’s been on edge with the abduction case. He offers to talk to Juliette about it since Nick won’t, and Juliette admits that things haven’t been easy. They make a date for coffee the next day.
Nick visits Monroe at the spice shop and asks him to make a truth serum potion that will force Adrian to confess. Monroe completes the potion and Nick doses his crossbow bolts with it and goes to Adrian’s house. However, when he searches the place he finds Adrian in the cellar, dead. Someone has strung him up from the rafters and tortured him, branding his chest with a G-shaped symbol. Hank arrives, gun drawn, and wonders why Nick is there.
As Hank and Nick go outside, Wu and another officer pull up in a squad car. Wu explains that they received a 911 call from Adrian, confessing to the abduction and telling them where they could find Donna. Hank and Nick say that they get there afterward and show the officers Adrian’s corpse. Renard calls to inform them that they have recovered Donna. When the detectives return to the station, they listen to the 911 call and hear Adrian screaming in agony as he’s forced to confess. The person torturing him isn’t heard on the recording. As Ryan brings them coffee, Hank confirms that they arrived at Adrian’s house nine minutes after he made the call. While they work, Wu jokingly invites Ryan to stick around, warning him that he should get used to seeing crime-scene photos. Renard plans to give everything to the press about the new vigilante killer rather than get accusations that they’re hiding something. As he goes to give a statement when the hospital releases Donna, Nick asks Wu to track down the G-symbol.
As Renard gives his statement, the newscaster show the brand symbol. Bud Wurstner, watching at home, sees the symbols and panics. Monroe is also watching the news and recognizes the symbol.
At the station, Nick and Hank wonder how they will write up why they were at Adrian’s house. Monroe calls to tell Nick that he knows the symbol is and asks for a get-together. Bud calls on another line and Hank puts him through to Nick. The Eisbiber says that he knows what the symbol is as well, and Nick says that he’s on it and cuts off as he heads to Monroe’s house with Hank. At home, Bud tells his wife that everything is fine… unless it’s the end of the world.
When the detectives meet with Monroe, the Blutbad tells them that the G is the ancient German version of the letter and stands for Grimm. Among the legends of the Wesen are tales of ruthless, soulless Grimms, the Endezeichen, that kill any and all Wesens, leaving the mark branded onto their victims and painted on their homes. Endezeichen death squads roamed Europe, killing Wesen and burning villages to the ground during the “Hour of Death,” the Sterbestunde. Hank and Nick figure that there’s another Grimm in town but Monroe doesn’t know anything else and admits that he didn’t even think the Endezeichen exist. Hank concedes that the rogue Grimm managed to find Donna when they couldn’t and Monroe admits that there’s always the question of the end justifying the means. However, he warns Nick that the Wesen won’t see it that way and that they have to find the killer and quickly.
Renard calls his spy in Vienna and asks if the Family sent an Endezeichen to Portland. The man doesn’t know and Renard tells him to find out.
When Nick comes home, the Grimm calls him and boasts that he’s doing what Nick should have done. However, he concedes that Nick went to Adrian’s home with a crossbow and figures that there’s still hope for him to become a ruthless killer. The Grimm tells Nick that they’ll see what happens next time, and then hangs up and starts uploading video of Adrian’s torture to the Internet.
The next day, Nick arrives at the station and discovers that the video was live on the Internet for an hour until the courts shut it down. As the detectives go to question Donna, Nick tells Hank that the Endezeichen called him on h is cell phone and they realize that the killer knows who Nick is and where to find him. At the Reynolds home, the detectives confirm that the parents Cynthia and Harry have an alibi for when Donna was abducted. Donna describes how Adrian abducted her in a van and that a second man was driving it. Back at the station, the detectives go over the security footage from Donna’s building and confirm that a van belonging to Richard Berna left right after she abducted.
Berna is driving away from his home when squad cars cut him off and the police put him under arrest. Berna sees Nick and panics, going Woge as he realizes that Nick is a Grimm. He shouts that Nick killed Adrian and is going to kill him. The detectives take him to the station and lead him to the interrogation room as everyone watches.
Renard meets Juliette at the coffee shop and they make awkward small talk. He finally asks what she remembers about the night she came out of her coma and Juliette admits that she doesn’t remember what happened. The captain talks about how Nick has been distracted recently and offers to be there for her if she needs anything. Juliette admits that Nick is a complete stranger to her and it makes her nervous that he knows everything about her. Renard takes her hand and tries to reassure her, and Juliette abruptly leaves, unaware that she’s left her sunglasses behind.
Hank and Nick try to interrogate Berna but he refuses to talk. He insists that Nick will kill him and asks for lawyer. The detectives take a break and Wu calls them down to the garage where the CSU tech has found abduction equipment and Donna’s purse, clinching the case against Berna. However, when Hank and Nick go back, Franco says that someone cut Berna loose. The detectives take a SERT squad to Berna’s house and find his corpse, mutilated and branded. The killer calls Nick and accuses him of letting Berna go, and then boasts that he’s more of a Grimm than Nick will ever be.
Back at the station, the detectives try to work out who released Berna. Bud comes in and tells Nick that the Eisbiber lodge has seen the video and is very concerned. They sent Bud to check with Nick and find out what he knows, and Bud warns that none of his friends want to lose their faith in Nick. As he leaves, Wu brings up the security footage of the station. Although the person that released Berna stayed out of range of the camera, his reflection was visible in the glass of the door. Wu fine-tunes the footage and reveals that Ryan the intern was the one who let Berna go.
That night, Bud is going to his truck and is surprised when Ryan approaches him. Before he can do anything, Ryan injects him with a sedative.
At the station, Franco tells the detectives that Ryan went after Bud. They get Ryan’s address from his personnel file and go to his home. His mother Lenore is at home, drunk, and she tells them that she has no idea where they can find her son. Lenore tells them that she doesn’t get along with Ryan and that he was moving out, claiming he had important work to do. Hank and Nick check Ryan’s room and discover that he has clippings from all of Nick’s cases taped to the walls. They figure that Ryan is going after Bud and call his home, discovering that Bud was going to work late at his shop.
Ryan takes Bud to his repair shop, chains him to the ceiling, and heats up his brand. Bud pleads for his life but Ryan insists that Nick should have killed him He’s shocked and disgusted when Bud says that he and Nick are friends, and says that Nick is a traitor to his own kind. Hank and Nick break in and Ryan flees out the back. Nick goes after him and brings him down outside. Sobbing, Ryan says that he looked up to Nick and hoped that the two of them could work together. He boasts that he saved Donna and stresses out, revealing his true face as a Lebensauger, a particularly vile-looking Wesen, but he insists that he’s a Grimm, not a Wesen. He begs Nick to kill him but Nick knocks him down and handcuffs him.
As Wu takes Ryan away, Bud hugs Hank and Nick and thanks them for saving their lives. Once they’re alone, Nick tells Hank that whatever Ryan is, it wasn’t what Ryan wanted to be.
Renard comes to the house to return Juliette’s sunglasses. She apologizes for leaving abruptly that afternoon and Renard starts to go. However, he then turns and kisses her and she kisses him back. As they kiss, Juliette remembers that Renard was the one who brought her out of her coma by kissing her. When she tells him, he tries to kiss her again but Juliette backs away and closes the door on him.