It’s an early October night on the set of “Grimm,” and as the sun sinks, a chill sets in amid the tall trees and moist ground at the Hoyt Arboretum. Though it’s getting darker by the minute, a blue-ish light shines on the thick greenery, courtesy of brilliant lights mounted high above on towering cranes.

The crew is hard at work, preparing to shoot scenes for what will be the eighth episode of the NBC show’s third season, which premieres Oct. 25. When it airs, this will be a Christmas-themed episode, but since it’s “Grimm,” there also has to be a creepy creature, a “Wesen,” in the show’s vernacular. Which means it’s time for another “Grimm” signature sequence, in which the good guys venture out into the damp, dark forest in search of a strange, probably deadly beastie.

David Giuntoli, who plays the lead good guy, Portland Police homicide detective Nick Burkhardt, will, as usual, ultimately be squaring off against the supernatural being.

“Tonight’s all about the search,” says Giuntoli during a break in shooting. “Tomorrow’s the fight.”

Fighting comes with the job since, as regular viewers know, Nick is a “Grimm,” descended from a line of criminal profilers who can see the Wesen selves lurking beneath seemingly ordinary human faces. In its first two seasons, “Grimm” has made Portland – where the show is set and filmed – look like a Wesen Wonderland, where every apparently normal citizen is hiding a secret identity as a wolf, beaver or fox-like creature.

When evil Wesen turn up, which they do every week, Nick is the one with the skills -– not to mention the ancient, awesome weaponry, hidden in a trailer parked within sight of the Fremont Bridge -– to fight the good fight and defeat assorted Königschlange, Skalengeck and Dämonfeuer.

But Nick doesn’t go it alone. In Season 2, we saw nearly everyone close to him learn what had been his secret -– that he’s a Grimm. Along the way, Nick gained his own “Scooby gang,” as the ensemble has been nicknamed. There’s Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell), the Blutbad (werewolf-like Wesen) who helps school Nick about obscure Wesen; Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby), Nick’s partner on the Portland Police force; Juliette Silverton (Bitsie Tulloch), Nick’s girlfriend; and Rosalee Calvert (Bree Turner), a Fuchsbau (fox-like Wesen) with apothecary skills whose spice shop holds the ingredients for mysterious potions and magical antidotes.

More ambiguous is Nick’s relationship with his boss, Captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz), a half-Wesen, half-human descendant of a powerful royal family with a decades-old, nefarious interest in Grimms. And then there’s the sardonic Sgt. Wu (Reggie Lee), who at this point is the only regular character who hasn’t yet been clued in to the weird explanations for Portland’s craziest crimes.

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