Organ Grinder (Grimm)

"Organ Grinder" is the 10th episode of the supernatural drama television series Grimm of season 1, which premiered on February 3, 2012, on NBC. The episode was written by story editors Akela Cooper and Spiro Skentzos, and was directed by Clark Mathis.

Plot

Opening quote: "We shall see the crumbs of bread... and they will show us our way home again."

In a forest, two teens, Steven (Donald Fisher) and Kevin (James Maxey), are running from Wesens when Steven falls off and dies floating in the water while Kevin is taken by the Wesen. In Monroe's (Silas Weir Mitchell) house, Nick (David Giuntoli) considers telling Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) about his Grimm identity but Monroe states that knowing it may cause consequences. Later, Nick, Hank (Russell Hornsby) and Sgt. Wu (Reggie Lee) discover Steve's body drained of blood with a necklace.

Nick and Hank find out about another boy with the same necklace and they go with the sellers, Gracie (Hannah Marks) and Hanson (Daryl Sabara). They tell them that they last saw him on a clinic with a doctor named Levine (Valerie Cruz). Nick and Hank are then called to a car crash where they discover the driver had a possession of blood, hearts and livers. Nick also discovers the driver is a Wesen, a Geier, and then the driver dies. While the blood matches the DNA of Steven, the other organs do not, possibly from street kids.

Monroe confirms to Nick that the Geiers are responsible as they harvest organs for human enhancement. Monroe brings proof to Nick from a shop that sells organs. Nick later visits the owner, Freddy Calvert (Randy Schulman), revealing to be a Fuchsbau. Nick then has Freddy reveal the source of the human organs. Nick, along with Hank and Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz), go to a trailer in the forest where they discover the organs removal site while Renard kills the owner in self-defense. Nick detects the owner's phone and realizes the clinic is involved in the human harvesting.

The clinic medics kidnap Hansen and Gracie and take them to a cabin along with other people (including Kevin), waiting for their organs to be stripped. Nick and Hank manage to track down the cabin and kill the Geiers. Dr. Levine attacks Nick but she falls into the fire pit, dying. In the precinct, Renard receives a package: the ear he cut from the reaper who tried to kill Nick. He then receives a call from someone representing the reapers, who states that if he doesn't take control of Nick, then they will.

Reception

Viewers

The episode was viewed by 4.76 million people, earning a 1.4/4 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale, marking a 20% decrease in viewership.^[1] 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.

Critical reviews

"Organ Grinder" received critical acclaim. The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland gave the episode a "A" grade and wrote, "And here I thought Grimm wouldn't make it past three episodes. After a pretty serious downturn in the first few weeks back from the winter hiatus, Grimm pulled together its best episode yet, a tightly wound and gruesomely creepy standalone plot that finally brought out some real agency from Nick, showed a more useful side of Juliette, and threw in some great Silas Weir Mitchell scenes to boot. I was stunned at how involved I got over the course of the hour, and even though I feel like a bit of an easy grader, I have no problems giving this an A, since it represents to me the best that Grimm has to offer going forward."^[2]

Nick McHatton from TV Fanatic, gave a 4.7 star rating out of 5, stating: "Overall, I really enjoyed 'Organ Grinder' and it's Grimm's best mix yet of serial and procedural. Which is rather amazing considering how sparingly Eddie was used. Usually his screen time has an almost direct correlation to how much I enjoyed the episode."^[3]

References