Nick Burckhardt is on the case Fridays on Grimm (Image Courtesy of NBC)

It’s clear that a story is about to take a vicious turn when a young, bright-eyed college girl goes running through the woods, alone, sporting a conspicuous red hooded sweatshirt  – even if peppy 80s music is pumping through her iPod. The lush Oregon backdrop might be pretty, but what happens to her sure is not. A dark, hairy figure flashes across the screen with a piercing growl and she’s gone.

In a land seemingly far far away, Detective Nick Burckhardt (David Giuntoli) is buying an engagement ring and riffing with his partner, Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby). Despite the exciting life milestone Nick is about to embark on, he cannot help but be troubled. As he passes strangers in the street, their faces twist into monstrous visages before quickly snapping back to normal.

Back in the woods, the jogger’s path has become a crime scene. Nick and Hank are sent in to examine the only clues that are left – gory, torn-apart limbs, pink running shoes with matching iPod, shredded red fabric, and mysterious boot prints.  The detectives are unsure of whether man or a beast is responsible for the carnage, but there is a sneaking suspicion that the answer might lie somewhere in between. As Hank takes the iPod for fingerprints, Nick still cannot shake his gruesome hallucinations.

Fortunately for Nick, his terminally ill Aunt Marie (Kate Burton) arrives on a surprise visit to shed some light on his afflicted visions, attributing them to an inherited family curse and warning him to end his relationship with girlfriend Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch). Before she can say much more, Marie senses the presence of an inherent enemy, and this fantasy drama quickly turns into an action scene, as Marie whips out a fighting stick and a knife to engage in rigorous hand-to-hand combat with a ferocious beast that flies in from out of nowhere, dressed in a collared shirt and tie. As well as Marie holds her own, the struggle ends with Nick shooting the creature, Hulda, in the back, and watching as the slowly turns back into a man.

Before Marie passes out, she hands Nick a necklace and tells him to guard it carefully because they, whoever they are, will soon be looking for it. Here, information about Nick’s family unfolds almost too quickly to follow. From her hospital recovery room, Marie tells Nick he is one of the last in a line of hunters called the Grimms, descendants of the 18th century storytellers the Brothers Grimm, who could see disguised supernatural creatures for what they really were. Their true accounts became the fairy tales children know and love today.

Even after Nick learns that the man he killed was wanted for multiple accounts for assault and murder in numerous states, he only has more questions about the kinds of monsters he’s up against, and what they have to do with the “Reapers of the Grimms,” a phrase he translated from an engraving on Hulda’s weapon.

When Nick’s captain asks him how he’s holding up after the shooting, Nick shows his first signs of stress after keeping a level head through every shock and revelation so far. He flips through his Aunt’s mysterious trailer looking for clues and encounters a myriad of knives and medieval battle weapons before settling down with a sort of oversized field guide of monsters.

As if the world had not learned its lesson, an elementary school girl goes skipping through the woods to her grandfather’s house in yet another ominous bright red sweatshirt. This time when the detectives receive the missing persons report, it is not long until Nick is hot on what he knows is the kidnapper’s trail. As he eyes the perpetrator from the woods, Nick watches the man’s face transform into that of a wolf and is sure he has the criminal. A hunch and a hallucination certainly do not warrant probable cause or justify Nick tackling the man in his own foyer, but who watches cop shows to see them play by the rules?

Even after an unsuccessful search of the man’s house, Nick is convinced of the man’s guilt and goes back later that night to confront him alone. Nick is in way over his head as the wolf easily smells him coming and pounces on him before Nick knows what hit him.
This is not the end of our protagonist, though. The wolf stops short of ripping the detective to bits to invite him in for a beer and a chat. With another onrush of information, Nick learns that the supposed wolf is not only a reformed, church-going, pilates-loving clockmaker, but he knows much more about Nick’s family of Grimms than Nick does.  The wolf, Eddie Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell), tells how he comes from a family of blutbads, wolves that the Brothers Grimm pinned as “big bad wolves.” He grew up hearing horror stories about Grimms hunting down his people, but has now dedicated his life to curbing his animalistic tendencies.

As the scene opens in the real kidnapper’s house, a cable-knit sweater and moccasin-clad blutbad drags the missing girl through a trap door hidden stealthily under a rug. Eddie helps Nick locate the real killer, all the way revealing just how little Nick knows about what he’s up against. After covering themselves with wolfsbane to mask their scent, the two head off towards the kidnapper’s cabin before Eddie stops and refuses to go on, unable to control his face shifting to a from his wolf persona.

Hank arrives to provide back-up before the two enter the house together, struggling to find incriminating evidence in a needlepoint pillow and toy figurine-filled cabin that looks like it came straight out of a Thomas Kinkade painting. It is Hank who puts together the final piece in the puzzle that culminates in a messy struggle with the wolf, until Nick once again manages to best his foe with a few well-placed gunshots. The victorious rescue of the little girl does not close out the chapter, however.

Nick kneels by his aunt’s bedside back at the hospital, where she has fallen into a coma. Before a familiar-looking nurse injects Marie with a strange green liquid, Nick watches her face twist into a monster’s and reaches to stop the syringe, but only manages to empty it into his own arm. As Nick quickly feels the effects of the injection, the nurse hurries out of the hospital and drives off with a man in a black truck. Just as she admits to her accomplice that she failed to kill Marie, Marie’s eyes blink open.

With a pilot packed with so much information and little stylistic consistency , this cop show-turned-fantasy drama hybrid may have a tough time finding its exact niche in the world of primetime, but it will not have a hard time finding viewers. The show is sure to attract fans of producers David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf, who boast cult favorites “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” on their resumes. Fans of the CW’s Supernatural” are also tuning in, finding countless similarities between the two series.

While it takes Nick several minutes to drop his collected police exterior and reveal any kind of discernible personality traits or flaws, his gutsy style and naïve confidence come out near the end of the episode and should help round him out as a character in coming adventures. His relationship with Juliette also needs to be fleshed out before it can be at all compelling.

As a supporting role, Hank is a welcome source of fresh ideas and comedic relief. Eddie, the reformed wolf, however, will surely be the character to watch. Whether he or Hank will end up as Nick’s partner of choice remains to be seen.

Look for coming episodes to address tensions between the friendly Eddie and the Blutbad-hunting Grimms, as well as to unfold more background information about Nick’s mysterious family line, his powers, and the “Reapers of the Grimm” who seem to be hunting the hunters.

Learn more about NBC's "Grimm" here.

Reach reporter Nikki David here.