User blog comment:Bob the Wikipedian/The cliffhangers!/@comment-6905051-20130522050457/@comment-2255188-20130524030337

The zombification in Grimm is intentionally a near duplicate of real-life zombification, even to the point of throwing in the voodoo priest! Traditionally, the trance-like state would be used to turn people into personal minions-- as long as the zombies are awake, they do whatever their master (the Baron) tells them. So far, it's not been very constructive, but I would imagine the Baron would employ Nick is a Verrat enforcer as long as he's in his command.