1x12 Chapter 12: The Nisse

#Talk about hanging with the wrong crowd.

#Summary

Damn, this episode got dark fast. We start at the Sparrow Scouts again, and the Raven Leader announces the end of the year camp and with it, the chance to get another badge. Hilda's looking out the window when she hears people walk through the front door. She's looking for Frida, but she doesn't show. After Sparrow Scouts, David and Hilda go to check on Frida and see if they can get her to do something if not go to Sparrow Scouts. Instead, they find she hangs out with a manipulative blonde teen, who's trying to keep Frida away from her friends.

There are glimpses when Frida seems she's looking for a way out, but it's Kelly (the teen) who keeps her from reaching out to her friends. Frida walks off with Kelly and David walks off too, leaving Hilda alone. As she walks home with her mum after a trip to the shops (getting camping supplies), they encounter a nisse. Hilda wants to help it out (because it's homeless), but Hilda's mum wants nothing to do with it.

The next day, Hilda tries to talk to Frida again, but Kelly keeps Hilda away. Hilda walks home and finds the nisse again, Tontu. He explains how he was wrongfully banished, and Hilda offers to bring him to her home. But once they enter the room created by the space behind furniture, they find another nisse. And it's very protective of its territory. The two nisse get into a fight, and Hilda's mum arrives home, only seeing Tontu and banishes him (rip).

Hilda heads to camp, she and David find Tontu, they sneak out to give him some food but find the Marra instead. You can see the teen Frida was hanging out with, telling the others of a nightmare she concocted and standing in the group if Frida. Then some weird green energy from the campfire flows into their mouths, and their eyes glow that same colour. David runs off, scares himself (he thought he saw the Black Hound) and knocks Hilda out of the bushes and into the Marra's camp. They try to get Frida back, but after the peer pressure from the Marra, she stays.

David stands up for himself and manages to scare the Marra for a little bit, before they're all in shock after seeing the real Black Hound, staring them all down with it's glowing yellow eyes.

#Thoughts

Hilda's mum seems stressed, really stressed. And as more talk and reports on the Black Hound circulates, she gets more anxious about Hilda's (and her) safety and becomes more strict about what Hilda does in town. She snaps a lot in this episode, from keeping Hilda away from Tontu during their first encounter and kicking out of the house the next day. Frida seems to be in a darker place. She's isolated from her best friends and is hanging with the Marra. She's trying to reach out to Hilda and David, but the Marra she hangs out with keeps stopping her. It's so heartbreaking. And Tontu's tragic story, where his owner wrongfully accused and banished him, was a mother tragedy.

#TL;DR

It's great, definitely one of the better episodes. This episode reminded me again why I love this show: the characters, the creatures, and the interactions. It was nice to see some darker material and a more mature outlook on life in Trolberg. It's getting dangerous. Trolberg isn't the haven it once was.

#Very good! - 7.5/10