TV

Such is the Life of an Adventurer: Hilda – “The Midnight Giant”

Hello all! Welcome back to my weekly reviews of Hilda. This week we move on to the second episode of Season 1 – ‘Chapter 2: The Midnight Giant’.

‘Chapter 2: The Midnight Giant’, Season 1, Episode 2 (Release Date: September 21, 2018)

Synopsis – Still concerned about the threats from the elves, Hilda’s mother (Johanna) once again brings up the subject of moving to Trolberg. As before, Hilda is not receptive to the idea. Johanna suggests that they visit Trolberg the next day just to take a look around. That night, Hilda struggles to fall asleep. Looking out her bedroom window, she spots a massive giant (glimpsed briefly last episode) staring in the direction of their house. The giant begins to walk away, prompting Hilda to clamber out onto the roof and catch a ride on a passing woff. Leaping onto the giant’s shoulder, she asks it what it was doing in the valley. The giant replies that he was waiting for someone, someone he had been promised to meet a long time ago. Hilda tells him that if the friend hasn’t shown up yet, they probably won’t ever. Sad, the giant drops Hilda off back home.

The next day, Hilda and Johanna visit Trolberg. Hilda is predictably not impressed. That night she follows the Wood Man to his house, asking him about giants. He reluctantly lets her in and shows her a book that he has about the Old Giants. He reveals that the giants used to reside in this area, but were pushed out by humans and never seen again. This occurred while the giant Hilda had met, Jorgen, was in the middle of a 4,000-year watch at the top of a mountain, keeping an eye on the skies for anything that might harm his people. This explains why his friend never arrived – they had presumably left with the other giants, and Jorgen wasn’t aware that it had happened.

Alfur takes Hilda to see the Elf King the next morning, all the way at the top of a nearby mountain. The king refuses to talk to Hilda, prompting her to yell in frustration. This triggers a small avalanche, and as some of the snow falls away it unveils an ear-shaped cave near the peak of the mountain. As Hilda nears the cave, she hears a voice asking to know what is going on. The entire mountain begins to shake, nearly sending the Elf King’s castle tumbling over a cliff. Hilda is able to save the castle and arrive safely at the ground with the timely help of Jorgen. The mountain is revealed to be a female giant, Jorgen’s long-lost love that he had promised to meet again after his watch was over. It turns out that after the other giants had left, she had sat down to wait for him. In her slumber she was covered in plants and snow, preventing her from hearing his approach.

Ecstatic at surviving the ordeal, the Elf King agrees to cease all hostilities against Hilda and Johanna. The two giants embrace as Johanna exits the house to see what is going on. Before she can really say anything, Jorgen inadvertently steps on the house and destroys it. Realizing that Hilda and Johanna are like the giants when compared to the elves, Hilda realizes that they can no longer live there and agrees to move to Trolberg. Alfur receives a new job writing reports about human life in Trolberg, and he sets off with Hilda, Johanna, and Twig to start the next chapter of their lives in the city.

My Thoughts – This right here was the episode that hooked me on the show. The scenes with and about Jorgen and the other giants were so haunting and melancholic that I couldn’t help but be moved. The night scene where Hilda hitches a ride on Jorgen was particularly well done. The starlit scenery was beautiful, the music was evocative, and the pacing was just right. The various camera angles and Jorgen’s booming but weary voice served to illustrate not only how massive he was, but also just how ancient. There was a sense of loss grandeur about Jorgen and the other giants, a people who the world had long moved past, that was very poignant. This made Jorgen’s reunion with his love so bittersweet – after all that time they were finally together again, but the land they had always known was no longer their home.

I love how the episode is able to serve up parallels not only between Hilda and the elves but also between Hilda and the giants. Jorgen crushes Hilda’s house without a thought, just like how Hilda and her mother had been walking straight through the elves’ homes all this time without realizing it. By getting a taste of what the elves had been going through, Hilda realizes that – just as with the giants – this valley doesn’t belong to her and her mother anymore. It is an important lesson that Hilda (who we’ve seen is quite resistant to change) learns, and it tees us up for the move to Trolberg where the bulk of the series will take place.

I would be remiss to close out without mentioning one of my favorite side characters, the Wood Man. He is often a jerk, always passive-aggressive (voiced with sardonic perfection by Ako Mitchell), but it is clear that he does care at least a little bit about Hilda (and maybe her mother too). He complains about not being able to read when Hilda and her mother are talking, and yet he keeps showing up to their house anyway. He demonstrates great reluctance when Hilda brings up the subject of giants, and yet he lets her into his home and shows her the book. He is, like most characters in the show, full of layers and dimensions.

Episode MVP – Jorgen. His sad backstory and gentle yet commanding presence serve as one of the main pillars of this episode.

Folklore Connections – Giants, called Jötunn (or Jötnar when speaking of them collectively), are significant players in Norse mythology. Typically hailing from one of the nine realms, Jötunheimr, they are at various times allies and enemies of the gods. Depictions of them vary widely across different myths and stories. Some of them are huge, some of them not so much. (Loki was famously a Jötunn, but he is virtually never described as larger than the other gods.) This variety, along with the Jötnar’s ancient nature, fit with what we see of the old giants in this episode.

My Totally Arbitrary Episode Ranking – An excellent A-.

Trivia/Stray Observations –

  • “We’d be trapped in a house sandwich!”
  • “I bet we wouldn’t have neighbors like this in Trolberg.” “Exactly my point.”
  • “He’s like part of our family!” “No, I’m not.”
  • “I don’t come here for the conversation, you know.” The Wood Man is wonderfully contrare.
  • “You’re very observant.” “Thank you!” “It’s unnerving.”
  • “So, barging in on your neighbors is your new thing. I may have to move.”
  • “My royal hands are full!” “YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE HANDS!”
  • “You know where to find me.” “That’s very comforting.” “For you.”
  • Go away, ‘Skip Intro’ button. I don’t want you here.
  • That sunset shot of the woffs migrating was gorgeous.
  • If you don’t want a Wood Man to wander into your house, make sure to always close the door behind you.
  • I…don’t know that the Wood Man actually knows what tea is.
  • Woffs: The world’s most reliable form of transportation.
  • The two kids that Hilda meets in Trolberg, Frida and David, will play large roles moving forward.
  • The female giant is never named in the show, but apparently a tie-in book refers to her as Illus.
  • This episode has such a good soundtrack. The track that plays when Hilda first chases after Jorgen is one of my favorite in the series:

That’s it for this week! Next week we will continue with ‘Chapter 3: The Bird Parade’.

Please share any thoughts about the episode below. Make sure to spoiler tag any references to future events in the series in case anybody is stumbling across the show for the first time, and follow all of the Avocado’s rules and guidelines.

Thanks for reading!