Chapter 11: The House in the Woods

Chapter 11: The House in the Woods is the eleventh episode of the first season and the eleventh episode of the Hilda TV series, released on September 21st, 2018 on Netflix.

Synopsis
As Hilda ventures her way through the woods with Woodman, trying to get home, they encounter a magical house that seems to not want them to leave.

Plot
Picking up where the previous episode left off, Hilda is now stranded in the wilderness outside Trolberg. At first she enjoys being back there, but her time in Trolberg has taken its toll and she gets lost when trying to find the city. She stumbles upon the Wood Man, who is playing Elf Poker with four Elves. He mocks Hilda for having become a city girl, and won’t help her until he’s won the game.

One of the Elves, Barch, offers to let Hilda use their postal system to send a message to Johanna. Hilda thus writes a letter and the elf promises to post it soon. Wood Man loses another round, and reveals he had bet Hilda herself. Worse; Hilda only now discovers a Forest Giant was also playing along, and Wood Man lost her to him. The giant takes Hilda to a hollow tree in which he stores all the objects he won or collected. The tree is too high for Hilda to climb down.

Barch takes Hilda’s letter to the post office, and through a system of couriers it’s quickly delivered to Hilda’s House in Trolberg, where Alfur receives it. Johanna comes home moments later, worried that nobody has seen Hilda. She doesn’t listen to Alfur when he tries to tell her he got a letter from Hilda, until he falls into her coffee. Johanna is glad to learn that Hilda is safe for the moment, even though she doesn’t fully trust the Wood Man. Alfur decides to trace the letter back to where it was send from, and sets out with Twig.

Meanwhile, in the woods, Wood Man shows up at the Forest Giant’s tree, and admits to Hilda he lost her to the giant on purpose so she’d be in a position to help him reclaim some other items he’s lost to the giant earlier. At his instructions, Hilda finds a rope ladder among the giant’s loot, and lets Wood Man climb into the tree. He quickly gathers his stuff (and some things that were never his, like a crown), but then the giant comes back. Wood Man quickly uses some bellows to blow dust in the giant’s face, distracting him. Hilda and Wood Man escape, but Wood Man loses his belongings in the process. And during the escape, he also failed to keep track of his surroundings, meaning he’s now as lost as Hilda is.

As night falls, Alfur tracks down Barch and the other Elves. They will only give him Hilda’s location however if Alfur wins this information in poker (they are short on players). Hilda and the Wood Man meanwhile try to find shelter. Hilda eventually spots a house, and Wood Man being Wood Man simply enters without knocking. The house appears to be abandoned, but is fully furnished and contains everything the two of them want (their favorite tea, records, a guitar and a fire). Hilda retreats to the bedroom upstairs to sleep.

The following morning however Hilda and Wood Man realize the house is not normal; it keeps giving them things they want, but they cannot leave. The door is locked, when Woodman climbs out the window he immediately falls back in through the chimney, and as the two increase their escape attempts, the house begins to change appearance into impossible forms and shapes; doors in the floor, stairs that lead to all directions and keep going on forever, and an attic door that leads straight back to the living room.

Alfur and Twig meanwhile have followed Hilda’s trail to the Forest Giant’s tree, but she’s no longer there. The Forest Giant catches them snooping around and demands they bring him to Hilda. Fortunately, the Great Raven, who was also searching for Hilda, suddenly shows up and drives the giant off. The three then spot the house and go there, but unfortunately allow the door to close behind them, meaning they are now trapped in it as well.

Wood Man doesn’t mind being stuck in the house, but Hilda is determined to escape, especially after the House gives her a new copy of Frida’s lost book. When in her anger she keeps summoning more stuff, the objects she summoned suddenly begin to flicker in and out of existence. Realizing there are limits to what the house can create at one time, Hilda instructs the others to overload it by demanding more. Soon the living room is crammed with objects. Then Hilda demands a way home, and the house creates a door that leads straight to her house in Trolberg.

Hilda is home, but now that she and the others escaped the House undoes everything it created for them, the book included. Hilda realizes Trolberg has really become her home despite her love for the wilderness, but Wood Man ensures her the Wilderness will always be a part of her. As he leaves, he asks Hilda to drop by should she be around.

Humans

 * Hilda
 * Johanna

David and Frida can be seen on portraits in the House, but don’t physically appear.

Creatures

 * The Great Raven
 * Wood Man
 * The House in the Woods
 * Woff
 * Trolls (Cameo)

Giants

 * Forest Giant

Elves

 * Alfur
 * Barch

Deer-foxes

 * Twig

Trivia

 * Unless you count their portraits in the House, this is the second episode in a row in which Frida is absent, and the first episode since Chapter 1: The Hidden People in which David is absent. Both of them are mentioned however.
 * A possible continuity error: in "Chapter 2: The Midnight Giant" Alfur claimed he was the first Elf to ever visit Trolberg, but this episode reveals the Elves postal network goes all the way into the city. That the Bragga Family was already living in Trolberg nobody knew, but you’d expect that Alfur would at least know about the Elf couriers in Trolberg.
 * The Trolls that can briefly be seen are the mother and her child from "Chapter 5: The Troll Rock".
 * The episode was partly adapted into "Hilda and the Nowhere Space", namely the subplot of Wood Man betting Hilda to the Forest Giant so she can help him get his stuff back.
 * Instead of Hilda's theme, the song during the end credits is Annika by Swedish musician Björn Olsson.