Chapter 5: The Windmill

The Windmill is the fifth episode of the second season, and the eighteenth episode of the Hilda TV series, was released on December 14th, 2020 on Netflix.

Synopsis
On a bird-watching expedition, Hilda, Frida, and David run into meteorologist Victoria Van Gale, whose calm new life makes one of them very suspicious.

Plot
Now that Tontu officially lives in Hilda’s house, he has been helping Johanna keep the place organized by offering her to use Nowhere Space as a storage cabinet. Hilda asks him if he can also help her get to Frida, but Tontu no longer wants to let people into Nowhere Space. When Hilda meets up with David and Frida for their bird-watching expedition, and discuss Nisse, David claims his house has no Nisse, but Hilda tells him he simply hasn’t met his yet.

When they arrive at the place where they hope to see birds, the three kids discover to their horror that the forest is being demolished for new houses. Frida spots a Scarlet-Capped Warbler. As the kids follow the bird, they first come cross a weird stone circle, where something startles David, and then find an old windmill. A lot of animals live there, and a woman who turns out to be Victoria van Gale. David and Hilda are understandably suspicious about her, but Victoria assures them she has changed. She lives off the grid now in the windmill, and has taken these animals in since their home is being demolished. She started baking as a new hobby.

David remains suspicious about her. When he sees something enter the cellar of the mill, he and Hilda investigate. They discover a secret room, where Victoria clearly has been building something. Then a creature attacks them and chases them back upstairs, where Victoria restrains it. It’s her own Nisse, created by her to help her maintain the windmill. Frida is impressed and offers to help too so they can get more Sparrow Scout badges. The kids get to work, though David and the nisse clearly don’t get along. Victoria meanwhile is intrigued to hear Hilda has visited Nowhere Space, and wants to know everything about it.

That night, Hilda tells Tontu about Victoria’s nisse, not knowing that the nisse is spying on her. The next day, when Frida notices a large crack in the wall, Victoria claims they won’t have to fix it since they have done enough. David slowly begins to think that Victoria truly has changed, but when he goes to her kitchen to get a new tray of cookies, he discovers a hidden compartment with some documents. He hides them under his sweater to read later. Victoria offers the kids some gifts for their help; Frida can take a book from Victoria’s collection, Hilda two small, caterpillar like animals she has grown fond off, and David a can of multipurpose grease. As the kids leave, Frida realizes she has yet to pick a book and heads back inside, while Hilda has to hurry home for dinner.

David goes home and examines the documents. It seems Victoria is building some sort of machine. Then he gets attacked by Victoria’s Nisse, who followed him home. The Nisse escapes with the documents, except for one page. David realizes he has to warn Hilda, but his parents won’t let him go out of the house tonight and climbing out the window is no option. Remembering what Hilda told him earlier about Nisse, he makes an offering to the Nisse in his house to ask for a ride through Nowhere Space. He’s lucky; the Nisse is willing to help him in return for the grease. David thus reaches Hilda’s room, where Tontu recognizes the page as an ancient, powerful spell to summon Nisse. The stone circle David saw in the woods earlier was made by Victoria to conjure up a Nisse to give her artificial Nisse life. Hilda realizes Victoria wants something with Nowhere Space, hence why she needs a Nisse. They have to stop her, and since time is running out, Tontu allowes Hilda and David to use Nowhere Space just this once.

At the mill, the Nisse returns Victoria's documents to her. When Victoria noticed Frida is still there, she has the girl tied up to keep her from intervening with her plan. She reveals her machine, which is powered by the Nisse. When activated, it creates a giant breach to Nowhere Space. Hilda, David and Tontu arrive. Hilda and Tontu follow Victoria into the Nowhere Space to confront her. Victoria reveals her true plan; she wants to enable humanity to colonize Nowhwere Space, thus eliminating the need for constantly expanding Trolberg (and the destruction of the environment). Tontu however realizes that a breach this big could swallow the entire city into nothing. David meanwhile tries to free Frida, but he gets attacked by the Nisse. In the fight, the machine is damaged, and goes haywire. A second breach opens within Nowhere Space. Hilda urges Victoria go leave, but Victoria is too stunned at seeing her plan fail to do anything. David tears off the face of the Nisse, after which Frida, who managed to get free, kicks him into the breach. The breach closes. Tontu pulls Hilda out while Victoria stays behind and is swallowed by the second breach.

The city is saved. Hilda is disappointed that Victoria hasn’t changed. At least her windmill will make a nice home to these animals now. The final shot of the episode shows Victoria has ended up in an unknown location.

Humans

 * Hilda
 * Johanna
 * Frida
 * David
 * Victoria Van Gale
 * David's dad

Nisse

 * Tontu (alpha)
 * Victoria Van Gale's nisse
 * Tontu (David’s house)

Deer-foxes

 * Twig

Trivia

 * As of this episode, Victoria Van Gale is somewhere in an unknown location.
 * The place where Victoria ends up at the end of the episode looks a lot like the place where Tontu and Jellybean ended up at the end of the 2014 comic “Hilda and the Black Hound”.
 * The episode features two songs: Why Wait by Shopping, and This is Nowhere by Orville Peck.

es: Capítulo 5: El molino de viento