This article is about one of the episodes from the Netflix-exclusive television series.
You may be looking for the graphic novel series of the same name.
The Fairy Isle is the eighth and final episode of the third season, and the thirty-fourth episode overall, of the Hilda TV series. It is also the final episode of the series.
It was released on December 7th, 2023 on Netflix.
At 77 minutes, it is the longest episode of the series, and the second longest installment of the Hilda TV series after the movie.
Synopsis[]
Hilda journeys into the fairy mound to look for her father, unraveling surprising family secrets along the way — but the truth comes at a great risk.
Summary[]
| — This section may contain spoilers. — |
| This section contains spoilers of an episode, movie, or book. |
Hilda, Frida, and David are back in Tofoten, and head straight for the fairy mound. The mound has somehow recovered, with the holes that Astrid and Johanna dug in it being patched up. Hilda removes the protective charms. David hands her a walkie talkie to stay in touch. Then, Hilda and Twig enter the Fairy Mound while David and Frida stand guard. David then ties himself to a tree stump just to be safe.
In Trolberg, Johanna tries to call Astrid but can’t reach her due to the Pooka keeping Astrid distracted, so she takes the car to go to Tofoten herself. She forbids Tontu and Alfur from coming. Along the way her car breaks down again, so she continues on foot.
Hilda and Twig walk through the borderlands but make no progress, until Hilda realizes the charm from aunt Astrid that she still has with her is keeping her there. She breaks it. Promptly, she and Twig find themselves on the shore of a sea, and a boat approaches them. They get in and the boat takes them deeper onto the sea, until it is stopped by a net. Then, a skull tied to a rope is thrown at the boat and someone pulls them to the shore of an island. It’s Anders and Victoria van Gale.
The two take Hilda and Twig back to Victoria’s shelter, which she build around a tower. Anders recalls how someone pulled him into this place when the troll was about to kill him at the castle ruins. He was found by Victoria, and together they build a radio transmitter to try and contact the outside world. Anders is surprised to learn Hilda came here through a fairy mound. Victoria and Anders warn Hilda not to let the flying one eyed mushrooms she encountered on her previous visit see them, or else the people that brought Anders here will come too. Hilda is grateful to Victoria for looking after her father. Victoria forgives Hilda for getting her stranded here, as she feels right at home in Fairy Country, with all of it’s mysteries to explore and technology to examine. The tower for example is a receiver of sorts that Victoria is hoping to learn more of.
Hilda and Anders prepare to return to the borderlands. Victoria decides to stay. One of the Eyes sees them however, and alerts Fairy Isle. The Isle appears, as to two cloaked figures, while huge waves appear in the ocean. With great trouble, Hilda and Anders reach the borderlands. Outside, at the Fairy Mound, Johanna arrives, but David and Frida keep her from going to the fairy mound. When Hilda gives the signal, they try to dig her out, but unlike last time, the mound resists their attempts. So Frida uses her magic to open a portal instead. The Fairy Mound tries to fight back and it takes Frida great effort to keep the portal open. Anders, Hilda, and Twig escape, but Hilda learns from David that her mother entered the Fairy Mound to look for her. Frida can’t hold on any longer and collapses, but before the portal fully closes, Hilda jumps back in to find her mom. Once the portal is closed, the Fairy Mound collapses, sealing off the entrance to Fairy Country for good.
While Anders tries to dig for Hilda despite the Mound being gone, David brings Frida to Astrid’s house. Astrid puts Frida in a bed and gives David instructions how to nurse her back to health. As a result, she then leaves. Meanwhile, Hilda finds herself on Fairy Isle itself; an island whose landscape defies all laws of physics. Here she finds a young, human girl, who claims she is also looking for her parents, who apparently abandoned her to come here. Hilda and the girl team up and explore the island. They meet a flock of white woffs and various fairies, but also find a section of the island where the land seems to be rotting. The girl turns out to know a lot about Fairy Isle, but has no idea why. Hilda also notices she has to stay focused on the job to find her mom, because the island seems to make her forget.
After a night sleeping, Hilda and the girl see a fairy woman whom the girl claims is her mother. Then Astrid shows up, having gone to Fairy world herself. She tries to stop Hilda from following the girl, but Hilda breaks free and hops on a white woff. She picks up the girl and they follow the fairy woman to a cave, in which they run into an exact replica of Hilda’s old house. A fairy man comes out of the house, and the girl recognizes him as her father. Upon being reunited with her parents, the girl is revealed to be none other than Johanna. She reverts back to her adult self. She accuses her parents of having abandoned her to come here, and Astrid of having made her forget everything with fairy magic. However, the situation is more complex than that, and her parents finally tell the whole story:
The man is named Phinium, Astrid’s brother. They are both fairies who in their childhood frequently came to the human world, which was a lot easier in those days. There, they met a human girl named Lydia, Johanna’s mother, and became close friends with her. As they grew up, Phinium and Lydia fell in love, married, and had a daughter, Johanna. Since traveling to Fairy World became harder, Phinium decided to stay in the human world for good and convinced Astrid to do the same. Together, they all moved into a house in Tofoten. All was well, until Johanna got sick and no doctor could cure her. To save their daughter, Phinium and Lydia struck a deal with the Fairy Entity. The entity agreed to cure Johanna if her parents would give Johanna to it on her tenth birthday. Out of options, they agreed. When Johanna turned ten and it was time for Phinium and Lydia to uphold their end of the bargain, they negotiated a new bargain with the Fairy Entity; they would give themselves to the Entity instead and move to Fairy Isle forever, never to visit the human world again. Again, the Entity agreed. Thus, Phinium and Lydia were forced to leave their daughter behind in the care of her aunt Astrid and moved to Fairy Isle. At their request, Astrid performed a memory spell on Johanna so she would not feel like her parents abandoned her.
Now that the story has been told, Astrid undoes her memory spell and all of Johanna’s memories come back to her. Hilda is thrilled to be part Fairy and can’t wait to tell her friends. But that won’t be possible; now that they are here they broke the bargain, and the Fairy Isle will never let them leave. Johanna doesn’t mind. It would be like going back to simpler times, when it was just her and Hilda in the wilderness. Hilda tries to settle into her new life, but can’t. The island will get boring soon as nothing ever changes there. She tries to get to the cave of the Fairy Entity, but Astrid stops her. Since Hilda wants to see her friends again, Phinium and Lydia take her to a watchtower; an ancient piece of fairy technology that allows you to look into the human world. It can also be used to pull people from the human world into Fairy Country, but it is a one way trip. They used this to keep an eye on Hilda after her first encounter with the Fairy Mound, and to rescue Anders from the troll.
Meanwhile, in the human world, Frida has recovered. She had a dream and wants to find Twig. When they find him, Frida forms a mental connection with him and realizes Twig holds the key to rescuing Hilda; Deerfoxes can travel to Fairy Country with their light bridges. She uses her magic to amplify Twig’s howl so he can summon his herd from their native dimension. Backed up by his parents and their herd, Twig goes to Fairy Country to get Hilda back. As Astrid goes to talk with the Fairy Entity, Hilda, and Johanna try to reach the Deerfoxes. The island tries to stop them with various obstacles; it summons a huge carnivorous plant from which Johanna and Hilda are saved by Phinium and Lydia, and sicks an army of Eyes on them, who are defeated by the deer-foxes. The island's final attempt to thwart them is creating a huge chasm, but Johanna's fairy powers awaken and she is able to fly across with Hilda. Along with the deer-foxes, they escape Fairy Country. Phinium and Lydia stay in Fairy Country.
Once back in the human world, Johanna falls ill because with the bargain broken and the island still having a claim on her life, her childhood sickness returns. She is saved when Astrid convinces the Fairy Entity to take her life instead. Astrid herself is then saved when Victoria van Gale makes her way to Fairy Isle and offers herself to the Fairy Entity. Astrid is send back to the human world and the Entity accepts Victoria’s deal to stay on the island, unaware that Victoria actually wants that.
Hilda, Johanna, and the others return back to Trolberg. Anders settles into an apartment of his own, honoring his promise to stay around for a while. The annual Bird Parade is held again and Hilda reunites with her friend The Great Raven. She is glad to be with her family and friends here, and knows her grandparents are watching over her from Fairy Country, ending the episode, and the series.
Featured characters[]
Humans[]
Creatures[]
- The Pooka
- Spider Frog (cameo; flashback)
- The Eyes
Woffs[]
Walking Land Creatures[]
Elves[]
Fairies[]
- Astrid
- Phinium
- Lydia
- The Fairy Entity
- Various unnamed fairies.
Deer-foxes[]
Nisse[]
Cameo characters[]
With this being the end, a lot of characters return for a small cameo during the final minutes.
- The Great Raven: returns to Trolberg for his annual visit and briefly allows Hilda to ride him
- Wood Man: is chopping wood outside his house and sees the Great Raven pass by.
- The Elves of the Northern Elven Counties: see the Great Raven pass by.
- Baba and Trylla: are seen leaving the Stone Forest as the Great Raven reaches Trolberg.
- Bartell Bragga, Cedric and Agnes Bragga: are in the Bragga village, watching the Great Raven pass by
- Eugene is visible on a drawing in Hilda's room.
- Enid Hallgrim, the Mulch Manager, Frida's mom, Frida's dad, David's mom and David's dad are all visible in the background during the scene where David has trouble opening his bag of jorts. Frida's parents have their backs turned to the viewer.
- Matilda Pilqvist and Peter Ostenfeld are at the Bird Parade together, holding hands.
- Gil Jones is seen at the bird parade, selling snacks.
- Trevor and his friends are at the bird parade. They run past Gil, causing him to drop a box of snacks.
- The Rat King is seen taking the box Gil dropped.
- Kaisa is at the bird parade, and is handed a bag of jorts by David.
- David's Marra and the other Marra: watch the bird parade, with David's marra stealing David's jorts.
- Gerda Gustav: sees the Marra and makes a note.
- The animated version of Luke Pearson is standing behind Gerta.
- The Keeper of the Bell is seen when Anders bumps into him.
- Raven Leader, Louise, and some other Sparrow Scouts are participating in the parade.
Goofs & Errors[]
- The Spider Frog's finger-like appendages are missing from Johanna's random flashback scenes.
- The Keeper of the Bell's hair color is different in this episode.
- Alfur is seen with Gerda Gustav even though he was with Johanna.
- The shot where the Johanna's Bird Parade- Watching Wall Is Inconsistent from having a giant complex next to it with the Scene that shows Anders's new Flat across from it to now having the Original house with a shingle roof next to it when Hilda reunites with Johanna, Frida, David, Tontu and Alfur after Jumping off the Great Raven at the Ending.
Trivia[]
- The song played during the end credits is Uncrossed Path by Frankie Cosmos.
- This is the only episode which has an animated title card.