1. The Leftovers
“The Midnight Giant” and “The Hidden People” are two sides of one episode. The situations, character arcs, story beats, and themes riff off each other, mostly to lay the groundwork for what the series is going to be. It may have been a better idea to discuss these both at the same time, but it can’t be helped now, Jack. Maybe an hour long animated series just isn’t feasible today.
In this episode, we learn more about that giant creature looming behind the mountains. We also see the resolution of Hilda’s negotiations with the elves and our first glimpse of Trolberg. More than all that, we get a glimpse of how the show manages to bring its threads together, how it wraps up plots and explores character arcs. “The Hidden People” may have been a strong introduction to this show but “The Midnight Giant” is a good indication that Hilda might be something special.
As always, heads’ up. There are spoilers about.
2. Hilda’s Resourcefulness
Again, a pilot episode exists to introduce us to the show’s world. In the last one, while we did see some of Hilda’s problem solving abilities and the way she thinks through a given situation. it was only enough to get the broadest stroke of her character. “The Midnight Giant,” however, has the chance to show her thinking an obstacle through. Yeah, there’s the jump on the creatures flying everywhere to get to the giant that’s bounding at mile-length strides, but there’s also her desperate appeals to the elves. What I especially liked was how Hilda would give her a solution that worked once but then never again. Jumping on the flying creature went all right the first time, yet when she tries it again later in the episode, the creature decides it does not like a girl using it as transport and barrels the both of them into the side of a mountain.
When an avalanche turns into an earthquake, with the ground cracking and splitting in two, she finds the route easiest across to rescue the Elf King’s Palace.
So much of this comes because Hilda is an observant character. It’s telling that Pearson and company gave her a sketchbook for her observations instead of a Harriet the Spy-like journal. “You’re very observant,” the Wood Man says to her. “Some wouldn’t call it a compliment.”
3. First Impressions of Trolberg
Like the comics, a major plot point of the series features Hilda and Hilda’s mum moving to Trolberg. The introduction features a funky-looking bird soaring high over the city. It’s not a big place but it’s bigger than what Hilda’s used to. She’s off-put by the very idea of it and, at the start, the animators aren’t trying to win us over either. Hilda and Hilda’s mum are immediately caught in a traffic jam when they try to enter. The apartment Hilda’s mum’s looking at is drab and gray, lacking all the life and energy of their cabin in the woods. Hilda visits a school at one point to discover all these kids dressed in uniforms subject to the call of the school bell. “They live in fear of a bell,” she tells her mom. Because she’s not impressed with the city, we’re also kept at a distance from its wonders. Yet Hilda’s also so wrapped up in her quest to keep them living in harmony in the woods she fails to notice how her mom has already made the decision to move and clearly is trying to figure out the best way to break it to her.
4. Tying the Threads Together
The A-story of “The Midnight Giant” involves Hilda coming across the magnificent creature in the middle of the night. He says he’s looking for an old friend. Though he’s been wandering around for many nights, he has yet to find her. “It sounds like you were stood up,” she tells him apologetically. The giant is forlorn but not disappointed. He disappears into the night.
Later, the Wood Man gives her a book about the giants who used to wander around. We learn that one, chosen every generation, was supposed to sit on top of the highest mountain and guard the world from outside forces. Turns out this is Hilda’s giant. In the time since he had taken his position, the other giants had disappeared from the Earth to places no one knows about. People had started to appear and got sick of the giants tromping on them. Eventually, after the people continued to wage war against their kind, the giants decided it was time to peace. They vanished, no one knows where.
Continued belowWhich, of course, is similar to what Hilda’s experiencing with the elves. It dawns on her when her giant and his friend stomp on their cabin in the woods and stroll off without an iota of awareness of what they’d done. For so much of this episode, this giant plot and the elf plot had been going in different directions. Once Hilda reads about the giants, we get our first inkling of how it’ll play out. And the creators handle it beautifully. There’s real pathos in Hilda’s revelatory moment. We feel her heart sink as she realizes this might not be the place for her anymore, as much as she loves it.
Sometimes, Hilda realizes, the best thing you can do is know when it’s time to leave the party.
5. What We Lost
Last week, I touched on how kids need to be scared and that stories are often the best way to do it, too. “The Midnight Giant” also brings up another experience that’s well suited to be introduced in media aimed at them: loss. Sadness. I wouldn’t necessarily call the end of the episode a happy one. After all, despite succeeding in her task and brokering a peace with the elves, Hilda loses her home. The last of the giants disappear into the ether. The story the Wood Man tells Hilda about the giants isn’t particularly uplifting either.
However, this is only the second episode of the season. And the creators take the time to have some of the cute characters and creatures show Hilda off and wish her luck in the city. A groundwork is laid for future adventures and experiences. The show wants it young audience to know that a loss is never the end but merely a crossroads. If someone like Hilda, someone they can identify and empathize with, can face a loss and make the best out of it, can see past that one incident, then it means it’s okay for them to get there as well.
Which, of course, is something that goes hand-in-hand with knowing how to defeat a monster.
