Slowly but surely, Hilda has begun to settle in to her new life in Trolberg. Of course, a move to the big city from the wilderness isn’t going to be without hiccups. Hilda finds this out first hand during a Meet the Teacher night at her new school. However, something far more nefarious may be lurking just out of sight. This is Hilda‘s “The Troll Rock.” Caution: spoilers.
1. The Classroom
Almost all of “The Troll Rock” takes place within Hilda’s elementary school. It’s a Meet the Teacher night and the students are gathered together with their parents to mingle and interact, to talk with their teacher about how they’re doing. Hilda thinks she’s adjusting to her school life something fierce but her friends, David and Frida, inform her she’s actually in danger of being moved to an intervention class, one that helps kids transition to a more traditional setting. Last week, I brought up how it appeared Hilda was making a solid adaptation to city life. This episode, however, throws that out the window. Hilda is still struggling to understand what civilization is like and I appreciate how the creators are giving this theme some time. She thinks she knows one thing, only to have the reality shoved in front of her. It’s no surprise, then, that the creature of the week is a small baby troll.
By the way, I also love how Hilda’s classroom uses an old school film projector.
2. What’s With These Trolls, Anyway?
Hilda, the series opened, with her encountering a troll and underestimating its intentions. The stony creatures appear throughout this episode, too. That rock David found last week? Yeah, turned out it was a baby troll. He turns it in as a science fair project and once it awakens it wreaks havoc across the classroom. Not only that but “The Troll Rock” opens with an enormous troll attempting to break into the city.
Thus far, the show’s been keeping its troll mythology pretty close to the chest. We know that the walls around Trolberg were built to keep people safe from the creatures. In this episode, we learn about Edmund Ahlberg, a founder of Trolberg, a pioneer who massacred many of these creatures. Every instance a troll has appeared, its featured all manner of destruction and chaos, yet all that stems from some misunderstanding. Obviously, there’s more going on with these things and I think we’re going to see something impactful to Hilda play out.
3. The Horror! The Horror!
Let’s take a moment to acknowledge some of the horror imagery this episode employs. From the jump cutting in the beginning as the troll tries to gain access to Trolberg to its appearance outside Hilda’s teacher’s office, there’s some well done visuals throughout here. The perfectly timed lightning blasts. The glowing eyes in the show’s eerie dark color palette. They’re the usual tricks but, like the rest of the show, they’re so well done they feel fresh.
4. Teamwork
Most of energy in “The Troll Rock” comes from watching Frida, Hilda, and David interact with each other, carry a plan through fruition. They distract everyone in an effort to get a troll out of their teacher’s desk. They have their strengths and quirks in personality that allows them to evade adults and work through a problem. We know they’re such good friends, kids know they’re such good friends, because they have an instant rapport, an instantaneous ability to understand each other. The creators give all the kids something to do, hardly allowing one to simply stand in the corner and look like a doofus. It’s amazing what one underground adventure can do.
5. Hilda vs. The Institution
The big drama of “The Troll Rock,” though, comes from Hilda possibly being moved to the trouble kids’ class. Lest we forget, the girl was homeschooled for years and that inevitably leads to various quirks. With Hilda, they’re far less detrimental than how it normally goes. “We answer the questions they give us. We don’t think up new ones,” Frida tells her at one point. “Why would they want us to tell them the answer the questions they already know? Hilda replies.
Continued belowIn the wilderness, she was free to roam, explore, and work at what interested her. In this classroom, she has to deal with structure, with rules, with regulations. She cannot put together why this pushes her teacher’s patience. While I don’t think the show offers too much for the merits of school, Hilda’s Mum, apparently named Joanne, does outline why it’s important for Hilda to be in class: that chance to interact with other kids, to make friends. That note is almost instantly undercut by an action scene but it does resonate.
Later, after Hilda faces down the troll, her teacher realizes Hilda’s knowledge runs different to the other students’. We’ve followed Hilda around for five episodes now, so we know what catches her interest and how she’s learnt to deal with something. It’s more practical, the show seems to suggest. The teacher looks at her now with respect.
What makes a model student, though? Yes, Hilda asks a lot of questions but they’re always off-topic and out of nowhere. Is she as interested in learning and expanding her mind as she is in having an audience? Hilda has a rough balance between the merits of school and the we don’t need no education institutionalization. There’s a huge world out there, one the show is quick to embrace and explore. School could very easily be part of that. How will Hilda change, how will she see things differently with a new set of experiences?
