Hound’s Hill – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Grudge

Episode 2 of Hound’s Hill begins in the past with Mikolaj and Daria together out by the lake she was found dead. Gizmo is there too, and he ends up marvelling over a fox at the other side of the cave. He’s immediately enamoured with it and that appears to be the start of his love for foxes.

Fast forward to the present and Gizmo’s funeral is held. Numerous people show, including Daria’s sister, Kaska, who keeps eyeballing Justyna and Mikolaj. There’s even a fox that rocks up to pay its respects.

The autopsy for Bernat also reveals new clues here. It would appear that he died of sepsis, but there’s also signs of foul play here. The autopsy has uncovered a little bit of undigested, raw food in his belly, but he’s been starved, frozen, while his hands and legs were tied up. He got hit in the legs with a blunt instrument hard, which seems to have been his undoing.

Shockingly, even with all this evidence, the police aren’t going to investigate this further.

Meanwhile, we finally meet this elusive Kalt character. He’s a hunter and it appears he’s had his sights set on Bernat’s land. Now that he’s dead, this land lease problem has “sorted itself out”. He meets with the Mayor and points out that the hotel construction will be going ahead as planned thanks to a productive meeting with the Governor.

The thing is, this land is actually home to a bunch of poor people from the community. Tomek is somewhat of a saint in these parts, showing up with bread and food to help feed them, but he also knows that in construction this hotel, it will displace numerous people who are calling this area home.

Mikolaj wants to continue investigating this case further and after speaking to the staff at the psychiatric ward, he learns that appears Gizmo was visited by the priest. He heads off to visit Father Bernat and queries whether he could have written the postcard. He claims he didn’t, and that his visit to Gizmo was just him “doing the rounds” as he visits everyone in his congregation. Right now, it’s unclear whether he’s telling the truth or not.

Unfortunately, Mikolaj receives another postcard asking him to “admit it” regarding Gizmo and there’s also the situation involving Justyna too, who’s struggling to keep her (kinda?) affair in order. She messages her editor constantly about this big story, but she and Mikolaj do agree to stick around for a week. The next port of call is for Justyna to join Tomek at the city hall, as promised.

Tomek makes a big scene in front of the investors, bringing up all the individuals from the colony and how difficult it’s going to be to move them in place of the luxury hotel. It doesn’t sway them, naturally, and when Tomek is escorted out the building, his family warn that if he continues this tirade, he could be arrested. Tomek doesn’t care, and with his family being directly threatened now with spraypainted garage doors and Mikolaj’s continued postcards, it’s clear someone wants him to keep quiet.

Tomek’s mood is not helped when, during Bernat’s funeral, a lawyer shows up with papers to help Grazyna with the “formalities” of signing over the land. Tomek is livid when he finds out.

Mikolaj appears to be holding some secrets of his own too, given he asks Macius whether anybody knows about what they did “that night to him”. It’s all very cryptic but Macius shows up to see Father Bernat after and he’s clearly rattled and spooked. He’s getting out of there and urges the priest to do the same thing.

As the episode closes out, an arson attack rocks the community as someone is out to silence Tomek’s family.

The Episode Review

So we continue the story, and it’s clear there’s foul play involved and potentially the situation involving Kalt being the main culprit surrounding why everything is so tense and revenge-stricken.

Tomek is clearly sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong and that meddling is getting him and his family into a world of trouble. There’s still some tensions between him and Mikolaj here too, although the latter seems to have his own issues as he’s clearly done something to Gizmo in the past that’s being covered up.

Finally, there’s Justyna who’s struggling to keep her affair in check, although it’s hard to tell if it actually is an affair or just some weird misunderstanding. That’s clearly going to come to a head soon, right?

However, through all of this, the episodes feel really drawn out, with lingering long shots not doing this one any favours. Sure, you could argue it’s for characterisation purposes and to set the mood, but you could easily achieve all of this with a sharper 40-45 minute run-time.

While still intriguing, lets hop the pace picks up a bit.