Hound’s Hill – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Evidence

Episode 3 of Hound’s Hill starts with a negotiation that goes sideways involving a man named Tobek. A car is burned and this eventually paves way for Justyna to speak to her editor in person, wanting to write a story about what’s happening in Zybork. He refuses, and even threatens her with a lawsuit if she continues to pursue this. However, he’s also quite touchy-feely with her and it would seem that they have past ties together.

When she leaves, Justyna continues her investigation, deciding to set up a big campaign across social media to let the truth be heard. In the midst of this, she also finds out that the meat inside Bernat’s stomach was human tissue. She calls in some favours from her contacts in Warsaw to try and dig deeper into this.

Meanwhile, Mikolaj finds his world turned upside down when he uncovers the messages Justyna and her editor have been sending together. Tomek isn’t there though, as he shows at the station with Agata and is livid surrounding the arson attack. He believes this is Kalt but the officers aren’t going to do anything about it.

Back home, Kaska shows up to see Mikolaj, calling him out for his book. Part of the hostility from her is actually because Gizmo has been made out to be a murderer and someone who kills animals in the book.

So, with all this going on, we also learn that the planning for the luxury hotel has been dampened slightly while there’s ongoing investigations. The Mayor wants to speed things along and try to wrap up this investigation quickly. Kalt believes they should proceed as normal to fool the public. However, he also wants to get the Father to bless the land too.

Justyna returns home, finally, with the evidence she’s found and hands it over to Agata. Mikolaj is here too and he’s not happy. He doesn’t mention the messages to Justyna, at least not yet, and instead the focus turns to Bernat’a phone, which is traced to the lake. Tomek wants to bring this to the police, given it’s going to be hard to ignore now, and force them to move.

Justyna shows at the station with the family too, and with her journalist background, brings up how the evidence they’ve found is technically not evidence given the police shrugged this off and never bothered to examine it properly. However, the general thought here is that Marek Bernat was with his father and given he too is missing, kidnapping seems likely. After handing over the phone and the other bits of evidence, Dobocinski rings the Mayor and points out that there’s a “present” that’s been dropped off.

The police show up to see Tobek and arrest Gawil, Tobek’s son, for the kidnappings and murder. However, our gangster friend promises big ramifications for this action.

As for Mikolaj, he shows up to see Kaska again and questions her about the postcards. She’s haunted by the death of her siblings and feels like the weight of the world is on her shoulders. It would appear she’s not the one who sent them, but is just as determined to see justice served.

Mikolaj is starting to doubt whether Gizmo was even responsible for Daria’s death here, and the lead prosecutor at the time simply chalks it all up to the evidence at the scene. However, he was brutally beaten by the cops back then so any confession here was done under duress and can’t exactly be taken in good faith. However, the corrupt police at the time believed justice had prevailed.

Speaking of justice, Tomek shows up in the midst of the Mayor’s big speech about the hotel construction with a bunch of protestors from the colony.

At the station, Gawil is questioned but the officers are interrupted midway through by the commotion going on at town square. Unfortunately, Tomek shows up with his goons too in the midst of this, desperate to get his son back. He and his gangsters threaten Kalt, but Dobocinski makes a deal with him in exchange for letting him go.

While Tomek collapses and everyone scramble to get him medical care, Gawil reveals that he saw three figures at around 2-3am, which could well have been Bernat. He’s not the murderer it seems, but he may not be completely truthful either, given the episode ends with him smirking.

The Episode Review

So as we approach the midway point of the show, the kinda-affair drama with Justyna seems to have fizzled out, and Mikolaj hasn’t mentioned anything either for some reason. However, we do know that something major happened in the past but the details surrounding this are still unclear.

The hierarchical powers and political manoeuvring certainly sets things up for a dramatic second half, as the truth starts to be revealed, but with Tomek in hospital and things looking bleak, I guess we’re not getting that “happy ending” after all!

However, there are some questionable edits in here, including a ton of long, drawn-out establishing shots. We also get some weird scenes in here, like Justyna just wandering through a cornfield, which doesn’t seem to be for any purpose but to chew up run-time.

All things considered, this slow burn is certainly atmospheric and moody, but it also puts a lot of emphasis on slow. Lets hope it picks up!