Hound’s Hill – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Reveal

Episode 5 of Hound’s Hill begins with more scenes from the past, as we see Gizmo given acid. We then see things from Gizmo’s perspective, complete with cartoon animations, as he heads out to the lake with his sister. However, Gizmo is joined by a fox and he ends up on a quest alone after losing Daria somewhere along the way.

So what of Daria? Well, it turns out Marek, Macius and Jarecki were out in the woods and they hit her and left her for dead. Gizmo showed up to save her, seeing demons in their stead, and eventually wailed over Daria’s dead body.

What about the evidence?

Back in the present, Justyna gets to work writing up her article, trying to find the best way of getting her words out. She’s also distracted by the fact Mikolaj isn’t picking up either, given he’s under the influence of drugs again. When Justyna finds out, she’s not happy and finds comfort in Grzes. She almost kisses him too but realizes she wouldn’t be any better and stops herself.

Meanwhile, Tomek is confident that he’ll be released soon, speaking to his lawyer Krymski about how he’s stalling over Filip Bernat’s murder. He claims all the evidence has been planted and that Justyna will pull through, especially as she has audio evidence incriminating the police from her showing at Kalt’s mansion.

When he speaks to Justyna and she shows off the evidence, he’s not sure if it’ll hold up to scrutiny or not. The prosecutor is certainly stubborn, refusing to accept the evidence without the use of audio forensics first. However, it could still be thrown out under grounds that Dobocinski was not sober.

How does Justyna convince the Attorney General?

Justyna tracks down the Attorney General and brings up the Winnie the Pooh case. She obviously has a good deal of evidence against him and his ilk, so she strikes a deal. She wants him to pull some strings by dropping all charges against Tomek in return for handing over everything she has on him.

Her editor is livid when he finds out what Justyna has done, throwing away years of her life, but she’s determined to do what’s right all the same.

With all this cleared up, Justyna is desperate to find Mikolaj and goes on the hunt to the different spots to do so. Kaska brings up the commotion from before and even reveals that she wants to be like Justyna, while the latter realizes there’s a connection to everything going on right now.

Back home, she speaks to the family and brings up how it could well be that someone is taking their revenge by going after all those responsible for giving Gizmo acid.

What does Justyna find out?

In the midst of this, Mikolaj messages Justyna and claims he’s back in Warsaw. Tomek is determined to get him back and encourages Justyna to get the guy back. However, on the way she notices a couple of shady individuals who happen to have Mikolaj’s phone on them. This explains why he’s not picking up.

She follows the car they’re driving where they wind up by Macius’ place and bundle him in the back. However, she’s spotted by that same man we saw at the end of episode 4.

We then cut across to follow Mikolaj. He awakens to find Father Bernat sitting with him. He retells the story we saw at the start of the episode, where the men raped Daria while Sebastian was outside, screaming and pleading with the men to stop. She was then struck in the head and killed, with the group framing Gizmo for everything,

Who is the murderer?

The men confessed their sins to Father Bernat who, in turn, told Tomek everything. Now, it turns out Tomek and Grzes have been working in collusion together to take out those who hurt and killed Daria.

Mikolaj has been kept here in secret to make sure he doesn’t run his mouth, while Justyna is also tied up. Tomek found out about this during his first heart attack, and since then, he’s been determined to get justice. Mikolaj takes his father’s gun and shoots Macius, wanting nothing more than his father’s adoration.

Together, the men decide to let Justyna go, knowing nobody will believe her anyway, and they proceed to burn the house they’re all in. And what house is this? Well, only the one up on Hound’s Hill of course.

What happens after the time jump?

We then cut forward three months later. Tomek is revered in town for saving the community from the evil investors. Instead of a hotel, they agree on a senior care home, which Kalt helps facilitate. However, it’s also under the pretence of letting those from the colony work there.

In the wake of all this, we find out it was Kaska sending those postcards after all, but with all of Daria’s rapists dead, she decides to burn up the next postcard, her revenge finished.

We also learn too that there’s going to be a new mayor, coming in the form of Elka Walinowska. Mikolaj has come back home and is staying here for the foreseeable future too and he’s also in a relationship with Kaska now.

How does Hound’s Hill end?

Through it all, Dobocinski is allowed to go free, given he’s just a patriot and doing what’s right for the town, apparently. While he lives, Kalt is also forced to stay in line by Mikolaj, who’s now working with his father as his lackey and desperate for his affection. Kalt will be killed if he steps out of line.

Unfortunately, poor Justyna has been left with nothing and despite winning an award, finds herself back in the arms of her editor whom she decides to romance. However, the final scene of the series cuts us across to a toilet where we see Mikolaj very much back doing drugs again and in a rough way.

The Episode Review

So we get a final little twist at the end which throws everything we thought we knew into a spiral. So, to confirm, Tomek was the real murderer here, going after the men responsible for raping and killing Daria, while we also see that these men were desperate to get their land deal through and killed Bernat for it.

All of this eventually culminates in that big twist at the end where Mikolaj, who’s basically absent for the entire episode, has fallen back into addiction again, partly, I guess, thanks to Justyna’s betrayal and cheating, but also because of the guilt he’s feeling over everything that happened with the acid in the club.

The ending does see the “bad guys win” which, annoyingly, was foreshadowed by the narrator who just rocks up toward the end of this episode and walks off. But this scene is the perfect encapsulation of what’s been lacking in this show. The scene is long, slow, pondering and drawn out way too much.

Ultimately, this has been a pretty mediocre showing, all things considered, and while it does have a few stand-out moments, it just falls short of the mark.