In addition to bringing new adventures, this season has had several callbacks to past adventures. The callbacks featured here are at their most direct, especially since the particular past adventure showed legit promise for continuation. Back in Season 1 when Hilda conjured a pair of tide mice to help her friends and family achieve their dreams and nearly stole their souls, one shot showed that they were still around. Yes, despite disenchanting them away, suggestions were very likely that this would not be the last we would see of the mice. This episode features finally brings their anticipated return in a very interesting setup.
Following a few scenes of them in Hilda’s apartment of making a nest of various objects under Hilda’s bed, they hitch a ride in her sack. In Hilda’s travels, the mice end up near a man delivering the frequently seen snack, jorts. He feeds them jorts, and they’re by his side at all times from there, though he never sees them. In accordance with the tide mice’s nature, the man’s state of life appears to change for the better. He quickly goes from deliveryman to CEO quickly, and his status only keeps on building and building. This is supposed to be exciting, but you can tell the man finds something phony about all this. Knowing how tide mice work, it definitely is phony, and when Hilda suddenly gets that creepy soul-stealing look in her eyes, she and her friends soon discover what’s going on.
They, along with Kaisa the witch librarian, are summoned to the council of witches Kaisa works for. They’re quick to inform that the disenchantment Hilda performed on the tide mice the first time was apparently incomplete and that the tide mice are still out there. As the witches argue and bicker over possible punishments for Hilda’s incompetence, Hilda and the others slip out to see where the mice have gotten to. Considering that jorts are popping up everywhere, they discover that this snack has something to do with the creatures’ whereabouts.
It’s around this point where you can’t help but feel it’s convenient that the tide mice are only relevant now. Was there anything keeping them from enchanting people earlier? It kind of makes the episode one that exists out of obligation instead of actually tying itself to any bigger subjects of the series. That doesn’t make what happens here any less enjoyable, because in resolving this issue, there are plenty of exciting moments. There’s a reveal that the tide mice have reproduced and had babies which enchant the entire jorts company. Hilda and the others don snappy exterminator uniforms to capture the mice with vacuum cleaners. Frida gets to expand upon her powers as a witch. David and Kaisa make a surprisingly good team which is interesting since he wasn’t around to learn of her status as a witch. Even that one worker who was first enchanted by the tide mice gets involved in the resolution when the mice who started everything almost get away, and he lures them out. Ultimately, the mice are captured and magically done away with, and Hilda only gets a day of mouse whiskers out of this and decides to leave magic to professionals from now on.
While it does feel like the events of this
episode sort of just come and go, there’s still a lot to admire. The callbacks make sense, the premise is
interesting, a lot of moments from the characters and overall situation are
amusing, and there’s solid entertainment all throughout. It may not be a highlight, but its
adventurous spirit is present and in full effect.
A-
Series Ranking
1.
The
Deerfox
2.
The House in the Woods
3.
The Nightmare Spirit
4.
The Tide Mice
5.
The
Old Bells of Trolberg
6.
The
Fifty Year Night
7.
The Witch
8.
The Bird Parade
9.
The Yule Lads
10. The Midnight Giant
11. The Beast of Cauldron Island
12. The Eternal Warriors
13. The Windmill
14. The Troll Circle
15. The Hidden People
16. The Storm
17. The
Draugen
18. The Jorts Incident
19. The Black Hound
20. The Troll Rock
21. The Lost Clan
22. The Sparrow Scouts
23. The Nisse
24.
The Ghost
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