During a severe snowstorm, a broadcast by Hilda’s favorite weather woman Victoria van Gale is suddenly interrupted by technical difficulties. This prompts Hilda to seek out what happened, along with David and The Raven.
Tropes
- Affably Evil: Or rather, affably Well-Intentioned Extremist; Victoria van Gale comes off as a nice, if somewhat eccentric, woman, who happily welcomes Hilda and David to the weather station and gives them a tour. When the kids discover she has a Weather-Control Machine, and her attempts at denying it are rather unconvincing, she admits this is true and justifies it by pointing out how humanity can benefit from controlling the weather. She even admits her mistake of luring too many weather spirits to Trolberg, resulting in the severe snowstorm, and at Hilda’s suggestion tries to create a strong wind to blow the snow storm away from Trolberg. And when Hilda finds the captured weather spirit and plans to release it, Victoria begs her not to do so.
- Big "NO!": Victoria screams one when her entire Weather Station is destroyed.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hilda manages to put an end to Victoria's machinations, but is now lost and alone in the middle of the wilderness.
- Braving the Blizzard: Hilda, David and the Great Raven have to fly through a severe blizzard/thunderstorm, caused by hundreds of Weather Spirits, to reach the weather station of Victoria van Gale (whom Hilda believes to be in trouble). Later, Hilda and the Raven brave the same storm again to reach the Weather Spirits themselves, and get them to stop arguing.
- Broken Pedestal: Needless to say, Hilda is not pleased when she finds out how ruthless and egotistical Victoria van Gale truly is.
- The Bus Came Back: The Raven makes a return appearance.
- Cliffhanger: Hilda has managed to put an end to Victoria's operation and save the city from being buried six feet under, but she is now stranded in the wilderness and the status of her friendship with Frida remains uncertain.
- Cobweb of Disuse: The room inside the weather station where Hilda and David end up after entering through a window is filled with these, proving none of the equipment has been used in a long time. David naturally runs into some of the cobwebs.
- Cumulonemesis: the Weather Spirits, which are sentient clouds.
- Disney Death: Happens to Hilda near the end. It looks like she was killed when the Weather Station collapsed and fell off the mountain. In reality, the Weather Spirit whose child she just freed saved her.
- Doomed Defeatist: Victoria van Gale gets into this mood after her attempt to dispel the snowstorm with a strong wind only results in her equipment shorting out.
- Downer Beginning: It starts with Hilda (and Twig) in a state of depression, clearly down about the falling-out she and David had with Frida from the previous episode. Things don't exactly get better from there.
- Dramatic Thunder: At first justified, since a major storm hits Trolberg. Hilda grows suspicious however when it keeps thundering while it snows, which usually doesn’t happen. The raven points out the weather spirits are responsible.
- Foreshadowing: When Hilda turns on the radio, we briefly hear a news cast about more and more people reporting a large beast wandering around the city. Later we see a glimpse of a news report on tv about the black dog that will be the focus of the final episode of the first season.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: Just when it seems that Hilda was presumably dead, the ending music begins to kick in as the screen fades to black. Only for the music to stop abruptly as Hilda regains consciousness. Just as she finds herself back in the wilderness to her surprise, the music starts up again. For real this time.
- Gone Horribly Right: Victoria van Gale tried to lure the weather spirits to her to learn from them how to control the weather, but she drew in far more of them than she anticipated. As such, the area is now filled with angry, arguing weather spirits, hence the storm.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Hilda had to do one in order to save the Weather Spirit. Good news, she survived in the end. Bad news, she's now lost in the wilderness. Uh oh.
- I'm Your Biggest Fan: Hilda says this to Victoria van Gale upon meeting her, but immediately lampshades the trope by pointing out everybody probably says that.
- Implausible Deniability: When Victoria van Gale accidentally activates her weather machine, causing a small thunderstorm, she tries to deny to David that the thunder had anything to do with her or her machine. David doesn't buy it, and Victoria thus admits the truth.
- The Klutz: Victoria van Gale has shades of this. She accidentally turns on her weather machine while showing David and Hilda the observatory, forcing her to quickly turn it off again, and lie she made it rain.
- Mad Scientist: Victoria van Gale. David even calls her this.
- Multi-Part Episode: Connected with "The House In The Woods". In fact, if aired weekly on TV, this episode would have been the mid-season finale. But since the show airs on a streaming service, fans won't have to wait any longer.
- Not What It Looks Like: Victoria van Gale tries this excuse when Hilda finds the captured baby-Weather Spirit.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Johanna is surprised that her normally adventurous daughter is letting rain keep her from going out (due to being depressed about the falling-out between her and Frida).
- The episode in general is this for Hilda. While the last few episodes mostly had her in her usual cheerful state, just about the entirety of this episode shows her serious side and how determined, brave, and strong she can be under certain circumstances.
- Papa Wolf: The weather spirit looking for his child goes ballistic when he remembers why he had gone to Trolberg. He grows from a regular white cloud to a gigantic thundercloud and attacks the weather station in an Unstoppable Rage.
- Percussive Maintenance: Victoria van Gale can be seen giving several machines at the weather station a good punch or kick to make them function.
- Race Against the Clock: The snowstorm will completely cover all of Trolberg if not stopped before morning.
- Rain, Rain, Go Away: Hilda is still depressed by what happened between her and Frida, so she doesn’t feel like going to the library while it’s raining. Her mother is surprised that Hilda, who would always go out when they lived in the wilderness, is put off by some rain. Hilda changes her mind however when the rain is replaced by snow. Ironically, her mom now wants her to stay indoors.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: While Hilda is trying to negotiate with the weather spirits, David remains behind at the weather station, angrily asking himself why he thought he could be useful. He fails to realize there is an old elf right besides him, who thinks David was talking to him and responds he doesn’t even know David.
- Smash Cut: Just as Hilda has her Oh, Crap! moment after realizing she is lost, the episode abruptly cuts to the credits. Doubles as a jumpscare.
- Snowed-In: Hilda’s mom gets stranded in her car due to the snow. And all of Trolberg is threatened with being completely covered in snow.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Hilda decides to confront the arguing Weather Spirits, and moderate their debate. She manages to get them to calm down and realize they even forgot what the whole argument was about.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: While not completely devoid of levity or humor, there's a much more foreboding and gloomy air (so to speak) to this episode than the ones before it, pulling no punches with the titular threat as well as dealing with the aftermath of the kids' falling out.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Victoria van Gale doesn’t bat an eye at encountering an intelligent, talking raven who can drastically change size.
- Weather-Control Machine: Victoria van Gale has one.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Victoria van Gale, who wants to control the weather to help mankind, but isn’t above using questionable methods for doing so, like capturing a young weather spirit.
