When Frida calls Hilda and David to deal with her room suddenly being a mess and her favorite book being gone, Hilda suspects a ghost is responsible. The kids set out to find it, but the truth may bode drastic consequences for their friendship.
Tropes
- An Aesop: Don't make promises you may not be able to follow up on.
- Animate Dead: Hilda, David and Frida intentionally summon the ghost of Craigie Williams, who in turn summons his sister Engilbjort, who challenges Frida to a wrestling match, waking up the other inhabitants of the graveyard who want to watch the fight.
- Bathtub Scene: After returning empty handed from their nighttime adventure in the graveyard, Hilda is seen taking a bath, feeling bad she was unable to help Frida.
- Both Sides Have a Point: During the argument at the end of the episode, Frida is understandably peeved about not getting the book back, despite all of their efforts to do so. When Hilda tries to cheer her up, Frida tells her that she’s fed up with both her and David reinforcing their escapades, while also rightfully pointing out that David kept making fun of her messiness throughout the entire episode. However, Hilda gets defensive after being backlashes by Frida, pointing out that she at least tried her hardest to keep her promises (and probably would‘ve done so had the ghost not cheated at the end of the wrestling match) and that she doesn’t need to get this worked up solely for not being perfect. Even when David points out that she could’ve cleaned her own room to prevent all of this, Hilda acknowledges him.
- Captain Obvious: David in the library, twice in the same scene:
Librarian: Was it an old book?
Frida: Yes! It was an antique. Must be a hundred years old. Inside the cover, someone had written "This book belongs to Craigie Williams".
David: Probably Craigie Williams!
Frida: Yes, I know. I always wondered what became of him.
David: Sounds like he died.
Frida: Yes, I know.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted; Engilbjort cheats during the wrestling match by using her ghost abilities against her three human opponents. The first time she’s called out on it, but the second time she successfully uses it to win the match, forcing Hilda to try and get the book back some other way.
- Chekhov's Skill: Frida makes use of her wrestling skills against the ghosts, which earned her a scout badge and were used to overpower David during their brief fight. Unfortunately, they're not enough to beat them.
- Class Representative: Frida is running for class president this episode.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Frida honestly believed it was normal for bedrooms to magically get clean and neat overnight, since it always happened to her. David and Hilda make her realize that’s not how it works. David even mocks her for it, much to her chagrin.
- Continuity Nod: Hilda brings up the events where she and Frida helped David with the Troll Rock and the Marra, to make it clear to him why he should help Frida now.
- When Frida argues with Hilda about her being a bad friend, Frida mentions that Hilda keeps dragging her and David into such dangerous situations. Indirectly mentioning the Vittra incident, the Marra trapping, and the Bragga confrontation.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
David: (To Frida) You could just learn to tidy your own flipping room! (Closes the door).
Hilda: (Opens the door) He's not wrong.
- Downer Ending: Not only does the search for Frida's book amount to nothing more than a wild goose chase, but Hilda and David's friendship with Frida winds up severely strained, if not outright severed, as a result of her lashing out at them.
- Drama Bomb: The brunt of the episode focuses on Hilda, David, and Frida's friendship imploding in on itself, and it's not wholly resolved until the last episode of the season.
- Early-Bird Cameo: At the end of the episode, we get to see a Nisse for the first time. But we won't find out what he is till episode 12.
- Epic Fail: Played for Drama. At seems as if Engilbjort's returned the book the kids have been looking for... until it's revealed that it's a different book from the aforementioned missing one, thus rendering their high-risk raising of the dead and the subsequent wrestling match pointless.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Frida makes the assumption that rooms usually clean themselves overnight when she makes a mess, as she usually wakes up to find it tidy again. The confused look on her friends' faces make her realize that's not how rooms work at all. Someone or something was cleaning up her room, but she never questioned about it until that day.
- Fair-Play Villain: The ghosts value a fair fight when wrestling. When Engilbjort uses her ghost powers to escape Hilda, Frida and David, the others chew her out for it. It doesn’t stop her from winning through cheating a second time though.
- Foreshadowing:
- The little gnome-like creature we see at the end. It's not until episode 12 when we learn what it is.
- While they are tidying Frida's room, the latter is shown having trouble to put her statue correctly, hinting that she never cleaned her room before.
- Hard-Work Montage: We see one of Hilda and Frida in the latter's room, and David getting his dad's old video camera (and a TV to go with it). The montage clearly shows Hilda and David doing most of the work.
- Implausible Deniability: The librarian tries to deny that she memorized the entire layout of the graveyard, even though she just told Hilda exactly where they could find Craigie Williams grave. She quickly grabs a book to see where the grave of Craigie Williams is, comes up with the same number she mentioned earlier, and dismisses Hilda’s claims she had already given them the right information.
- Jerkass Ball: Frida firmly grabs it this episode; she tries to make Hilda and David believe a ghost is responsible for the mess in her room, when it's actually her own doing and till recently a ghost used to clean it up. She lets her friends do pretty much all the work when they help to clean up her room. She gets into two fights with David when he makes fun of her belief that rooms cleaning themselves is normal, and tells her she should accept not being perfect. Finally, when their attempts to get the missing book back fail and David and Hilda try to cheer her up, she lashes out at both of them, eventually driving both her friends away.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- David makes fun of Frida when she assumed rooms like hers usually pick up after themselves. While he gets into a brief fight with her, leading to Hilda breaking it up, Frida is often considered to be the smartest and most rational in the group.
- At the end of the episode, following Hilda out of Frida's room after another fight, David coldly tells Frida that she should learn to clean up after herself instead of relying on others. It ticks her off, but as Hilda points out, he is completely right.
- Frida rejects Hilda trying to cheer her up when they fail to get her book back. Then again, it was pretty understandable why she felt that way, since their ordeal with the ghosts was indeed terrifying and amounted to nothing in the end. Not to mention she is right that Hilda tends to drag them into dangerous situations (intentionally or not).
- Kick the Dog: As Hilda is leaving, she tells Frida that she was sorry she ever tried to help. Frida replies back that she is sorry that Hilda even moved to Trolberg. That causes Hilda to stop in her tracks and let out a small gasp, looking clearly hurt by what Frida had just said.
- My God, What Have I Done?: If Frida lying down back to her bed with a sad look on her face after driving Hilda and David away could be an indication...
- Nervous Wreck: Frida slowly becomes one due to her room being a mess, which leads to all her schedules becoming messy as well. Her map of charts falls apart, she can’t answer questions potential voters ask her, and she accidently gave her teacher last week’s homework.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thanks to Frida's poor choice of words, David and Hilda's friendship with her is severly strained, much to Frida's sadness.
- Not Helping Your Case:
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghosts in this show look like transparent, humanoid creatures, with their skeletal remains visible inside them and glowing eyes. When they try to pass through a wall or other solid object, only their transparent self and skull go through while the rest of the skeleton remains outside. Hilda eventually uses this against Engilbjort by lying down on her grave so her bones can’t get back in the ground.
- The Perfectionist: Frida, to the point that realizing she is not perfect turns her into a nervous wreck.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Frida lashes out at Hilda and David when they pity her, leading to an argument between Hilda and Frida over their own shortcomings. It results in Hilda and David leaving Frida.
- Poltergeist: Hilda thinks they are dealing with one when Frida tells her that her room was in its messy state when she woke up that morning. It's a red herring however.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Hilda is finally fed up with Frida's attitude, the two girls start calling each other out on their shortcomings, with Hilda pointing out how hard she makes it to be her friend with her high demands, while Frida points out how Hilda keeps dragging her into dangerous situations.
- Runic Magic: The librarian gives Hilda a rune stick to summon ghosts with.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After all the trouble the three friends go through to get Frida's (and Craigie's) book back from Engilbjort, it's eventually revealed she never took it; she stole a different book.
- Serious Business: The reason why the plot is kickstarted and the fallout between Frida and her friends happened is because Frida never learn how to clean her own room without the ghost's help.
- Sibling Rivalry: Turns out Craigie didn’t take his old book back from Frida; his sister Engilbjort did. When her ghost is also summoned, she and Craigie get into a heated argument.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Nisse in Frida's house; the cameo at the end of this episode is all the screen time he gets this seasonnote He next appears in Season 3 Chapter 7., but him taking Frida's book set in motion the events of this entire episode, the aftermath of which will impact the rest of the season.
- Stating the Simple Solution: After the fallout, David calls Frida out by telling her she could just learn how to keep tidy her room. Hilda agrees with him.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Frida is a very proficient wrestler, and indeed she actually manages to get the ghost of Engilbjort in a military press... only to be instantly flattened and pinned under the weight of the much larger adult that she just attempted to pick up.
- Together in Death: Discussed; the librarian points out ghosts are more likely to look for personal objects from their lives than visit loved ones, since those loved ones will eventually die as well and then they will be together again.
- Trash of the Titans: Frida's room is quite a mess when Hilda and David arrive, and is revealed to frequently look like this before the ghost cleans it up.
- We Used to Be Friends: Frida ends up torpedoing her friendship with Hilda and David after the search for the book ends in complete failure.
- Wham Episode:
- David and Hilda's growing friendship with Frida is tested, when the former questions whether David and Hilda are horrible friends or not.
- At the end of the episode, as expected, Frida's friendship with David and Hilda is seemingly damaged beyond repair, and last we see is that the missing book was taken by a little gnome-like creature (revealed to be a Nisse in Episode 12).
- Wrestler in All of Us: Frida reveals early in the episode that she has the Sparrow Scouts' wrestling badge, hence why she easily defeats David. It seemingly becomes a Chekhov's Gun when during the climax it's revealed disputes with ghosts are always settled with a wrestling match, however Frida ends up losing the fight.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Frida begins to question everything about herself since she wasn't as tidy as she thought, Hilda points out that she still earned her Sparrow Scout badges and good grades entirely on her own, without the help of a ghost.
