Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Hound’s Hill,’ Mikolaj Glowacki returns home for his father’s birthday, only to be drawn back into the ghosts of the past that he thought he had left behind. The story begins on his father Tomaz’s birthday. Having recently suffered a heart attack, which almost killed him, Tomasz is now preparing to take over the corruption in the town by stopping the mayor from tearing down a building that is home to many people. However, he has a very difficult fight ahead because the mayor is involved, and the people backing the project are extremely rich. Moreover, a series of tragic events also start to happen as one person after another starts to go missing.
In between this, Mikolaj receives a cryptic postcard, which hints at something terrible he did in the past. It relates to the night his girlfriend, Daria, was killed. Her brother, Sebastian, was arrested and convicted of the crime, even when all the evidence pointed otherwise. Sebastian, who has an intellectual disability, sees the world differently than others, which is why he is not able to defend himself and spends the rest of his life in an asylum. He kills himself shortly after Mikolaj shows up to meet him, and his death raises even more questions.
At the same time, Mikolaj’s wife, Justyna, who is an accomplished journalist, becomes interested in the town’s politics. She decides to help Tomasz with his quest against the corrupt government, but slowly, she starts to peel away at the situation and discovers a horrible truth at the center of it all. Everything comes down to Daria’s murder, and in the end, the truth is too shocking for Mikolaj and Justyna to make peace with it. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Who Killed Daria?
Eighteen years ago, Daria was found raped and brutally beaten at an isolated place in the town. Because Sebastian was the only one around, he was the only suspect. His disability also made him an easier target, and the prejudice against him allowed people to believe that he could hurt his own sister, even though he was never known to be violent and was a pretty docile and kind person. It isn’t until much later that we discover that on the night of the murder, he had been drugged. He went to the underground club with Mikolaj and his friends, Jarecki, Macius, and Bernat, where they gave him LSD. When Daria found her brother tripping, she decided to take him home. When they were still on the way, Jarecki, Macius, and Bernat found them.
The trio saw their opportunity, and they took away Daria, leaving Sebastian, who was still tripping, alone. However, he sensed that something wrong was happening to his sister and he went looking for her. By the time he found her, she had been raped by the three men, and Macius had hit her with a rock so many times that she died on the spot. When Sebastian showed up on the scene, the trio got scared that he would tell everyone what they had done. They left the spot, and because Sebastian was still on acid, they thought that it would be easier to discredit him. And they turned out to be right. The next day, the cops found the body and Sebastian next to it, and the poor guy was framed for his beloved sister’s murder.
Who Killed Filip Bernat and His Son, Marek? What Happened to Jarecki, Macius, and the Priest?
While they may have gotten away with the murder, the trio couldn’t still their conscience. Believing that a confession to the priest would cleanse them in the eyes of the Lord, they told everything to Father Bernat, who happened to be Marek’s uncle. Because of this relationship and the fact that he was supposed to keep the confessions confidential, the priest decided not to tell anyone, even when he saw Sebastian taking the fall for everything. However, as time passed, his own conscience grew heavy on him, and the worst thing was that he couldn’t talk about it to anyone. And then, one day, Tomasz had a heart attack.
Tomasz’s condition was so bad that it seemed he would never recover from the heart attack. The priest, too, thought that he was going to die. Because Tomasz was known for being a good man who stood up for the weak and helped everyone, the priest saw him as someone to whom he could confess his guilt. Moreover, with Tomasz on his deathbed, his confession would never come to light. So, when he thought Tomasz was unconscious, he whispered the entire thing in his ear, not realizing that Tomasz was conscious at the time. Moreover, the man survived the ordeal and remembered the whole thing. And now that he knew the truth, he knew that he had to exact justice, which wouldn’t come otherwise.
When Tomasz discovered his own son’s culpability in the matter, at least in giving Sebastian LSD, he and the rest of the family distanced themselves from him. This is why when he shows up at his father’s birthday, no one is happy to see him, and things are extremely awkward. What Mikolaj didn’t know is that his father knew about the LSD as well as the rape and murder that happened next. Not only this, he had already put his plan in motion, and Marek Bernat had already been put to justice. He was known to have oscillated between Poland and London and was already at such a distance from his family that his disappearances went unnoticed. They thought no one would find out about his murder, but then Filip came into the picture. He had already been a sore point for Tomasz because he was ready to give up his land to the mayor to push her project forward. Not only this, he went back on his deal with the Romani, who were just as shocked about the whole thing as the next person.
Filip’s death was collateral in Tomasz’s plans, but it worked out rather well. Once the father-son duo was dealt with, Tomasz turned his attention towards Jarecki and Macius, along with the priest who had kept their secret for so long. What makes things interesting is that Tomasz wasn’t alone in all this. His elder son was with him all along, and so were several other men of the town whom Tomasz trusted enough to plan revenge and murder with them. In the end, when Mikolaj displayed his strong desire to know the truth, he, too, was brought in and shown the whole truth. With the entire picture of that night in front of him, Mikolaj follows in his father’s footsteps, takes justice into his own hands, and shoots Macius to death.
Do Mikolaj and Justyna Break Up? Does He End Up With Kaska?
Considering the corruption within the system, Tomasz didn’t expect to get any justice from the cops, but what he didn’t realize is that the cop in question already knew what was going on. He had suspected things right from the start, which is precisely why he so actively sabotaged any investigation into the murders and disappearances brought in front of him. The important thing was that he knew that the three men who were targeted by Tomasz were the real murderers and should have been caught years ago if he had paid more attention to the case and not simply agreed, like everyone else, that Sebastian killed his sister. He wanted to right the wrong, so he let justice take its course in the form of Tomasz’s vengeful, murderous streak.
What no one expected was Justyna and her relentless pursuit of truth. She is the first one outside the circle to point out that perhaps someone is abducting the people who drugged Sebastian the night Daria was killed. To get her out of the way, Tomasz tries to get her to Warsaw, but she sees the signs and decides to investigate them. When the whole truth is out and all the bad guys have been brought to justice, Tomasz lets her go. He knows that she could go around and tell everyone the truth, but who would believe her word against Tomasz’s, who was the pillar of the community and loved by everyone? As expected, she writes the story about the corruption but says nothing about the murders.
Overall, things end up rather well for Justyna, as she even wins an award for her story. However, the knowledge of the truth still haunts her. What makes it worse is that she still loves Mikolaj even though she couldn’t reconcile with the fact that he had murdered someone right in front of her. This is where their relationship completely breaks down, considering that it had already been hanging by a thread, especially after Mikolaj found out about Justyna cheating on him with her editor. Three months later, when she is back in Warsaw accepting her award, she is with the editor while Mikolaj is back home, suggesting that their marriage is done for good.
What makes things more interesting is that Mikolaj is now with Daria’s sister, Kaska. She was the one who sent him the postcards, challenging his version of events as portrayed in the book. Over the course of his rediscovery of self and the truth, she and Kaska get close to each other. In the end, when Mikolaj knows the truth and kills Macius, it is seen as a path to his redemption. He and Kaska get closer to each other and are in a relationship three months later. However, this doesn’t mean that they receive a happy ending.
Mikolaj Meets a Tragic Fate
It is one thing to know the truth and entirely different to make peace with it. All these years, Mikolaj had struggled with the fact that he was one of the people who gave Sebastian LSD that night. When Sebastian was found to be the murderer, Mikolaj blamed himself for it, even wondering what would have happened had he followed the duo that night. He thinks he could have prevented the whole thing, and this possibility eats away at him, throwing him into the spiral of addiction that he barely comes out of alive. In the end, Mikolaj finds the truth and even kills the man who landed the fatal blow to Daria, but even that doesn’t quell his conscience.
Three months after the whole thing, the town celebrates as a new mayor is appointed, and people finally have hope again. Tomasz is the de facto leader who is working to bring everyone together by hook or by crook, and he is happy to have Mikolaj by his side for all of this. To his credit, Mikolaj seems entirely dedicated to his father’s cause, but that doesn’t mean he is all right. In the last scene, we get a glimpse of him lying next to the toilet seat, having injected him with drugs. At first, one might see it as his descent into a spiral that he thought he’d left behind. But a keener look at him reveals that he is already at the end of it.
From the look in his eye, he seems more dead than unconscious, which suggests that he has overdosed. The fact that he sees Daria’s ghost before this shows that he never really let go of the guilt and grief, and what happened to Daria continues to haunt him, even after she has been avenged. What makes it worse, perhaps, is the fact that he is now in a relationship with Daria’s sister, which exacerbates his guilt because he still feels responsible for everything that happened about two decades ago. At the same time, he is also reeling from the breakup with Justyna, and while things may not have ended well between them, they did love each other. All of this takes a toll on Mikolaj, and he cannot make peace with it. So, as the town prepares to turn a new chapter, Mikolaj gives in to his vices and overdoses.
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