Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1 recap: Not Giving Up

The following article contains spoilers for Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1.

Home Before Dark is finally back and the second season premiere kicks off with a brand new mystery taking over Eerie Harbor. Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1 begins with a nightmare sequence that has apparently been plaguing Hilde for almost a year, ever since they pulled that empty truck out of the lake.

Since then, Hilde has had a recurring dream that she and her dad, Matthew Lisko, would one day find Richie Fife. Except in real life, Matt and Bridget Lisko are hopeful that Hilde will finally put this mystery behind her and start being a regular kid. Good luck with that guys. If anything, Hilde just goes even deeper into the mysteries awaiting in Eerie Harbor.

The Magic Hour Chronicle is still alive and kicking. Hilde wants to know what happened to Richie. Matt and Bridget suggest that if he left town, he’s probably read the story by now since Hilde’s article was published in the New York Times and syndicated on the national news. Maybe he’s happy in his new life and doesn’t want to come back.

Or maybe there is something more sinister at play, something that has to do with a mysterious company called Wott Management.

Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1 recap: Hilde is rattled by a mysterious explosion in town.

Not only does Hilde’s recurring nightmare wake her up, but she hears a strange explosion from somewhere in town. Because no one reports on the sudden 2:00 a.m. noise, Hilde is forced to do some investigating of her own. Newly-elected Sheriff Trip Johnson can’t be Hilde’s source anymore.

Since everything that happened with Sheriff Briggs, Detective Rutherford has been positioned in town to keep a watchful eye over the cops. Meaning Trip can’t afford to make any missteps or she could be out of a job, and that would undo everything she and Hilde worked so hard to achieve in the first season.

However, Trip does let it slip that the explosion came from her father, Junior Johnson’s (Scott Lawrence), farm. Junior thinks this company, Wott Management, blew a transformer on his farm because he’s refused to sell his land to them. After further inspection, Hilde, Donnie and Spoon start to wonder if the company wants the Johnson family’s land because it’s also close to a historic manor called the Catherine Woodruff House.

The Johnson family has owned a dairy farm outside of town for years, and although they don’t use it for much, Junior still keeps it running as a glorified animal rescue. He has no intention of selling it because of their deep family ties to the area. Well, a few months before the episode starts, this Wott Management tried to buy it, maybe to build on it. Despite the money they’re offering, way above market, Junior doesn’t want to sell his farm, ever.

Hilde connects the Johnson’s with her mother, as Bridget is finally set up in her own law office in town. Unfortunately, if Wott Management is a government contractor, they could use eminent domain to throw the Johnsons off of their land. But Bridget promises to do what she can to help them.

Wanting to learn more about Wott Management, Hilde, Donnie and Spoon go to the school’s library as their internet search brings up nothing. There they meet the new librarian, Carol’s replacement, an eager young guy who is a fan of Hilde’s newspaper and played by Dan Byrd. He points them toward the right books to do some digging.

Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1 recap: What secrets are hidden in the Catherine Woodruff house?

Still, they come up empty. The next best bet they have is to investigate the Catherine Woodruff house to see if anything there might link to Wott. Luckily, they get the perfect opportunity to do so as Izzy gets a personal invitation to attend Jessica Fife’s Coachella-themed sweet sixteen, to be healed at, you guessed it, the manor.

Speaking of Jessica and Izzy, Izzy casually mentions that she’s struggling to fit in during her first year of high school as Ethan is no longer around, at least for now. If you remember, at the end of Season 1, he told Izzy his parents were separating and he decided to go live with his mom in San Francisco.

Based on Izzy’s newfound friendship with former bully/enemy Jessica, (Alpha Jessica), I’m wondering if the show intends to explore Izzy’s sexuality this season. That was the vibe I got from their scenes together in Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1.

After helping Izzy pick out an outfit for the party, Hilde, Donnie and Spoon tag along to the event and go snooping in the basement. Beneath the house, Hilde finds a door with what appears to be a symbol for Wott Management and snaps a photograph. Moments later, a bird flies through the window, dying. Across town, Junior also notices a dead bird on his farm.

Terrified, Hilde sprints out of the basement to meet up with Donnie and Spoon. “I don’t think Richie Fife was this town’s only secret,” she says.

When the trio steps outside of the house, they see that the pavement is littered with the bodies of dead birds. Needless to say, something big is definitely happening in Eerie Harbor.

Odds & Ends from Home Before Dark Season 2, Episode 1

• The cabin in the woods the kids were using as their hideout floods, they’ll have to find a new place to bunker down and scheme.
• What are the odds that Izzy can make Sherlock and Carrie references at the drop of the hat but doesn’t know what Pretty in Pink is?
• Matt’s dad/Hilde’s grandfather returns in this episode and moves into the Lisko’s home. During one scene, he pulls out a secret journal stashed in his new room and looks at an old photograph next to a newspaper clipping about an airplane crash. What’s the deal with that?
• Principal Kim Collins is also back this season but it seems like not all the townsfolk are happy she’s still working at the school. Bridget gets accosted on her way to work by a Karen-like woman asking her to sign a petition to get Kim fired for harboring a fugitive.

New episodes of Home Before Dark Season 2 air Fridays on Apple TV+.