'Home Before Dark' stresses 'The Future is Female' through a woman of color's triumph over workplace sexism
Spoilers for 'Home Before Dark' Season 1 Episode 8 'The Future is Female'
In her pursuit to solve the mystery behind her father's best friend Richie Fife's disappearance, Hilde Lisko (Brooklynn Prince) braves a lot of backlashes, bullying, and criticism that would easily crush anybody's spirit, let alone a nine-year-old. But little Hilde — inspired by the journalistic aptitude of the real-life Hilde Lysiak — is mature beyond her age. She dusts herself off and not only channels all of her into solving the cold murder case, but also helps deputy Trip Johnson (Aziza Scott) from the local sheriff department to snub workplace sexism and racial bias and become the true definition of 'The Future is Female'.
Hilde and Trip's partnership begins quite early on in the show, as Hilde shows up at the local sheriff's department demanding her for police records related to the recent murder of a local woman. When the older cops try to patronize Hilde by patting her head and then Trip by passing a sexist remark about sitting at the desk, Trip decides to give in to the nine-year-old's demands. It is at that point that Hilde says, "I hate when they touch my hair too" and it's obvious that these two ladies aren't going to put up with any of that.
From that point on, Trip is Hilde's source at the sheriff's station; she runs checks, follows leads and even provides Hilde with classified records. Trip's active efforts for Hilde's investigation leads her to trespass beyond her job description, to the point where she is proven to be lying in her testimony during a hearing. This causes Trip to almost lose her job, and be bullied by her boss — the shifty sheriff of Erie Harbour who will do anything to hinder justice just because it questions his work ethics.
So when Hilde comes at a crossroads where she is told nobody but the sheriff can do what she's asking, she simply asks for a form to run for the sheriff's office and gets the minimum of 100 signatures required to enlist a candidate running for the sheriff's office. Hilde canvasses by walking around first to her school's senior lounge, and later at the local retirement home and does end up getting the required signatures before walking down to the station with Trip and submitting them to the receptionist who had asked her to get the signatures. In return, she gives them two badges that read the titular 'The Future is Female' in Episode 8, and that ages really well at the very end, when Trip wins by a decent majority beating the sheriff's son himself.
Trip's journey is that of a woman of color trying to survive in a primarily male-dominated workplace as she tackles casual racism, sexism, and ample bias, along with suffering harsh consequences for telling the truth. So for her to come out with such flying colors at the end of the episode is really one of the small, yet defining wins Hilde has in the series.
'Home Before Dark' premieres with all 10 episodes on Friday, April 3, only on Apple TV+.