Passing binded value not work in custom module.

I am using a custom module to display the description data of an item in my playlist. It works just fine, however, when I try to use a binded value, nothing displays. Is there special code need to handle the following:

If I use htmlText with regular text like "blah blah blah", works fine. When I give it the "{this.description}" above, it shows nothing. htmlText is a simple, bindable, String variable in my module which is then binded to another component. If I replace it with a simple Label, the binded data comes down.

I suspect there is special code needed to handle potential binded data. Is there?