Hannibal Feels: Savoureux

OMGWTF WHAT ABOUT SECOND OPINIONS ON BRAIN SCANS, FBI? and I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING GOING ON WITH THOSE LURES, HANNIBAL DOESN’T JUST MESS WITH LURES FOR THE LOLZ. and also I NEED AN ADULT!

@BryanFuller is going to have to write a note for why I can't go to work tomorrow. 🙁

— ✴️Clancy Nacht 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@clancynacht) June 21, 2013

I didn’t receive a note, so here I am, at work, full of feels and no shock blanket. Just a slightly extended lunch that no one will notice because today, of all days, is bring your kid to work day (and apparently asking them to borrow their parents car to pick up your lunch is frowned upon when they’re not old enough to drive. why, in my day we stole cars uphill in the snow both ways!)

We all kinda knew it was coming down to this. Will Graham was never going to be the puppy toy that Hannibal was hoping for. Not that he’s given up on this idea, necessarily. I mean, he says he’s going to quit it and Bedelia says he’d better quit it, but you can tell he still wants to tap that. It is the ultimate cat and mouse game and much more intriguing than ambushing people to eat them (though that’s fun, too.)

Here’s how it went down, more or less.

Will Graham has a dream of hunting. He’s chasing his stag, but then it’s a Wendigo and it is wounded. He wakes up in a sweat, hands and feet dirty and apparently whatever party he was having was so good, there’s a spare ear in the sink. So natch, he calls Hannibal, who does an award-winning imitation of shock and disgust. “An ear, you say? And you don’t remember where you left your Abigail? This isn’t good, Will. Not good at all.”

They arrest Will in front of his Winston, who looks very disappointed.

Will knows-doesn’t-know that he didn’t kill Abigail, but the evidence is pretty irrefutable. Even Beverly Katz is like, “Cannot unsee what I’m getting out of your nails, guy.” But not even Bev can un-prove what Will doesn’t remember and he’s so wrapped around the axel, he’s thinking maybe it could’ve happened.

Jack breaks down how it could’ve happened to Alana including defensive wounds and she says what I was thinking. “Shut up!” They fight over who saw Will breaking first and Jack’s ultimate defense is, “He was saving lives!” Which yeah and… well… yeah. She points out that Will’s dementia is a symptom and Jack says, “Well he had a brain scan.” SECOND OPINION, K? “Maybe Will did what Garret Jacob Hobbs couldn’t…”

After Alana has her breakdown, she goes to talk to Will. She obviously feels a lot for him in general but where I decided she was the best was when she said she would take care of his dogs. That is love, people, ‘cause that’s a lot of dogs.

Then she starts trying to diagnose him and asks him to draw a clock. This plot point becomes both the source of hope and ultimately, is twisted into a potential condemnation. Because, guess what? Hannibal’s been playing the long game on this and he has a nice forged clock to show Alana so he can say, “What? He seemed delusional but his clock was totally normal.” Note I said clock because in fanfiction, everyone would be looking at his cock and… yeah going to have to write that now. Anyway.

Hannibal sheds real live tears and there isn’t much doubt that they’re real, just what they’re for are different than one might expect. He isn’t exactly a psychopath, so he mourns Abigail’s loss. I truly believe he does. And maybe on some level he does blame Will for having to kill her, but he says he hasn’t given up on Will. And I don’t think he has. Just, you know, he’s not done breaking him yet. Because I truly think that what Hannibal wants is a companion, one who likes him and understands him and Will is very stubbornly not becoming the serial killer that Hannibal wants him to be.

The one he set him up to be. So, I knew there was something going on with those fishing lures. Now we know what it is. Hannibal was weaving in “trophies” from those extra bonus murders he did to help Will understand some of the killers he was tracking. Now, probably in Hannibal’s mind, those are Will’s kills because they are outside of Hannibal’s usual practice and were kinda gifts. You know, like when your cat brings you a dead mouse? But fortunately for me, my cats aren’t playing a long game to break me (I don’t think….)

Jack confronts Will with his fishing lures…and the fact that there were remains of people Will knows damn well he didn’t kill. “I wasn’t sick when Cassie Boyle was murdered…” While Jack doesn’t find this a compelling argument, it wakes Will up to the fact that the whole thing is a set up.

Now to some, that may seem like Hannibal’s mistake. Will seems to think it was Hannibal pushing too far. But the end game for Hannibal wasn’t simply to make Will believe he’s crazy. That’s fun for a while, sure, but making someone feel crazy versus breaking them entirely so you can remake them how you like…that would just be laying the foundation. I’m so excited that this seems to be where this show is going. It’s what I was hoping to see.

Jack arrests Will and sends him packing in an ambulance. Will knows from Gideon how to escape from that, and he does. Alana, Jack, and Hannibal meet and they compare clocks. In one, Alana guesses that Will may have autoimmune encephalitis, which garners her a sour look from Hannibal. She’s smart. That could be a threat to his plans.

Then Jack questions the jump Will made in the Hobbs case, hypothesizes that Will was the one who called Hobbs to warn him and asks if Will could’ve faked his hard clock for Alana. Okay that was forced. Whatever.

Will shows up in Hannibal’s library. There’s a scene that was cut where apparently Will visited Alana (and his dogs) and I think that’s what they’re referring to in saying that he’s frightened Alana but maybe the implication is meant to be that Will was chillin’ up there through the meeting and then day turned to night before Hannibal said anything to Will hiding up there.

Pretty much Will’s figured out he’s not the killer. Hannibal makes a dutiful attempt to remind Will that he’s kinda crazy and should doubt his own mind, but I think if Will had been that easy to manipulate, Hannibal would’ve been disappointed. They talk through the murders and Hannibal gives Will what his possible motives would’ve been and Will plays along, but he’s not convinced. He wants to go to Minnesota, because if he did this thing, he figures it should be pretty easy to channel himself. If nothing else, one last roadtrip with his BFF should be good, right? Right? Oh right.

There was no watch on Hannibal which seems pretty sloppy of the FBI who clearly knew that Will was on the loose. I mean, really? So anyway, they figure out pretty quick that Hannibal is missing and Jack apparently hightails it to Abigail’s house in Minnesota.

Which is exactly where Will and Hannibal are. Will is stepping through the memories. Abigail straight up said, “You be the man on the phone” to Hannibal right in front of Will and finally Will gets it. I bet he’s just kicking himself!

So we find out that Abigail wound up with her throat cut after all, but her body is still missing.** Hannibal gamely tries to make Will feel like maybe he was possessed by Hobbs after all, but you get the feeling he’s going through the motions. “If you followed the urges you kept down for so long, cultivated them as the inspirations as they are, you would’ve become someone other than you are.” That was as much accusation as advice. If only he’d complied!

Will realizes, though, that he’s not sure he knows who Hannibal is, which causes a little bit of a smile, because now Will has leveled up in the game. Will isn’t just broken and easily manipulated. He’s puzzled it out. Hannibal knows it’s pretty unlikely that Will would just out and out shoot him dead. Even if Jack hadn’t shown up, Hannibal isn’t presenting a clear and present danger and that would be straight up, stone cold murderating. But we’ll never know if he would’ve really pulled the trigger. He was pretty pissed.

Without Jack’s presence, the best that Will could’ve hoped for was that Hannibal might confess to someone. The proof against Will is too airtight and everyone thinks/knows he’s fucking batshitloco that dead!Hannibal and some theories wouldn’t have helped his case anyway. Jack showing up didn’t really save Hannibal. If it saved anyone, it would be Will. Because really, if Hannibal had grown bored with the game or worried in the least that it was going to turn on him, he could’ve just flat out killed Will and that would’ve been the end of the story for him.

But for Jack, this is just more proof of Will being crazy because the scales are still on his eyes. Jack shoots Will in the arm and he winds up against the kitchen counters in the position that Hobbs died in. “See? See?” and Will does see. Hannibal is his Wendigo.

So Will is in the hospital in an induced coma and is being treated finally for his encephalitis. Hannibal and Jack discuss the various ways they feel they’ve failed Will but ultimately Hannibal says neither of them are to blame and while Jack doesn’t outwardly appear to buy it, you know he will because he always goes with the opinion that best suits him.

Bedelia and Hannibal enjoy some veal. (**oh so that’s where the body went. not a pig, but honor every part, right?) He watches her carefully to see that she eats the veal and she apparently refuses invitations to his table. Hmm…. She tells him to quit it with Will. Just stop it already. This isn’t a good game for you. Your patterns of violent patients going more violent is showing. Good advice. And…so she kinda knows he set her up? She seems to also get that he likes playing with people, she probably even realizes he’s playing her, but how much does she really know? Perhaps a question we’ll get an answer to next season.

Then the final scene. Down to the music a reenactment of the movie Hannibal only it’s Will in the cell. From my understanding, Fuller has planned this storyline out to 7 seasons to complete with 4 being Red Dragon. So there are two season between then and I wonder if next season will be Will in the place of Hannibal consulting on crimes from behind bars a la “Red Dragon” and “Silence of the Lambs.” All the while trying to gather evidence to free himself and catch Hannibal.

So, round one definitely goes to Hannibal. Will has leveled up to a new challenge and Hannibal has to both dodge Will but also maybe try to continue playing this game–to break him down so that he can rebuild him as he wants him. If he can.

EPISODE 1 OF #HANNIBAL SEASON 2 IS TITLED "KAISEKI"

— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) June 21, 2013