I dunno if these are recaps. Or reviews. They’re my my feels so that’s what I’m going to call them. Hannibal Feels.
This is the episode I’ve been waiting for all season. Finally we get to see more of Hannibal in his natural state. Most of what we’ve seen on him has been in the context of others. We’ve gotten some glimpses of Hannibal’s personal life, we’ve seen the patient that we met in the first episode. You know, the larger one with the used tissue you thought wasn’t going to make it out of the office? Yeah, he’s back and is at the opera apparently kind of stalking Hannibal.
Not in an overly aggressive way, but his patient obviously wants to be friends. Good friends. They have the opera in common. And cheese. And apparently stalking. Hannibal gently reminds him that it would be an unbalanced friendship since he’s his therapist and Franklin is far too fucking needy, like omg. Not that Hannibal would say that, but you could see it in his eyes.
So, on this subject, I couldn’t help but notice Franklin’s super hot friend. Granted, part of that was because it was two guys together at the opera, one of whom was eyefucking Hannibal and the other part because I write gay romance and I was thinking, “Wow, that dude is way too hot for Franklin.”
Now, let me first say that in real life, I may subjectively think one partner is more attractive than the other but I don’t make any assumptions. When it’s TV…well there’s usually a reason for casting. I’m just saying this so you don’t cotton on too quickly what a shallow bitch I am. Or at least realize that I would NOT say that out loud in public. ‘Cause I’ve heard, “Wow, your boyfriend is really, really hot. I mean. Wow. I didn’t expect you to have such a hot boyfriend.” “Fuck you too, bitch. Learn to give a good blowie and maybe you could eat a fucking Twinkie once in a while.” Not that I’m bitter.
Anyway.
Preview for “Fromage” appeared to have Franklin’s BFF Tobias trying to strangle Will. And something, maybe a recognition….appeared to pass between Hannibal and Tobias, though… Tobias seemed to be clocking Hannibal really hard. Later Franklin talks about how he’s Tobias’s best friend but Tobias doesn’t return the feeling. Hmm….
So anyway, socialite lady bugs Hannibal to have her for dinner. He throws the best dinner parties. I’m going to be suspicious from now on of anyone who’s that into organ meat. Sorry ‘bout it.
Jack is still haunted by Miriam’s severed arm and what happened to her. He worries about the same thing happening to Will. That doesn’t stop him, but it’s in his dreams anyway.
There is a new murderer in town! Someone is harvesting organs but Will is very certain that it is definitely not the Ripper. He makes the point that the killer of the man in the bathtub tried to rescue the dead man. Also, the killer wasn’t trying to humiliate the victim. The humiliation of the Ripper’s victim is very important to Will but he doesn’t seem to realize that the “pig” reference he made to the random copycat of the Shrike is the same he’s making now. Different context and Will is coming apart at the seams anyway. He’ll look back on that oversight and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.
The conclusion Will comes to about the new killer was that he was harvesting organs, which, harvesting for food or reuse is, admittedly, a subtle difference. Hannibal capitalizes on this to divert attention from his own signature by muddying the waters for Will. And since Will is spacing out for hours to have elaborate fantasies about elks and Abigail Hobbs, it’s not too difficult to convince him that he could potentially be confused.
There was an interesting theme of companionship going on in this episode. Franklin wants to be friends with Hannibal. Hannibal goes to his therapist (Gillian Anderson!) who is retired but still sees him. She calls him out for being in a person suit (which is sort of funny given Jame Gumm later but…) and mentions that he must be lonely. Hannibal claims to have friends, says that he is friendly with her. Maybe this is him trying to warm up, or maybe because he’s known her so long and she obviously understands that he is not what he presents, or maybe he wants to know how and where to draw the line on therapist/patient friendships. She doesn’t judge him for his person suit, but she does not consider them friends. After the session ends, she offers wine, he asks for pink.
And it’s pink wine he is drinking in his office when Will comes. He pours Will a glass and they discuss the Ripper. Now, we know that Hannibal wants to have his work distinguished from other serial killers and he knows that Will knows the difference. But, as Hannibal is planning for his dinner party, it doesn’t hurt to have the FBI chasing their tails a little.
The interspersal of Rolodex of businesscards of nasty people and the recipe box made me giggle. Though I did wonder what the IT Consultant said. No. I don’t. IT people aren’t the most socially adept. BUT DON’T EAT OUR BRAINZ, OKAY?
Now, these crime scenes are with Will is talking about. He leaves an insurance guy sitting across from himself in a bus. The other investigators chase their tails on how the Ripper is shipping and selling body parts while Hannibal prepares dinner. And shows Alana Bloom the beer he brewed for her in a wine barrel. Now, she apparently has a really good palette and she’s helping him to prepare dinner. Would she know that’s not rabbit?
They seem to have a somewhat quiet non fight about Will. She wants everyone to back off and leave Will alone. He wonders why she kept him so secret. There is a hint about an earlier affair between Hannibal and…someone. Or something. It reminds me of the previous episode where Freddy Lounds points out that they are all in occupations that attract psychopaths.
Hannibal’s murder spree leaves them all confused. You can’t transplant intestines! And I count at least 4 bodies which is at least one more (I’m no math major) than the Ripper’s usual. So 3 for Hannibal, 2 for the new guy. Will is very clear it’s two killers.
Franklin returns to talk about cheese and lament that Tobias isn’t as good a friend as he could be because he doesn’t eat cheese. So, I had to nip off and find out if Franklin was a canon character in the books because he seems familiar. This is by design:
“So what we did in the arc that we had for Benjamin Raspail and Jame Gumb in the first season, we did a different story about a patient of Hannibal Lecter’s who had ties to a serial killer in a unique way. Instead of Benjamin Raspail, we did Franklin Froideveaux — Benjamin Franklin and then Froideveaux is a street that runs parallel to Raspail in Paris. So we were acknowledging in some way that’s the role that we were filling in this season, with those characters and that story you’re going to see.” – Bryan Fuller.
They get in touch with the dull ache of loneliness and then Will stands Hannibal up for his appointment. It’s probably unprofessional to go running after Will, but he’s motherfucking Hannibal Lecter. Now, it could be that Will has figured Hannibal out and is mounting an approach to arrest him. Or Will is just sitting around in his classroom fantasizing about being Abigail Hobbs’s daddy. Hannibal has a look at the crime scene photos. he seems pleased that Will understands the public shaming aspect of his work. Will seems a little surprised that Hannibal gets the difference and backs away a little. Hannibal gets confirmation that his arm-poke at Jack with Miram’s appendage is tingling because it’s working.
In the meantime Beverly Katz has been detectiving and has found us our EMT professional who is selling organs, using an ambulance to perform the surgeries in. Since Lecter is with them, he is able to patch up the poor donor dude who was being butchered. Will realizes there’s things about his friend he doesn’t know. Like that he can put kidneys back in.
Before Hannibal’s big dinner party, Will brings him a bottle of wine but declines to attend. He claims to have a date with the Ripper but obvs not. Hannibal admits to being an ER surgeon (another psychopath job!) and that he quit because he killed someone. Or at least one too many people. Will can relate to this. The matter appears settled.
And with much applause, dinner is served.
OK so. MANY feels. This series is appropriately titled. I agree with pretty much all this, as I knew I would, but I enjoyed knowing that extra bit about Franklin. The choices being made seem routinely inspired, which pleases me and bodes well for future seasons.
You seem to cotton to many details I miss, but that’s why I read these posts. It helps me assemble my many feels, kinda like Talking Dead. Speaking of which…
I evangelized about Hannibal to the checker at the grocery store… I was wearing my Daryl Dixon t-shirt, and she was all “OMG DARYL” and I was like “gurl” and she was like “WALKING DEAD OMG” and I was like “gurl” and she was like “what else do you watch?” and I said “HANNIBALLLLLS.” So there you go. I’m clearly attracted to shows with a high body count.
I’m kind of surprised how well I remember the book since I read it so long ago. But, that’s the advantage of sounding out your words while you read, I guess. I do want to reread Red Dragon. There are things that sort of sound familiar and I nip off to Wikipedia to clarify my memory and this does echo Benjamin Raspail. But you know how good with names I am, so I had to go look it up and found the quote. “Aha!”