Hannibal Feels: Trou Normand Recap

Because I’m not a professional blogger and have a day job, it takes me a little while to do these and information trickles in while I’m, uh, oh let’s go for the bad pun and say digesting. Despite having two weeks of being masters of the TT on Twitter, the ratings haven’t exactly jumped. But they’re steady and not dropping crazily which for NBC seems like a win. Who knows? I think having shows on the bubble is about all that keeps them in the news for anything other than who in the world Matt Lauer hates, but whatevs. Sounds like there are other networks hungry for a rabid fanbase. So to speak.

Honestly, with the really awesome promo NBC was running during The Voice that said, “Hey, so like Elementary and Scandal are over for now so come see our show no one’s watching!” I was shocked the numbers didn’t pick up. I mean, it’s one thing for me to tweet that to my friends. It’s not compelling advertising. There’s a real difference between saying, “Hey, if you’re hungry I have leftovers in the fridge,” and “I had this awesome meal last night. Sorry you couldn’t be there but I saved some for you in the fridge.” I know, I’m a marketing genius. Someone should hire me.

ANYWAY.

Trou Normand. A palate cleanser. And so we start on a beach with a giant totem pole of body parts crowned with what I worried was Neil Gaiman’s head. He retweeted me once, so I consider me and Neil like bffs now, so I was a little worried. But on closer inspection, it was some other dude entirely. Whew.

As someone who once took a class with Fetish Diva Midori, I consider myself a Shibari expert and I was pleased to see the nice ropework with hemp on the bodies. Nice, tidy, comfortable knot work. Good job. I know most people saw the “jigsaw puzzle” and were all OMG BODYPARTS, THE HUMANITY but it really is the little things in life that bring one joy.

In all there were 17 people identified in the mess. The life work of one serial killer who kinda gets sidelined in the rest of the story. Spoiler alert: It was Bishop! Yeah! From Aliens! Only older! And in a leather chair I guess he couldn’t get out of. In his empty house. Later. I kinda thought it would be him since he’s a pretty major get as a guest star but I was admittedly a little disappointed in the dialog-exposition that was kinda clunky for all of the brilliant direction and artistry going on in the show. But then, to get all of it in with the character development, it would be a two hour show.

As it turns out, Bishop killed his only son, who wasn’t Neil Gaiman so it was tragic for him, but we still get good books. Done and done.

Apparently seeing a 17 body sculpture is upsetting to Will Graham ‘cause after going into killy space where he murders not-Neil-Gaiman, a magic blood drop apparently transports him to Hannibal’s office. Usually this is the magic of television, but this time, he totally spaced on leaving the crime scene and getting there. I’ve had this happen before, too. It was finals week in college and I had a cold, took what I thought was Day Quil but it was NyQuil. Woke up under my desk at the newspaper office. Quite disturbing to miss time but it’s been happening a lot to Will.

Hannibal says, “Gurl. Your job is kind of distressing. Maybe you should quit.”

Will says, “I should totes quit, except then people will die. I’ll talk to Jack.”

Jack says, “You k?”

Will says, “It’s fine! :D” I think this is the first time he’s smiled so you know it’s bad.

Abigail’s back! She’s having a very unhealthy group session with all of the girls her dad killed and then baby Joss Whedon whom she killed personally. Apparently victims of her father sued for wrongful death and will get all proceeds from sales of murder houses. Abigail talks to Freddy Lounds about writing a book so she can clear things up.

When Freddy Lounds is the only one telling you something’s a good idea, it’s probably not a good idea. Hannibal and Will are Very Concerned about the affect that a book will have on her, each for their own reasons. After all, Hannibal helped Abigail get rid of the body of not-Joss-Whedon and why she thinks empathy boy wouldn’t at some point figure out she’s also a killer is kind of a mystery.

Sort of like the mystery of Alana Bloom’s Really Awesome Timing last week which some people thought meant Will was having waking wet dreams about kissing her. But she brings it up in person on neutral ground and they’d have to go a really long way to make all of Alana Bloom a really sexy hallucination, so probably she just has good “Will’s hearing things”-dar as she walks in on him giving a lecture to an empty classroom. In fairness, his lecture hall is really dark.

Dr. Alana Bloom diagnoses Will Graham as “unstable.” Wow. She really is a good doctor.

Will and Hannibal chat with Abigail about her decision to go booky with her story. She tells Will ala Lil’ Poundcake, “YOU’RE NOT MY FATHER AND YOU NEVER WILL BE.” Hannibal comes in with, “You can’t talk to your mother like that.” But she’s a stubborn teenager and knows where the bodies are buried and, I guess, is the one who digs the body of not-Joss-Whedon up. Supposedly this is so she can control what is said and when.

Jack calls Abigail in to identify the body and works as sort of a truthiness meter, gauging her reaction. He lacks the empathy-beam which is good for him because that probably means he won’t go crazy like Will does, but bad because he can’t really tell truth or lie unless she breaks down and confesses, which she doesn’t. Jack gets nothing he can use, just his general feeling that she’s more involved than she’s letting on.

Which…he’s right! Will sees for himself when he goes to check out the body. So that’s how it works. Kind of like the Pushing Daisies thing, I guess. Will gets near the body and it tells him the story of how it got that way. And oh noes, daddy’s little girl stabbed him and now Will knows and he can’t unknow it.

He does the only thing he can do. He talks to Hannibal about it. Hannibal agrees that he knew it and that he helped dispose of the body. Hannibal explains that Jack would’ve convicted Abigail for her father’s crimes and then cleverly includes Will in the whole scheme by saying, “We are her fathers now, we have to protect her.” Which gave me an odd mental picture of that old sitcom “My Two Dads” only with a lot more murdering. And aww, bebe Giovanni Ribisi.

Hannibal basically puts his and Abigail’s lives in Will’s hands. It’s a good gamble because Will has too much affection for Hannibal and Abigail to stone cold bust them. This is very good for Hannibal because now he has his hands a little dirty in front of Will and he isn’t being turned away. This is like getting to first base. In fact, we get a close up of Hannibal’s hand on Will’s shoulder. It’s a meaningful over-the-blouse touch. He’ll be out of his panties and wondering how that happened in no time!

And as it turns out, Jack is more right than wrong when it comes to Abigail. At the start it was assumed that Garret Jacob Hobbs had an accomplice–someone who lured the girls to divulge their secrets about when they’d be alone. Will seems to have conveniently forgotten this to indulge his daddy fantasies about Abigail, who never seems to have taken to him. Maybe because he’s not an actual murderer. She explains to Hannibal that it was her or the girls and he accepts that and says she’s a victim. Yeah. Maybe. Or maybe he’s got designs on a little murder family. My Two Serial Killer Dads.

All-in-all, this was an important and interesting episode, but the previous two were better and I wish one of those had been what aired during the, “nothing else is on, why not watch our show” uh sweeps. Or whatever NBC thinks of it as.

Next week’s episode looks pretty interesting with a monster under the bed that Will talks to. And he’s finally going to see the doctor. It’s not a tumah, Will!

Also, if you don’t play the Tweet along game with @BryanFuller, you’re missing out on gems like this:
https://twitter.com/MrAaronAbrams/status/337759181706772481