I have taken quite a long break from Hannibal due to school and work commitments but when I jumped back in with Ko No Mono I was instantly back drowning in deceit and suspicion. As I am nearing the end of Season 2, we can see the groundwork being laid for the final season and Hannibal’s endgame. Ko No Mono was a great episode to jump back into the show with as it breaks the mould of previous episode, in Season 1 and most of Season 2 everything is abstract and vague with the characters often talking circles around one another without really saying anything concrete. It was interesting to see Hannibal answers Will’s “slim pig” with songbirds cooked alive and consumed in a “rite of passage.” This scene reminds me of the sex scenes earlier in the season in the fact that it is intimate especially since Will has dropped his act entirely while he openly discusses his murder of Freddie Lounds and Hannibal slips into the role of mentor with ease, telling Will that his ability to kill without so much as getting his pulse up shows promise.
Ko No Mono officially begins Will and Hannibal’s courtship as Alana puts it and we see Will’s demon version of Hannibal watch Will’s guardian stag give birth to another demon in Will which was beautifully symbolic of the road Will is beginning to walk down. However, the pair don’t just talk about Will’s killing spree and how it’s changed him, they talk about Hannibal’s personal life, which has so far remained untouched. We just the first glimpse under Hannibal’s carefully constructed mask when he talks about Mischa; his younger sister and the utter sense of loss that started him on the path to where he is today. Hannibal also talks about Abigail which has remained a sore subject between the pair since her death and it is strange to see Hannibal feeling regret as he suspects that his destructive impulse went too far with killing the girl Will saw as a daughter and reminded Hannibal of his own sister. Killing Abigail was like smashing a teacup with the infantile belief that the damage wouldn’t be permanent. It’s the very first time Hannibal has admitted to anything less than perfect self-control.
We also get some amazing throw backs to the books with the burning corpse in the wheelchair that ends up in Freddie Lounds’ parking space. For the book readers this was an amazing scene as it was the Red Dragon who killed Freddie for his lies he wrote in the newspaper. However, I thought that this death was a tad too dramatic for Will or Hannibal and I had the feeling that Freddie might not be dead, and she might be helping Jack uncover the truth behind Will and Hannibal which could be leading to that dramatic scene that opened the season. We also get a lot of insight into the relationship between Mason and Margot in this episode and it clear to see that Mason is a deranged psychopath, however, the more intriguing sibling is Margot. In order to escape her brother but no leave herself broke Margot knows she needs to have a child, another Verger heir, rendering Mason redundant and, therefore, expendable. Where Will and Margot once seemed like two damaged people looking to each other for answers or at least sex, the first two-thirds of Ko No Mono establishes them as cold-blooded operators laden with ulterior motives.
The relationship between Will and Margot also changes over the episode, at first he is disappointed that she used him to get pregnant, but he understands why she did it. However, Hannibal gives Mason the information he needs to find out Margot is pregnant, Mason then goes on to get Carlo to crash a car into hers and mutilate her so badly that she can never have children, killing her and Will’s child in the process. It’s horrendously cruel, and it almost sends Will, who despite his claims to the contrary, has most definitely gotten “attached” over the edge. I think Will’s anger here is misdirected, while he is angry at Mason, is should be directed at Hannibal as Hannibal was the one who took away his first “child” in Abigail and he has done it again. I think Hannibal did it because he doesn’t want to share Will with anyone let alone a child, which would undo all the hard work he has put into Will.
By the end of the episode we are treated to another twist that Will had been anticipating this move on Hannibal’s part and he isn’t going to kill Mason but plants the seed in Mason’s head that Hannibal is responsible for everything. We also learn that Freddie Lounds is still alive, and that the persona Will has taken on is all part of his plan to seduce Hannibal into a position where they can catch him, and it turns out that both Freddie and Jack are helping him. This also calls back to the scene of Jack and Will ice fishing where their conversation seemed to be a veiled request for permission to lure Hannibal in using methods the psychiatrist himself might call “unorthodox” and it is permission that Jack then granted. We can’t discount Alana in this episode as her arc has taken a dramatic turn and she has shut everybody out especially Will who’s still smarting from her betrayal and choice of Hannibal over him. Will allows her to think the worst of both him and her boyfriend, a move that’s vindictive but understandable considering how deep her well-meaning condescension must have cut.
Alana has become quite paranoid even she is beginning to suspect Hannibal isn’t everything he has led her believe and Jack’s decision to leave her out until she put the pieces together on her own, just feels cold considering how much she is struggling with everything. Alana may have been wrong and disastrously so, but she only ever operates with the best of intentions; she didn’t believe Will because she thought his judgement was too clouded by mental illness to be trusted. Keeping her in the dark about a plan to put Hannibal behind bars, allowing her to sleep with a possible murderous psychopath is just cruel as we know Hannibal will kill her and feel little guilt about it if she is getting in his way, or begins to pose a threat to him. I hope next episode picks up with her giving Jack the verbal skinning she deserves, just like the one she gave him when he interrogated Abigail.
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