Episode 6 is an episode full of paradoxes, the main being that even though Will is behind bars he has more control than he ever had before, and he has a mission to prove Hannibal’s guilt. Will has definitely taken a leaf from Hannibal’s book as he has successfully manipulated Doctor Chilton, Abel Gideon, the orderly who tried to kill Hannibal, and even Beverly Katz before her death. However, Futomono is the episode where Hannibal regained the upper hand in this fight and even Chilton observes, “Cannibalism is an act of dominance,” and this was the episode where Hannibal reasserted control over Alana, over Gideon, and over the narrative of the Chesapeake Ripper.
Jack, Hannibal, and even Alana realise that Will is responsible for the attempted murder of Hannibal and all react in different ways. Jack is clearly the most discomforted by Will’s descent and his confusion is a nice opposition to Will’s serious clarity. The camerawork here is amazing, Will perfect stillness, his dead stare are shot in singular, still shots while Jack is filmed constantly in motion. Between Will’s repeated accusations and an exchange with Abel recorded by Chilton, Jack’s finally ready to give Will’s theory about Dr. Lecter some credit. Alana has the biggest change in this episode as Will’s actions have driven her further away from him as a love interest and she even points out to Jack that she has a long-standing relationship with Hannibal and is the least likely person to give up on her image of him and a friend and colleague.
With Will’s actions, he is now beyond repair in Alana’s eyes although she feels a huge amount of pity for him. She quickly replaces him with Hannibal, falling into bed with him. This development is perfect as seeing Hannibal as someone who can form relationships with others seeks to humanize him, however, he does use this relationship to give himself an alibi for the latest murder as Alana tells Jack she was with him all night even though we know Hannibal left when he was sure she was asleep. In this episode, the biggest development was the fact that Will has managed to grab the attention of those around him, convinced at least two figures of authority that Hannibal might not be what he seems, and seems to have set the chain of events that lead to Dr. Lecter’s imprisonment in action.
It isn’t long before things start to fall apart again, Hannibal subtle metaphor about the harpsichord piece he is composing as his way of figuring out what to do next shows that Will is clearly past the point of forgiving him and Hannibal knows sooner or later he will have to do something about Will. The first course of action is another insanely creative murder. This one involved a Baltimore councilman responsible for a development deal which endangered rare birds is strung up on a tree, stuffed with poisonous flowers, and placed in the middle of a parking lot, missing most of his essential organs. This murder unlike some of the others was more beautiful than gruesome and has some serious message hidden in the method of the murder that comes into play later on.
At a dinner party Hannibal hosts, we see Jack act on the suspicions Will has planted in him. He takes some of the food on offer, which Hannibal allows, and has it tested in the lab where it is confirmed all the offal has come from animals, not from people, and Jack feels a little stupid that he ever suspected Hannibal in the first place. However, what really grabs the viewer is the seduction of Alana Bloom, and I am anxious to see how she will react when Hannibal is ultimately found out and she is faced with the truth that she consistently placed her trust in the wrong person. While Alana, successfully converted to Team Hannibal, while she sleeps in his bed after quite a vigorous round of sexual satisfaction, Hannibal absconds to the hospital, where he abducts Abel Gideon, where is being treated for a broken back after some guards at the hospital beat him up after he brags about the nurse he killed in season one.
As Hannibal steal Gideon away, we recall an early scene where Will tells Abel that his and Doctor Chilton’s days are numbered as they have attracted too much attention and gotten in the way of the elaborate dance between him and Hannibal. The next time we see Abel is when Hannibal is hosting Abel for a supper made from his own leg in the very dining room he described to Will earlier. It’s the ultimate power play, the real Chesapeake Ripper forcing an impostor to make amends even after said imposter has defended him all along and we don’t really understand why. The scene is also a perversion of the many similar one-on-one dinners we’ve watched before, with dining partners like Jack and Chilton.
With Gideon’s abduction, Hannibal manages to finish his musical piece, and the murder being investigated is strung up with the fish hooks containing the remains of all of Will’s alleged victims, setting him free at last. However, we are aware that Will gets his freedom on Hannibal’s terms and then there’s the reveal that hits Jack’s psychological sweet spot. Thanks to some evidence from the tree murder they find the exact location where he was cultivated in an abandoned storehouse in rural Virginia. Jack is there alone and in the basement, he finds the hole filled with water and in the neighbouring hole, he finds Miriam Lass, alive despite her missing arm. The ending of Futomono is brilliant and everyone including Jack and the viewers believed Miriam Lass to be dead and we are beginning to think that this might be the beginning of the end for Hannibal.
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