With only 5 episodes left in the season, we are building to the amazing opening of the season. Hannibal in this episode briefly returns to the status quo and this is the closest we are going to get the season one format since Will’s imprisonment. Will isn’t just out of prison, he’s back in the field, assisting Jack Crawford, and back in the patient’s chair, consulting with Hannibal. The case of the Chesapeake Ripper is temporarily solved, and Will’s entrapment of the real killer has moved from a high-speed chase to a slower-speed seduction. It was nice to see Will and Hannibal as perfect foils of the other when they stopped all out trying to kill each other.
I got the sense that metaphor was going to be a huge part of this episode with its first scene and I was right. In the opening scene of Su-zakana, we see Will and Jack ice fishing, where Jack asks, “How do you catch a fish that’s no longer hungry?” and Will responds with “Make him come to you”, Will also says “I’m a good fisherman,” reaffirming his ultimate goal of catching Hannibal. Hannibal, on the other hand, has been lulled into a false sense of security by Chilton, who we can reasonably assume is dead since Hannibal hasn’t bothered to follow up with his shot to the face yet. Hannibal’s storyline with Chilton was amazing, the way Hannibal had put steps in place to ultimately frame in for the Ripper murders as they both fit the profile. I was a little disappointed with his death as I was hoping that this framing would lead to the very strained relationship between the pair we see in the original movies but alas. Will’s taking advantage of that asking to re-enter therapy and Hannibal is unable to resist.
It’s a transparent tactic, one that even Alana can see through. She warns Hannibal about this after the series’ very first sex scene which was 10/10, a softcore montage of sheet-clutching, writhing bodies and blurred faces that I adored. I also imagine Will is very sore about their relationship since he was madly in love with Alana only for the very man he is trying to catch to snatch her away. However, I think Hannibal also has feelings for her. I say this because he doesn’t seem to be just using her, and their intimate relationship and frequently sexual activities make it seem like something more. Will is becoming a much darker character as he doesn’t even hide his intentions although both keep up their appearances in front of Jack when they have dinner together. In private, he’s even more blunt, sounding almost sympathetic as he tells his therapist that he understands Hannibal can’t tell the truth. Will doesn’t have to hide his true self to stay out of jail, though, so he’s happy to talk with his nemesis now that he finally has the chance.
In this episode, the plot does slow down a lot more as we get two new storylines. The first is the one that will likely play out beyond this episode. A female patient of Hannibal’s, Margot has suffered some unspeakable trauma at the hands of her brother who I am almost sure is Mason Verger, Hannibal’s only true nemesis from the original books/movies. Margot is unable to forgive him, and Hannibal, who’s temporarily abstaining from killing, appears to be nudging her towards doing away with her sibling. He’s coldly up-front about it, telling her killing him would be a therapeutic act, then advising her to wait until she can get away with it. This conversation is implying that Hannibal himself has gotten away with murder, and we know from the original books that when Hannibal finally kills Mason, Margot is the one that covers for him, implying there is some long-standing trust between the pair that might start here.
The rest of the episode is dedicated to the case that the F.B.I. is currently working on. A live bird is trapped inside a dead woman trapped inside a horse. Jack comments that this resembles a cult killing as it symbolic of rebirth. The main suspect for this killing is Peter, a stable hand who used to work alongside the victim until he was kicked in the head by a horse, that has caused some mental defects in Peter. However, it turns out that he isn’t a killer at all but wanted his friend to be reborn as an animal so he could take care of her. The real killer is Peter’s social worker, who Peter attempts to kill near the end of the episode although he survives, only to be found by Will and Hannibal.
Faced with the truth, Will has the urge to prove the social worker’s guilt thus becomes a personal crusade for Will, satisfying his need to catch Hannibal with this case for now. It all culminates in an echo of last week’s confrontation, except this time it’s the social worker and not Hannibal at the other end of the gun, although Hannibal is the one that prevents Will some killing the social worker. This leads to an interesting conversation that hints that Will’s actions might not have been that heavily influenced by Hannibal after all. He says that he could “feed the caterpillar, whisper through the chrysalis but when it emerges it follows its own nature and that is beyond him”, this implied that this new Will is what emerged from the chrysalis and that his actions are completely his own without influence from Hannibal, and he will do what it is his nature to do whether Hannibal interferes or not.
Will ends up telling Peter the reason he couldn’t bring himself to kill Hannibal is that even he doesn’t know his feelings towards Hannibal. It appears the feelings mutual as Hannibal confesses with admiration, no matter how much he’s manipulated Will, he’s never been able to predict him. This whole episode has been confirming the relationship between our two main characters. Will himself says he feels less alone with Hannibal despite everything he has done, and the pair are fascinated with each other. I also believe the pair are dependent on each other and for the moment this co-dependence puts them at an impasse.
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