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Abigail Hobbes awakes from her coma into a world of confusion. She’s confused about the deep and dark twists and turns of her serial killer father’s illness. The FBI and its cadres of doctors are confused as to whether or not Abigail was in on her father’s hunting operation.
Once Abigail is well enough, she heads out with Will Graham, Hannibal Lecter and Alana Bloom to help them help her find clues to the whereabouts of her father’s victims. She admits that as a hunter, her father fully believed in using all of the animal. He would use the entire animal to “honor it.” She guesses that’s what he did with his human prey too. She quickly puts some disgusting pieces together and realizes that dear old dad was probably feeding her human butter and man meat. Also all those pillows he made? Filled with human hair. When they head to her father’s hunting cabin for more clues, they find yet another victim. This time, though, it’s clearly the work of a copycat who has killed Abigail’s friend.
The pesky redheaded blogger is obstructing justice and wreaking havoc all over the place. She tells the brother of one of the victims that Abigail is out of the hospital and when he goes to confront her, he gets framed for the murder. When he tries to declare his innocence by breaking into Abigail’s house and freaking the bejeezus out of her by grabbing her, yelling, and throwing her against a wall, he ends up dead. Hannibal Lecter sees the self-defense killing as an opportunity. He offers to hide the body and cover up the crime if Abigail promises not to tell anyone that he called her father to warn him that the FBI were on their way. Since she has no choice, she takes him up on the offer. It’s the start of a beautiful relationship.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!If your dad was a serial killer who offed your mom and slit your throat, you would probably have nightmares. That's why it shouldn't be surprising that Abigail awakes from her coma due to a dark and twisty dream where her father, Garrett Jacob Hobbes, serial killer and cannibal extraordinaire, was teaching her to hunt deer.
For some reason, Jack Crawford a.k.a. El Jefe is convinced that Abigail was an accomplice to her father's crimes, but William disagrees. Neither of them seem to have any basis for their opinion other than gut instinct. However, Will may be acting on an emotional level as he seems haunted by the fact that Abigail has no one left for her. When Will's doctor/friend Alana Bloom tells him the news that Abigail woke up, Will wants to help, but as they sit in his house drinking coffee surrounded by a baker's dozen of dogs, Bloom advises him against collecting another stray. William swears he's not, but as anyone can tell just by looking at him, he's not good with boundaries. Bloom asks him to let her talk to Abigail first and see what she can figure out about the girl. At the hospital, it turns out that Abigail doesn't know if her parents are dead. Bloom confirms her suspicions and tells her that her mother was cremated, but her father's Facebook status is "It's Complicated." Abigail shrugs, "Because he's crazy?" and when Bloom doesn't respond, Abigail turns back to her magazine. No tears, no emotion. Is it a sign of shock? Or sociopathy? Only time and careful psychoanalysis will tell.
Back at FBI HQ, Jack Crawford has called in both Bloom and Hannibal Lecter to help him suss out whether Abigail is capable of helping them find the remains of her father's victims. The victims' families want answers and Abigail is the only one who may be able to help. Bloom isn't sure that Abigail is up for it. She notes that the girl has a penchant for manipulation and a sharp lack of emotion, but she's more concerned about her state of mind, what with her father killing her mother and trying to kill her. Lecter wants William to speak to her, but Bloom thinks that's a terrible idea. Jack reminds Bloom that Lecter is actually Will's doctor, so she has no say in the matter.
Over at the university, Will is lecturing on Hobbes' case, even though just as of last week it was still an active investigation. Suspending disbelief! Will is explaining to whatever sickos signed up for the lecture that Hobbes' abducted and murdered eight girls, but there was a ninth victim who was the work of a copycat. Just as he's describing the vanity and arrogance and skill of the copycat killer, Jack and Lecter walk in. As they listen in on his lecture, Will expounds on his theory that the copycat killer called Hobbes to warn him that the FBI was about to raid his house. Lecter looks bemused.
The annoying journalist from last week is back and in Abigail's hospital room. The woman tells Abigail the facts: Her dad is called the Minnesota Shrike after a bird that impales its prey and eats its organs; he killed her mom and eight other women that looked just like her. Abigail takes the news well. As the blogger is telling her that everyone will probably think she's crazy unless she tells her side of the story, and that it's all fake special agent Will Graham's fault, Will Graham walks in. For some reason the blogger really hates him and calls him a psycho to his face. Graham orders her to leave the room and Lecter seconds him. Abigail remembers enough about Graham killing her dad/saving her life that she doesn't seem overwhelmingly concerned that some ginger blogger just slandered him. She tells Will that her dad was loving until the second he wasn't. She knows Will tried to help her mom. She knows he tried to do the right thing.
Outside the hospital, the blogger is waiting for him. She wants to make a deal. She'll somehow convince Abigail that she was kidding about Will being a psycho and Will will... something. It's not totally clear what she wants from Will, but whatever it is, he's not going to do it. Instead he blurts out, "It's not a good idea to piss off a guy who imagines killing people for a living." Being a nogoodnik blogger, she, of course, goes and puts that nickel quote on her blog. Jack, who must have her blog on his RSS feeds, immediately finds it, reads it, and calls Graham's doctors about it.
Abigail wants to go home and Crawford wants her to go home. Bloom thinks the results could be disastrous, but Lecter thinks it could be useful if slightly traumatizing. Crawford votes for Lecter and soon the two doctors, Will and Crawford escort Abigail back to the house where her dad murdered her mom and tried to kill her. Someone has helpfully scrawled "Cannibals" on the door. Abigail walks stunned through the house, carefully surveying the crime scenes. She looks at the blood splotch where her mother died and says quietly, "Goodbye mom." She turns and walks inside to see where her blood was spilled. In the kitchen, Will starts asking her about the phone call. Since he's convinced that the caller and the copycat killer are the same person, he wants to know if Abigail perhaps recognized the voice. Abigail's not sure, but she does want to know if they can reenact the crime, and looks pointedly at Dr. Lecter asking him to play the part of the caller. He deftly changes the subject.
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As they go through some boxes, Abigail explains that there's no chance that the victims will ever be found. Her father was a big believer in "honoring" all parts of his prey. That's what we saw in her nightmare. Since her dad used to make plumbing putty out of elk bone (I am not Googling that to see if it's a thing because whatever, Grizzly Adams) she's pretty sure the women met the same fate and are holding up a drain pipe in a men's locker room somewhere. She promises to take them up to her dad's cabin to show them where he practiced Zen and the Art of Plumbing.
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a girl who looks like Abigail but is some hotheaded neighborhood friend. She and Abigail head outside to talk. As they are chatting about how her friend doesn't think Abigail was the murdering type, even though it's weird she's a hunter. As she assures Abigail that she doesn't think she did it, a man approaches them from the woods. He's the brother of one of the victims and that damned blogger told him that Abigail awoke from her coma. He hollers at her for a while, accusing her of being "bait" and luring the women home so her dad could kill and cannibalize them. Abigail's friend throws a rock at his head and the commotion finally draws the attention of the doctors and Will. The man runs off into the woods, the neighbor girl gets dragged home by her "bitch" of a mother, and Lecter carefully covers up the bloody rock that bounced off of the stalker's head.
Later the group heads up to Hobbes' hunting cabin. Abigail explains that he kept the place tidy because he didn't want germs, although in retrospect, he didn't want to get caught. Then she adds that he used all parts of the animals he hunted. He sold pelts, made "butter," pillows. Nothing went to waste because otherwise it was murder. That's when she realizes that her dad was probably feeding his victims to her. Lecter nods, "YUP," and tries not to lick his lips. Abigail manages not to barf, which is pretty impressive. Then she tells them that before he slit her throat her dad told her that he killed the women so he wouldn't have to kill her. Bloom finally pipes up and tells her that it's not her fault. As they are chatting some blood drips on Abigail's head. AS IF SHE HASN'T SUFFERED ENOUGH. They head upstairs and find her neighborhood friend strung up on some antlers dripping blood.
When Crawford shows up, Will and Lecter debate the murder. It's clearly the work of the copycat, but that goes against Will's original profile of the guy. While Will admits that he may have been wrong, he thinks it's strange. Crawford really wants to think that Abigail had something to do with it, but Will disagrees. Lecter agrees that Abigail isn't a killer, but may be the target of one. They tell Crawford that the brother of one of the victims showed up at Abigail's house earlier and threatened her. Crawford tells Lecter to pack Abigail up and get her out of the state permanently.
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