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The FBI is still in hot pursuit of the Chesapeake Ripper, but he a new murder confounds them. They can't figure out whether the Ripper really would kill a man for his kidney in a hotel room like a sub-plot to a really bad episode of Vegas. Graham is convinced it's not the Ripper, but other members on the team think it could be. When Graham passes along details of the murder to Lecter during one of their informal "conversations" (read: not therapy sessions) Hannibal Lecter knows what he has to do. To prove that he is not nearly that sloppy, Lecter, a.k.a. the man we know to be the real Chesapeake Ripper, goes on a killing spree, pulling names out of his Rolodex and pulling organs out of his victims. Unsurprisingly, Lecter also starts hosting dinner parties again, serving up an awful lot of offal to his unsuspecting and grateful dinner guests.
Crawford is becoming increasingly unsettled, although nightmares seem like a natural reaction to having his former trainee's arm call you repeatedly before waiting for him at an observatory like a grisly version of Sleepless in Seattle. Graham warns him not to fall into the Ripper's trap, but it's clearly too late for the G-man.
Amid all his dinner party prep, Lecter takes the time to befriend Dr. Alana Bloom even giving her some of his special homebrew. It's not clear whether the secret ingredient is body parts, but it could be! Lecter may be wooing Bloom, but he may also be trying to dig for information on Graham and the various murder investigations. We also find out that Lecter has his own psychiatrist, played by Gillian Anderson, although it must be said that she must not be a very good therapist because she doesn't seem to notice that Lecter is a full on psycho.
As the bodies pile up, Crawford finally has an idea about the killer. He tracks down an ambulance driver who wants to be a doctor. Sure enough the guy has been making some extra moolah by extracting organs for impatient people in need of new body parts. The FBI nabs the guy while he is elbow deep in a victim and Hannibal is forced to jump in and save the man's life.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!William Graham is teaching a class on the Chesapeake Ripper at the FBI Academy. As he counts down the Ripper's victims and the gory details of their murders, he notices Jack Crawford in the corner watching and listening. Without missing a beat, he details the execution of Miriam. She was Crawford's young recruit who Lecter killed while she was investigating the Ripper's crimes many years ago. Graham reminds us - and his class - that the only evidence of the crime they ever found was the detached arm that the Ripper left for them just last week.
In summation Graham notes that the killer has remained consistently theatric. As if the show was capable of poking fun at itself, the camera cuts to a shot of someone's vocal chords singing opera. Of course Hannibal Lecter enjoys the opera. All classy serial killers (and my grandfather!) do. At the opera, Lecter's friends (one of whom was played by the always delightful Ellen Green from Pushing Daisies and other stuff, but mostly Pushing Daisies) are angry with him for not inviting them to dinner more often. During their chat, one especially delightful specimen catches Lecter's eye. Guess dinner is back on the agenda.
Crawford awakes from bad dreams to a nightmare: The Ripper may be back in action. He picks up Graham and they head to the crime scene. On the way, Graham cautions Crawford not to get stirred up by the Ripper. He returned Miriam's arm just to poke Crawford with it, which is an unintentionally hilarious mental image. Or maybe it was intentional... it's hard to tell with this show. Crawford thinks the Ripper is back in action and they will have another string of victims on their hands in no time.
At the hotel, the FBI crime scene team reports that the victim was operated on and then un-operated on. Only thing missing was a kidney, although his chest is gashed open too. This show sure is good with the gross. Everyone leaves the room so Graham can do his thing. He envisions the crime and realizes that the victim was sedated and awoke from sedation to find his kidney removed, which would seriously be a bummer and is also why I never drink to excess (listen to grandma, kids). Graham realizes that the killer murdered the guy by stopping the victim's heart with his bare hand. Or maybe gloved hand. Who knows about his hygiene level? Graham however knows that the killer was actually trying to save the man's life and hence is not the Chesapeake Ripper. Crawford doesn't believe him and neither does some other pointless team member. Graham locks that guy out of the room and calmly tells Crawford all the reasons that this murderer was not the Ripper. Graham thinks it was a medical student trying to make some pin money with a back alley kidney removal that went badly for some unknown and completely unforeseeable reason. I mean why would a kidney removal in a Best Western go badly?
Lecter has an appointment with the patient he ran into at the opera. The man admits that he went to the opera in the hopes of seeing Lecter, a fact Lecter finds fascinating. The man admits that it makes him sad that he has to pay to see Lecter, and Lecter calmly points out that he is his doctor, not his friend. Cut to Gillian Anderson a.k.a. Dana Scully playing Lecter's therapist. She tells him flatly that she knows he is not being honest with her and thinks that he is "wearing a very well tailored person suit," which is not at all foreshadowing of The Silence of the Lambs. She thinks Lecter must be very lonely, but he contends that he has friends and he has her. She quietly smiles that she is his doctor and colleague, but not his friend, which, of course, we've heard before. She offers him a glass of wine and admits that she likes him enough to drink with him, but not to be his friend.
Cut to Lecter pouring a glass of wine for Graham who is now seeing his therapist/friend. Lecter assures Graham that he's not his doctor and they are just having "conversations." This episode is built like a Jacob's Ladder and I can't decide whether it's dizzyingly annoying or kind of brilliant. As they chat, Graham tells him that Crawford thinks the Ripper is back, but he knows that the Ripper would never be so sloppy.
In a flashback, Lecter gets a medical check up from an independent medical examiner, which I guess is not a doctor? In the present, Lecter pulls the man's card out of his Rolodex and a recipe out of his recipe box. The independent medical examiner pulls over to the side of the road with car trouble. Lecter pulls up alongside him and leans over him. Cut to the crime lab where the medical examiner lies on a slab with his kidney and heart missing. As the team debates whether this is the work of the real Ripper or an imposter, Lecter is at home stuffing a heart, wrapping pancetta around it and readying it for roasting. The team decides that due to the nature of the organ removals, the Ripper may be merely an organ harvester who uses the brutality of the crimes as a means of covering up his true motives. His motives being cheap dinner, apparently.
That night, Lecter is cooking once again for Dr. Bloom even serving her his own homebrew, which she views as an honor when we all know that getting served homebrew is a recipe for practicing your lying skills. Lecter invited Bloom over to grill her about Graham, but she won't take the bait. She wants everyone to leave him alone. She does leak that Crawford is obsessed with the Ripper and will do anything to catch him. Lecter looks intrigued but merely says he hopes that Crawford catches the killer.
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Crawford is having nightmares that Graham will be killed by the Ripper. Hannibal is cooking again. He pulls out a liver or maybe lungs? And flips through his Rolodex to find, um, the finest local ingredients. In the crime lab, the bodies are stacking up, each missing specific organs. They still believe he's an organ harvester, but they are confused by the fact that he's taking things like spleen, which isn't transplanted very often, and intestines. One guy laughingly suggests that the Ripper is making sausage, which, of course, he is. Lecter's kitchen is filled with offal and, natch, sausage-making equipment. It's hard to tell whether he is escalating or just making a point that the Ripper is still out there and active and on a roll and a bit of a Julia Child, to boot.
Graham was supposed to swing by Lecter's place for another one of their not-therapy sessions, but instead he ended up taking a nap filled with bad dreams. He awakes to find Lecter standing over him. They go through the crime scene photos that served as Graham's bedtime story. Lecter is especially intrigued by a photo of a detached arm holding a cell phone. Graham tells him that the Ripper used that arm, which once belonged to Crawford's trainee, to humiliate Crawford and that he succeeded in that mission. Lecter looks like he's smiling on the inside.
Back at his office, Katz gives Crawford an idea about where the crimes are taking place. She thinks an ambulance would be a great place to extract body parts in a semi-professional environment without anyone noticing. Crawford suddenly has a full picture of the case and with that inspiration goes off to capture the killer. For no apparent reasons he grabs Graham and Lecter - because he's standing there with Graham - and takes them on the chase for the killer who he thinks is the Ripper. Lecter of course can't wait to go watch them catch "The Ripper." It is quite inexplicable why Crawford is bringing them along as neither of them has anything to do with actual FBI footwork and why would they need a profiler and the profiler's psychiatrist slowing them down during a manhunt, but I guess whatever, show.
The plus-sized team heads to a local paramedic company's HQ and sure enough an ambulance is missing. They track the GPS and quickly find the killer elbow deep in a man. As Crawford draws on him, the killer swears he can't put his hands up or else the man would die. Crawford conscripts Lecter, who looks peeved at being asked to risk his ascot and linens on some bloody dude, but can't say no under the circumstances. So as Crawford makes the arrest, Lecter saves the victim's life while Graham watches.
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