Before we get into this week's episode, I have a bonus recap for you! As you may know, Hannibal is officially an adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. So I watched Manhunter, the first adaptation. It's from 1986, and it was directed by Michael Mann. As Will Graham, William Peterson has just the right amount of facial stubble to let you know it's a movie by the guy that had created Miami Vice two years earlier. Aside from a bunch of characters with similar names, there isn't all that much tying Hannibal to Manhunter. Brian Cox's Hannibal doesn't even eat people! He just killed some college girls or something. The series will presumably cover these events in season three, but I can't imagine it being anything like this movie. There's a lot of talk about the technology of crime investigation, which feels a little silly 27 years later. There are fax machines and top-loading VCRs, which, honestly, stopped being high-tech just a few years later. Okay, that concludes the bonus recap. week: the movie Red Dragon, which is the same story, but by Brett Ratner! And with a lot more Hannibal, because Anthony Hopkins.
Okay, with that out of the way, let's move on to the series at hand. Remember that guy who woke up all lacquered up in the middle of a bunch of naked dead bodies? He's sewn to the bodies around him, and he doesn't seem happy about it at all. He pulls himself away, and we see his skin and flesh tearing as he does so. It's pretty gruesome. As opposed to the food we usually get, which is pretty and gruesome. Once he's ripped himself away, he climbs over the corpses to the door and bursts out. Even though it was padlocked from the outside! But everything is not fine, because as soon as he's in the open, there's a pickup truck coming at him. He tries to hide behind one of the many abandoned cars, but any time he touches anything, his open wounds cause problems. He did just rip big chunks of his body off a couple minutes ago. He hides in an empty car, but his pursuer has a gun and a searchlight and he knows which car he's in. Luckily for the intended victim, he escapes into a corn field. This gentleman has a lot of drive. He could have decided to be traumatized back to the stone age, but he seems really committed to the idea of escape. The pursuer turns off the searchlight, and when he turns it back on, it's right in the victim's face. The victim runs out of the cornfield and a shot narrowly misses him. He gets into some trees, but now he has to stop because at the edge of a cliff above a river. Clearly, he's going to have to jump for it, Butch and Sundance style. He makes an admirable jump, and just for a second it looks like he's going to make it to the water and escape. But he bounces off a rock right before he reaches the river and floats away, dead. Too bad. I was rooting for him.
Dr. Bloom and Dr. Lecter are visiting Will in the hospital. In Manhunter, the hospital was an art museum (the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, according to IMDB), so it had a lot of white walls and open space. This version is a lot more like a jail. Will has to sit in a tiny cage when he has visitors. Will says he's the unreliable narrator of his own story, because he doesn't know what's real anymore. Bloom says he can't see pieces of himself. Will doesn't know who he is anymore and he's afraid to believe either that he did it or that Hannibal did it. He felt so betrayed by Hannibal, and that betrayal was all that felt real. Hannibal wants to help him. I think Will should consider a different therapist, but he breaks down crying and says he needs Hannibal's help.
Will is led into his cell (which seems pretty big when it's compared to the visiting cage) and sits on his cot. The guards walk away and his breakdown ends immediately. He looks ominously into the camera. Will's got some kind of plan, I guess.
Dr. Du Maurier comes to Hannibal's office, although she won't be staying long. I'm just glad to see the office, because it's one of my favorite sets, and with Will out of the way, it seems like we're not going to have a lot of excuses to see it. She's here to tell Hannibal she will no longer be his therapist. She explains, "I have reached the limit of my efficacy. I don't believe I can help you." Yeah, no kidding. Hannibal reminds her that she tried to end their relationship before, but now she has begun to question his actions. She's not talking about all those elaborate murders; she specifically, is wondering about his actions regarding her and her attack. But she will not be sharing her thoughts with Jack Crawford or make specific accusations. She backs up as Hannibal walks toward her. She describes him as wearing a "person suit," which I think is unfair, considering that he's also wearing a "clothing suit." And a nice one, too! Hannibal is always very well dressed, although I sometimes find his fabric choices a little daring. Actually, have you ever noticed that Hannibal has the same sartorial sense as RuPaul? I mean, when RuPaul is wearing a suit, not when he's in a dress. I may have gotten slightly distracted from the task of describing what's happening in this scene. Dr. Du Maurier asks Hannibal not to come to her home again. So she'd prefer to be murdered somewhere else? As she starts to leave, Hannibal tells her he's resuming Will Graham's therapy.
The victim from the opening scene has found his way to the police morgue. Or lab. Whatever it is. Price says this guy is Roland Umber. I feel that they should have resisted the urge to give him a name that's also a color. It's a little obvious. They think the killer tore him down from a display. And he sustained a lot of postmortem injuries in the river, which make it hard to figure out what happened to him when. Hannibal is in everyone's way, which presents one of the very rare moments of him not being in control of everything. when Jack brings him to the side of the room, Hannibal suggests that there might be trace evidence in the craquelure, or cracks in the varnish. Dr. Katz decides to share "her" theory that that the victims were a color palette. Hannibal likes the idea of somebody purposely seeing skin color, since it's generally considered inappropriate. And then it's time for absolutely nobody to believe that Katz came up with this idea on her own. Hannibal says it's as if Will Graham were here in the room. Jack glares at her.
Once Jack has dragged Katz into a separate room, he asks, "How's Will Graham? Shut your mouth." I realize that second sentence wasn't part of the question, but he didn't give her a chance to answer. She says she had to go to Will because she knew Jack wouldn't. If I could tie this in to Manhunter for a moment, I think this development makes a lot more sense here than it does when it's Will going to Hannibal Lecter, unprompted. At least Will has experience investigating weird murders, you know? Jack says that Will's either delusional or a psychopath, neither of which is useful to him. If he's delusional, Jack blames himself for what happened. But if he's a psychopath, Jack's gut is wrong. At any rate, the FBI is currently investigating Jack, so he would very much prefer his department not be doing unusual things like calling in accused serial killers as consultants. And there's going to be a psych eval on Jack. Katz offers to not go back, so Jack declares the whole conversation non-existent. He wanted to yell at her, but he seemingly doesn't want to actually tell her not to talk to Will. He asks her, "Do you know what your job is?" She does. "Then do it."
Hannibal studies the cracks that have formed in the lacquer on Roland's leg. I think he might be smelling them, which is a pretty good way to sense trace elements.. He sees corn stalks that seem to grow out of the leg. The scene changes so he's still standing by the surgical table, but in the middle of a corn field. He smiles a tiny, tiny bit and turns off the light.
It's time for Hannibal to treat Will. Is "treat" the right verb here? Psychoanalyze? Mentally torture? You get the idea. Will is in his cage, and Hannibal is supposed to stay very far from him because prisoners have been trying to urinate on their therapists. Thera-pissed, am I right? Nailed it. Will promises he's not going to pee on him, so Hannibal moves his chair closer. He admits that there's always a power differential between therapist and patient, even when one of them isn't in a tiny cage. Will says they're just having conversations. Hannibal gently probes to see if Will has remembered anything to incriminate him, and he tells him that any memories will be distortions. Will says the only thing that feels normal is trying to analyze violence. Hannibal asks what he saw in the pictures. According to Will, the killer isn't hanging his victims up; he's stitching them together into a human mural. And he's missing pieces.
Now Katz is here to see Will in his cell, because he's the only person in the whole FBI who's any good at analyzing crime scenes. Will says Hannibal recommended against dwelling on murders. He's obviously not going to follow that advice, but he wants something in return. In passing, he mentions that he knows that Chilton is recording every word. Will wants Katz to ignore all the evidence against him, but she can't do that. I think that's reasonable, because she was the person who found a lot of that evidence. He compromises by asking her to start over. She gives him the file, but she obviously doesn't want to get too close to the bars. Note the contrast between her and Hannibal, although I guess Hannibal had the advantage of knowing that Will isn't really guilty. He asks, "Do you mind if I do this privately?" She does. She pulls up a chair to watch his process.
Will turns away from her, opens the envelope, and looks at pictures of Roland. He closes his eyes.
In his mind, he's in the morgue-lab. He comments that Roland's skin isn't as discolored as the other victims they've found. In fact, he thinks the body looks pretty good, so why would it get thrown away? He fingers the rip in the envelope. Katz confirms that Roland was in an outpatient treatment program for heroin, meaning he had a high tolerance. According to Will, Roland survived the heroin overdose that was supposed to kill him. And then, "He tore himself free. He ran." He's right, but I don't think he's entirely capturing the doomed heroism of it. Will says the killer didn't put him in the water on purpose, so his lair will be upstream of wherever Roland was found. Someplace big, like a warehouse or a farm. Will asks what Hannibal thought, but then he realizes that he doesn't think Hannibal said what he thinks. If he's going to pretend to trust Hannibal enough to let him work on his mind, he should keep thoughts like that to himself.
Hannibal is in his plastic suit (which is a third kind of suit he wears, in addition to the previously mentioned "person" and "clothing") and walks up to a silo. There's a new lock on one of them, so that's obviously the important one. He climbs up the ladder and goes to the hole on top. The music is very impressed by this as he looks down at the bodies, which kind of form an eyeball. Well, the pupil and iris, anyway. It's not a three-dimensional ball. We see it reflected in Hannibal's eyeball. It's got kind of a Busby Berkeley effect, although without the movement. And then the door opens and the killer enters! I was worried about Hannibal's head being clearly visible in the hole in the ceiling, but Hannibal has a different approach. He says, in a loud, clear voice, "Hello. I love your work."
Now the police are all over the cornfield. Hannibal asks Katz how they found it. Hannibal's idea to look in the cracks turned up corn dust, and Will said "go upstream." And once they did, I imagine they noticed that fleet of stolen cars pretty quickly. Hannibal has removed his plastic suit, which is probably a good idea. Jack is going to take Hannibal into the silo, although he warns Hannibal that he's never seen anything like this. Hannibal agrees, "I'm sure I haven't." Katz looks at two arms sewn together. It's still pretty gross.
Inside the silo, Jack waxes philosophical and Hannibal goes on about DNA. He asks what it looks like from above: "Is the killer looking at God?" His idea is that it's an eyeball with a reflection in the pupil, so whatever's shown there is whatever the giant eye is looking at. The middle used to be Roland, but now it's a white guy. Roland was more of an umber, which is why I think the name "Roland Umber" feels like a placeholder name that the writers forgot to replace. Hannibal says that the killer sees materials, not people. Jack gets a thoughtful look, and now we're watching Jack's psych evaluation, in which he, too, claims to see his employees as materials, not people. Will Graham was a means to an end. But knowing that Will descended to such savage behavior has changed the way Jack sees him. It's not just the guilt of pushing Will so hard: "I look at my friend and I see a killer." And he's having trouble reconcile those two things, which seems reasonable to me.
There's a body the police can't identify. He's John Doe 21, but really he's the killer, presumably because Hannibal killed him and stitched him into the pattern. It's none of my business, but I think Hannibal should maybe consider not killing people for a little while. You know, just wait until Will gets executed, then you can get back to business. John Doe 21's leg was removed (and we see Hannibal sawing it off), and in the words of the metaphor, he changed colors mid-brushstroke. Jack decides the initial plan was to just do an eyeball, but a reflection was added at the last minute: "The question is, how did he find his faith?" I think it's a much better work of art with the reflection in there. Before, it was just a representation of an eyeball, but now it's got some actual interpretation involved.
Hannibal has a menu card for Veal Osso Buco, which is traditionally made with veal shank. But I guess human shank could work. He saws this leg into chunks, flours the chunks of leg, cuts onions, and so forth. He sniffs and pours wine into a pan, which flames up. This looks so good, you guys. I know I'm supposed to distance myself from that by saying "I know it's human meat," but come on. This looks unambiguously delicious. Hannibal is eating alone.
Jack sits down with Dr. Du Maurier. She says this may have to be their last conversation about Hannibal, because she has no more insight to offer. And future insight is out because it would be irresponsible of her to keep seeing him. She doesn't feel secure, so she's recusing herself. She says, "Hannibal and I were both traumatized by dangerous patients. Hannibal had his Will Graham and I had mine." Jack suggests that Hannibal could help her work through her issues, but she declines. She would also prefer that the FBI not contact her.
Katz and Hannibal are talking to Will, who gets an awful lot of visitors. Will thinks they'll burn him out before his trial. Katz hands him the picture of the body-mural, but she's standing as far away as she possibly can. Hannibal says that in the 19th century, people thought the last thing you saw before you died would be imprinted on your retina. I think it's cheating to lead the witness like that.
Will closes his eyes.
He's standing in the middle of the eye, holding the picture. He starts channeling the killer by delivering an unsettling speech: "I made you pliable. Molded you. Set and sealed you where you lay. This is my design. A dead eye of vision and consciousness. I am fixed and unseeing. Unless someone else sees me." Then he does the "One of these things is not like the others" song from Sesame Street. He doesn't actually sing it, but he's saying the words as he examines John Doe 21. He declares that body "not my design." He hears hooves, looks up, and there's a human head with antlers looking down at him through the hole in the ceiling.
Now Will is the extra naked body that's sewn into the center of the mural. A little something for the ladies in the audience. We see Hannibal sewing him in and talking about being created in God's image.
Back in the cell, Will announces that John Doe 21 is the killer. And, he adds, "Whoever sewed him in took a piece of him. As a trophy." Hannibal suggests that he had a friend.
At the scene, Hannibal says that Piero della Francesca once put himself in a fresco. He injects John Doe 21 and watches as his pupil shrinks. Hannibal tells him, "We'll finish it together. When your great eye looked to the heavens, what did it see?" Mr. 21 says, "There is no God." Hannibal uses what is actually one of my favorite all-purpose comebacks: "Certainly not with that attitude." He finishes his work and says, "Your eye will now see God reflected back. It will see you." Because the reflection in the eyeball, which is meant to represent God, will, in fact, be him. Very artsy. Hannibal strokes the man's face.
Will is back in his cage because he has a visitor. It's Kade Purnell, from the office of the Inspector General, and she does FBI oversight. She's also Cynthia Nixon, if that's interesting to you. She explains that Will's guilt is assumed, so the only question is whether he knew what he was doing. Dr. Bloom is saying the FBI made him a murderer, but the FBI says he was always a murderer. Their theory is that Will conspired with his neurologist to create a disease and then killed him to cover his tracks. But as I remember, the neurologist said there was nothing physically wrong with Will, because Hannibal convinced her to lie about it. She walks up to the cage (making her the person to show no fear while also thinking Will's a killer) and suggests that if he pleads guilty, the FBI could avoid the unpleasantness of a trial and Will could be made comfortable in whatever institutions he ends up in. She reminds him that if he's found guilty, he'll get the death penalty. Will shrugs, "I guess I'll have to save my own life."
He closes his eyes and returns to fishing in the river in his mind. But now the river is full of dead bodies.
A buzzer sounds and Will looks around. This time, he's greeting a visitor from his cell. I can't figure out this hospital's visitor policies at all. He doesn't know Bedelia Du Maurier by sight, but he recognizes her name. She wanted to meet him before she withdraws from "social ties," which is code for "Gillian Anderson got a job on a different series." She says that she believes Hannibal did what he thought was best for him, and that Will can survive this. She walks up to the bars and a guard shouts at her to stay behind the white line. It looks almost like they're going to kiss? She whispers, "I believe you" before she's led away.
Hannibal, in his plastic suit, walks among some furniture covered with cleaning cloths. There's a crystal decanter with perfume. We hear Du Maurier telling him that he's dangerous, and the episode ends.