When many people watched the first Episode of Season 2, people thought the ending was spoiled! This Episode showed that even that spoiler was so little in significance to the huge twist at the End.
The way that everything in this episode led to Hannibal slicing Will's stomach and slitting—surprise!—Abigail's throat was remarkable. Much like a suspicious lover, Hannibal caught a whiff of Freddie Lounds on Will, and the tumblers fell into the place in Hannibal's mind. At that point, the jig was up, and Hannibal should've just gotten the hell out of dodge. He stayed. He stayed because the teacup of entropy and time reversed itself with Will and Abigail, and he wanted them to remain a part of his life. In their last supper together, he even offered Will a chance to come clean, to tell him everything, and to receive forgiveness for the deception. But Will kept to his and Jack's plan—he remained committed to the lie, and Hannibal offered a toast to the truth "and all its consequences."
So the hurt is real. It's deeply real. Hannibal himself is a serial killer and a master of deceit—"In your defense, I worked very hard to blind you"—and that's why it cut so deep when Will didn't all-out confess. It was a rejection, even in those fleeting moments when Will, echoing Hannibal's own call to Garret Jacob Hobbs in the series premiere, warned Hannibal that "they know." It was as close to an apology as Will was going to get. The one person Hannibal had connected with, the one person he'd found in this crazy, mixed-up world who he thought could understand him, had played him: "I have let you know me. See me. I gave you a rare gift. But you didn't want it." It's not the risk of being caught as a serial killer that frustrated Hannibal; it's the fact that he let his guard down, that he shared himself with another person, and that this other person didn't reciprocate.
Mads Mikkelsen held nothing back, allowing pain, sadness, anger, and contempt to inflect his line readings, with director David Slade's blocking—particularly in the moment when Hannibal hugged Will—emphasizing the intimacy of it all, and focusing on the grave wounds that Will had inflicted. Hannibal was gutted emotionally in the same way that Will was physically. In fact, Hannibal's experience may've been even more painful, because it seemed that Hannibal not only wanted to believe that Will was his friend, but to spare Jack—if not for Jack's own sake, then for Bella's.
How much empathy did you have Hannibal leading up to his bloody departure from his home?
Discuss
The way that everything in this episode led to Hannibal slicing Will's stomach and slitting—surprise!—Abigail's throat was remarkable. Much like a suspicious lover, Hannibal caught a whiff of Freddie Lounds on Will, and the tumblers fell into the place in Hannibal's mind. At that point, the jig was up, and Hannibal should've just gotten the hell out of dodge. He stayed. He stayed because the teacup of entropy and time reversed itself with Will and Abigail, and he wanted them to remain a part of his life. In their last supper together, he even offered Will a chance to come clean, to tell him everything, and to receive forgiveness for the deception. But Will kept to his and Jack's plan—he remained committed to the lie, and Hannibal offered a toast to the truth "and all its consequences."
So the hurt is real. It's deeply real. Hannibal himself is a serial killer and a master of deceit—"In your defense, I worked very hard to blind you"—and that's why it cut so deep when Will didn't all-out confess. It was a rejection, even in those fleeting moments when Will, echoing Hannibal's own call to Garret Jacob Hobbs in the series premiere, warned Hannibal that "they know." It was as close to an apology as Will was going to get. The one person Hannibal had connected with, the one person he'd found in this crazy, mixed-up world who he thought could understand him, had played him: "I have let you know me. See me. I gave you a rare gift. But you didn't want it." It's not the risk of being caught as a serial killer that frustrated Hannibal; it's the fact that he let his guard down, that he shared himself with another person, and that this other person didn't reciprocate.
Mads Mikkelsen held nothing back, allowing pain, sadness, anger, and contempt to inflect his line readings, with director David Slade's blocking—particularly in the moment when Hannibal hugged Will—emphasizing the intimacy of it all, and focusing on the grave wounds that Will had inflicted. Hannibal was gutted emotionally in the same way that Will was physically. In fact, Hannibal's experience may've been even more painful, because it seemed that Hannibal not only wanted to believe that Will was his friend, but to spare Jack—if not for Jack's own sake, then for Bella's.
How much empathy did you have Hannibal leading up to his bloody departure from his home?
Discuss
