My God, this episode. This whole show. “Takiawese” is Hannibal doing what Hannibal does best: creatively gruesome killings, beautifully repulsive imagery, stellar performances, and music that you feel along your spine. Composer Brian Reitzell is the unsung hero of this show.
“Takiawese” starts with a scene of lovely tranquility, one that in no way belies the chaos to follow. Will is dreaming of fishing with Abigail Hobbs. It’s nice to see Kacey Rohl return; she and Hugh Dancy have an easy, free-flowing chemistry mercifully bereft of the misplaced sexual tension a lesser show would inject. When Will teaches Abigail how to tie a blood knot, he actually smiles, and it’s heartbreaking because we haven’t seen Will smile in so long.
Death is the theme of this episode (which is easily the best of Hannibal‘s already amazing second season). Death, not murder. On one hand, we have the killer Katherine Pims, nicely played by Amanda Plummer, who has killed a man, removed his eyes and brain, and left him in the forest to become a beehive (actual note I took while watching: “Holy shit, a beehive?”). When Jack asks her if she took the victim, Duncan Hallorann, to the forest to kill him, she responds, “I took him to the forest so he could die.” Pims is so forthcoming and earnest about what she’s done. It’s deeply unsettling, and Plummer’s performance plays into one of Hannibal‘s larger themes: the tenuous grasp we all have on our own sanity.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Bella Crawford. Poor, poor Bella Crawford. She has a scene with Jack where the two smoke marijuana and talk about how he will remember her. Reitzell’s music is tactful and unobtrusive, but it underscores the scene, and Gina Torres’ perfect performance, just how it needs to. And on a personal note, this scene was difficult to watch. It’s never been established that Bella is a smoker, but I am, and cancer is an ever-present threat. It really shook me.
Eventually Bella goes to Hannibal to die. She’s taken all of her morphine, aiming to just drift away in Hannibal’s office. She does just that, but then in act of cruel mercy – or merciful cruelty – Hannibal revives her. But first, he flips a coin. That’s what life and death are to Hannibal Lecter, two sides of a coin. And he gets to play God, decide who lives and dies. I have no doubt that had the coin landed another way, Bella Crawford would remain dead.
“Takiawese” is, I think, the episode that aims to set up the rest of the season. Keep in mind that the season premiere “Kaiseki” opened with a knock-down drag-out brawl between Hannibal and Jack, then reset the clock twelve weeks earlier. Consider that clock ticking, and fast. Beverly Katz breaks into Hannibal’s house to try to prove Will’s claim that not only is Hannibal the Chesapeake Ripper, but he’s been eating his victims. It looks like she’s going to get away with it too…but then we see Hannibal standing at the end of the hallway. We didn’t hear him approach, and neither did Beverly; he just showed up like he would in a nightmare.
Then there are gunshots. Cut to black.
A Few Thoughts
– Hetienne Park has been doing amazing work as Beverly Katz. Too bad she’s about to be a meal, because Hannibal isn’t going to kill its title character
– Who did Caroline Dhavernas piss off between seasons one and two? We’ve barely seen Alana Bloom this year
– Director David Semel handled Will’s psychotic lapses nicely, but I thought the flashing lights were a bit much. Not enough to detract from a five-star rating, though
– Takiawese is the fourth dish of the meal kaiseki (I don’t know why Bryan Fuller skipped the third dish, mukozuke)
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