Margaux and I discuss this week’s bizarre Hannibal.
Trevor: Hannibal is a weird-ass show, but “Secondo” was a pretty damn weird episode even by Hannibal standards. Needless to say, I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Margaux: It was definitely the most graphic with the highest body count thus far this season, but what Hannibal does best was on full display in “Secondo”: is Will truly his best self when he’s around Hannibal? Has Hannibal rubbed on Will’s shattered brain more than he’d like to just chalk up to “catching the Monster”?
Trevor: Absolutely. Will and Hannibal didn’t share a single scene in “Secondo,” but they were the most inextricably linked that they’ve been all season. A small, nice moment came when Hannibal seemed almost touched that Will remembered what part of his memory palace to look for him. And of course, Will spends all of the episode at Hannibal’s childhood home (a wonderful set, by the way).
Margaux: If by wonderful, you mean the house that Hansel and Gretel built, I’ve never felt so creeped out and claustrophobic in such a wide space before. From the moment Will arrives at the gates, you want to yell, “YOU IN DANGER, GIRL” and that’s sort of true, just not about Will. I really enjoyed the visuals of Hannibal’s face transitioning into Will’s, or the reflection of Hannibal changing in Chiyo’s tea cup; it’s all Hannibal’s foreboding presence even though the house Hannibal grew up in doesn’t strike you as the home of a cannibal grew up in. Maybe an intense horder.
Trevor: That house was Gothic as hell. It just added to season three’s baroque presentation, which is absolutely working in Hannibal’s favor. But from a non-aesthetic point of view, another thing that’s working is the narrative. This looks like it will be the first time that Hannibal has embraced a season-long arc – don’t get me wrong, there have been narratives that played out over the course of a whole season before, but up until now there have been standalone cases to act as B-stories. There’s no real B-story in “Secondo”; I’d argue that Hannibal and Will share the A-story, and Jack Crawford acts as almost a Greek chorus, commenting on what’s happening without ever becoming involved.
Margaux: I’d say that Bedelia belongs in the Greek chorus with Jack Crawford, too. The dinner scene where Hannibal makes Punch Romaine for Professor Soriato and Hannibal up and decides he’s done with pleasantries for the evening, sinks the ice pick he was using into the side of Soriato’s skull. Bedelia goes from “observer” to “participator” in that moment, Soriato is bleeding all over the table, speaking gibberish, and staring right at her – so she pulls out the pic, making her the one that technically killed him. I loved how dry and matter-of-fact Hannibal says this to Bedelia, he’s just such an asshole sometimes.
Trevor: That scene had two of my favorite lines in the episode, the first coming after Hannibal buries the pick in Soriato’s head, then sits down and says “That may have been impulsive.” Mads Mikkelsen is weirdly funny; look at Hannibal’s face when his guests are eating meat of unknown province. He’s just excited to be fucking with these people. Yet another thing that’s rubbed off on Will, as we see when he frees Chiyo’s prisoner.
Margaux: I forgot how much dark humor Hannibal loves to sprinkle in since Scott Thompson isn’t around this season.
But as soon as Will says to Chiyo, “I bet Hannibal is still curious if you’d kill,” you knew what he was going to do. What I didn’t fathom happening was what Will did with the body afterward, I was raising my eyebrows so high, I thought they’d jump off my face. WHO IS THAT EVEN FOR, IF NOT FOR WILL? We talked about a little about it last week, how Hannibal and Will are both cat and mouse in any given scenario, but I’m liking so much about this season is how we’re forced to question Will’s intentions in his attempt to catch Hannibal with little to no supervision from people who know their weird-ass past.
Trevor: I think that’s why Jack has those telling lines. The first: “I’m not here for the monster, I’m here for Will Graham.” The second, even more up-front: “I borrowed his imagination, and I broke it.” Will making that tableau shows just how close to truly broken he is. You’re right, that’s not for Hannibal to see, that’s for Will to do. Part of what makes Will Will has always been his ability to tap into the mindset of a psychopath, but there are definitely parts of him that have stayed there too long.
Margaux: Again, I must repeat what I said last week, you don’t just wake up from an eight month coma…suddenly cured of mental disease.
But with Chiyo begrudgingly at Will’s side, we’ve got another Stockholm Syndrome duo, not unlike Hannibal and Bedelia’s…arrangement. And Bedelia knows that Hannibal is drawing Will, Jack, and everyone else Hannibal left for dead in Baltimore, back to him. It’s the first time Hannibal’s smug expression turned slightly to worry. That, and when Bedelia asks Hannibal how his sister tasted when he ate her, as Hannibal fuckin’ lathers up her hair in some Out of Africa type bathtime bullshit. It was terrifying and erotic and you’re just waiting for Hannibal to snap Bedelia’s little neck.
Trevor: Their chemistry together gives me a fear boner. But Gillian Anderson could have great chemistry with anyone. I swear, that woman was carved out of marble.
Typically this is where other shows might start “tightening the noose,” but “Secondo” was a very slow, methodical episode. Hannibal has never been in a hurry to get anywhere, until it becomes a literal bloodbath, like last season’s finale “Mizumono.” Hannibal’s realization that he has to eat Will in order to forgive him was a blood-curdling note to go out on.
Margaux: To speak to your slow and methodical comment, all of the shot of snails, snailing around at a snail’s pace throughout the episode all but tell you that Hannibal is doing its thing and just be patient. Shit will always hit fan. And if next week’s preview is any indication, all the hens of Hannibal’s past are coming home to roost. And Hannibal didn’t think he could go home…ha!
Trevor: Yes, I’m very excited to see Mason Verger and Frederick Chilton in Hannibal’s version of the Legion of Doom. Would you like to talk stars, or is there anything else you’d rather discuss?
Margaux: Other than Verger’s face already giving me nightmares and that Hannibal is another show where unless you see the casket go into the ground, no one is really dead. HELL YEAH, CHILTON!
Okay, now I’m ready for stars.
Trevor: I feel like we’re repeating ourselves every week. But if Hannibal would stop making four and a half star episodes, we’d fucking stop giving them four and a half stars. I’m still holding out on a five-star rating, because I know there’s going to be a couple five-star episodes this season. You good with 4.5?
Margaux: Yes. Between the return of Mason Verger and Red Dragon slated to make life more difficult for Hannibal and Will, I’m saving the five star rating. But as far as setting tone and mood, nothing gets better than Hannibal.
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