In which Margaux and I bid a tearful farewell to Hannibal.
Trevor: Okay, let’s get the obvious out of the way: if “The Wrath of the Lamb” is fated to be Hannibal’s series finale, then the show went out in top form. “Wrath” ranks among the best series finales I’ve ever seen. This is as good a finale as The Shield or Breaking Bad. What do you think? Am I being hyperbolic? Or do you feel the same way?
Margaux: If anything, you aren’t being hyperbolic enough! I use this analogy a lot, but I like SNL’s Stefon, and this finale had everything – literally. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I never wanted to be over, but when it ended – it felt so apropos. Who knew you’d be able to top last years finale, blood/stab level wise with LESS people. It truly was beautiful.
And I’m not even talking about the Bedelia-Marvel-esque-post-credit-sequence ending that got me to stand up with my hands on my head yelling, THIS CONTROLLING BITCH!
Trevor: Hannibal can take something so outlandish and make it seem like the gruesome inevitable.
There’s so much I want to talk about! This episode really did do everything right. First of all, Hannibal is a funny son of a bitch. Wishing Chilton a speedy recovery before adding: “I hope he won’t be too ugly.” Damn, Chilton already got burned once! Then to will: “You rejected me. I believe that’s what’s called a ‘mic drop.’” I didn’t know it until now, but I’ve always needed to hear Mads Mikkelsen say “mic drop.”
Margaux: “You came all this way and you only got to kill Chilton, cunning boy”- with the emphasis clearly on the word CUN. Fun fact: “Ding dong the witch is dead” is how I referred to you and an ex I strongly disliked when y’all finally broke up. Love how it was used here between Hannibal and Will when talking about the Red Dragon’s sorta passing. I mean, can we talk about that?! Poor Reba, that girl is not gonna date for a long while, if ever again.
Trevor: That’s some serious baggage to bring to a new relationship. That cold open was pretty chilling, if I may use a terrible pun. Dolarhyde sacrificing her in order to spare her from the Dragon. “He will bite you.” We’ve seen what that looks like. Rutina Wesley put in some serious work this season. Her performance went a long way towards making up for playing the race card and being annoying on every episode of True Blood.
Margaux: There was no time wasted getting Reba’s storyline tied up and put away so we could focus on what this show is really about, a boy and his therapist that he can’t seem to quit. Even before we got the literal cliffhanger, we get a very good sense that Will is already resigned to the fact that he cannot go back to borrow family and whatever semblance of a “life” he might have left, to paraphase Bedelia, “can’t live with him, can’t live without him.” Which honestly serves as the thesis for the whole finale, and the series on a greater scale.
Trevor: Absolutely. The smartest thing “Wrath” did was bring the show full-circle. This was never about the Red Dragon, or Florence, or Mason Verger. This was a bizarre, beautiful romance between Will and Hannibal. It was never consummated in the traditional sense, but in an unconventional sense – which is how Hannibal always operated – it definitely was. Hannibal forced Will to tap into his inner darkness, and Will forced Hannibal to see him as, well, human. He even admitted as such: “My compassion for you has become inconvenient.”
Margaux: This finale is Will’s becoming – he calls it out himself when he tells Bedelia what he and the FBI are planning. I love how little faith anyone (Bedelia, Alana, etc) has in law enforcement and their ability to keep them safe from Hannibal or the Dragon because as we see later, Hannibal in full on face mask regalia (God, how cool is that Kubrick-y mask they designed?!), the Dragon takes out a fuckin’ armada of cop cars and a reinforced convict transpo truck.
Trevor: More nice humor from Hannibal, opening the car door for Will: “Going my way?”
Margaux: I want to see someone pick someone up off the street that way, literally shoving a dead body out of a car and winking while saying, “going my way?”
Trevor: And all of that led inexorably to that incredibly well shot and directed finale on the seaside. I’m glad they changed the ending of Red Dragon; this was far more operatic, and suited the show perfectly.
“Do you intend to watch him kill me?”
“I intend to watch him change you.”
Margaux: But I never bought that Will would stand idly by while the Dolarhyde “changed” Hannibal. Maybe Will was hoping they’d take each other and then he would finally be set free, but as I said before – this is Will’s becoming and there is no Will becoming anything without Hannibal (sorry Molly). Those three men all changed each other, for better or worse, and you cannot ever say that Bryan Fuller and Co can’t choreograph a fight scene because HOT DAMN that was a gorgeous knife fight.
Trevor: One thing Hannibal does – or did (sniffle, sob) – so well is imbue fight scenes with a sense of real peril, regardless of how many main characters are involved. Look at last season’s “Mizumono” – I truly had no idea if Jack and Alana were going to die (I had a pretty good feeling that Will would live). “Wrath” being the ostensible series finale (pick this shit up, Hulu!), there was even less surety of anyone’s survival.
But it never stopped being gorgeous. And that, too, can be said of the entire series, easily one of the bloodiest to ever air: it never stopped being gorgeous. Director of Photography James Hawkinson doesn’t get enough credit around these parts, but his involvement is as integral to Hannibal’s aesthetic as is composer Brian Retizell’s.
Margaux: There’s a fantastic EW article that compares The Sopranos to Hannibal in the sense that Hannibal, like The Sopranos, changed the way we’ll tell stories on TV (and probably network television) in ways we’ve yet to see, but will ultimately be profound because of the cohesion in which Fuller and Co have told the story. We’ve talked about how Hannibal has taken the source material and played with it so much, made it its own so well, it’s almost like, this should be the reference point going forward with any adaption. Whereas Hannibal used to be so synonymous with Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Mads as Hannibal is really where my minds goes first nowadays and I ain’t complaining.
Trevor: Speaking of Silence of the Lambs, a huge reason why this show needs to be renewed is that Bryan Fuller wanted Silence to be the framework for season four, and he wanted to cast Lee motherfucking Pace as Buffalo Bill, which is just a fantastic idea.
Anyway. My mind keeps circling back to that perfect final shot, before Will and Hannibal tumbled over the cliff’s edge. The two men, bloodied, embracing.
Hannibal: “This is all I ever wanted for you. For us.”
Will: “It’s beautiful.”
No one can say that this show isn’t a love story. Albeit one where several faces were eaten.
Margaux: I was a friggin’ mess when they cuddled up, slid backwards, and said good-bye. I was that little girl from that Odd Life of Timothy Green YouTube video, BUT I DON’T WANT YOU GUYS TO GO! Though I always knew these murder husbands were in a love story all their own, it wasn’t until that very moment that I realized this even this relationship was THEIR design. Ugh, and that hand on the glass scene earlier in the episode, when Will thinks he’s saying good-bye to Hannibal, you know the first mic drop. These two shoulda gotten a room a long time ago, though I was surprisingly pleased to see a little restraint – it wasn’t full on Brokeback Mountain, spit on my hand pre-hand job.
Also: I should have picked up sooner that this would be their end when Hannibal and Will look over the bluffs at the ocean and Hannibal name drops all the ladies he’s taken back to his secret house, and how that didn’t end so well for Abigail Hobbs or Miriam Lass.
Trevor: Good point. That’s solid foreshadowing.
Look, we could talk about Hannibal all night, and lord knows I would enjoy that. But the fact is, we have to say goodbye (although I very badly want to append “for now” to that). Before we talk stars, I want to thank you, because writing about season three with you was infinitely more enjoyable than writing about season two by myself. So, even though I can guess your answer to all three, what’s your star count for “The Wrath of the Lamb,” for Hannibal season three, and for Hannibal as a series?
Margaux: Didn’t you read what I said, BUT I DON’T WANT TO GO!
Besides, I want to point out a fun little Bedelia fact I noticed on my second, less scream-y viewing. Not only is this bitch high as fuck, serving up her own goddamn leg, there were three place settings at the table. One for Hannibal, one for Will, and one for…Dolarhyde? Did you catch that? Then we can talk stars. I also want to hear what you thought about that post-credit sequence because I fuckin’ loved it. And want a Bedelia spin off right fuckin’ now.
Trevor: Like most of Hannibal, I didn’t expect it, and I loved it. I thought the extra place setting might be for Alana. Or Chilton. (Bedelia, at her core, has the same sick sense of humor that Hannibal does, and I think if nothing else she’d get a kick out of inviting him to the meal.) Or maybe for Jack. I kind of like not knowing.
Margaux: She’s probably sitting there, just like Huell is probably still sitting in that motel room waiting on Hank to come back. Okay, fine – we can talk stars now.
I wish there were more stars to give because Hannibal deserves them all, and then some. I want Hannibal to be the first television show in history to EGOT, that’s how much I enjoyed and was devastated in the best possible by this season. It’s the sort of storytelling I strive for and that everyone else making movies or tv should reach for every time; it’s smart, it’s beautifully shot and acted, everyone is so completely on the same page – it shows effortlessly. Thank you Bryan Fuller, WE OWE YOU AWE.
“The Wrath of the Lamb” score: 5/5 stars
Hannibal season three score: 5/5 stars
Hannibal series score: 5/5 stars
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