The finale was, much as I expected, delicious. Will is in a very grim place, literally and metaphorically, and Dr. Lecter is, for now, still in control. “Savoureux” continues to play with reality, and time, and seeing and truth. Evidence is truth, we can all agree. But we can also agree evidence has been manipulated in Hannibal. Truth is, therefore, manipulated. Subjective. Nothing is real.
We open with Will hunting an animal through the wood. Is he dreaming? Is this really happening? Who knows? He shoots his high-powered rifle at the emblematic elk we’ve seen throughout the season. Does it morph into a human with horns? Are we really seeing this? Will notes the blood on the roots of a tree, and then wakes with a jolt, once again in his bed. He was only dreaming … but why are his feet covered in mud? He stumbles in a cold sweat to the kitchen where he pounds back some water with his medication, and promptly vomits back up … an ear?
Will apparently has swallowed an ear. And now has thrown it back up. Things look bad for poor Will Graham. Hugh Dancy has played this character so finely, so precisely all season that if he does not win an award, I shall be very disappointed. Walking the fine line between madness and truth, he has brought such a grounded realness to a man clearly in the throes of not only a mental crisis but also an existential universal angst. Sheer brilliance on his part.
He calls Hannibal who calls in the cavalry. Will is taken in for processing, all the while getting the side-eye from everyone as he is led to the FBI van. One of his dogs, still with a leash on and covered in mud, stares sadly at him.
Jack believes Will is guilty, Alana believes Will is guilty and Beverly believes Will is guilty. Even Will believes he is guilty … until … until Dr. Lecter goes a bit too far in his almost flawless plan. Hannibal frames Will for the copycat murders, but even the ones that occurred before Will started losing his grip on reality. This is a turning point for Will. He knows now. He is not the copycat.
Beverly (Hettienne Park) scrapes under Will’s nails for evidence, the blood falling like pretty snowflakes in a scene that reminded me of Dexter. She has been almost criminally underused this season, and the scene underlines this. She confronts Will, saying: “I can’t pretend I don’t know you and I can’t pretend we both don’t know what I’m finding under your nails.” She asks him if he knows how it got there and he shakes his head, saying: “No … not without any certainty.” She replies that certainly comes from evidence. The scene once again plays with truth and self and awareness, while we know the reality — Dr. Lecter is doing all this. We don’t know the mechanics but we know he has framed Will, almost beyond a shadow of a doubt, to the point where everyone, Will himself, does not know who he is anymore; if they ever did at all. The only one who takes any ownership in Will’s downfall is Alana, who says Abigail and Will’s blood is on their hands.
Will escapes while being transported to a medical hospital/prison. He of course heads to Dr. Lecter where they both head to Minnesota, the beginning of it all. And the end for Will and maybe Hannibal too? Will starts to remember many things, and this is where Lecter makes his miscalculation. He pushes Will too far, trying to convince Will, to manipulate his thinking. But Will sees the antlers. He knows the truth. “I know who I am,” he pushes back. And then the climactic moment: “I see you.”
Jack arrives in time to save Hannibal, shooting Will, who falls down in the same spot as Abigail’s father. Will survives and in the end is put in blue jumpsuit, in the bowels of the psychiatric hospital.
Bedelia du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) makes an appearance as well at the end of the episode. In a chilling tableau, Hannibal and his shrink sit down to a gourmet meal he has prepared for her. Veal (or Abigail?) She addresses the barbarity to which young calves are subjected, calling the entrée a “controversial dish” while elegantly taking a bite — linking their cultured elitist personas to this heinousness…cruelty merely to satisfy their fleeting desires; what Hannibal has been doing all along to Will. The graceful monster. Excellent and subtle.
Final questions and comments
How did Dr. Lecter get the ear into Will? Or was it merely in the sink? Does Dr. du Maurier know the truth about Hannibal? And is she complicit in some sense? Is Abigail still alive? Were Hannibal’s tears sincere?
I am so hungry for Season 2. Well done, Bryan Fuller!
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