Hannibal 1x12: "Relevés"
BEFORE THE SHOW
@cleolinda: I am straight-up drinking through tonight's episode. #SOEXCITED #SOSCARED
AFTER THE SHOW
@cleolinda: I'm not okay, you guys, everything is terrible, I'm not okaaaaaay, oh God I can't wait to recap this
We're beyond Worst at Helping, guys. Beyond Kelvin Worst, beyond Unmitigated Fucker. We're beyond words for whatever this is.
PREVIOUSLY ON: EMPATH AND CANNIBAL: Gizzard the Ripper escaped, kidnapped Freddie and left a gift basket of Chilton (they both lived); Will 1) caught Gideon while having a fever of 105, 2) took him to Lecter's house, then 3) had a complete breakdown/encephalitis seizure after Lecter told him NO ONE WAS THERE AND HE'D COME TO THE HOUSE ALONE; Gideon said "wtf is wrong with you people, but thanks for the directions to Alana's house, I guess," and pondered his Generic Off-Brand Existence. Then Will shot him. AND THEN SOMEONE TOOK WILL TO A HOSPITAL, YAAAAAY.
Will still doesn't know that he has actual encephalitis, by the way. No one who is not terrible knows. It is, after all, The Brain Disease That Makes People Seem Crazy. And that's exactly how Lecter wants it.
So tonight's episode is called "Relevés," and it turns out that you can get (at least) four different meanings out of the word relevé, which I ever-so-helpfully discovered in order of least to most relevant:
1) A ballet position, apparently the most common definition: "Literally 'lifted.' Rising from any position to balance on one or both feet on at least demi-pointe which is heels off the floor or higher to full pointe where the dancer is actually balancing on the top of the toes, supported in pointe shoes. Smoothly done in some versions, a quick little leap up in other schools." ("DID YOU KNOW--" Yes, I know Mads Mikkelsen was a trained dancer, don't go Kermit-flailing off to the comments just yet.)
2) "Statement"--could you use this to mean the sort you might give to the police, I wonder?
3) "Spicy," synonymous with épicé or piquant (now we're getting closer to the French menu theme).
4) Buried in the "Entrée" (the course, not the episode) Wikipedia article, which was somehow the last place I ended up: "In traditional French haute cuisine, the entrée preceded a larger dish known as the relevé, which 'replaces' or 'relieves' it, an obsolete term in modern cooking, but still used as late as 1921 in Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire."
@BryanFuller: TONIGHT's EPISODE IS CALLED #RELEVES, pronounced as "ri-lafe" meaning Main Course or "piece de resistance." #HANNIBAL
Or I could have just waited for him to tell us that, yes.
(That's... not how you'd pronounce not "relevé(s)," but... just... go over there with "Ceuf" and have a good time. *throws up hands*)
We open with Georgia chillaxing in her hyperbaric chamber, recovering from Cotard's Syndrome and an unexplained case of Zombie Skin; Captain Plaid and his rolling IV stand have come to visit. Bless.
In fact, Will tells her that, not only does she look better (and also alive), she looks pretty. "Must be all the oxygen," Georgia says with a bashful smile; she plays with her hair sort of wistfully. (Note the blue medical bracelet on her left hand.) How about Will, do they know what's wrong with him yet? "No, just the fever," he says, trying hide his anxiety. "They're trying to find out what else." "They won't find anything. They'll keep looking, keep taking tests, keep giving false diagnoses, bad meds. But they won't find out what's wrong. They'll just know... that you're wrong," says Georgia, adding, "I hope you have good insurance." "I do too," Will says wryly. Y'all, nobody has enough health insurance to be friends with Hannibal Lecter. Georgia, meanwhile, is going to get electroconvulsive therapy--hopefully not administered by another shady "colleague" of Lecter's. ("Shock treatment sounds nicer," she says.) Will assures her that people with Cotard's can recover with ECT, but Georgia's not optimistic: "You know how many times I've been told I could 'recover with treatment'?" (Will gives her a "touché" face.) "They said I might remember what I did. But I don't want to remember." "You know what you did, Georgia," he says, but Georgia insists that she doesn't remember: "It feels more like a horrible dream where I killed my friend." "You dream about killing anybody else?" Will asks, thinking of Dr. "Pez Head" Sutcliffe. Georgia: "I dream you killed that doctor... but I couldn't see your face." 1) So can she see faces now? 2) How about Lecter's tailored plastic murder suit, you see that?
@sydk: I don't even watch the show but PLEASE TELL ME THERE ARE ACTUAL, NON-PSYCHOTIC DOCTORS FOR WILL TO SEE.
@cleolinda: Apparently he is in the hospital! I have hopes some of the staff is not evil!
@sydk: IS THE STAFF DELICIOUS? THIS IS IMPORTANT. D:
@cleolinda: IDK but I saw something that kind of looks like Hannibal brings him food in the hospital because OF COURSE HE DOES
@sydk: I bet that food was the finest physician in the land. :(
Back in his own room, Will does, in fact, wake to find Lecter (with blurry face, nicely done) unpacking dishes: "Silkie chicken in a broth. A black-boned bird prized in China for its medicinal values since the 7th century. Wolfberries, ginseng, ginger, red dates, and star anise." Will: "You made me chicken soup?" Heh. And you know, you expect some kind of reaction from Lecter that continues the awwwness of it, but he just pauses, gives Will a conspicuously curt "Yes," then walks away. Hm. He'll say later that he wants to protect Will--that he's even "loyal" to him, and whatever that means to him, I think he does mean it. But I'm also wondering if he's kind of... preparing himself... for what he may have to do. (That, or--as laddical suggested--he's a bit offended that Will perceived his offering as mere "chicken soup.")
@BryanFuller: CHICKEN SOUP IS PEOPLE #NotReallyPeople #ReallyChicken
@BryanFuller: SILKIE CHICKEN IS A THING http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie @CHEFJOSEANDRES [Soup photo]
Well, of course it's a thing; fancy cannibal must have silky chicken.
@BryanFuller: BEFORE SILKIE CHICKEN IT WAS STEAMED CABBAGE. CHICKEN SOUP SEEMED MORE NURTURING ...
(Wait, originally it didn't have any meat in it at all? It's like... it's like I don't even know Hannibal Lecter anymore.)
... #CABBAGEISPEOPLE [ Food sketch]
(Oh. Carry on, then.)
So they sit there by his window and eat the soup together, very much the way they had breakfast in the first episode.
This is the only cuisine we get this week, by the way. No cooking, no Significant Dinner Conversations, no Chez Lecter. (Oh, but they were going to have Bedelia come over?) Instead:
@neoprod: Exclusive treat for you #Fannibals @DAVID_A_SLADE blocking Mads in 101 #Hannibal cooking scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0CnAOYER5I
@DAVID_A_SLADE: Hardly call it blocking - I think too much coffee is more like it.....
"The nurses tell me you've been wandering," says Lecter (before or after you asked about their perfume?), but Will tells him that he was not, in fact, sleepwalking: "I was awake, and wandering with... purpose and good intentions." "Visiting that unfortunate young woman suffering from delusions," guesses Lecter (emphasis on "delusions of me murdering Sutcliffe, in case that ever comes up"). "She's my support group," says Will (awww! He was always so snippy about those before!). "And I hope you're hers," replies Lecter. "Nothing more isolating than mental illness." Oh, wow, that's some really beautiful gaslight you've got going there. Even Will puts down his spoon and sits back with a sigh. "The hallucinations, the loss of time, sleepwalking... could that have all just been the fever?" "Fevers can be symptoms of dementia," says Lecter. "Dementia can be a symptom of you being wrong and crazy me definitely not being a serial killer many things happening in your body or mind that can no longer be ignored because I told you to ignore them, Will I am a terrible person." Oh, P.S. Lecter hasn't told Jack about anything but the fever, either. "Shouldn't you?" asks Will, innocently startled, because YES, SHOULDN'T YOU? "Not until we know for certain," he says. "What we must do now is continue to support and monitor and prevent your recovery." Speaking of recovery, how's Georgia doing? "I don't think she wants to recover," says Will. "Afraid to remember what she did." Lecter considers this a moment: "Can't say I blame her." No, we mostly blame you.
Sometime later, Georgia wakes up to hear retreating footsteps and a closing door. Oh, look: there is, somehow, a comb inside the chamber! That cute FBI agent said she looked pretty, and she had been wandering around looking like a hot zombie mess for so long, it really would be nice to--
@cleolinda: ... are you absolutely fucking shitting me.
TWO WEEKS AGO:
@BryanFuller: @EllenAMuth WILL RETURN AS GEORGIA MADCHEN IN OUR PENULTIMATE EPISODE OF THE SEASON
Well, Countdown to Something Terrible Happening to This Girl, then.
JESUS CHRIST, I HADN'T EVEN COUNTED DOWN PAST "NINE" YET!
(Well, I guess Georgia will not be giving any relevés à la police.)
@BryanFuller: #SPOILER THIS WAS PERHAPS THE MOST UPSETTING SHOT OF THE SEQUENCE FOR ME pic.twitter.com/SPWJ1lZKBu
And yeah, we also watch Georgia in the inferno from inside the chamber as well. It's pretty horrifying.
Red wine scaryface credits. Apparently our three lead actors went in for facial scans, and that's who we really are looking at, since y'all were wondering.
After the break, here's poor Will wheeling his IV stand in to the crime scene. It should go without saying that Crawford is Not Happy, no one is happy, and possibly no one will ever be happy again--oh. Oh, let's definitely pull Georgia's crispy body out in full camera view; my heart didn't hurt enough yet. "The hospital speculates that it was a short circuit that ignited the fire," says Crawford, but the unflappable Jimmy says, "Unit looks well maintained. No exposed wiring." "Horrible way to die," mutters Will (omg, where is Beverly, he needs Beverly). Jimmy: " There was a kid in Italy who was in one of these things. A spark of static electricity from his pajamas set it off. Two cubic yards of oxygen suddenly became two cubic yards of fire." So Crawford's next thought is... "Is it possible that she set the fire herself?" The fuck, Crawford? "She wasn't wearing her grounding bracelet," Brian points out, holding up its charred remains (it's true: she no longer had it in the comb scene), "which prevents the build-up of static electricity--she took it off." Oh, so the Murder Wizard did that too. Well, if he could get into her room and also into her hyperbaric chamber without waking her up until he was leaving, sure, why not? Will: "Suicide by immolation?" Impending murder charges be damned: "No. She wasn't suicidal, Jack. She was--sick. I was here. I spoke to her." O rly. Everybody shoots Will a Look: why'd you do that, precisely? "Because I know how she felt." Crawford: "She's a murder suspect, she tried to kill you." (Okay, actually, no, she didn't. She just presumably hid in his car, rode back to Wolf Trap with him, stalked him to his doctor's office, and hid under his bed. Is that so wrong?) "Your trying to be her friend impacts the case against her." (Okay, I'll give you that one.) Will, bitterly: "Well, the case against her doesn't really matter anymore, does it, Jack?" (Final point to the empath.) Crawford: DEEP SIGH.
Over at the psychiatric hospital--oh, we're still doing that tell-all book, I see: Abigail and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea.
Miss Freddie's idea is to use her Tattle Crime headlines as chapter headings; she's laying out file folders, each one with a victim's photo paperclipped on top. Which is a nice touch--I like that the show keeps reiterating that these crimes had victims, and that those victims were people, not just crime scenes. "The chapters themselves would be you telling your story-- where you were and what you were thinking when, one by one, eight girls just like you all over Minnesota were disappearing." "What are we gonna call it?" asks Abigail. "I thought about The Last Victim," Freddie says airily, "but there is already a book about serial killers called The Last Victim." "Was it a bestseller?" Abigail retorts with her characteristic sass. "Absolutely," says Freddie. " Especially after the guy who wrote it killed himself." (Note from the Future Where We Have Seen the End of the Episode: OH GOD, YOU GUYS.) "Just as well," says Abigail, noting that she wasn't her father's last "victim" anyway. Freddie looks up and sits back: "Who was?" "Marissa," she replies, but "Marissa Schuur was killed by the copycat," says Freddie, a bit questioningly. "So was Cassie Boyle--" Abigail: "I STILL BLAME MY DAD." For Nicholas Boyle's death, too? "I blame Nick Boyle for Nick Boyle's death," she replies. "He killed Marissa--he got what was coming to him." But Freddie says, "Nick Boyle did not kill your friend--" "THEN WHO DID?"
Freddie points out that the better question is--who killed Nick? (Abigail does not like this line of conversation; she flashes back to that time that, you know, she did.) (HE RAN INTO HER KNIFE, OKAY?) In Freddie's opinion, "Nick Boyle was just a... dumb kid who I sent after you just to stir some shit was really messed up because his sister was murdered. He wasn't a killer. I've interviewed enough killers to know one when I see one." Abigail, keeping her head down: "What gives them away?" "A very specific brand of hostility," says Freddie, smiling. "I see it every time I look at you. Totally when I look at you Will Graham." WILL? No, see, that's a separate brand of hostility related to the fact that you keep writing "WILL GRAHAM: TOTES INSANE" articles, Freddie. "He did kill my dad," snarks Abigail (ARE YOU THROWING SHAGGY DAD UNDER THE BUS? Cannibaby, how could you). Indeed, says Freddie, "As far as I'm concerned, he killed Nick Boyle. He and Jack Crawford told everyone Nick was the copycat, and then someone murdered him for it." Wait, who did they actually tell before Abigail killed him like an hour after they found Marissa? Seriously, Freddie, now you're just making shit up. "You really don't think he did it," says Abigail, surprised (and disturbed). "Whoever killed Nicholas Boyle killed an innocent man," Freddie says. And Abigail really doesn't like that.
The Nobark Home for Therapeutic Strays. All the Doggies! Hello doggies, may I pet you?
PLEASE. WE NEED DOGGIES.
Once again, Will's having one of his nightmares--he thinks he's waking up to find Zombie Georgia in the middle of the room, the very image of her twitching oddly ( apparently this is an homage to Japanese horror?). When she turns around and walks to the door, it looks like jerky stop-motion animation, and there's weird gaggling sounds on the soundtrack--she turns back to him and NO WILL DON'T FOLLOW HER DON'T GO OUTSIDE OH GOD THIS IS THE WORST IDEA and she's standing out in the yard saying, " See? See?" One more time: "See?" Aaaaand then antlers burst through her chest and she bursts into head-to-foot flame and from the flame emerges THE DIRE RAVENSTAG.
EARLIER THAT DAY:
@DireRavenstag: Note my fine posterior and distinctive plumage. Perfection. #DoIGotABooty #IDoooooo
@themoonay: Someone on tumblr wrote a song about the Ravenstag. I can't help but LOL at how a @cleolinda joke became fandom canon.
}:D
And then Will wakes up, not at home with All the Dogs, but in his hospital bed.
(WHO IS TAKING CARE OF THE DOGS?!?!)
The Crawffice. "What're you doing here?" "Checked myself out of the hospital." "Well, check yourself back in." Nice to see you too, Boss. Will: "My fever broke." Crawford: "I DON'T CARE." And he particularly doesn't care that Georgia's death was neither a suicide nor an accident: "I'M GONNA HAVE Z COME DOWN HERE AND STICK A THERMOMETER IN YOU, AND IF YOU'VE GOT A TEMPERATURE HIGHER THAN 99--"
@MrAaronAbrams [Brian]: Alone in his basement, Zeller stares darkly at a picture of Will as he shines his thermometer. He knows a day will come.
"She was murdered, Jack," Will insists. (*FOLDER SLAM*): "By who?" Well, by whoever killed Sutcliffe, because-- "HIS BLOOD WAS ALL OVER GEORGIA MADCHEN. HER DNA WAS ALL OVER HIM." "She told me there was somebody else there. She couldn't see his face--" "THERE WAS SOMEBODY ELSE THERE, IT WAS DR. SUTCLIFFE. SHE COULDN'T SEE HIS FACE BECAUSE SHE CUT IT IN HALF!" But then Crawford says quietly--just kidding, he's still capslocking: "WILL, I UNDERSTAND. YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN EXPLANATION, AN EXPLANATION THAT MAKES ALL OF THIS OKAY," and now it's Will's turn to get shouty: "NO! NO NO NO! I DON'T! THAT IS NOT WHAT I WANT! LISTEN! Something went wrong, and we will never know what that is--but for all the doctors she saw, for all of the help she received, she was fighting that wrong alone." CRAWFORD: "THERE IS NOTHING YOU COULD DO ABOUT THAT." WILL: "ALL HER ADULT LIFE, THIS WOMAN WAS MISUNDERSTOOD!" Ah. Now we get to it: "And what I can do is make sure that her death isn't misunderstood." (Crawford gives him a serious look now.) "She didn't kill herself," says Will. "And this wasn't an accident."
Forensics lab; still no Beverly. Will's heart is pounding in his ears and the conversation's fuzzy and he really does need to be back in that hospital, or at least wheeling an IV around the Bureau. "So, we dismantled the oxygen chamber," says Brian, pulling Georgia's body (*sob*) out of the mortuary drawer, "to see if anyone tampered with the wiring, or even like a short circuit, but--nothing." Well, then what did start the fire? Brian: "Inconclusive, but--" "--not conclusively inconclusive," finishes Jimmy. It turns out they've found a charred bit of... celluloid plastic? (Also, Mass Spectrometer would be a BADASS band name.) And, as Brian points out, "Her hair was melted right in there. Preserved like it was in amber."
Will remembers Georgia pushing back a strand of hair: "Could it have been a plastic comb?" "Well," says Jimmy, "static charge from a plastic comb in a highly oxygenated environment would be a powerful accelerant." (NO KIDDING.) "You're holding the murder weapon," declares Will--or "Whatever she used to kill herself, yeah?" The fuck, Crawford? Aaaand then Will jerks open the Dr. Pez Head drawer (over Brian's protests, because, dude, why we gotta look at this again?). "Whoever killed Sutcliffe wanted to kill him how Georgia Madchen killed her victim, but--but not exactly how. Correct?" "Georgia Madchen carved up her victim's face," admits Brian, whereas "Sutcliffe was, uh, nearly decapitated at the jaw." Well, but serial killers often go further the second time, argues Crawford, but Will insists, "She was copied. Like--whoever killed Marissa Schuur and Cassie Boyle wanted to copy how Garrett Jacob Hobbs killed his victims." And then Will flashes back to the two girls' bodies and trembles with epiphany: "But not exactly how." Yeahhhh, now we're getting somewhere. Crawford: "Wait a minute. Are you saying that Dr. Sutcliffe was killed by Garrett Jacob Hobbs' copycat?" (Brian and Jimmy shoot him successive "wha?" looks. Heh.) "So was Georgia Madchen," Will says slowly. "Because he thinks she saw his face..." "You said Nicholas Boyle was the copycat. His blood was on one of the victims. Nicholas Boyle is dead," logics Crawford. "Well then, he isn't the copycat," counter-logics Will. Crawford: *HEAD TILT.*
The Best Office Ever. "Could this be more than just a fever?" asks Crawford. "Will is connecting murders that previously had no connections." "Beyond his involvement in the investigations," notes Lecter (oh, go to hell). "So you're wondering if the lines are blurring, or if he's on to something...?" Crawford: "I'm wondering all sorts of things. [A long pause.] What's Will's relationship with Abigail Hobbs right now?" A corresponding pause from Lecter, and a clearing of throat: "You think he's protecting her." Crawford: "He has been ever since he shot the fuck out of her father; I just don't know from what." "I can't imagine he would hide anything criminal from you," says Dr. Hey Help Me Cover Up That One Time Our Adopted Daughter Killed A Guy. "I've only ever known Will as a man striving to be his best self." Oh God, he knows that Crawford basically lives on Opposite Planet and thinks whatever you tell him not to, how are you so precisely terrible. "You haven't known him that long," Crawford says pensively. "But we both know him well enough to know he hasn't been himself." "He needs our support, whether or not mental illness is involved," says Lecter, who really does seem to be purposefully dropping those words (* THUNDERCLAP*) as often as he can, to sow doubt. Because he is the worst. "Mental illness... is it really mental illness, Doctor, or is it just that his mind works so differently from most people's that--we don't know what else to call it?" muses Crawford (yes! question him! don't buy the scaremongering!). "There are days when even Will doesn't understand his own thinking," says Lecter, shrewdly playing a Not Actually Untrue card. In turn: a long, hard thinky-face from Crawford.
Maison Du Maurier. "I'm Special Agent Jack Crawford with the FBI. I'd like to talk with you about a patient of yours." DUN DUN DUNNNNN.
@NoelCT: So much for my theory. :)
@cleolinda: I'm glad she's alive! EXCEPT THAT NOW TERRIBLE THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO HER
@raanve: OK SO - Bedelia is real. Everything is terrible forever.
@raanve: I'm not sure her realness & the terribleness are related, but nevertheless, everything is terrible forever.
(Prophetic tweet is prophetic.)
After the break:
@BryanFuller: @GILLIANA SUGGESTED HER CHARACTER LISTENS TO CLASSICAL MUSIC TO CLOSELY TIE HER TO #HANNIBAL.
@BryanFuller: DR. BEDELIA DU MAURIER IS PLAYING BEETHOVEN "Ghost Trio - Largo Assai Ed Espressivo" WHEN JACK CRAWFORD VISITS #HANNIBAL
Which you can hear on the Music of Hannibal Tumblr, I discovered. (Wait, there's possibly a Macbeth inspiration here? Possibly a hint of Lady Macbeth, out damned spot, etc.?)
Also,
@janealmirall: <3 Bedelia's modest potted herbs on the shelving in her kitchen. @BryanFuller @cleolinda #HANNIBAL #RELEVES
Yes, because if she can have a glass of wine with a patient, Lecter can keep a whole liquor cabinet in his office! If she has potted herbs in the kitchen, his whole damn dining room is an herb garden! Anything you can do, HE CAN DO FANCIER.
"Do you have a court order?" Bedelia asks coolly--an almost inhuman smoothness of inflection. "Well, I'd rather not get one if I don't have to," says Crawford, smiling. It's not an official inquiry--yet--because "I'd hate to damage anyone's reputation unnecessarily." "Whose reputation would that be?" she asks, carefully looking away to refill her wineglass. When your reaction to a visit from the Law is *DRINK,* you maybe got something to hide. Says Crawford, "I suspect that Dr. Hannibal Lecter" (Bedelia looks up rather quickly. Maybe, for once, someone in Hannibal does know they're in Hannibal) "may be withholding pertinent information involving a murder investigation."
("No, thank you," says Crawford.)
"So... he hasn't confided in the FBI. You are hoping he's confided in his psychiatrist and that I'll tell you." "Yes, ma'am," Crawford says cheerfully. (*DRINK.*) "It's not that I think Dr. Lecter's dangerous," he adds. "I don't. I am concerned about a relationship he has with one of his patients, a man named Will Graham." Maybe the cannibal psychiatrists you're used to play by different rules, sir, but there'll be none of that confidentiality-breaching here. Crawford is undeterred: "So, if we can't discuss Dr. Lecter, perhaps we can discuss you." And he points at her with his fedora. O girl, you in trouble now. "You were attacked by a patient not too long ago. I read the report. I know that there was a statement given by Dr. Lecter." Reluctantly, Bedelia reveals that the Attacker Patient was actually one of Lecter's--that he referred to her. "And this patient almost killed you?" A deep breath: "He swallowed his tongue while he was attacking me. That's the only thing that saved my life."
@cleolinda: SCREAM
@lashieldmaiden: You were damn right about Hannibal having something to do with Bedelia's patient's mysterious death...
(Well, my first theory was that she did it. Shhhhh.) For those of y'all not familiar with the source material: in Silence of the Lambs, the first time Clarice visits Lecter, the guy in the next cell does something, uh, incredibly crude. The next day, she finds out that said inmate died overnight--and that Lecter was heard whispering to him. Apparently, he convinced the inmate to... swallow his own tongue. (Which is all the more impressive given that you can't actually do that. Shhhhh.) What I'm telling you is, as far as the fate of Bedelia's attacker goes, this is a clear signal that, somehow, A MURDER WIZARD DID IT.
(But she doesn't take responsibility for his death. And sometimes, all we can do is watch.)
(*DRINK*)
"Well, thank God for small favors," says Crawford. "Yesss, thank God," says Bedelia, running a hand through her hair. (Seriously, for all her cold quiet smoothness, she and that blouse are vamping it up like a '40s movie star. There really is sort of a noir vibe on this show sometimes, isn't there?) Then Crawford starts telling her that " there was another attack recently in Dr. Lecter's office" that also ended with a dead patient. (Total body count: two. Total awesomeness: yes.) "That's not bad psychology, Agent Crawford," she says, with a barely perceptible smile. "Putting me in a position to have to defend or not to defend Dr. Lecter." To which he replies, "You have to admit he's had some pretty strange relationships with some of his patients." "Complicated patients are conducive to complicated relationships," she says, AND I GUESS SHE WOULD KNOW. Well, how far do you think he would go to treat a patient? "Hannibal refers to Will Graham more as a... friend... than as a patient." "How far do you think he would go to treat a friend?" presses Crawford. "Well, he doesn't have many of them" (LOL BEDELIA) "so I imagine he'd be loyal. I know that he's concerned about Will Graham and I know that he wants to help him." And this time, she sounds sincere. Crawford: "Well, I consider Will a friend, and I'd like to help him too." And then she says, "It seems to me that Will Graham would do well to have more friends like... Dr. Lecter." And you know what? Somehow, I don't even get "unwitting irony" off that statement. I get the feeling she knows exactly what she's saying. And that itself is... interesting.
Forensics lab, where Crawford's gazing down at Sutcliffe's body: "Will Graham theorized that the copycat killer and Garrett Jacob Hobbs were somehow connected--that he had insight into Hobbs' personal life, that they may have met, known each other, perhaps even killed together." "See, I would call that less of a theory, more of a hypothesis," says Brian. "Mm," agrees Jimmy, "theories require evidence." Crawford: "Let's play Jeopardy, shall we?" (Jimmy gives him a hilariously eager look in response.) "The answer is that these people were killed by the copycat, who's connected to Garrett Jacob Hobbs. You tell me how." Brian: "You mean beyond the application of supposition and unexplained leaps?" "I've been yearning for a return to the fundamentals of investigation!" cries Jimmy.
"Where is Beverly?" mutters Crawford (yes, where is Beverly).
Jimmy: "Jury duty--" Brian elbows him: "She's deposed in court."
@MrAaronAbrams: If you watch close, you can tell Zeller is terrified of Jack by how many times he subtly elbows Jimmy to STFU.
"GET HER OUT OF COURT," says Crawford, who knows who broke the Organ Harvester case and sniped Molly Shannon from behind a tree, thank you very much. "Then here's what we're gonna do: I wanna look at train station, airport, toll road, hotel details. I wanna track Garrett Jacob Hobbs using license plate capture from security footage. I also want to know every phone call he made and where he made them from. I also want to know every place that he went that wasn't home--I want to know how long he was there, I want to know who he was there with, and I want to know the travel time to the nearest missing girl in the Minnesota Shrike case. You got it?" Orrrrr we could have done this back when you started suspecting Abigail back in the beginning of episode 2 and not told Team Murder Feels to take her back to the Hobbs house in episode 3? I'm just saying, Jack.
@MrAaronAbrams: SPIN OFF IDEA: Jimmy P and The Zee drive around in a van, going from town to town, solving crimes, dressing amazing.
Think about it, NBC.
Over at the Psychiatric Common Room of Zero Privacy, "You told me that killing someone was the ugliest thing in the world," murmurs Abigail. "I finally get it. I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't feel ugly when I killed Nick Boyle. I felt good. That's why it was so easy to lie about it." Wait, why does Lecter get to berate her about digging up people's bodies in private, but Will has to whisper about the actual murderizing in the game room? "Like you didn't do anything wrong," he says. This is an amazing scene, by the way. Also, Will is kind of freaking me out. This whole conversation feels intimate, but... not exactly in a proper Shaggy Dad/Cannibaby way. Maybe it's partly that it's the first time Will's looked the least bit in control of himself for several episodes. Which, in turn, makes you question, just a little bit... what's in control. "Feel like you'd done something wrong when you killed my dad?" says Abigail, who is just never gonna let that go. "I felt terrified," says Will. "And then... I felt powerful." (*FLAIL*) "It felt good," she whispers (Will's nodding). "To get to end it, to...stop it all... I thought I got away from him." Will: "Oh... I don't think either of us have gotten away from your father." "I wish I'd killed him. For killing my mom--for killing all those girls, for making me--" But she stops. "Making you what, Abigail--?" Ohhhh. Oh God. Lecter never told Will that Hobbs used Abigail as bait, did he? Not even couched in terms of "poor baby, she was a young girl in her father's thrall and just trying to survive." Will doesn't know, you guys! He doesn't knoooow. "Part of it," she says quickly. "Part of ANY OF IT. This wasn't supposed to be my life... it feels like my dad's still out there." "In a way, he is." (WILL, YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT.) Abigail: "You mean the copycat." Well, that, and your dad following Will around everywhere haunting his brain, sure. "I think I can catch him," he says... smiling. And then Shaggy Dad takes her hands in his: "But I'm gonna need your help," he whispers.
OHHHHH NOOOOOO
I don't even know what he's planning but this cannot possibly end well
(Also he is stroking her hands and Abigail looks a little freaked out herself.)
(I guess this is how Unsociable Empaths hug?)
Maison Du Maurier. "An agent from the FBI came to see me," Bedelia tells Lecter, who immediately guesses, "Jack Crawford was here?" Yeah, now you really got some problems. "Mm. He had enough doubt in whatever it is you told him about [Will] to feel the need to verify," she tells him. Oh, well, this girl was involved in some cannibal murders, Will shot the fuck out of her father, Crawford thinks Will's protecting her--you know, the usual, no big. Bedelia, now firmly in the ranks of the Not Happy: "And evidently he suspects you are protecting Will. Are you?" "Are you asking as my psychiatrist?" "I'm stepping out of my role as your psychiatrist and I'm speaking to you now as your [ friend? friend? friend?] colleague." (He turns back to the window. Sadface: implied.) "Whatever you're doing with Will Graham... STOP." Man, Gillian Anderson's enunciation there could chisel ice. Lecter tries to argue that Will needs his help, but she insists that he's "crossed professional lines." "By making a friend?" Actually, that... that's one of the big lines, yeah. Bedelia: "You cannot function as an agent of friendship for a man who is disconnected from the concept as a man who is disconnected from the concept." ... Person Suit.
"I'm protecting Will from influence." (PROTECTING HIM FROM!?!) "He has flaws in his intuitive beliefs about what makes him who he is. I'm trying to help him understand," Lecter insists, and "I'm not comfortable telling Will that my very best attempts to help him may fail and that my loyalty to him and his treatment could be compromised." Here's the interesting thing: Lecter is now pacing back and forth in front of the windows. He is moving, like an actual human being. He is AGITATED LIKE WHOA. "Then tell him something else," says Bedelia. Oh, by the way: "Agent Crawford also asked me about my attack." Yeah, that stops Lecter in his tracks. "I see," he says, very quietly (oh nooo). "What did you tell him?"
It was about right here that I got real, real scared for Bedelia. Please go back to maybe not being real so he can't hurt you.
"Half-truths," she says. "That... a violent patient swallowed his tongue while he was attacking me. I didn't tell him how or... why... or who was responsible." Y'all, I think she's scared too. "You protect your patient from Jack Crawford, but I can't protect mine?" he asks. "Not anymore," she says, and tries to tell him that "even the very best psychiatrists have an inherent limitation to their professional abilities," but he refuses to accept that. To which she says, "You have to maintain boundaries, Hannibal." brb, hitting pause till I stop laughing. Seriously, he turns right around on her at the very idea of it: "When the pressures of my personal and professional relationships with Will grow too great, I assure you--I'll find a way to relieve them."
(I am just hands-up, step-back walking away from that one.)
(scream)
The Best Office Ever. Will is back and he feels GOOD. "I'm much better now. I feel clearer. It had to be the fever. I am finally thinking clearly about the copycat." Well, but those murders have suspects (Will: "SHPFFF") whose DNA was on the victims (says the guy who put it there). "SO WHAT?" says Will (well, there's an unexpected chess move for you). "You're choosing to ignore that?" says Lecter, like, but that was the whole point of getting that rock with the blood on it, I was in the woods all night looking for where I put that, you can't just IGNORE that! "Both of those suspects are dead," counters Will. "I'm choosing to factor that into my psychological profile of a killer." And obviously Georgia saw Sutcliffe's murderer when she followed Will to his office; it must have been the copycat. "Why not kill her then and there?" asks Lecter, with a LOGIC THAT look. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: "Well, maybe he didn't have the time. You know, she was an unreliable witness--so that bought him time." "So he framed her for the murder." "But he wasn't planning on framing her," says Will, realizing: "He was planning on framing me." "You believe this is personal?" asks Lecter, sounding a tiny bit alarmed (interesting). "If it wasn't before, it is now," Will says grimly. (To which Lecter reacts with an expression I can only describe as "implied facepalm.") "This could be someone at the Bureau, someone in the police department, someone who knows the crimes and has access to the investigations." "Someone like you," says Lecter (yessss, walk into my trap). Oh, but "there will be evidence," says Will: "I found a pattern and now I'm gonna reconstruct his thinking." WHEE! (I am really enjoying this sense of the net tightening around Lecter--all his chickens coming home to roost.) (The chickens are people.) And here's how Will's going to do that: "By taking Abigail back to Minnesota. Start where the copycat started when he called Garrett Jacob Hobbs." Yeah, that gets a reaction: "WILL. This is venturing into the paranoid. I can't allow you to pull Abigail into your delusion." "This isn't a delusion," Will insists (he does a lot of insisting). "I'm not hallucinating, I haven't lost time. I am awake, and this is REAL." And the scene ends on Lecter sitting there, closing his eyes, and sighing to himself. That's a "don't make me do this" face, kids.
At the Crawffice, the Investigators Two report their findings. For one, Jimmy's found tickets for that Elise Nichols train flashback--two tickets. And dinner receipts, hotel rooms, college orientation registrations at all the victims' schools... all for two. "We know he wasn't traveling alone," says Brian. Crawford: "He was traveling with his daughter?" Brian: "She was with him when he was choosing these girls." More specifically: "She was the bait. She was helping him choose the girls," Crawford concludes. "She kills Cassie Boyle to impress Dad? She kills Marissa Schuur in memoriam, then she kills Nicholas Boyle to cover her tracks...?" But then why Sutcliffe? Why Georgia? "Because she's got a taste for it now," says Crawford. "Or... she wants to impress someone new."
Over at the psychiatric hospital, Freddie's gathering up her files when Crawford walks in: "You look like you came here to arrest somebody. Is it Abigail Hobbs, or Will Graham?" "WILL GRAHAM WAS HERE?" "Oh, then it was Abigail Hobbs," says Freddie. As it happens, she's been stood up by her writing partner and is especially smarmy today: "One of the other girls said Special Agent Graham snuck her out--I don't know why he would feel the need to be sneaky, he is registered as one of her guardians. The irony." 1) Well, of course Abigail's guardians are Shaggy Dad and Fancy Dad. 2) Who the hell allowed that? So Crawford takes a sideways approach: "How's the book coming?" "There's plot holes," admits Freddie. And then she straight-up asks him, "Did Abigail Hobbs kill Nick Boyle?" Because "Abigail is one of those very smart girls who hasn't quite figured out that very smart girls grow up and know all the moves they're making when they're trying to hide something." And yet, Freddie's Graham-grudge keeps her from seeing it clearly: "What is Will Graham trying to hide?"
The Best Office Ever. "Sorry to barge in on you, Doctor," says Crawford, barging in. "You want to tell me what the hell is going on between Will Graham and Abigail Hobbs?"
I'll stop here and say, you know, I have to disagree with the interpretation here that Lecter's absolute endgame has been "the ice-cold purpose of Abigail being Will’s perfect final victim." Rather, it's an acceptable outcome. Lecter seems to like to keep a number of options on hand--and, as we have often seen, is capable of strategizing on a dime. And what I think we see in this episode is a lot of very quick thinking flashing across his face. I think he really did want to "nurture" Abigail--but if she is, logically, inevitably, the card he has to sacrifice in order to stay in the game, then so be it. And my theory in the comments last week was that he may want to turn Will into a mirror in which he can finally see the self he can't show anyone else, an audience who feels everything and can empath his crimes--and his victims' feelings--back to him, someone has already recognized his work as "art"--if only he can teach Will to drink pain instead of running from it, if he can just break down Will's moral opposition. Remember how good killing feels? How can you judge me for it? But he also knows--he would have to know--how much danger he's put himself in by getting friendly with FBI agents. So he's laid in a destruction mechanism: push the button, set Project Absolute Fuckery in motion, and Will is completely discredited, neutralized as an pursuer, and--yes, framed for Lecter's crimes. But I really feel like that was his worst-case scenario option.
It's just also the option he's going with now.
He tells Crawford that Will's been "the victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts," that Will's lost time, that he's seen Will disoriented, that Will may have been waking up from (PUSH THE BUTTON) a dissociated personality state: "He would appear perfectly normal and not remember a thing. But a fractured part of him would." "And how long have you been aware of this?" demands Crawford. Lecter tries to claim that "he's only recently started to discuss these episodes--" "Well, unless recently means just before I walked into your office, YOU FAILED TO MENTION ANY OF THIS TO ME." (GET HIM!!) "BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO DETERMINE IF IT WAS TRAUMA AND STRESS FROM THE WORK HE'S DOING FOR YOU, OR MENTAL ILLNESS," retorts Lecter (GET HIM TOO!!), but then he lowers his voice again: "I thought it wise to be sure before making any kind of claim about Will Graham's sanity." "He's taken Abigail Hobbs," Crawford reveals. "You have any idea where they might be going?" "No," says Lecter, who is shocked, shocked, I tell you, by this development. Is it possible, asks Crawford, that Will knows that Abigail helped her father, and now he's protecting her? Lecter delivers a very nicely stage-managed pause and sigh: " There's something you should hear."
How did you feel seeing Marissa Schuur impaled in his antler room?
Guilty.
Because you couldn't save her?
Because I felt like I killed her.
Can I just point out here that Lecter very clearly 1) secretly recorded that session back in the day just in case, but also 2) HAD THAT PRECISE MOMENT CUED UP AND READY TO GO FOR CRAWFORD'S INEVITABLE VISIT? Because he's a helper, you guys. "Where was Will the night that Marissa Schuur was killed?" asks Crawford, to which Lecter replies, "He was supposed to be in his hotel room. I knocked on his door. He didn't answer." OKAY, THAT'S A STONE-COLD LIE, YOU WEREN'T ANYWHERE NEAR WILL'S ROOM AND HE WAS WITH THE RAVENSTAG ALL NIGHT, GET THE ACTUAL FUCK OUT. Crawford points out that Will was the last person to see both Sutcliffe and Georgia alive (and Lecter sits down heavily, like this is just such a blow): "This dissociative personality state you say he goes into... whose personality is it?" And then Lecter repeats something that Will did actually say--hangs Will with the out-of-context rope that Will himself provided: "He said he got so close to Garrett Jacob Hobbs and what he had done... that he felt he was becoming him." All the palms for my face. "And now he has Hobbs' daughter," says Crawford. Lecter twists the knife: "Who Hobbs intended to kill. I'm so sorry, Jack." Okay, those are both the words and tone of condolence you use when someone has ALREADY DIED, when he should be saying "OMG JACK GO SAVE HER, MAYBE IT'S NOT TOO LATE!" So Lecter knows--probably knew the moment Will said he was taking Abigail to Minnesota--what he's going to do next. This man, I swear to God.
And then, right after Crawford walks out, Lecter drops his Condolences Sadface and does this little "Hm. That went well" head-tilt. THE INFINITE FUCKERY OF THIS MAN, I SWEAR.
Over at Bad Idea Airlines, Will and Abigail are on a plane together. "You look a little pasty," she says, as he slams down a handful of aspirin (air travel does not agree with the brain raccoons). "Maybe you shouldn't have checked yourself out of the hospital--" "I feel fine." Yikes. To change the subject, Abigail tells him, "It would've been my mom's birthday next week. We were gonna climb Eagle Mountain to celebrate. Highest point in Minnesota, but... it's not really that high. Less than three hours to summit. You can see Lake Superior from there." "I could... take you," Will offers, "if--if you wanna go." "I think it would just make me sad," Abigail says softly. "Some places are stained now." (Is this where they buried Nicholas Boyle?) "Some people too. I know I am," she says. Yeah, that... that definitely made things less awkward.
And let's definitely take a day trip out to the Cabin of Horrors, that's an optimal life choice right now. Antler Room: cheerful place.
Crows are outside cawing on the roof. There's still bloodstains on the horns where Abigail's father hung his victims. Will is looking increasingly fever-damp. This is literally the worst idea either of them could have possibly had at this moment in time, in the literal sense of literally. They're talking about Will's efforts to understand her father when Abigail suddenly asks, "Do you ever hunt?" "I fish," he says. Abigail: "It's the same thing, isn't it? One you stalk, the other you lure." Oh my God. She's trying to tell him, isn't she? Well, MESSAGE RECEIVED, because Will slowly turns to look at her, with all the nice low ambient Horror Music droning in the background: "Were you more a fisherman or a hunter?" "My dad taught me how to hunt," she says, maybe not so glad she brought this up anymore. "No, that's not what I'm asking," he says, coming in closer (oh God nooooo) backing her even closer to the terrifying wall-mounted antlers (noooooo). "All those girls your dad killed... did you fish... or did you hunt, Abigail?" OH JESUS OH JESUS OH JESUS ABIGAIL GET AWAY FROM ALL THE SHARP POINTY ANTLERS OH MY GOOOOOOOD "I was the lure," she whispers. "Did Hannibal tell you?" "No, he didn't," says Will, shocked--because that means Lecter did know but didn't tell him. Abigail tremble-pales, "He said you'd protect me, that you'd keep it a secret--" and Will's gasping and shaking and then HE PICKS HER UP AND IMPALES HER ON THE ANTLERS wait no he doesn't he was just thinking it oh thank God. "There is something wrong with you--I think you're still sick!" gasps Abigail, who's now already gotten away to the other side of the room, because apparently we all yelled loudly enough for her to hear. "Jack Crawford was right about you!" cries Will, in that really angry way you only get from heartbreak, I think. "He knew! You killed Nick Boyle, and you helped your father kill ALL THOSE GIRLS. You lured them, you killed them--how many other people have you killed?" And then we launch into YOU'RE THE COPYCAT! NO, YOU'RE THE COPYCAT! NO YOU! NO YOU! And then things start to really, really go to hell, as Will clutches his head and starts going into another seizure while Abigail's shouting, "You knew about this place, and there is something WRONG WITH YOU--"
"Sir, I'm afraid you're going to have to leave," says a flight attendant. Because Will is now on a plane. By himself. In Virginia. Oh, fuck. "Was there a young woman traveling with me?" "All the other passengers are disembarked. It's just you, sir." FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU--
Oh, wait! There's Abigail at the empty Hobbs house in Minnesota, she's fine! Will just had a seizure, lost time, went home without her, and didn't kill anybody! Everybody's fine!
Nobody is fine. Nobody will be fine ever again.
@cleolinda: oh God I can't watch this oh God this is going to be terrible oh God
@lashieldmaiden: ::peers at it from between my fingers:: Oh god oh shit oh god
"Abigail?" She runs to him! Throws her arms around him! There's a stag head in a box RIGHT THERE! Oh God! "What are you doing here?" she gasps. Oh, Fancy Dad? HELPING. "I was so worried about you," says Lecter (moar tender cannibal hugs). "Will told me he was taking you to Minnesota, and I strongly advised against it." Well, that's a... passionate statement right there. Of course he wants to know where Will is now; Abigail says that she left him at the cabin-- "I didn't feel safe with him." Lecter nods to himself: all according to plan. "He knows everything," she confesses. "So does Jack Crawford," he says. And Abigail knows exactly what that means: she is screwed. "If I run, they'll catch me, won't they? You can't protect me anymore." To which he replies, "They'll arrest you when they find you, yes. And Will." And so she asks: "Did he kill Marissa? "They will believe he did," says Lecter. "They will believe he killed others too."
I don't quite know why Abigail senses the truth now--the weirdness of his calm? an instinct that a predator is near? process of elimination? game recognizing game?--but she steps away from him: "Will always said whoever called the house that morning was the serial killer. Why did you really call?"
"I wanted to warn your father that Will Graham was coming for him."
"Why?"
"I was curious what would happen." Ohhhh God. "I was curious what would happen when I killed Marissa." Oh God, she's dead. Murder Real Talk? Abigail's so dead. "I was curious what you would do."
(PRETTY MUCH)
(Wait, was he also "curious" what would happen if he referred Attacker Patient to Bedelia?)
"You wanted me to kill Nick Boyle," she gasps. Lecter: "I was hoping." ( I KNEW HE STAYED OUTSIDE ON PURPOSE!) "I wanted to see how much like your father you were." Abigail: "Oh my God."
"Nicholas Boyle is more important for you gutting him. He changed you, Abigail. That's more important than the life he clamored after." "How many people have you killed?" He steps forward and takes her hand (this could take a while): "Many more than your father." Now he's stroking her face with the other hand. I want to say I can't believe this is happening, but I totally, totally can. One last tremble-pale for the road: "Are you going to kill me?"
"I'm so sorry, Abigail. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you in this life."
CUT TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE.
SCREAM
@cafecliche: AAAAAAHHHFfhjsskhfj throwing shoes throwing furniture throwing everything
@MartianBethany: @NBCHannibal *SCREAMS INCOHERENTLY*
Welp. Y'all called it weeks ago (and I refused to lay money against you): Cannibaby is not getting out of this show alive, so pour one out for Kacey Rohl. Here's hoping Abigail can come back next season and haunt the fuck out of him. Maybe he'll kill her painlessly, but I'm betting the So Totally the Copycat, You Guys "display" is gonna be horrific, just to twist the knife in Will's heart, too. You know. Just to see what'll happen.
@JazminLabrada: @cleolinda I'M UTTERLY STUNNED AFTER TONIGHT'S EP.
@cleolinda: @JazminLabrada My mentions were full of nothing but weeping and hugs for half an hour. I self-medicated with cake.
It had Milano cookies crumbled on it! It was not people. (*GLARE*)
@akathorne: Hannibal and Will are going to have the worst breakup ever. Will stole their kid & Hannibal is going to kill them because of it. #Hannibal
@cleolinda: Picture Will's face when they tell him they've found Abigail.
@akathorne: Noooo. I can't. I don't want to.
@cafecliche: omg DDDDDDDDD: leave me here to die.
@cleolinda: Now imagine Alana's.
@cafecliche: omg I cannot deal. *lies facedown on the floor*
@akathorne: NOW YOU'RE JUST FEEDING ON MY PAIN.
:D
... wait.
D:
@mork_and: @cleolinda Sooo... Confirmation that Hannibal saw Abigail as a Mischa substitute?
"I couldn't protect you in this life (either)," maybe? Yeah, I've heard vaguely that Bryan Fuller must have confirmed somewhere that there was a "parallel with Lecter's dead little sister" thing (see also: The Shroom Tea; The Hug). And as of " Trou Normand," I was convinced Lecter had already guessed that Abigail must have been involved by the time he was holding her hand at the end of the first episode. But, finally, he just got a little too "curious" with his experiments, I guess, and set more events in motion than he could control (see also: SHE DUG UP THE BODY?!). And honestly? This is probably his idea of mercy--death at his hands rather than trial, public humiliation, and punishment. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, ABIGAIL.
NEXT WEEK: Will's in jailhouse orange and everything is terrible. Also:
LOOK AT THIS BUSINESS FROM THE PREVIEWS
YOU GUYS
RAVENSTAG IS PEOPLE.
@HettiennePark [Beverly]: Ooof. Rough day in court. What'd I miss? #HANNIBAL
(Continue: 1x13: "Savoureux")
ETA: SPOILER POLICY FOR COMMENTS. Short version: MY SHOW INNOCENCE IS PRECIOUS TO ME.
@cleolinda: I am straight-up drinking through tonight's episode. #SOEXCITED #SOSCARED
AFTER THE SHOW
@cleolinda: I'm not okay, you guys, everything is terrible, I'm not okaaaaaay, oh God I can't wait to recap this
We're beyond Worst at Helping, guys. Beyond Kelvin Worst, beyond Unmitigated Fucker. We're beyond words for whatever this is.
PREVIOUSLY ON: EMPATH AND CANNIBAL: Gizzard the Ripper escaped, kidnapped Freddie and left a gift basket of Chilton (they both lived); Will 1) caught Gideon while having a fever of 105, 2) took him to Lecter's house, then 3) had a complete breakdown/encephalitis seizure after Lecter told him NO ONE WAS THERE AND HE'D COME TO THE HOUSE ALONE; Gideon said "wtf is wrong with you people, but thanks for the directions to Alana's house, I guess," and pondered his Generic Off-Brand Existence. Then Will shot him. AND THEN SOMEONE TOOK WILL TO A HOSPITAL, YAAAAAY.
Will still doesn't know that he has actual encephalitis, by the way. No one who is not terrible knows. It is, after all, The Brain Disease That Makes People Seem Crazy. And that's exactly how Lecter wants it.
So tonight's episode is called "Relevés," and it turns out that you can get (at least) four different meanings out of the word relevé, which I ever-so-helpfully discovered in order of least to most relevant:
1) A ballet position, apparently the most common definition: "Literally 'lifted.' Rising from any position to balance on one or both feet on at least demi-pointe which is heels off the floor or higher to full pointe where the dancer is actually balancing on the top of the toes, supported in pointe shoes. Smoothly done in some versions, a quick little leap up in other schools." ("DID YOU KNOW--" Yes, I know Mads Mikkelsen was a trained dancer, don't go Kermit-flailing off to the comments just yet.)
2) "Statement"--could you use this to mean the sort you might give to the police, I wonder?
3) "Spicy," synonymous with épicé or piquant (now we're getting closer to the French menu theme).
4) Buried in the "Entrée" (the course, not the episode) Wikipedia article, which was somehow the last place I ended up: "In traditional French haute cuisine, the entrée preceded a larger dish known as the relevé, which 'replaces' or 'relieves' it, an obsolete term in modern cooking, but still used as late as 1921 in Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire."
@BryanFuller: TONIGHT's EPISODE IS CALLED #RELEVES, pronounced as "ri-lafe" meaning Main Course or "piece de resistance." #HANNIBAL
Or I could have just waited for him to tell us that, yes.
(That's... not how you'd pronounce not "relevé(s)," but... just... go over there with "Ceuf" and have a good time. *throws up hands*)
We open with Georgia chillaxing in her hyperbaric chamber, recovering from Cotard's Syndrome and an unexplained case of Zombie Skin; Captain Plaid and his rolling IV stand have come to visit. Bless.
In fact, Will tells her that, not only does she look better (and also alive), she looks pretty. "Must be all the oxygen," Georgia says with a bashful smile; she plays with her hair sort of wistfully. (Note the blue medical bracelet on her left hand.) How about Will, do they know what's wrong with him yet? "No, just the fever," he says, trying hide his anxiety. "They're trying to find out what else." "They won't find anything. They'll keep looking, keep taking tests, keep giving false diagnoses, bad meds. But they won't find out what's wrong. They'll just know... that you're wrong," says Georgia, adding, "I hope you have good insurance." "I do too," Will says wryly. Y'all, nobody has enough health insurance to be friends with Hannibal Lecter. Georgia, meanwhile, is going to get electroconvulsive therapy--hopefully not administered by another shady "colleague" of Lecter's. ("Shock treatment sounds nicer," she says.) Will assures her that people with Cotard's can recover with ECT, but Georgia's not optimistic: "You know how many times I've been told I could 'recover with treatment'?" (Will gives her a "touché" face.) "They said I might remember what I did. But I don't want to remember." "You know what you did, Georgia," he says, but Georgia insists that she doesn't remember: "It feels more like a horrible dream where I killed my friend." "You dream about killing anybody else?" Will asks, thinking of Dr. "Pez Head" Sutcliffe. Georgia: "I dream you killed that doctor... but I couldn't see your face." 1) So can she see faces now? 2) How about Lecter's tailored plastic murder suit, you see that?
@sydk: I don't even watch the show but PLEASE TELL ME THERE ARE ACTUAL, NON-PSYCHOTIC DOCTORS FOR WILL TO SEE.
@cleolinda: Apparently he is in the hospital! I have hopes some of the staff is not evil!
@sydk: IS THE STAFF DELICIOUS? THIS IS IMPORTANT. D:
@cleolinda: IDK but I saw something that kind of looks like Hannibal brings him food in the hospital because OF COURSE HE DOES
@sydk: I bet that food was the finest physician in the land. :(
Back in his own room, Will does, in fact, wake to find Lecter (with blurry face, nicely done) unpacking dishes: "Silkie chicken in a broth. A black-boned bird prized in China for its medicinal values since the 7th century. Wolfberries, ginseng, ginger, red dates, and star anise." Will: "You made me chicken soup?" Heh. And you know, you expect some kind of reaction from Lecter that continues the awwwness of it, but he just pauses, gives Will a conspicuously curt "Yes," then walks away. Hm. He'll say later that he wants to protect Will--that he's even "loyal" to him, and whatever that means to him, I think he does mean it. But I'm also wondering if he's kind of... preparing himself... for what he may have to do. (That, or--as laddical suggested--he's a bit offended that Will perceived his offering as mere "chicken soup.")
@BryanFuller: CHICKEN SOUP IS PEOPLE #NotReallyPeople #ReallyChicken
@BryanFuller: SILKIE CHICKEN IS A THING http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie @CHEFJOSEANDRES [Soup photo]
Well, of course it's a thing; fancy cannibal must have silky chicken.
@BryanFuller: BEFORE SILKIE CHICKEN IT WAS STEAMED CABBAGE. CHICKEN SOUP SEEMED MORE NURTURING ...
(Wait, originally it didn't have any meat in it at all? It's like... it's like I don't even know Hannibal Lecter anymore.)
... #CABBAGEISPEOPLE [ Food sketch]
(Oh. Carry on, then.)
So they sit there by his window and eat the soup together, very much the way they had breakfast in the first episode.
This is the only cuisine we get this week, by the way. No cooking, no Significant Dinner Conversations, no Chez Lecter. (Oh, but they were going to have Bedelia come over?) Instead:
@neoprod: Exclusive treat for you #Fannibals @DAVID_A_SLADE blocking Mads in 101 #Hannibal cooking scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0CnAOYER5I
@DAVID_A_SLADE: Hardly call it blocking - I think too much coffee is more like it.....
"The nurses tell me you've been wandering," says Lecter (before or after you asked about their perfume?), but Will tells him that he was not, in fact, sleepwalking: "I was awake, and wandering with... purpose and good intentions." "Visiting that unfortunate young woman suffering from delusions," guesses Lecter (emphasis on "delusions of me murdering Sutcliffe, in case that ever comes up"). "She's my support group," says Will (awww! He was always so snippy about those before!). "And I hope you're hers," replies Lecter. "Nothing more isolating than mental illness." Oh, wow, that's some really beautiful gaslight you've got going there. Even Will puts down his spoon and sits back with a sigh. "The hallucinations, the loss of time, sleepwalking... could that have all just been the fever?" "Fevers can be symptoms of dementia," says Lecter. "Dementia can be a symptom of you being wrong and crazy me definitely not being a serial killer many things happening in your body or mind that can no longer be ignored because I told you to ignore them, Will I am a terrible person." Oh, P.S. Lecter hasn't told Jack about anything but the fever, either. "Shouldn't you?" asks Will, innocently startled, because YES, SHOULDN'T YOU? "Not until we know for certain," he says. "What we must do now is continue to support and monitor and prevent your recovery." Speaking of recovery, how's Georgia doing? "I don't think she wants to recover," says Will. "Afraid to remember what she did." Lecter considers this a moment: "Can't say I blame her." No, we mostly blame you.
Sometime later, Georgia wakes up to hear retreating footsteps and a closing door. Oh, look: there is, somehow, a comb inside the chamber! That cute FBI agent said she looked pretty, and she had been wandering around looking like a hot zombie mess for so long, it really would be nice to--
@cleolinda: ... are you absolutely fucking shitting me.
TWO WEEKS AGO:
@BryanFuller: @EllenAMuth WILL RETURN AS GEORGIA MADCHEN IN OUR PENULTIMATE EPISODE OF THE SEASON
Well, Countdown to Something Terrible Happening to This Girl, then.
JESUS CHRIST, I HADN'T EVEN COUNTED DOWN PAST "NINE" YET!
(Well, I guess Georgia will not be giving any relevés à la police.)
@BryanFuller: #SPOILER THIS WAS PERHAPS THE MOST UPSETTING SHOT OF THE SEQUENCE FOR ME pic.twitter.com/SPWJ1lZKBu
And yeah, we also watch Georgia in the inferno from inside the chamber as well. It's pretty horrifying.
Red wine scaryface credits. Apparently our three lead actors went in for facial scans, and that's who we really are looking at, since y'all were wondering.
After the break, here's poor Will wheeling his IV stand in to the crime scene. It should go without saying that Crawford is Not Happy, no one is happy, and possibly no one will ever be happy again--oh. Oh, let's definitely pull Georgia's crispy body out in full camera view; my heart didn't hurt enough yet. "The hospital speculates that it was a short circuit that ignited the fire," says Crawford, but the unflappable Jimmy says, "Unit looks well maintained. No exposed wiring." "Horrible way to die," mutters Will (omg, where is Beverly, he needs Beverly). Jimmy: " There was a kid in Italy who was in one of these things. A spark of static electricity from his pajamas set it off. Two cubic yards of oxygen suddenly became two cubic yards of fire." So Crawford's next thought is... "Is it possible that she set the fire herself?" The fuck, Crawford? "She wasn't wearing her grounding bracelet," Brian points out, holding up its charred remains (it's true: she no longer had it in the comb scene), "which prevents the build-up of static electricity--she took it off." Oh, so the Murder Wizard did that too. Well, if he could get into her room and also into her hyperbaric chamber without waking her up until he was leaving, sure, why not? Will: "Suicide by immolation?" Impending murder charges be damned: "No. She wasn't suicidal, Jack. She was--sick. I was here. I spoke to her." O rly. Everybody shoots Will a Look: why'd you do that, precisely? "Because I know how she felt." Crawford: "She's a murder suspect, she tried to kill you." (Okay, actually, no, she didn't. She just presumably hid in his car, rode back to Wolf Trap with him, stalked him to his doctor's office, and hid under his bed. Is that so wrong?) "Your trying to be her friend impacts the case against her." (Okay, I'll give you that one.) Will, bitterly: "Well, the case against her doesn't really matter anymore, does it, Jack?" (Final point to the empath.) Crawford: DEEP SIGH.
Over at the psychiatric hospital--oh, we're still doing that tell-all book, I see: Abigail and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea.
Miss Freddie's idea is to use her Tattle Crime headlines as chapter headings; she's laying out file folders, each one with a victim's photo paperclipped on top. Which is a nice touch--I like that the show keeps reiterating that these crimes had victims, and that those victims were people, not just crime scenes. "The chapters themselves would be you telling your story-- where you were and what you were thinking when, one by one, eight girls just like you all over Minnesota were disappearing." "What are we gonna call it?" asks Abigail. "I thought about The Last Victim," Freddie says airily, "but there is already a book about serial killers called The Last Victim." "Was it a bestseller?" Abigail retorts with her characteristic sass. "Absolutely," says Freddie. " Especially after the guy who wrote it killed himself." (Note from the Future Where We Have Seen the End of the Episode: OH GOD, YOU GUYS.) "Just as well," says Abigail, noting that she wasn't her father's last "victim" anyway. Freddie looks up and sits back: "Who was?" "Marissa," she replies, but "Marissa Schuur was killed by the copycat," says Freddie, a bit questioningly. "So was Cassie Boyle--" Abigail: "I STILL BLAME MY DAD." For Nicholas Boyle's death, too? "I blame Nick Boyle for Nick Boyle's death," she replies. "He killed Marissa--he got what was coming to him." But Freddie says, "Nick Boyle did not kill your friend--" "THEN WHO DID?"
Freddie points out that the better question is--who killed Nick? (Abigail does not like this line of conversation; she flashes back to that time that, you know, she did.) (HE RAN INTO HER KNIFE, OKAY?) In Freddie's opinion, "Nick Boyle was just a... dumb kid who I sent after you just to stir some shit was really messed up because his sister was murdered. He wasn't a killer. I've interviewed enough killers to know one when I see one." Abigail, keeping her head down: "What gives them away?" "A very specific brand of hostility," says Freddie, smiling. "I see it every time I look at you. Totally when I look at you Will Graham." WILL? No, see, that's a separate brand of hostility related to the fact that you keep writing "WILL GRAHAM: TOTES INSANE" articles, Freddie. "He did kill my dad," snarks Abigail (ARE YOU THROWING SHAGGY DAD UNDER THE BUS? Cannibaby, how could you). Indeed, says Freddie, "As far as I'm concerned, he killed Nick Boyle. He and Jack Crawford told everyone Nick was the copycat, and then someone murdered him for it." Wait, who did they actually tell before Abigail killed him like an hour after they found Marissa? Seriously, Freddie, now you're just making shit up. "You really don't think he did it," says Abigail, surprised (and disturbed). "Whoever killed Nicholas Boyle killed an innocent man," Freddie says. And Abigail really doesn't like that.
The Nobark Home for Therapeutic Strays. All the Doggies! Hello doggies, may I pet you?
PLEASE. WE NEED DOGGIES.
Once again, Will's having one of his nightmares--he thinks he's waking up to find Zombie Georgia in the middle of the room, the very image of her twitching oddly ( apparently this is an homage to Japanese horror?). When she turns around and walks to the door, it looks like jerky stop-motion animation, and there's weird gaggling sounds on the soundtrack--she turns back to him and NO WILL DON'T FOLLOW HER DON'T GO OUTSIDE OH GOD THIS IS THE WORST IDEA and she's standing out in the yard saying, " See? See?" One more time: "See?" Aaaaand then antlers burst through her chest and she bursts into head-to-foot flame and from the flame emerges THE DIRE RAVENSTAG.
EARLIER THAT DAY:
@DireRavenstag: Note my fine posterior and distinctive plumage. Perfection. #DoIGotABooty #IDoooooo
@themoonay: Someone on tumblr wrote a song about the Ravenstag. I can't help but LOL at how a @cleolinda joke became fandom canon.
}:D
And then Will wakes up, not at home with All the Dogs, but in his hospital bed.
(WHO IS TAKING CARE OF THE DOGS?!?!)
The Crawffice. "What're you doing here?" "Checked myself out of the hospital." "Well, check yourself back in." Nice to see you too, Boss. Will: "My fever broke." Crawford: "I DON'T CARE." And he particularly doesn't care that Georgia's death was neither a suicide nor an accident: "I'M GONNA HAVE Z COME DOWN HERE AND STICK A THERMOMETER IN YOU, AND IF YOU'VE GOT A TEMPERATURE HIGHER THAN 99--"
@MrAaronAbrams [Brian]: Alone in his basement, Zeller stares darkly at a picture of Will as he shines his thermometer. He knows a day will come.
"She was murdered, Jack," Will insists. (*FOLDER SLAM*): "By who?" Well, by whoever killed Sutcliffe, because-- "HIS BLOOD WAS ALL OVER GEORGIA MADCHEN. HER DNA WAS ALL OVER HIM." "She told me there was somebody else there. She couldn't see his face--" "THERE WAS SOMEBODY ELSE THERE, IT WAS DR. SUTCLIFFE. SHE COULDN'T SEE HIS FACE BECAUSE SHE CUT IT IN HALF!" But then Crawford says quietly--just kidding, he's still capslocking: "WILL, I UNDERSTAND. YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN EXPLANATION, AN EXPLANATION THAT MAKES ALL OF THIS OKAY," and now it's Will's turn to get shouty: "NO! NO NO NO! I DON'T! THAT IS NOT WHAT I WANT! LISTEN! Something went wrong, and we will never know what that is--but for all the doctors she saw, for all of the help she received, she was fighting that wrong alone." CRAWFORD: "THERE IS NOTHING YOU COULD DO ABOUT THAT." WILL: "ALL HER ADULT LIFE, THIS WOMAN WAS MISUNDERSTOOD!" Ah. Now we get to it: "And what I can do is make sure that her death isn't misunderstood." (Crawford gives him a serious look now.) "She didn't kill herself," says Will. "And this wasn't an accident."
Forensics lab; still no Beverly. Will's heart is pounding in his ears and the conversation's fuzzy and he really does need to be back in that hospital, or at least wheeling an IV around the Bureau. "So, we dismantled the oxygen chamber," says Brian, pulling Georgia's body (*sob*) out of the mortuary drawer, "to see if anyone tampered with the wiring, or even like a short circuit, but--nothing." Well, then what did start the fire? Brian: "Inconclusive, but--" "--not conclusively inconclusive," finishes Jimmy. It turns out they've found a charred bit of... celluloid plastic? (Also, Mass Spectrometer would be a BADASS band name.) And, as Brian points out, "Her hair was melted right in there. Preserved like it was in amber."
Will remembers Georgia pushing back a strand of hair: "Could it have been a plastic comb?" "Well," says Jimmy, "static charge from a plastic comb in a highly oxygenated environment would be a powerful accelerant." (NO KIDDING.) "You're holding the murder weapon," declares Will--or "Whatever she used to kill herself, yeah?" The fuck, Crawford? Aaaand then Will jerks open the Dr. Pez Head drawer (over Brian's protests, because, dude, why we gotta look at this again?). "Whoever killed Sutcliffe wanted to kill him how Georgia Madchen killed her victim, but--but not exactly how. Correct?" "Georgia Madchen carved up her victim's face," admits Brian, whereas "Sutcliffe was, uh, nearly decapitated at the jaw." Well, but serial killers often go further the second time, argues Crawford, but Will insists, "She was copied. Like--whoever killed Marissa Schuur and Cassie Boyle wanted to copy how Garrett Jacob Hobbs killed his victims." And then Will flashes back to the two girls' bodies and trembles with epiphany: "But not exactly how." Yeahhhh, now we're getting somewhere. Crawford: "Wait a minute. Are you saying that Dr. Sutcliffe was killed by Garrett Jacob Hobbs' copycat?" (Brian and Jimmy shoot him successive "wha?" looks. Heh.) "So was Georgia Madchen," Will says slowly. "Because he thinks she saw his face..." "You said Nicholas Boyle was the copycat. His blood was on one of the victims. Nicholas Boyle is dead," logics Crawford. "Well then, he isn't the copycat," counter-logics Will. Crawford: *HEAD TILT.*
The Best Office Ever. "Could this be more than just a fever?" asks Crawford. "Will is connecting murders that previously had no connections." "Beyond his involvement in the investigations," notes Lecter (oh, go to hell). "So you're wondering if the lines are blurring, or if he's on to something...?" Crawford: "I'm wondering all sorts of things. [A long pause.] What's Will's relationship with Abigail Hobbs right now?" A corresponding pause from Lecter, and a clearing of throat: "You think he's protecting her." Crawford: "He has been ever since he shot the fuck out of her father; I just don't know from what." "I can't imagine he would hide anything criminal from you," says Dr. Hey Help Me Cover Up That One Time Our Adopted Daughter Killed A Guy. "I've only ever known Will as a man striving to be his best self." Oh God, he knows that Crawford basically lives on Opposite Planet and thinks whatever you tell him not to, how are you so precisely terrible. "You haven't known him that long," Crawford says pensively. "But we both know him well enough to know he hasn't been himself." "He needs our support, whether or not mental illness is involved," says Lecter, who really does seem to be purposefully dropping those words (* THUNDERCLAP*) as often as he can, to sow doubt. Because he is the worst. "Mental illness... is it really mental illness, Doctor, or is it just that his mind works so differently from most people's that--we don't know what else to call it?" muses Crawford (yes! question him! don't buy the scaremongering!). "There are days when even Will doesn't understand his own thinking," says Lecter, shrewdly playing a Not Actually Untrue card. In turn: a long, hard thinky-face from Crawford.
Maison Du Maurier. "I'm Special Agent Jack Crawford with the FBI. I'd like to talk with you about a patient of yours." DUN DUN DUNNNNN.
@NoelCT: So much for my theory. :)
@cleolinda: I'm glad she's alive! EXCEPT THAT NOW TERRIBLE THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO HER
@raanve: OK SO - Bedelia is real. Everything is terrible forever.
@raanve: I'm not sure her realness & the terribleness are related, but nevertheless, everything is terrible forever.
(Prophetic tweet is prophetic.)
After the break:
@BryanFuller: @GILLIANA SUGGESTED HER CHARACTER LISTENS TO CLASSICAL MUSIC TO CLOSELY TIE HER TO #HANNIBAL.
@BryanFuller: DR. BEDELIA DU MAURIER IS PLAYING BEETHOVEN "Ghost Trio - Largo Assai Ed Espressivo" WHEN JACK CRAWFORD VISITS #HANNIBAL
Which you can hear on the Music of Hannibal Tumblr, I discovered. (Wait, there's possibly a Macbeth inspiration here? Possibly a hint of Lady Macbeth, out damned spot, etc.?)
Also,
@janealmirall: <3 Bedelia's modest potted herbs on the shelving in her kitchen. @BryanFuller @cleolinda #HANNIBAL #RELEVES
Yes, because if she can have a glass of wine with a patient, Lecter can keep a whole liquor cabinet in his office! If she has potted herbs in the kitchen, his whole damn dining room is an herb garden! Anything you can do, HE CAN DO FANCIER.
"Do you have a court order?" Bedelia asks coolly--an almost inhuman smoothness of inflection. "Well, I'd rather not get one if I don't have to," says Crawford, smiling. It's not an official inquiry--yet--because "I'd hate to damage anyone's reputation unnecessarily." "Whose reputation would that be?" she asks, carefully looking away to refill her wineglass. When your reaction to a visit from the Law is *DRINK,* you maybe got something to hide. Says Crawford, "I suspect that Dr. Hannibal Lecter" (Bedelia looks up rather quickly. Maybe, for once, someone in Hannibal does know they're in Hannibal) "may be withholding pertinent information involving a murder investigation."
("No, thank you," says Crawford.)
"So... he hasn't confided in the FBI. You are hoping he's confided in his psychiatrist and that I'll tell you." "Yes, ma'am," Crawford says cheerfully. (*DRINK.*) "It's not that I think Dr. Lecter's dangerous," he adds. "I don't. I am concerned about a relationship he has with one of his patients, a man named Will Graham." Maybe the cannibal psychiatrists you're used to play by different rules, sir, but there'll be none of that confidentiality-breaching here. Crawford is undeterred: "So, if we can't discuss Dr. Lecter, perhaps we can discuss you." And he points at her with his fedora. O girl, you in trouble now. "You were attacked by a patient not too long ago. I read the report. I know that there was a statement given by Dr. Lecter." Reluctantly, Bedelia reveals that the Attacker Patient was actually one of Lecter's--that he referred to her. "And this patient almost killed you?" A deep breath: "He swallowed his tongue while he was attacking me. That's the only thing that saved my life."
@cleolinda: SCREAM
@lashieldmaiden: You were damn right about Hannibal having something to do with Bedelia's patient's mysterious death...
(Well, my first theory was that she did it. Shhhhh.) For those of y'all not familiar with the source material: in Silence of the Lambs, the first time Clarice visits Lecter, the guy in the next cell does something, uh, incredibly crude. The next day, she finds out that said inmate died overnight--and that Lecter was heard whispering to him. Apparently, he convinced the inmate to... swallow his own tongue. (Which is all the more impressive given that you can't actually do that. Shhhhh.) What I'm telling you is, as far as the fate of Bedelia's attacker goes, this is a clear signal that, somehow, A MURDER WIZARD DID IT.
(But she doesn't take responsibility for his death. And sometimes, all we can do is watch.)
(*DRINK*)
"Well, thank God for small favors," says Crawford. "Yesss, thank God," says Bedelia, running a hand through her hair. (Seriously, for all her cold quiet smoothness, she and that blouse are vamping it up like a '40s movie star. There really is sort of a noir vibe on this show sometimes, isn't there?) Then Crawford starts telling her that " there was another attack recently in Dr. Lecter's office" that also ended with a dead patient. (Total body count: two. Total awesomeness: yes.) "That's not bad psychology, Agent Crawford," she says, with a barely perceptible smile. "Putting me in a position to have to defend or not to defend Dr. Lecter." To which he replies, "You have to admit he's had some pretty strange relationships with some of his patients." "Complicated patients are conducive to complicated relationships," she says, AND I GUESS SHE WOULD KNOW. Well, how far do you think he would go to treat a patient? "Hannibal refers to Will Graham more as a... friend... than as a patient." "How far do you think he would go to treat a friend?" presses Crawford. "Well, he doesn't have many of them" (LOL BEDELIA) "so I imagine he'd be loyal. I know that he's concerned about Will Graham and I know that he wants to help him." And this time, she sounds sincere. Crawford: "Well, I consider Will a friend, and I'd like to help him too." And then she says, "It seems to me that Will Graham would do well to have more friends like... Dr. Lecter." And you know what? Somehow, I don't even get "unwitting irony" off that statement. I get the feeling she knows exactly what she's saying. And that itself is... interesting.
Forensics lab, where Crawford's gazing down at Sutcliffe's body: "Will Graham theorized that the copycat killer and Garrett Jacob Hobbs were somehow connected--that he had insight into Hobbs' personal life, that they may have met, known each other, perhaps even killed together." "See, I would call that less of a theory, more of a hypothesis," says Brian. "Mm," agrees Jimmy, "theories require evidence." Crawford: "Let's play Jeopardy, shall we?" (Jimmy gives him a hilariously eager look in response.) "The answer is that these people were killed by the copycat, who's connected to Garrett Jacob Hobbs. You tell me how." Brian: "You mean beyond the application of supposition and unexplained leaps?" "I've been yearning for a return to the fundamentals of investigation!" cries Jimmy.
"Where is Beverly?" mutters Crawford (yes, where is Beverly).
Jimmy: "Jury duty--" Brian elbows him: "She's deposed in court."
@MrAaronAbrams: If you watch close, you can tell Zeller is terrified of Jack by how many times he subtly elbows Jimmy to STFU.
"GET HER OUT OF COURT," says Crawford, who knows who broke the Organ Harvester case and sniped Molly Shannon from behind a tree, thank you very much. "Then here's what we're gonna do: I wanna look at train station, airport, toll road, hotel details. I wanna track Garrett Jacob Hobbs using license plate capture from security footage. I also want to know every phone call he made and where he made them from. I also want to know every place that he went that wasn't home--I want to know how long he was there, I want to know who he was there with, and I want to know the travel time to the nearest missing girl in the Minnesota Shrike case. You got it?" Orrrrr we could have done this back when you started suspecting Abigail back in the beginning of episode 2 and not told Team Murder Feels to take her back to the Hobbs house in episode 3? I'm just saying, Jack.
@MrAaronAbrams: SPIN OFF IDEA: Jimmy P and The Zee drive around in a van, going from town to town, solving crimes, dressing amazing.
Think about it, NBC.
Over at the Psychiatric Common Room of Zero Privacy, "You told me that killing someone was the ugliest thing in the world," murmurs Abigail. "I finally get it. I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't feel ugly when I killed Nick Boyle. I felt good. That's why it was so easy to lie about it." Wait, why does Lecter get to berate her about digging up people's bodies in private, but Will has to whisper about the actual murderizing in the game room? "Like you didn't do anything wrong," he says. This is an amazing scene, by the way. Also, Will is kind of freaking me out. This whole conversation feels intimate, but... not exactly in a proper Shaggy Dad/Cannibaby way. Maybe it's partly that it's the first time Will's looked the least bit in control of himself for several episodes. Which, in turn, makes you question, just a little bit... what's in control. "Feel like you'd done something wrong when you killed my dad?" says Abigail, who is just never gonna let that go. "I felt terrified," says Will. "And then... I felt powerful." (*FLAIL*) "It felt good," she whispers (Will's nodding). "To get to end it, to...stop it all... I thought I got away from him." Will: "Oh... I don't think either of us have gotten away from your father." "I wish I'd killed him. For killing my mom--for killing all those girls, for making me--" But she stops. "Making you what, Abigail--?" Ohhhh. Oh God. Lecter never told Will that Hobbs used Abigail as bait, did he? Not even couched in terms of "poor baby, she was a young girl in her father's thrall and just trying to survive." Will doesn't know, you guys! He doesn't knoooow. "Part of it," she says quickly. "Part of ANY OF IT. This wasn't supposed to be my life... it feels like my dad's still out there." "In a way, he is." (WILL, YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT.) Abigail: "You mean the copycat." Well, that, and your dad following Will around everywhere haunting his brain, sure. "I think I can catch him," he says... smiling. And then Shaggy Dad takes her hands in his: "But I'm gonna need your help," he whispers.
OHHHHH NOOOOOO
I don't even know what he's planning but this cannot possibly end well
(Also he is stroking her hands and Abigail looks a little freaked out herself.)
(I guess this is how Unsociable Empaths hug?)
Maison Du Maurier. "An agent from the FBI came to see me," Bedelia tells Lecter, who immediately guesses, "Jack Crawford was here?" Yeah, now you really got some problems. "Mm. He had enough doubt in whatever it is you told him about [Will] to feel the need to verify," she tells him. Oh, well, this girl was involved in some cannibal murders, Will shot the fuck out of her father, Crawford thinks Will's protecting her--you know, the usual, no big. Bedelia, now firmly in the ranks of the Not Happy: "And evidently he suspects you are protecting Will. Are you?" "Are you asking as my psychiatrist?" "I'm stepping out of my role as your psychiatrist and I'm speaking to you now as your [ friend? friend? friend?] colleague." (He turns back to the window. Sadface: implied.) "Whatever you're doing with Will Graham... STOP." Man, Gillian Anderson's enunciation there could chisel ice. Lecter tries to argue that Will needs his help, but she insists that he's "crossed professional lines." "By making a friend?" Actually, that... that's one of the big lines, yeah. Bedelia: "You cannot function as an agent of friendship for a man who is disconnected from the concept as a man who is disconnected from the concept." ... Person Suit.
"I'm protecting Will from influence." (PROTECTING HIM FROM!?!) "He has flaws in his intuitive beliefs about what makes him who he is. I'm trying to help him understand," Lecter insists, and "I'm not comfortable telling Will that my very best attempts to help him may fail and that my loyalty to him and his treatment could be compromised." Here's the interesting thing: Lecter is now pacing back and forth in front of the windows. He is moving, like an actual human being. He is AGITATED LIKE WHOA. "Then tell him something else," says Bedelia. Oh, by the way: "Agent Crawford also asked me about my attack." Yeah, that stops Lecter in his tracks. "I see," he says, very quietly (oh nooo). "What did you tell him?"
It was about right here that I got real, real scared for Bedelia. Please go back to maybe not being real so he can't hurt you.
"Half-truths," she says. "That... a violent patient swallowed his tongue while he was attacking me. I didn't tell him how or... why... or who was responsible." Y'all, I think she's scared too. "You protect your patient from Jack Crawford, but I can't protect mine?" he asks. "Not anymore," she says, and tries to tell him that "even the very best psychiatrists have an inherent limitation to their professional abilities," but he refuses to accept that. To which she says, "You have to maintain boundaries, Hannibal." brb, hitting pause till I stop laughing. Seriously, he turns right around on her at the very idea of it: "When the pressures of my personal and professional relationships with Will grow too great, I assure you--I'll find a way to relieve them."
(I am just hands-up, step-back walking away from that one.)
(scream)
The Best Office Ever. Will is back and he feels GOOD. "I'm much better now. I feel clearer. It had to be the fever. I am finally thinking clearly about the copycat." Well, but those murders have suspects (Will: "SHPFFF") whose DNA was on the victims (says the guy who put it there). "SO WHAT?" says Will (well, there's an unexpected chess move for you). "You're choosing to ignore that?" says Lecter, like, but that was the whole point of getting that rock with the blood on it, I was in the woods all night looking for where I put that, you can't just IGNORE that! "Both of those suspects are dead," counters Will. "I'm choosing to factor that into my psychological profile of a killer." And obviously Georgia saw Sutcliffe's murderer when she followed Will to his office; it must have been the copycat. "Why not kill her then and there?" asks Lecter, with a LOGIC THAT look. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: "Well, maybe he didn't have the time. You know, she was an unreliable witness--so that bought him time." "So he framed her for the murder." "But he wasn't planning on framing her," says Will, realizing: "He was planning on framing me." "You believe this is personal?" asks Lecter, sounding a tiny bit alarmed (interesting). "If it wasn't before, it is now," Will says grimly. (To which Lecter reacts with an expression I can only describe as "implied facepalm.") "This could be someone at the Bureau, someone in the police department, someone who knows the crimes and has access to the investigations." "Someone like you," says Lecter (yessss, walk into my trap). Oh, but "there will be evidence," says Will: "I found a pattern and now I'm gonna reconstruct his thinking." WHEE! (I am really enjoying this sense of the net tightening around Lecter--all his chickens coming home to roost.) (The chickens are people.) And here's how Will's going to do that: "By taking Abigail back to Minnesota. Start where the copycat started when he called Garrett Jacob Hobbs." Yeah, that gets a reaction: "WILL. This is venturing into the paranoid. I can't allow you to pull Abigail into your delusion." "This isn't a delusion," Will insists (he does a lot of insisting). "I'm not hallucinating, I haven't lost time. I am awake, and this is REAL." And the scene ends on Lecter sitting there, closing his eyes, and sighing to himself. That's a "don't make me do this" face, kids.
At the Crawffice, the Investigators Two report their findings. For one, Jimmy's found tickets for that Elise Nichols train flashback--two tickets. And dinner receipts, hotel rooms, college orientation registrations at all the victims' schools... all for two. "We know he wasn't traveling alone," says Brian. Crawford: "He was traveling with his daughter?" Brian: "She was with him when he was choosing these girls." More specifically: "She was the bait. She was helping him choose the girls," Crawford concludes. "She kills Cassie Boyle to impress Dad? She kills Marissa Schuur in memoriam, then she kills Nicholas Boyle to cover her tracks...?" But then why Sutcliffe? Why Georgia? "Because she's got a taste for it now," says Crawford. "Or... she wants to impress someone new."
Over at the psychiatric hospital, Freddie's gathering up her files when Crawford walks in: "You look like you came here to arrest somebody. Is it Abigail Hobbs, or Will Graham?" "WILL GRAHAM WAS HERE?" "Oh, then it was Abigail Hobbs," says Freddie. As it happens, she's been stood up by her writing partner and is especially smarmy today: "One of the other girls said Special Agent Graham snuck her out--I don't know why he would feel the need to be sneaky, he is registered as one of her guardians. The irony." 1) Well, of course Abigail's guardians are Shaggy Dad and Fancy Dad. 2) Who the hell allowed that? So Crawford takes a sideways approach: "How's the book coming?" "There's plot holes," admits Freddie. And then she straight-up asks him, "Did Abigail Hobbs kill Nick Boyle?" Because "Abigail is one of those very smart girls who hasn't quite figured out that very smart girls grow up and know all the moves they're making when they're trying to hide something." And yet, Freddie's Graham-grudge keeps her from seeing it clearly: "What is Will Graham trying to hide?"
The Best Office Ever. "Sorry to barge in on you, Doctor," says Crawford, barging in. "You want to tell me what the hell is going on between Will Graham and Abigail Hobbs?"
I'll stop here and say, you know, I have to disagree with the interpretation here that Lecter's absolute endgame has been "the ice-cold purpose of Abigail being Will’s perfect final victim." Rather, it's an acceptable outcome. Lecter seems to like to keep a number of options on hand--and, as we have often seen, is capable of strategizing on a dime. And what I think we see in this episode is a lot of very quick thinking flashing across his face. I think he really did want to "nurture" Abigail--but if she is, logically, inevitably, the card he has to sacrifice in order to stay in the game, then so be it. And my theory in the comments last week was that he may want to turn Will into a mirror in which he can finally see the self he can't show anyone else, an audience who feels everything and can empath his crimes--and his victims' feelings--back to him, someone has already recognized his work as "art"--if only he can teach Will to drink pain instead of running from it, if he can just break down Will's moral opposition. Remember how good killing feels? How can you judge me for it? But he also knows--he would have to know--how much danger he's put himself in by getting friendly with FBI agents. So he's laid in a destruction mechanism: push the button, set Project Absolute Fuckery in motion, and Will is completely discredited, neutralized as an pursuer, and--yes, framed for Lecter's crimes. But I really feel like that was his worst-case scenario option.
It's just also the option he's going with now.
He tells Crawford that Will's been "the victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts," that Will's lost time, that he's seen Will disoriented, that Will may have been waking up from (PUSH THE BUTTON) a dissociated personality state: "He would appear perfectly normal and not remember a thing. But a fractured part of him would." "And how long have you been aware of this?" demands Crawford. Lecter tries to claim that "he's only recently started to discuss these episodes--" "Well, unless recently means just before I walked into your office, YOU FAILED TO MENTION ANY OF THIS TO ME." (GET HIM!!) "BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO DETERMINE IF IT WAS TRAUMA AND STRESS FROM THE WORK HE'S DOING FOR YOU, OR MENTAL ILLNESS," retorts Lecter (GET HIM TOO!!), but then he lowers his voice again: "I thought it wise to be sure before making any kind of claim about Will Graham's sanity." "He's taken Abigail Hobbs," Crawford reveals. "You have any idea where they might be going?" "No," says Lecter, who is shocked, shocked, I tell you, by this development. Is it possible, asks Crawford, that Will knows that Abigail helped her father, and now he's protecting her? Lecter delivers a very nicely stage-managed pause and sigh: " There's something you should hear."
How did you feel seeing Marissa Schuur impaled in his antler room?
Guilty.
Because you couldn't save her?
Because I felt like I killed her.
Can I just point out here that Lecter very clearly 1) secretly recorded that session back in the day just in case, but also 2) HAD THAT PRECISE MOMENT CUED UP AND READY TO GO FOR CRAWFORD'S INEVITABLE VISIT? Because he's a helper, you guys. "Where was Will the night that Marissa Schuur was killed?" asks Crawford, to which Lecter replies, "He was supposed to be in his hotel room. I knocked on his door. He didn't answer." OKAY, THAT'S A STONE-COLD LIE, YOU WEREN'T ANYWHERE NEAR WILL'S ROOM AND HE WAS WITH THE RAVENSTAG ALL NIGHT, GET THE ACTUAL FUCK OUT. Crawford points out that Will was the last person to see both Sutcliffe and Georgia alive (and Lecter sits down heavily, like this is just such a blow): "This dissociative personality state you say he goes into... whose personality is it?" And then Lecter repeats something that Will did actually say--hangs Will with the out-of-context rope that Will himself provided: "He said he got so close to Garrett Jacob Hobbs and what he had done... that he felt he was becoming him." All the palms for my face. "And now he has Hobbs' daughter," says Crawford. Lecter twists the knife: "Who Hobbs intended to kill. I'm so sorry, Jack." Okay, those are both the words and tone of condolence you use when someone has ALREADY DIED, when he should be saying "OMG JACK GO SAVE HER, MAYBE IT'S NOT TOO LATE!" So Lecter knows--probably knew the moment Will said he was taking Abigail to Minnesota--what he's going to do next. This man, I swear to God.
And then, right after Crawford walks out, Lecter drops his Condolences Sadface and does this little "Hm. That went well" head-tilt. THE INFINITE FUCKERY OF THIS MAN, I SWEAR.
Over at Bad Idea Airlines, Will and Abigail are on a plane together. "You look a little pasty," she says, as he slams down a handful of aspirin (air travel does not agree with the brain raccoons). "Maybe you shouldn't have checked yourself out of the hospital--" "I feel fine." Yikes. To change the subject, Abigail tells him, "It would've been my mom's birthday next week. We were gonna climb Eagle Mountain to celebrate. Highest point in Minnesota, but... it's not really that high. Less than three hours to summit. You can see Lake Superior from there." "I could... take you," Will offers, "if--if you wanna go." "I think it would just make me sad," Abigail says softly. "Some places are stained now." (Is this where they buried Nicholas Boyle?) "Some people too. I know I am," she says. Yeah, that... that definitely made things less awkward.
And let's definitely take a day trip out to the Cabin of Horrors, that's an optimal life choice right now. Antler Room: cheerful place.
Crows are outside cawing on the roof. There's still bloodstains on the horns where Abigail's father hung his victims. Will is looking increasingly fever-damp. This is literally the worst idea either of them could have possibly had at this moment in time, in the literal sense of literally. They're talking about Will's efforts to understand her father when Abigail suddenly asks, "Do you ever hunt?" "I fish," he says. Abigail: "It's the same thing, isn't it? One you stalk, the other you lure." Oh my God. She's trying to tell him, isn't she? Well, MESSAGE RECEIVED, because Will slowly turns to look at her, with all the nice low ambient Horror Music droning in the background: "Were you more a fisherman or a hunter?" "My dad taught me how to hunt," she says, maybe not so glad she brought this up anymore. "No, that's not what I'm asking," he says, coming in closer (oh God nooooo) backing her even closer to the terrifying wall-mounted antlers (noooooo). "All those girls your dad killed... did you fish... or did you hunt, Abigail?" OH JESUS OH JESUS OH JESUS ABIGAIL GET AWAY FROM ALL THE SHARP POINTY ANTLERS OH MY GOOOOOOOD "I was the lure," she whispers. "Did Hannibal tell you?" "No, he didn't," says Will, shocked--because that means Lecter did know but didn't tell him. Abigail tremble-pales, "He said you'd protect me, that you'd keep it a secret--" and Will's gasping and shaking and then HE PICKS HER UP AND IMPALES HER ON THE ANTLERS wait no he doesn't he was just thinking it oh thank God. "There is something wrong with you--I think you're still sick!" gasps Abigail, who's now already gotten away to the other side of the room, because apparently we all yelled loudly enough for her to hear. "Jack Crawford was right about you!" cries Will, in that really angry way you only get from heartbreak, I think. "He knew! You killed Nick Boyle, and you helped your father kill ALL THOSE GIRLS. You lured them, you killed them--how many other people have you killed?" And then we launch into YOU'RE THE COPYCAT! NO, YOU'RE THE COPYCAT! NO YOU! NO YOU! And then things start to really, really go to hell, as Will clutches his head and starts going into another seizure while Abigail's shouting, "You knew about this place, and there is something WRONG WITH YOU--"
"Sir, I'm afraid you're going to have to leave," says a flight attendant. Because Will is now on a plane. By himself. In Virginia. Oh, fuck. "Was there a young woman traveling with me?" "All the other passengers are disembarked. It's just you, sir." FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU--
Oh, wait! There's Abigail at the empty Hobbs house in Minnesota, she's fine! Will just had a seizure, lost time, went home without her, and didn't kill anybody! Everybody's fine!
Nobody is fine. Nobody will be fine ever again.
@cleolinda: oh God I can't watch this oh God this is going to be terrible oh God
@lashieldmaiden: ::peers at it from between my fingers:: Oh god oh shit oh god
"Abigail?" She runs to him! Throws her arms around him! There's a stag head in a box RIGHT THERE! Oh God! "What are you doing here?" she gasps. Oh, Fancy Dad? HELPING. "I was so worried about you," says Lecter (moar tender cannibal hugs). "Will told me he was taking you to Minnesota, and I strongly advised against it." Well, that's a... passionate statement right there. Of course he wants to know where Will is now; Abigail says that she left him at the cabin-- "I didn't feel safe with him." Lecter nods to himself: all according to plan. "He knows everything," she confesses. "So does Jack Crawford," he says. And Abigail knows exactly what that means: she is screwed. "If I run, they'll catch me, won't they? You can't protect me anymore." To which he replies, "They'll arrest you when they find you, yes. And Will." And so she asks: "Did he kill Marissa? "They will believe he did," says Lecter. "They will believe he killed others too."
I don't quite know why Abigail senses the truth now--the weirdness of his calm? an instinct that a predator is near? process of elimination? game recognizing game?--but she steps away from him: "Will always said whoever called the house that morning was the serial killer. Why did you really call?"
"I wanted to warn your father that Will Graham was coming for him."
"Why?"
"I was curious what would happen." Ohhhh God. "I was curious what would happen when I killed Marissa." Oh God, she's dead. Murder Real Talk? Abigail's so dead. "I was curious what you would do."
(PRETTY MUCH)
(Wait, was he also "curious" what would happen if he referred Attacker Patient to Bedelia?)
"You wanted me to kill Nick Boyle," she gasps. Lecter: "I was hoping." ( I KNEW HE STAYED OUTSIDE ON PURPOSE!) "I wanted to see how much like your father you were." Abigail: "Oh my God."
"Nicholas Boyle is more important for you gutting him. He changed you, Abigail. That's more important than the life he clamored after." "How many people have you killed?" He steps forward and takes her hand (this could take a while): "Many more than your father." Now he's stroking her face with the other hand. I want to say I can't believe this is happening, but I totally, totally can. One last tremble-pale for the road: "Are you going to kill me?"
"I'm so sorry, Abigail. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you in this life."
CUT TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE.
SCREAM
@cafecliche: AAAAAAHHHFfhjsskhfj throwing shoes throwing furniture throwing everything
@MartianBethany: @NBCHannibal *SCREAMS INCOHERENTLY*
Welp. Y'all called it weeks ago (and I refused to lay money against you): Cannibaby is not getting out of this show alive, so pour one out for Kacey Rohl. Here's hoping Abigail can come back next season and haunt the fuck out of him. Maybe he'll kill her painlessly, but I'm betting the So Totally the Copycat, You Guys "display" is gonna be horrific, just to twist the knife in Will's heart, too. You know. Just to see what'll happen.
@JazminLabrada: @cleolinda I'M UTTERLY STUNNED AFTER TONIGHT'S EP.
@cleolinda: @JazminLabrada My mentions were full of nothing but weeping and hugs for half an hour. I self-medicated with cake.
It had Milano cookies crumbled on it! It was not people. (*GLARE*)
@akathorne: Hannibal and Will are going to have the worst breakup ever. Will stole their kid & Hannibal is going to kill them because of it. #Hannibal
@cleolinda: Picture Will's face when they tell him they've found Abigail.
@akathorne: Noooo. I can't. I don't want to.
@cafecliche: omg DDDDDDDDD: leave me here to die.
@cleolinda: Now imagine Alana's.
@cafecliche: omg I cannot deal. *lies facedown on the floor*
@akathorne: NOW YOU'RE JUST FEEDING ON MY PAIN.
:D
... wait.
D:
@mork_and: @cleolinda Sooo... Confirmation that Hannibal saw Abigail as a Mischa substitute?
"I couldn't protect you in this life (either)," maybe? Yeah, I've heard vaguely that Bryan Fuller must have confirmed somewhere that there was a "parallel with Lecter's dead little sister" thing (see also: The Shroom Tea; The Hug). And as of " Trou Normand," I was convinced Lecter had already guessed that Abigail must have been involved by the time he was holding her hand at the end of the first episode. But, finally, he just got a little too "curious" with his experiments, I guess, and set more events in motion than he could control (see also: SHE DUG UP THE BODY?!). And honestly? This is probably his idea of mercy--death at his hands rather than trial, public humiliation, and punishment. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, ABIGAIL.
NEXT WEEK: Will's in jailhouse orange and everything is terrible. Also:
LOOK AT THIS BUSINESS FROM THE PREVIEWS
YOU GUYS
RAVENSTAG IS PEOPLE.
@HettiennePark [Beverly]: Ooof. Rough day in court. What'd I miss? #HANNIBAL
(Continue: 1x13: "Savoureux")
ETA: SPOILER POLICY FOR COMMENTS. Short version: MY SHOW INNOCENCE IS PRECIOUS TO ME.