Reviews

Hannibal: Releves, Review

Some time in intensive care, visions of the recently departed and a sad lack of delicious human bring together this week's Hannibal.

By Gerri Mahn | June 14, 2013 | | 0

Fun Fact: According to an interview on TvLine.com with Hugh Dancy, an FBI profiler that author Thomas Harris interviewed while researching the books, he actually did almost die from encephalitis. That is freaking terrifying. Imagine it. Your body decides it has grown weary of being a plain ole human, and decides it wants to be a slow cooker instead. And then it goes and mistakes your brain for a delicious, delicious, pot roast. Yikes.I think we can safely say that Will is not going to die. At least not from brain boiling. Or from a harelipped Ralph Fiennes. But we did leave off last week with our poor wackadoodle unconscious and burning up some hospital sheets. I was kind of hoping that Lecter would be sitting dutifully by his bedside, gently moping his brow, but no such luck. Although Lecter did wake his bromance from a deep and restful sleep with gourmet chicken soup. Made from Silkie meat, which is a nifty type of black chicken (I have seen it in the market but have yet to devour it). The poultry looks conveniently like burned, blackened, human skin.Jesus this episode is a hot mess. I do not mean it was a wreck as in the episode was poorly done, I mean the characters were some of the most traumatized, emotionally degenerate, individuals to grace the TV screen since Season 2 of American Horror Story. There was so much going on tonight that I hardly know where to begin.So let me start at the beginning. The episode starts with Will and Georgia bonding in the intensive care unit. Even though she was completely encased in some kind of weird metal capsule looking oxygen tent-thing, she looked a lot better. Seeing her there, with her long, straight, blond, hair reminded me of her reaping days. Although when she spoke to Will she seemed to have a terrible smoker’s rasp. Which would have been funny if it had not been so horribly ironic.Whatever that metal capsule was, it sure was filled with oxygen. Flammable, flammable, oxygen. Since she couldn’t very well play with matches, what was a pretty blonde to do in order to pass the time? Brush her static filled hair? Sure, why not. Unfortunately, one small static-y spark later and WOMPH! No more Ellen Muth, guest star.Gerri was a sad bunny for a hot minute, but fear not, Georgia quickly returned as a vision to guide Will (you don’t really think that elk is his spirit guide, do you? C’mon now, we all know who the elk is), helping him to see. Kind of like what Garrett Jacob Hobbs tried to do back in the very first episode.And suddenly he does; he sees with terrible clarity that the copycat, the Chesapeake Ripper, has been out there, taunting him, all along. Everything is connected. Everything is coming together. Someone who knew all of those cases, someone who knew Will and knew his wackadoodle was involved. Jesus! Who could it be? Well, if there was ever a good time to go confide in Lecter about his suspicions, it sure was now.Meanwhile, out in the wings (as can be expected) Crawford was dubious. Sure, maybe his favorite pet was onto something, but wasn’t it more likely that his wee wackadoodle was just either very sick or very crazy, or possibly something even more insidious. Poor Crawford. He’s having a hard time bringing all the ideas together. Maybe he’s distracted by his other plot point, uh. Um. Er, wasn’t Crawford having some sort of personal issue? I seem to have a vague recollection of that.Still, the man has shifted into high gear. He cracks the whip and gets his team of nerds on the investigative trail. Unfortunately the trail belongs to Abigail Hobbs. Crawford decides he needs answers, so for some inexplicable reason, he suddenly goes to question the utterly sophisticated, cool as ice, sexy time from head to toe, Gillian Anderson. About Lecter. And his relationship with Will. So he can get insight on Will’s current mental health and his relationship with Abigail? Yeah, there’s a leap. Not to mention highly illegal, but whatevs. I won’t argue with the writers. They could bring Gillian onscreen to help pull unicorns out of Crawford’s ass and I’d still be happy.Side note, you know what I find interesting? Gillian’s costume and even her home décor echoes Lecter’s own clothing style and interior design. Clever, but a little heavy handed. Especially the wall of orchids in her kitchen.Anywho, when Crawford leaves, Gillian and Lecter get together and discuss the problems inherent in getting too tangled with Will’s wackadoodle. There was a lot of pensive sitting and standing. I wish there had been a lot more face smooshing and bodice tearing, but ah well.Meanwhile, Abigail was working with professional parasite and full time kidnappee, Freddie Lounds, on that book about her father and his victims. Despite the fact that she was having a tough time coping, Freddie was less than sympathetic and saw right past her ‘tude to the killer lurking underneath. That’s right, it all came out into the open this week. Crawford and Will actually made some connections where Abigail was concerned. She was fishing while her father hunted. She was the lure.So here we go. Now, Abigail is Lecter’s lure. But he was much more adept at working the line than her father ever was.Will knew Abigail was the key and, determined to reconstruct the copycat’s thinking and catch the killer, dragged her off to Minnesota. But not before telling all to his bromance. Lecter starts to look a little green around the gills. Will has realized that the neurosurgeon was murdered (and blamed on Georgia) was actually meant to be a frame job. For him. Was that Lecter’s intent? Or did he intend to frame Abigail for the whole mess? Or am I misreading this? Was Lecter’s whole purpose to try and drive Will to become a killer himself? Or was he just curious?The episode closes with Will blacking out and ending up on a plane in Virginia, Crawford convinced that Abigail killed alongside her dad, and Lecter confessing, and then apologizing, to Abigail.He had just been curious. He called because he wanted to see what would happen if he warned her dad. He pushed her to kill because he wanted to see if she would. The scene is stomach turning and heartfelt all in the same go. Especially when he apologized to his surrogate daughter, with real feeling, for not being able to protect her.In this life.