“Doctor Lecter’s the one you want to be feeding to your pigs. Will Graham explains to Mason Verger. (Major Spoilers)
This week’s episode titled Ko No Mono, is as good as they get on Hannibal, with one powerful scene after another helping to rack up the tension as we race to the season finale. We were treated to a huge revelation about Will and Jack, with Mason Verger forced to talk to Will on Will’s terms. We also see Mason enjoying his special martini’s laced with orphan’s tears.
Last week saw Will and Lecter bond, as Lecter is led to believe–along with everyone else–that Will has finally joined him on the wrong side of the tracks. This was a clever development, however, I wasn’t ready to quickly believe Hannibal would be so willing to accept this from Will, but Will done a remarkable job duping everyone. I was fooled right up until Will shouted to a terrified Freddie he had an explanation for everything. Even so, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my doubts, even after that.
- Hannibal
- Created by
Bryan Fuller - Cast
Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas - Episode Release Date
9 May 2014 - Ed’s Grade: A+
There were several revelatory scenes and plenty of the sort we’ve come to expect from a show of this calibre, like the opening nighttime shot of Will’s stag patronus standing near the Lecter stag. They both look on as a new beast is born out of the mud, bearing a resemblance to Will Graham. This is clearly Will becoming like Hannibal, but whose dream are we seeing? This isn’t made clear as the following scene opens up to Will and Hannibal dining on rare songbirds. The majority of the episode is taken up between Will’s rebirth and the consequences thereof, and with the less-than-sane Verger family.
Hannibal prepares a rare delicacy that he explains to Will is a “right of passage,” consisting of tiny songbirds that are drowned in alcohol, plucked and roasted then eaten in one go. As strange as it may seem, I felt more for those little birds than any of the people we’ve seen slaughtered on the show so far. Go figure. Hannibal has now begun a courting ritual, and after the reciprocating gesture is made by Will, Alana Bloom points this fact out. We’ve been led to believe Freddie Lounds is dead, and to underline this for Hannibal, her assumed body is sent rolling down her parking lot driveway, as the scene from Red Dragon is reenacted, with the flaming body glued to a wheelchair. The dental records prove to be a match, which is just as well, with Hannibal appearing in every scene, allowing for further confirmation.
*****
Mason Verger gets to do what he does best, by displaying cruelty to the young orphans who are regularly taken on a tour of his meat packing business and also to Margot. Why Hannibal gave Mason a clue as to Margot’s pregnancy is a bit of a mystery, because he appears to actually care about what Margot’s brother does to her. If he hadn’t dropped a massive hint to the insane Mason in the first place, Mason wouldn’t have almost killed Margot then had her operated on to leave her barron. We also see Mason take the tears of an orphan child, by getting a young boy so upset he cries, then uses a small blotter to soak up the tears, to be added to a martini later on. There are a number of speculative reasons I’ve heard about why this is done, but none sound quite right. One has it that it’s a Masonic thing, based on a poem, hence the name Mason isn’t an accident.
There were two scenes that nailed this episode for me–with the first being one of the finest I’ve ever witnessed on the show–when Will is questioning Hannibal about the death of Abigail Hobbs. It should be noted at this point Hannibal fully believes Will is now on his side. In fact, Hannibal is so sure, he actually apologizes to Will for taking Abigail away from him! Hannibal also tells Will about Misha, and how she was his charge, after Will asks if he’d ever been a father. Hannibal explains how he sometimes deliberately drops a teacup on the floor, in the hope that one day the shattered pieces will reassemble. Both men are quite emotional here, and Hannibal really surprised me.
The second was also between the two new best buds. Hannibal and Will have just learned about Margot’s “accident,” and the pair once again discuss fatherhood, but on this occasion, while the men are speaking to each other, what they see is their own image. These two scenes were nothing short of brilliant. What Hannibal is actually doing at this point is priming Will to act on Mason Verger. Hannibal didn’t like that Mason was a child molester, and having his new pal murder him must have seemed quite fitting. This didn’t go quite as planned. Alana Bloom and Jack Crawford also had a great scene together at the end of the show, with Alana being brought in from the cold. I think keeping her in the dark was a good idea but she was clearly loosing it so Jack revealing the truth about Freddie was understandable.
The slow build up has been truly amazing and I just hope the writers can keep this up for the last two episodes, although, we already know how it ends for Hannibal, thanks to the opening episode at the start of the season.
TV Recap by Lead Entertainment Writer, Ed Blackadder
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