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| Will Graham is on trial in "Hannibal" |
If you want reason for why I am so in love with Hannibal right now, it is in a
smile. Hell it’s not even a smile – not
even really a half-smile. Maybe a
smirk? Not quite that, though,
either. It was more of a twitch at the corner
of Hannibal Lecter’s mouth at the prosecutor’s mention that Will Graham was the
smartest man in the courtroom. That
tiny, infinitesimal, literal blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment gives us an
enormous amount of information about his state of mind in that particular
moment. Hannibal Lecter is really the smartest man in
the room, but nobody knows it. And that
seems to be a problem for him.
Hannibal Lecter is lonely.
We saw it in the season premiere as he was keeping Will’s session time
open for what was apparently nothing more than reflection and staring at an
empty chair. We see it in the fact that
he keeps going back to Will in the hospital.
Hannibal needs another mind to play with. At times last year it was Will, at others it
was Abigail. He got different things
from each relationship, but it was clear that merely being the smartest man in
the room wasn’t enough for Lecter. He
needs somebody to recognize that genius, to accept him as the smartest man in
the room, even as he does his best to hide his true nature.
It seems like Lecter is trying to mold Jack Crawford as his
new foil/protégé, but Crawford is so wrapped up in his guilt over Will that he is unable to really create any kind of connection with Hannibal. Lecter is also a little less willing to tip
his hand and invest emotionally in Crawford, likely because Crawford is much
less empathic than was Will. Will’s mind
is like a diary, capable of recording everything but also open to manipulation
and entries written by others. Jack
doesn’t possess the same gift/curse, which would prevent Hannibal from changing
his perception the way he was able to with Will.
This loneliness plays out in Hannibal’s actions this week.* One could call it pride that causes Lecter to
kill again in such a public fashion.
Perhaps he doesn’t like seeing Will getting all the credit for his
crimes. But that seems out of
character. Instead, I think that
Hannibal just can’t stand the idea of losing access to Will. He doesn’t want to prove that Will is
innocent, which could ultimately lead the law to look his way. He just wants to
plant enough doubt in the jury’s heads to keep Will in the mental
hospital. It’s a dangerous play that
makes Hannibal seem desperate, but maybe it’s his loneliness manifesting
itself.
* I’m assuming that
Hannibal was behind this week’s two murders.
It may very well be revealed that he’s not, but at this point all signs
point to his involvement.
While the character beats in “Hassun” were fantastic, the
actual storyline left something to be desired.
It was very mechanical and nobody seemed to be terribly invested in
it. It was delightful to watch Dr.
Chilton just tear into Will and meticulously destroy every possible defense he
could use. But that the judge would
ignore a murder almost identical to those committed by Will seems far-fetched. I would think that, at the very least, the
trial would be delayed until the police could determine something more than
“maybe it was the same killer, maybe it wasn’t.”
Hopefully, the trial stuff won’t come up again because Hannibal as a court procedural isn’t
terribly interesting to me. But the fact
that the show can branch outside its comfort zone to tell a different kind of
story while still doing great character work makes me extremely happy.
A couple of spare thoughts –
The Will-Alana relationship still confuses me a bit. I’m just not sure where it’s going. But, again, the work here by Hugh Dancy and
Caroline Davernas is just top-notch.
How great was that opening scene with Will and Hannibal
getting dressed to Don Giovanni?
So thoughts?
Comments? Just want to tell me my
blog sucks? Let me know in the comments
or on Twitter @TyTalksTV
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