Hannibal : Relevés

Episode 12

Last episode Will killed Dr Gideon (weep) whilst in the hands of a fever after Gideon had escaped and tried to identify with the Chesapeake Ripper.

This weeks is the penultimate episode of the season, is the net closing in on our resident cannibal?

***SPOILERS***

So the review will be a little different this week because I watched the episode just a minute ago so instead of telling you how I felt about it whilst watching it (and also annoyingly describing everything in detail) I'll be doing it on memory.

So a lot of this episode is setting up for next weeks finale and if the quality of the shows leading up to it is anything to go by it will be a cracker of a episode!

Will seems to have beaten the fever and is getting better, seeing clearer and not losing time. He goes to visit Georgia (the girl from the episode before last) but later that night she's murdered in her oxygen container. This leads to another of Wills weird dreams and he finally figures out that the murder of the doctor that Georgia was being framed for (because she told him she saw who killed him but couldn't see the face, and he told Hannibal that, and Hannibal killed her by leaving a plastic comb in the chamber) and Georgia's murders were that of the copy cat.

Jack Crawford isn't too enthused by Will and basically turns him away but sets the two stupid male detectives (and I don't mean they are mentally stupid just they are played as two stupid comic relief characters at time the way they talk and act like idiots) on the case of Garret Jacob Hobbs. Yes this is the episode that Jack figures out that Abigail WAS the bait all along. Now if only he had bothered to do this research at the beginning of the series instead of harassing her and upsetting people?

It isn't just Abigail that Jack is worried about. He knows that Will is too close and is worried about him so goes to Hannibal, and then he worries that Hannibal is too close to Will so goes to Hannibal's psychiatrist.

Elsewhere Will has taken Abigail to the hunting cabin and freaks out whilst figuring out that she was the bait, he wakes up on an airplane by himself and we see Abigail at her old house coming face to face with Hannibal. Even though she's scared of Will and don't seem to trust him his words of "whoever phoned your father is the copycat" comes back to her and she puts two and two together and gets Hannibal. We are left to believe that Hannibal kills her...

The episode did a lot of pushing characters into the right place, we've gone along nicely this season without anything big being reveled to Jack and yet this episode he actually uses his brain and decides to trace Hobbs to find out if Abigail had helped and also managed to jump to HUGE conclusions based on no more then the fact he disliked the answers he was being given.

It was a good decent episode and built up a lot of tension for the finale, I have only a small problem with some of the ways that the picture is being pieced together and don't like the fact that it doesn't seem that anyone will catch Hannibal based on intelligence. It seems he's going to be caught out based on luck and guessing. I know that was how Hannibal was caught, a piece of luck by Will Graham, but because Will is just going madder by the day and half the time isn't even really awake, and Jack is only finding answers because he won't listen to anyone else, it just doesn't feel good enough.

I digress because he might not even be caught next episode.

It was really sad seeing Georgia die, she seemed so lost and lonely but you knew that she'd have to die now that she was on the mend, Hannibal couldn't let her recognize him. Those oxygen chambers sound a lot more scary then living without one to be honest! She's probably the first character away from the main bunch that I've really felt sorry for.

I was surprised that Alana wasn't in the episode at all, I'd have thought Jack would have gone to her instead of Dr du Maurier. I'm also intrigued to find out what actually happened when she was attacked, it sounds like not only was it to do with Hannibal but he was the one that saved her. That came out of nowhere, I'm not sure if it fits much of what I'd believe between the two of them, but it depends on what actually happened I guess.

The acting was pretty much average to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot to do, there wasn't a murderer to find because the murderer was Hannibal and Jack was all too happy to call it a suicide. Will went from being alright to being crazy slowly through the episode and Jack bullied his way into answers that he could have got just by doing his job properly.

Freddie went back to being the most annoying thing on the screen half the time, and I'm sick and tired of hearing her go on about how Will Graham in her mind has killed everyone and everything in the entirety of the universe. We get it, you think he's a psychotic murderer. Good for you!

I do think they've written Hannibal really well though, with the whole person suit, him hiding behind a wall that he's built and being so cold. He really does just look at all of them like a game of chess, he observes and gives a small nudge to the direction he wants them to go and when a piece gets too near him or finds out too much he smashes them off the table. It really is the small subtle changes in Mikkelsens face that I love, he can go from genuine care and worry to his real cold and calculating observer look. I know most people don't like it, most people can't even see the slight change, but I can. I guess I look for it as well, when you do the show becomes a lot more interesting. His face says the words he doesn't and it is the same for most of the other roles I've seen him in. One look and you know what is behind the mask, one look and he can go from lovable to deadly. Not all actors can do that, but I'm not here to talk about David Tennant's angry teeth grinding.

I don't like the fact this is the penultimate episode but I am so glad that season two has been announced, I'd hate for this to be the end. I feel we've just scratched a surface and I can't wait to see what is underneath. The major problem will be how they'll handle the next season, what is going to happen in the finale? I would have loved more of the same from this season, I've loved some of the gruesome but imaginative ways that the murderers have worked and it is a shame that we won't get more of that.

The episode will probably be 100% cooler with the finale to go with it, but that is the way of two parters, no matter how good the first part is it is always so much better when you get the conclusion (unless the conclusion is pants of course!)

So Hannibal fans, join me next week, once again late in the afternoon as once again I'm working Friday, for the last episode of season one of Hannibal.

See you there!