Ron Does Stuff

I’m back for the second episode of Hannibal season 1! I may just go on to finish watching the whole three seasons and finally catch up with everybody else after a literal decade has passed!

Garret Jacob Hobbs died in the first episode, and this second one opens with Will at target practice and Hobbs appearing in it. At the time this was airing, I remember critics pointing out how refreshing it was to see one death resonate so much in a series like this one because the expectation is that it’s going to be a monster of the week type of situation. At the time I thought that was a great choice by the production, but as reading Red Dragon has shown me, this is actually a feature from the book.

What the production does change from the books is Abigail Hobbs, who is pretty much living happily in Red Dragon but is now a possible accessory to murders in this show. Yet another change made was turning Freddie Lounds into a woman, and from what I remember from this season these are both great changes.

I also like the more adversarial relationship between Crawford and Will in this version of the story. While there’s some friction between the two of them in the book, they still pretty much agree with each other, but that’s definitely not the case here. Will is bristling much more visibly to Crawford’s demands while Crawford is more open about how he needs Will to be a working tool.

And then we get the courtship of Will Graham, as Hannibal begins his seduction by telling him that he’s going to rubber stamp his psych evaluation. And already you can see how Hannibal, in his own way, is also being seduced by Will. Or the idea of Will that he’s got in his head.

Now we get to the monster of the week — the mushroom killer. Okay I don’t really know what they called him but you guys know who I’m talking about. But before Will gets to see the bodies there’s a small scene where Katz corrects his shooting stance and maybe I’m just overanalyzing things but I think this is a scene from Red Dragon where Will is teaching Molly how to shoot and I like how they’ve switched places.

Again, like I’ve said in the post on episode 1, I really like how artistically they’ve done the bodies and how over-the-top it is? It helps a lot in lowering the gore factor for me, if that makes any sense. The images are always interesting, to say the least!

What’s even more interesting is the conversation Hannibal and Will have later in Hannibal’s office, about how maybe the mushroom killer is just looking to find a connection. And now 10 years later I can see the underlying layer there, of Hannibal longing to connect with another killer and how this whole show is him trying to convince Will that the two of them are the same. Just like in the book!

The whole Freddie Lounds fake-off was fun as well, what with Hannibal serving Crawford pork loin after reprimanding Freddie for her rudeness. If you were watching this 10 years ago and hadn’t read the book you’d think this really was the end of Freddie.

So when you get to see her again later on in the episode, having found a workaround after Hannibal caught her recording his conversation with Will Graham, you kinda have to admire her resourcefulness. She got that story either way! I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs!

And again, I know I’m repeating myself, but the over the top and elaborate crime scenes really do make the more “realistic” scenes of violence more impactful. Stammets just shooting the detective that Freddie got fired and the blood spattering on Freddie’s face? Chilling.

So the monster of the week is caught and that’s all well and good but the real climax of the episode is Hannibal and Will’s conversation after, where Hannibal is convincing Will that maybe he shouldn’t feel so bad about killing someone who deserved it. Which is of course a slippery slope because who determines who deserves it? Will? Hannibal? Hannibal certainly thinks he’s got good judgment when it comes to that. But it’s a scene that really lays down the dynamic between the two that I’m guessing lasts all the way until the end of the show.