Ron Does Stuff

The past few days have been me recuperating from working on Christmas and Christmas Eve so I’ve had to move this around while I blogged about more recent shows. Bt we’re back on this now!

After the previous episode‘s acting showcase, we now have Mads Mikkelsen flexing his acting chops in this episode, since he didn’t have much to do in the previous one.

The episode begins with Will explaining to the class he’s teaching at the FBI that the Chesapeake Ripper kills in sounders of three, all within the space of a week or so. Up until recently, the Ripper has been quiet until the reveal of Miriam Lass’ severed arm, which only happened because the Ripper wanted it to happen. Is this going to be the start of a new cycle? Of course it is!

Hannibal is moved by an opera performance and immediately after is surrounded by the glitterati of Baltimore, I’m guessing, who are asking him to cook a proper dinner for them again, not knowing how he acquires his ingredients. Hannibal says he can’t prepare an adequate feast until inspiration strikes and wouldn’t you know it his patient Franklyn is being obsequious at the opera and he’s a big boy, good enough to feed a few people!

After the title credits, we get Will and Jack headed to another crime scene, with the victims bearing abdominal mutilations and missing organs. Jack thinks its the Ripper and Will thinks otherwise, but it’s the body that tells the truth. Whoever slit open the body they find was trying to save the man’s life rather than end it, so this definitely isn’t the Ripper.

The Ripper is seeing his patient Franklyn, and the word needy to describe Franklyn would be an understatement. Hannibal looks ready to kill him but instead he goes to his own psychiatrist instead, Bedelia Du Maurier, played by Gillian Anderson. I tried to find Bedelia Du Maurier edits that weren’t spoiler-y but I couldn’t find any so now I know she shows up in future seasons. Oh well.

Bedelia isn’t one to be fucked with, of course. She’s aware that Hannibal is something else and that she’s talking to a version of himself that he presents to the public, a very well-tailored “person suit” that has gotta be a reference to The Silence of the Lambs because otherwise, what’s the point? Hannibal is also very much the Franklyn to Bedelia’s Hannibal, if a little more cultured and refined. And Bedelia actually likes Hannibal, or at least likes what she knows of him.

After that meet-up, it’s now Hannibal’s turn to see visitors as Will pays him a visit. They talk about the latest killing and Hannibal diverts Will’s attention from him by suggesting that maybe what the Cheapeake Ripper isn’t one killer but a group of killers, harvesting organs to sell. All the victims were missing valuable organs, after all.

Then we get a scene of Hannibal’s first chosen victim for this new spree, along with flashbacks on why he chose this particular person. I like to think that Hannibal started this new spree because there’s an actual organ harvester roaming around and he suggested the organ harvester theory to Will the confuse the FBI enough while he prepares his latest feast. Or to test if Will can see him as who he really is. See beyond the person suit. And Will does, insisting that the organ harvester and the Chesapeake Ripper are two different killers.

When Hannibal visits Will at the FBI after he’s late for their nightly appointment, he gets to see his own work as the Chesapeake Ripper being examined by Will. Will correctly understands that these aren’t the Ripper’s enemies but are people he’s punished for their undignified behavior and I betcha Hannibal got a little tingle in his belly at the prospect of being seen.

Meanwhile, my beloved Beverly Katz has figured out that whoever the organ harvester is, he’s using a private ambulance as an unobtrusive way to conduct his organ harvesting. She tells Jack, Jack looks for Will, and since Hannibal’s already with Will, why not bring him along to catch the “Chesapeake Ripper”? It’s all very educational, says Hannibal as they conduct their search, and you wonder how he’s going to apply this new knowledge moving forward. And when they catch the organ harvester and Will sees that he isn’t the Ripper and tells it to Hannibal? Hannibal’s probably gotten a little crush.

We end the episode with the fantastic spread of food Hannibal’s made from this victims and served to unsuspecting people and now I want some steak or something.