Ron Does Stuff

We’re getting closer and closer to the end of Season 1 and closer and closer to uncharted territory for me! Let’s go!

After the successful capture of the organ harvester and the successful dinner party in the previous episode, we open to a relatively calm scene in this episode, with Will fixing a boat’s motor, a reference to what he was doing in Red Dragon. His quiet afternoon — I think it’s the afternoon — is broken by the sound of some animal shrieking. I think I remember what this leads to but I’m not entirely sure.

We then head to a string shop where Tobias, Franklyn’s “friend” from the previous episode, is teaching a kid how to play the cello. A cello whose strings he made from the intestines of his victim, because Tobias is also a serial killer.

Back at Will’s home, he’s trying to flirt with Alana but Alana not only rebuffs him but tells him that she doesn’t think she’s just the dating type. Alana’s over at Will’s place to look for the shrieking animal from later but they don’t even find any tracks, and I’m pretty sure this is where they start the storyline with Will’s illness. Or start revealing that illness.

The show is also fattening Franklyn up for the slaughter, I think, making him even more obnoxious than before and even trying to rope in Hannibal with his ~psychoanalysis~ of Tobias. That Franklyn’s analysis of Tobias is correct is just an unfortunate coincidence, I guess.

I’ve previously commented about how gruesome and gorgeous they make the victims look in this show and this is another one of those that I like. I don’t know what about it I do like since I’m not an art major and can’t articulate myself in a better way about it but I just like the way the body looks and how it was constructed. And then we get to see Garrett Jacob Hobbs make a return to Will’s inner thoughts, clapping at him figuring out the movie behind this latest gruesome death. Is this Hobbs celebrating that he and Will are one and the same? Maybe.

Meanwhile, Hannibal is back at Bedelia’s, where he shares that he’s thinking of referring Franklyn to another psychiatrist. It’s here we find out that Bedelia has referred Hannibal to another psychiatrist before but Hannibal refused, explaining that he’s more tenacious and that he wanted to support Bedelia after she was attacked by one of her patients.

I don’t know if it’s a reference to Hannibal killing a bad musician in the books before, but the cello player that is the victim in this episode got got because he didn’t play well, as explained by Will’s darkly funny “He had to open you up to get a decent sound out of you.” Will also figures out that this isn’t the way Tobias kills but that he’s doing it this way to audition for Hannibal, so to speak. Of course, Will doesn’t say Tobias because he doesn’t know it’s him just yet and he doesn’t know the fellow killer Tobias is auditioning for is Hannibal because he doesn’t know know Hannibal either.

And just in case the publicly displayed victim wasn’t enough, Tobias also has Franklyn go and tell Hannibal that he’s looking for him, albeit in a roundabout way. So Hannibal has no choice but to visit Tobias and see what’s up. The two of them have a coded conversation using musical references and they reach an agreement about something that I’m too dumb to figure out or remember.

Back in his home, Will starts hearing the animal sounds again, this time inside his home and not the surrounding area. It’s in the walls of this home and he ends up knocking a hole in his wall. For some reason that truly exposes how badly I’ve messed up my cultural consumption the only thing I could think off were those game ads that show this mother and child in a snowy room with a busted wall and a player who can’t figure out how to fix things.

Alana’s also there in Will’s home — she drove by just to check up on him — and the two of them end up kissing despite Alana’s misgivings. She does manage to keep her emotions in check, which is unfortunate for Will. But then again the book has shown us that relationships really aren’t going to be the most stable part of Will’s life.

Another potential relationship happening is between Hannibal and Tobias. Tobias has been invited to eat at Hannibal’s home and he thinks it’s because Hannibal wants to be BFFs but it’s actually because Hannibal wants to kill him. Tobias is making too much noise and Hannibal might get found out, Fortunately for Tobias, Will makes an unplanned visit to Hannibal’s home to tell him about kissing Alana Bloom. Will also makes the mistake of telling Hannibal that he may not be all that unstable and I wonder if this is what prompts Hannibal to send Will over to Tobias’ store to investigate him?

What is clear is that Hannibal wants to be friends with Will. He tells Bedelia this and just like in the book, it’s because Hannibal believes that Will can see him for who he is the same way that Bedelia can. Did he think sending Will to Tobias was a gift, since that’s what Will does?

I don’t think Will is going to be appreciating the “gift” that is Tobias anytime soon because Tobias ends up killing the two policemen Will had with him after he steps outside from a bit to check out what he thought was a car crash. He almost gets killed by Tobias as well if it wasn’t for a lucky shot.

From his shop Tobias heads on over to Hannibal’s office, where Franklyn finally kicks the bucket after Hannibal tires of his fake psychobabble. Tobias and Hannibal fight and I know acting is an internal exercise but I’m always amazed when actors act out getting punched in the throat and other things like that. How do they do the research? Anyways, Hannibal kills Tobias and Will apologizes to Hannibal for bringing him into “his world”, not knowing that he’s the one being toyed with.