Ron Does Stuff

How long has it been since I watched the previous episode? Literally last year. My goodness. Now that I’m back, let’s dive right in!

We start this episode with some pretty gorgeous handwriting from Hannibal. He’s writing an invitation! An invitation for who, though? For Jack Crawford, after Will convinced him to give Crawford what he wants — the Chesapeake Ripper.

Of course, Jack Crawford isn’t going into this without preparation. He’s going to this dinner with Hannibal with a wire on and with snipers ready to fire if needed. Will warns him that Hannibal will try to kill him in the kitchen “for convenience”, which of course reminds us of the scene from the first episode of this season.

But! Will is also prepping Hannibal for the coming fight with Crawford. I know this is a plan concocted by Jack and Will, but I have to admit that there are moments when I think that maybe Will is playing both Hannibal and Crawford. And the production isn’t helping out with this either, especially in that split-screen scene they showed before the opening credits.

There’s a little scene where Jack sees Garrett Jacob Hobbs again, before he shoots a metaphorical(?) deer, and then we see Bella Crawford on her deathbed, talking to Hannibal about forgiveness. It’s also a testament to how long since I’ve watched this show since I had to search to find the episode where Hannibal robbed Bella of the choice to end her own life. Bella asks Hannibal if he’d save Jack for her when she dies, and well, let’s see how that turns out.

Elsewhere, Will and Freddie are looking to the future. Will is asking her to spare Abigail from her writing once all this is over, and Freddie correctly discerns that Will is thinking he might not survive this collision with Hannibal. Well, there’s a third season, so we do know that Will survives Hannibal.

We then see Will and Hannibal in Hannibal’s office, with Hannibal sharing his notes on Will from the first season, when he was lying to him about his encephalitis. I thought it was because there was no secrets between Hannibal and Will now, but it’s just preparations before the murder husbands make their escape. They’re burning Hannibal’s notes to ~save~ Hannibal’s patients from the scrutiny once the FBI starts scrutinizing everything Hannibal owns. After all, Hannibal has his mind palace, which is apparently “enormous, even by medieval standards.” We find out more about Hannibal’s mind palace in the Hannibal book, which makes me wonder if they would have eventually gotten to this book had they gotten more than three seasons.

While they’re getting Hannibal’s things in order, Hannibal smells Will again. He doesn’t smell encephalitis this time around, but Freddie Lounds. Oh my gawddddd. So this is how things go to shit.

However, we’ll have to deal with that later, because it’s Alana time now, and Alana’s realizing that Will saw what nobody else saw when it came to Hannibal. But now, it’s Alana who’s urging Will to be cautious, since he’s not sure if Hannibal isn’t still pulling the strings somehow, or outsmarting him. Will’s smart enough to admit that he can’t tell either.

But now we’re at the moment of truth, or the dinner of truth. Hannibal is, once again, hiding behind a wall of beautiful words rather than saying things outright. Hannibal’s trying to convince Will to elope escape now and leave Alana and Jack Crawford behind, and as the conversation goes on I can’t help but think the two of them sound like to closeted gay guys planning to come out to Will’s homophobic father. I’m sorry, it’s early morning as I’m writing this and I haven’t had enough sleep.

Back at the FBI, Miranda Hobbs is not happy at what Will and Jack are planning, as they’re essentially inducing Hannibal to commit murder. Miranda thinks Crawford’s acting out because Bella’s dying, and she’s putting him on forced compassionate leave after an inquiry is conducted. But it’s more than just Will and Jack on the entrap Hannibal train now, as Alana is now advocating for the two and asking Miranda to reconsider her decision. She doesn’t succeed, but she does contact Will and give him a heads up about what’s going down, which allows Will to give Hannibal a heads up. Everybody’s just giving head! I mean, a heads up!

After that, we get the fight scene from the first episode of the season, before we’re given what happens next — Alana walking in with a gun in hand to stop Hannibal from finishing off Crawford. Hannibal sorta admits to who he is to Alana, and would have also killed Alana if it weren’t for Abigail Hobbs. She’s still alive! And she just pushed Alana out of a second floor window! My mouth? Agape!

Will arrives at the scene, and after calling for help for Alana, goes into Hannibal’s home and runs into Abigail as well. It turns out that Will thought Hannibal was going to leave after he called him? And then Hannibal says they couldn’t leave without him and then Will gives him this puppy dog face? And then Hannibal strokes his face and then stabs him? What in the homoerotic?

As if that wasn’t homoerotic enough, Hannibal tells Will that he gave him the gift of knowing the ~real him~, and Will didn’t want it. Or did he? Hannibal asks Will if he thinks he can change him, the way he’s done to will, and Will says he already has. And all of this is happening as both Will and Abigail are bleeding to death, because Hannibal slit Abigail’s throat. My goodness.

And then, after the credits roll, we get a little stinger. Hannibal on a plane headed to Europe…with Bedelia.

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