Zoe Butcher straps herself into a straitjacket, fastens her face-mask and prepares for the Hannibal season two finale ‘Mizumono’…
The game is up for Crawford as Hannibal invites him for dinner. Literally. Crawford’s intention of turning up with an army of snipers/tanks however is thwarted by the FBI revoking his badge and sending out arrest warrants for both him and Will. Meanwhile Alana’s freaking out and carrying a gun around. Oh dear, it’s all going to end in tears – but whose?
So it’s all going down in the Hannibal finale. Upping the ante on last year’s relatively corpse-free final episode, this season we get a glut of violence and mayhem as the Ripper finally lets rip (ahem). It’s all up in the air as to who exactly survives to appear in season three by the end but later in this recap I’ll stick my neck out and make my predictions. Gulp.
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| Slice the ginger? You think that’s fucking funny? |
So we begin with Hannibal’s beautiful penmanship as he writes Crawford’s death sentence…I mean dinner party invite. Crawford is about as thrilled as you would imagine to receive this missive but luckily he’s got a man on the inside to help him, or does he? The first part of this finale, featuring way too much pretentious fuckery for my liking, involves Will playing Crawford and Hannibal off against one another so much so that not only was I unsure as to which side Will was on, I was also deeply unsure as to whether I cared or not. BUT this this the only bad thing I have to say about the finale, which was a storming conclusion to a brilliant season on all other counts.
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| Hannibal suffered a rare moment of panic when he realised Will was now almost as pretentious as he was |
In between shooting imaginary moose, helping destroy patient records and having a pretentiousness pissing contest with his shrink, Will manages to make time to visit Freddie Lounds, to ask her not to mention Abigail in her book. This turns out to be a mistake of epic proportions due to Hannibal’s superior sense of smell, which alerts him to the fact that Will has been visiting someone he supposedly offed a couple of episodes ago. Uh oh. Hannibal is NOT a happy camper.
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| So what if you were in Sex And The City? I porked a psychopathic cannibal – beat that! |
Also having an unhappy time of it in this final episode are Alana and Jack. Alana, having finally worked out that Hannibal is in fact a cannibal, is giving Will a run for his money in the fucked up dream stakes. She’s also trying to prevent Will and Jack being arrested/shot/eaten. Poor Jack is given the heave-ho from the FBI by that woman from Sex And The City and promptly runs off to confront Hannibal on his lonesome. Will, tipped off by Alana that the FBI are after him and that Jack intends to go mano-a-mano with his psychiatrist, calls Hannibal to warn him then legs it to Lecter’s house to join in the fun/scoop up the innards/arrest the nutjob/who the fuck knows.
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| Take a good long look at my nice white shirt. It ain’t staying white for long… |
So finally we come around full circle to where this amazing season began…..Hannibal and Jack in the epic smackdown to end all smackdowns. What we weren’t privy to in the season opener was the fact that Alana is heading into Hannibal’s pad with a gun. Poor Alana walks in to find her ex covered in blood and attempting to use himself as a human battering ram to break through the door behind which Jack is bleeding to death. If there’s a creepier line in this season than Hannibal’s response of ‘the pantry’ when asked where Jack is, then I must have missed it. If there’s one place in Hannibal Lecter’s house you DON’T want to end up, it’s got to be the pantry.
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| What?! He said I was a crap Bond villain… |
Being a gentlemanly sort, Hannibal offers Alana the chance to leave, rather than be a hero. Being a dumbass, she tries to shoot him and discovers that he took the bullets out of her gun ages ago. Doh. I found the next scene, where Hannibal slowly pursues Alana up the stairs to be the scariest part of this whole season. His calm and calculated steps are infinitely scarier than anything I’ve seen in any recent horror movie. Alana clearly agrees with me as she locks herself in an upstairs room and reloads her gun as Hannibal unleashes his secret weapon…
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| Even she’s shocked she’s still alive |
Yup, who saw that coming? Turns out Hannibal only cut off Abigail’s ear at the end of the last season and has been keeping the rest of her as a surprise present for Will’s psycho coming out party. Alana is just as shocked as the rest of us, even more so when the reanimated Abigail pushes her out of the second storey window. This scene was perhaps one of the most beautifully shot sequences I have ever seen on TV or in film come to that. As Alana falls out of the window in slow motion the glass shattering combines with the rain falling as she lands on the floor below. Absolutely stunning, incredibly lit and very moving.
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| Er hello? I know Alana’s pain is prettier but I’m dying too you know… |
So the scene that greets Will as he arrives at Hannibal’s house is probably best described as utter carnage. Alana is lying on the pavement outside in the rain unable to move (Will covers her with his coat – what a gent) and Crawford’s blood is pooling outside the pantry. After recovering from the shock of this he then bumps into Abigail and finally Hannibal himself. Now I realise I’m probably in the minority here (as usual) but my heart broke a little for Hannibal here. He really believed for a while that Will was his friend and his conversation with Will (just before he guts him like a fish) contains probably the most real emotions we’ve had from the psychiatrist this whole season. Mads Mikkelsen is just brilliant here.
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| You can tell I’m upset, my hair is ruffled. |
As a final coup de grace (translation: fuck you all) Hannibal slits Abigail’s throat and leaves her to die along with the rest of the gang. The teacup shattered once more Hannibal walks out of the house refreshing himself with the rain as he makes his escape, but whose coat is that he’s pulling on? Oh right, it’s the one Will put over the paralysed Alana. Charming.
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| Rain rain go away, there’s people I need to be soufflé |
So as the finale draws to a close, Hannibal leaves his life in America behind (via Air France – well he is a gourmet after all) along with another surprise guest – Dr Du Maurier – drugged like Starling in Hannibal or just a traitorous cow, I’m sure we’ll find out next season…
The preponderance of Hannibal/Will double talk at the start of this episode is the only thing preventing this from being a perfect ten. Even so it was the most enjoyable end to any season of TV this year and made True Detective’s finale look like an episode of Dora The Explorer. There’s already talk about where Bryan Fuller is taking the next season but wherever he takes it, I’m sure it’s going to be bloody brilliant.
9 (and a half)/10.
Predictions
OK, so here we go, this is what I think could (and should) be the case when we return for another course of Hannibal:
Alana – Alive but in a wheelchair. She’s in Red Dragon (admittedly as a ‘he’) but is a small enough character in that to be a potential casualty but I think fans like her too much to do so.
Will – Alive, possibly still in hospital. He has to be alive, he’s the main character in Red Dragon so he has plot armour.
Jack – Alive and fighting for his career. He’s a big character in Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon so unlikely to be killed off, although it is possible.
Abigail – Dead as a doornail hopefully for real this time. In my opinion characters can have one mysterious death whereupon they return alive but not two. Two is just silly.
See you all next year….well most of you.
Follow Zoe on Twitter at @thezoverlord.
All images courtesy of NBC and NBC Hannibal on Tumblr.
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