Here it is: the moment that all Fannibals have been dreading. The penultimate episode of the series and it certainly brought the drama.
The mental health system must be really poor in Baltimore because there is no other way to explain why Will would go to Bedilia for therapy. Maybe he just needed to hear someone say it out loud, to the world, that Hannibal loves him. Hannibal loves Will so much that he patiently waited three years while Will built a family just so he could find a way to tear it down. Hannibal sending the Red Dragon after Molly and Walt is as cookoo-crazy as Alex boiling Ellen’s bunny in Fatal Attraction. Truly, Hannibal has reached an epic level of gleeful mania and it’s delightful.
As Dr. Chilton throws a tantrum over Hannibal refuting his book, Hannibal simply keeps a shit eating grin on his face and teaches all of us a lesson in throwing shade. The verbal barbs he kept spewing are the kind of wittily nasty things we all wish we could conjure up on the spot. The hilarity had just begun, though. When a very special package arrives for Hannibal, he simply cannot resist the urge to eat one of Dr. Chilton’s lips. The delight that Hannibal took in explaining to Crawford and Bloom that they can get all of the information they desire from the one remaining lip was a literal laugh out loud moment. Boredom and heartbreak appear to have brought out the gallows humor in Hannibal and I quite enjoy it.
Ah yes, Crawford, Graham, Chilton and Lounds all band together to create a vulgar profile of the Tooth Fairy in an effort to flush him out while using Will as bait and boy, oh boy, does it work. Unfortunately, Dr. Chilton becomes the one strapped to the wheelchair and not Will. Interestingly, this is how Freddy Lounds died in Red Dragon, however, the Lounds in the book is a man and the television Lounds is a woman who escaped this horrific fate. Dr. Bloom is also a male character in the book, but when Will asks Alana Bloom if she would like to be a part of the article in the Tattler, she declines. Bryan Fuller always finds a way to save a female over a male and this unbridled respect of female power will be sorely missed on television. The hashtag for this episode was #YouOweMeAwe and Fuller has never failed to worship at the altar of woman and I am in awe of that. Thank you Mr. Fuller, thank you.
The exchange between Dolarhyde and Chilton was a beautiful display of two talented actors playing two characters who are trying to outwit one another. Raul Esparza groveled just enough while retaining a barely there level of calm while Richard Armitage commanded the screen with little more than a perfectly executed speech impediment and a kimono. Am I the only one who found Armitage’s crawl to Chilton to be feral, dangerous and impossibly sexy? No thanks to that Dragon’s Kiss, though.
As Hannibal pointed out in the beginning of the episode, “All gods demand sacrifices.” and NBC has sacrificed our beloved show. This beautiful series comes to an end next week. How do you hope it will end?
Sidenotes:
I’d like a “The Tooth Fairy is a One Night Stand” tee shirt.
Obviously, the makeup was amazing, but I did kind of expect to see a sign saying, “I am in hell. Help me.” behind Chilton when he was a crispy tater tot.
The “demonstrably guilty” line was cringe worthy.
2020 Rewatch Notes:
It’s still hilarious to watch Hannibal slurp up one of Chilton’s lips.
Chilton is one of the most tortured characters. This poor man has been through hell and back three times.
Lisa Fremont
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