Freddie shows up again and is gone just as quickly on Hannibal’s “Naka-Choko”, Will and Hannibal bond even further, and Alana and Margot get in a bit of one-on-one time with the two men as well.
The first few minutes of this episode of Hannibal, “Naka-choko,” were just a rehash of what happened on the last episode, and while I understand they were trying to show Will’s point of view more, I didn’t love that the writers used the little time they have already on that scene.
What we learn from it is that Will saw Randall as the stag creature of his nightmares, and then Hannibal, before he killed him. But I think we probably could have been shown that through further nightmares or shorter flashbacks throughout the episode. But I’m nitpicking.
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Intimacy
After the murder is shown again, we see Hannibal washing Will’s bloodied hands, and the whole thing is very intimate, which is how Will described the killing itself.
I’m sure a lot of people were making Will/Hannibal jokes during this scene, but to be honest, it just made me uncomfortable. All I saw was someone in a position of power taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable state, and it wasn’t subtly done.
Most importantly, Will tells Hannibal that he’s never felt so alive as when he killed Randall, which is a serious step into going to the “dark side” on his part. I guess it’s been coming for awhile now.
Envy
Jack finds Randall’s body on display in the museum, and has Will, Hannibal and the team examine the scene. While Will and Hannibal talk about “the killer,” Jack clearly knows there’s a whole other conversation going on.
Will does his crime re-enactment thing, which is interesting since he was the one who committed the crime in the first place, and we see him converse with Randall’s head on the skeleton it’s been affixed to.
“Randall” asks Will questions about himself, and about whether he really sees himself. Will tells “Randall” that he was forced to kill the other man, but “Randall” reminds him that he was not forced to enjoy the killing.
When Will comes out of his head and suggests that Randall knew his killer, that the killer was someone like Randall, he also suggests that the act was done out of envy because Randall came into his own much easier than the killer. And here Jack has a “what is really happening here?” sort of look on his face– I really hope there’s something going on behind the scenes with he and Will, but I’m becoming more unsure of that every episode.
Truth
Freddie is back for this episode of Hannibal, and she speaks with Will about the ongoing success of her retelling of his story. She tells him that she doesn’t believe Chilton was the Ripper after all, and that she isn’t convinced that ending is the “right” one for this story.
Will denies that it was anyone other than Chilton, so Freddie pulls out the big guns and brings up Abigail. She tells Will that she will never let what happened to Abigail go, and Will agrees. So why is Will so willing to go along with Hannibal and his schemes? Or is he really?
Legacy
Hannibal and Margot have another session, and Hannibal tells his patient that if she doesn’t learn to hate her brother, she’ll be at his mercy her whole life. But she tells him that her father’s will was clear — if Mason dies, and there is no male heir in their family, then all his money goes to the Southern Baptist Convention, not to Margot. Ouch.
So, she’s not about to kill him, what with that clause built in and all! When Hannibal asks what legacy she is going to leave, Margot answers that she hasn’t got one, but Hannibal says she has to go ahead and make one. I sense a storyline building out of this.
Family
Then we get a scene of Mason and Margot at their pig farm, and did anyone else notice that Mason is played by Tommy Gnosis from Hedwig and the Angry Inch? No? Just me? Okay then, moving on.
We see that Mason has basically trained his pigs to crave human flesh for their meals, and the whole thing is truly screwed up and disturbing. He makes his sister watch as the pigs eat a bunch of meat shaped into a human wearing her uniform, and the whole thing is obviously meant to freak her out. He tells her that he wants her to be proud of him, as they are all the other one has, as the pigs squeal and chow down on their grisly meal. Lovely.
Instruments
Margot shows up at Will’s door after that little display, and offers to show him her scars. He resists at first, and brings up the fact that she’s gay since the whole thing is very suggestive, but she takes off her clothes and has him trace her scars anyway. Will asks where she got them, and she answers that it was her brother, but when she asks about his scars, he doesn’t answer.
Meanwhile, Hannibal and Alana have a loaded conversation comparing people to instruments, and then they’re having sex again. Then Will and Margot proceed to do the deed too! The scene switches back and forth between both couples, and it’s all very suggestive about comparing them all, until it’s not suggestive at all and becomes blatant.
Will starts seeing Alana instead of Margot, Alana starts seeing Will instead of Hannibal, and the whole thing basically ends with Alana imagining both men in her bed. So it was…sort of an emotional threesome? Foursome? Who even knows with NBC’s Hannibal.
Confrontation
Freddie confronts Alana about her relationship with Dr. Lecter, and says that Will was right about Hannibal all along — but she also feels that she was right about Will as well.
Alana gets mad and tries to walk away, but Freddie won’t let her go just yet. She brings up the fact that several of Hannibal’s patients are dead, and that ever since Will went back into therapy with him, yet another former patient has been killed as well. She finds that just a bit suspicious, you see.
Freddie thinks that maybe Will figured out that if you can’t beat Hannibal, you have to join him — and that’s what gives me just a glimmer of hope that there really is something else going on with Will’s closeness to Hannibal the past few episodes.
Visit
Hannibal goes to Mason and Margot’s farm to talk pigs, and it’s revealed that Hannibal had a sister. Had, not has. Interesting.
Mason tells Hannibal that he’s protecting his sister from herself, and Hannibal tells him that he can’t tell him what Margot has said in their sessions, and that he’s very lucky Hannibal can’t tell anyone else what’s been revealed then either. Mason laughs uncomfortably, and Hannibal suggests that maybe Mason should consider therapy as well.
Mason’s response to that is basically to offer Hannibal a pig in return for everything the doctor is doing for his sister, and Hannibal accepts. But he wants to pick his own victim — I mean, um pig! Yes, that’s what I meant.
Boundaries
Hannibal serves the pig to Alana and Will, and they all chat about how people who raise animals for slaughter can genuinely love them. They “kill what they love,” as Hannibal says, and I can’t be the only one who thinks he’s talking about something else again.
Alana brings up the fact that Freddie doesn’t think either of them is the Chesapeake Ripper, but that together they might be, and the guys pretty much just blow her off. Alana then brings up the fact that Freddie is not the only one without any boundaries, and that Will and Hannibal’s relationship doesn’t seem to have any either.
“Boundaries are always subject to negotiation,” she states, and woah. Are they talking threesomes? Am I imagining things? That earlier sex scene really got to me, guys. Maybe I’m just looking for hints now. But then Will says of he and Hannibal, “We always know where we are with each other,” and I’m sorry, but that whole thing was very suggestive.
Discovery
Freddie goes to Will’s house, but when she knocks, no one appears to be home. So she breaks into the barn nearby, as you do, and finds the device Randall made to commit his murders in the previous episode of NBC’s Hannibal.
Freddie then goes to a freezer in the room, and finds bags of meat and the bottom part of a human jaw! Ew!
Chase
Then Will shows up and creepily corners Freddie as she points a gun at him, telling her that he can’t let her go until she’s heard what he has to say. “Give me the gun,” he tells her, but instead she shoots at him! Go Freddie!
A chase ensues, one in which Freddie tries to pepper spray Will and run for her car, and as she’s running she calls Jack. When she gets to the car, she hasn’t said anything yet, but the call is being made when Will suddenly comes up and smashes open her window. Will then drags Freddie away, and the scene ends there.
Evidence
Later, Jack plays the recording on his phone for Will, Hannibal and Alana. It’s from three hours prior, and Freddie was last seen at a gas station six miles from Will’s place. Uh oh. You done screwed up, Will.
Will claims Freddie was coming over for an interview and never showed, stating that there’s plenty of deserted land around his property. If someone wanted to take her, he says, it’s not a bad place to do it. Will is especially cold in this exchange, and I’m still holding out hope it’s just for show.
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Meat
The final scene of “Naka-Choko” shows Will bringing Hannibal meat, and the two of them cooking together. Hannibal guesses that the meat is pork at first, but Will doesn’t really confirm or deny his guess.
The two of them sit down for a meal together, and Hannibal states that he knows it’s not pork they’re eating. He suggests that the animal tastes frightened, more acidic, when it died, because Hannibal would know that, wouldn’t he?
Will says that they’re eating long pig, which is another way of saying they’re eating human flesh. Then they chat a bit more about evil and destruction, and Hannibal brings up how many destructive events are called acts of God — and asks Will whether the meat before them is an act of God.
Development
At the very end of the episode, Will’s face morphs partially into Hannibal’s, and I have to say, not the show’s finest moment. I understand why they did it, but come on. More subtlety, please.
In general, I’m not pleased with the direction this episode went with Will and the way they’re developing him. I’m still hoping there’s some sort of elaborate scheme devised by Jack and Will going on, but I guess we’ll have to keep watching and wait and see.
Hannibal season 2 airs on Friday nights at 10pm on NBC.
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
