Miriam Lass is questioned about her experience with the Ripper, and Will Graham is finally free.
Questions for Miriam
Miriam Lass, found in the previous episode of Hannibal, is looked over and checked for various health things, and clues, and such, in the beginning of this episode. She tells Jack she knew he’d never stop looking for her, but we know that that’s not the case.
Jack then gets right into questioning Miriam about who the Ripper is, but she says she doesn’t even remember finding him. He got into her head, she says, and does that sound familiar to somebody else’s story on this show? Most importantly, she doesn’t know what he looks like, only what he sounds like.
Jack asks Miriam why the Ripper didn’t kill her, and she claims he was saving her for last. That’s…ominous.
Not long after, Jack has Miriam watch Hannibal through a one-way viewing window while Hannibal and Alana talk, and Hannibal “realizes” very quickly that “the witness” must not know who the Ripper is by sight – obviously he already knows that, but they don’t know that he knows. You know?
When Hannibal looks at the mirror and Miriam stares at him, she claims he’s not the Ripper, but she flashes to the silhouette she has of the killer in her mind. He’s obviously screwed with her mind, just as he did to Will in the past.
Will is Free
One of the best parts of this episode is when Will is freed from his imprisonment! Yay! Chilton informs him that the federal prosecutor dropped all charges, since the basis for his sentencing was void.
Will warns Chilton that he’s probably next on Lecter’s hit list, and tells him to tell Jack everything, to convince the other man however he can. I’m sure there’s more specifics to the conversation, but I was honestly distracted by Will’s scruffy hair and glasses. Yum.
When Will walks out to another room in the institution, Jack is there, and he informs Will of Miriam’s rescue, but also that they still haven’t caught the Ripper. You win some, you lose some I guess.
He also apologizes to Will for giving up on him, just as he gave up on Miriam, but Will isn’t having it. He says all Jack had to do was listen to him, and he didn’t. I’d be pissed too.
Jack tells Will that Miriam said Hannibal isn’t the Ripper, and Will asks if that’s definitive enough for Jack. Jack says it isn’t, which is a step in the right direction for the guy, let’s admit.
Scene of the Crime
Jack brings Will to where Miriam was found, which I kind of feel like is a questionable decision on his part, but whatever. Will does his “this is my design” thing there, but only after Jack explains that they found Beverly Katz’s blood at the location. I miss you, Beverly!
The crime scene thing Will does here involves a lot of flowers, and a guy strung up whose body seems to be sort of growing several plants as well. He sees a tree growing from the guy, and Miriam at the bottom of the hole she was in, and declares that the entire thing is just theater on the Ripper’s part. The Ripper didn’t bring Miriam there to kill her, he says, but so that Jack or someone would instead find her.
The Ripper wants Jack to catch someone like how Will was caught, Will explains, and that, just like before, they’ll find evidence that will lead them away from the killer, not towards him, and he’ll escape capture yet again. This is all after he’s made a clever analogy about a fish being harder to catch a second time, which I guess makes sense if you think about his “happy place” and all.
What with the Ripper having been in Miriam’s head for so long, anything she says is suspect. So her word and Will’s are all that the F.B.I. has to go on.
Reunited
Then the best scene ever happens, because Will is finally reunited with his dogs! And Alana explains that the newbie amongst them is Applesauce, a dog she rescued herself. Ah yes, Will and doggies. This is all I’ve ever wanted.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Alana is still suspicious of Will for trying to kill Hannibal, and says that just because terrible things were done to him, that doesn’t excuse what he did. She asks Will if Hannibal is safe, and he retorts, “from me or for you?” Don’t even try to pull a fast one on Will Graham and his scraggly hair and cute face, lady!
Then Will warns Alana to stay away from Hannibal, but I think we all know that’s not about to happen any time soon.
Memory Hunt
Chilton offers his services to Jack in the Ripper case, but Jack knows he has an agenda. Chilton agrees – his agenda is staying alive. Because everyone who believed Will about Hannibal is dead except for him, and that doesn’t leave him in a very secure place.
Chilton suggests “digging” the memories out of Miriam the way he did for Will, but Jack isn’t totally sold. At least, not on the idea of Chilton doing the digging, I think.
So Will goes to see Miriam after she’s been given a robotic arm to replace the one the Ripper took, and he shares some of his experiences regarding the light manipulation, lost time, and the like. She opens up and says that she remembers the Ripper voice, and chamber music playing.
They both realize that, while they are physically free, they aren’t truly experiencing freedom, and that the Ripper isn’t done with either of them yet.
Confronting Hannibal
Will is all over the place this episode, because in the next scene we see him pointing a gun at Hannibal in Hannibal’s house. That escalated quickly! He reminds Hannibal that in a similar past confrontation, Hannibal asked him how it would feel if Will killed him. He asks Will again, and Will replies with only, “Righteous.”
He then taunts Will a bit, saying that if he isn’t the Ripper, then he’ll have killed an innocent man. But if he is and Will kills him, then he won’t be able to answer Will’s questions. More manipulation, I see.
Ultimately, Will doesn’t kill Hannibal in that kitchen. Which makes sense, since the show would be over pretty quickly without their title character.
Digging Up Memories
We get a quick flashback of Miriam at the door of Hannibal’s office, which then transitions into she and Jack visiting in present day. She wanders his office and looks at his drawings, before Jack brings up the message she left for him right before she disappeared.
They listen to it, and Miriam says she doesn’t remember it at all. So in yet another questionable move, Hannibal offers to help her remember, and Jack just..lets that happen. Okaaay.
When Hannibal does some hypnotic mumbo jumbo on her, Miriam starts repeating the message, and we see a couple quick image flashbacks to her saying the words originally. She says the last thing she remembers is The Wound Man, after she glances at Jack and he’s stabbed with a bunch of different instruments. Yikes!
Discovery
After some close examination of evidence by Thing One and Thing Two, the team believes that the Ripper is attempting to lead them in the wrong direction yet again, which is exactly what Will said he would do.
Then we skip to Chilton walking around in his house, alone, listening to a steady beeping sound. That sound turns out to be Gideon on life support in the lower level of the house, pieces of his body strewn about, and he flatlines just before Chilton walks in.
Chilton runs out of the room and trips over his bag, but then looks up to see Hannibal there in his weird plastic suit. He chloroforms Chilton, telling him that when he wakes up, he will have no choice but to run, then yells to the FBI agents at the door in an imitation of Chilton’s voice! He’s got this all worked out.
Chasing Chilton
Chilton wakes up covered in blood, holding a bloodied knife, with a gun in his lap. There’s also a trail of blood leading to his kitchen, with the bodies of two agents in that room – one has his guts spilling out, and the other is stabbed with various utensils, similar to the Wound Man Miriam remembers seeing. It doesn’t look good for the doctor, and he runs to Will Graham of all people for help.
Chilton proceeds to panic in front of Will, packing things and babbling about being Hannibal’s patsy and leaving the country. Will warns him that he’ll look guilty if he runs, but Chilton tosses back that Will didn’t leave and he looked plenty guilty. Touche.
He babbles some more about the corpses on his property and Able Gideon and finally spits out, “you just threw up an ear!,” and for some reason that was freaking hilarious to me. Must have been something about Raul Esparza’s delivery.
Will says he will prove Hannibal is the Ripper, but Chilton can’t wait for that. He believes Will will succeed in that, eventually, but until then he needs to disappear. Right then Will’s dogs start barking and Will admits that he called Jack, and Chilton promptly freaks out and points a gun at him. He doesn’t shoot, thankfully, and lets Will go out to talk to Jack.
Will tries to explain that there’s more going on, that they’re still being played, but Jack believes that Will is the one being tricked. He barges inside to look for Chilton, but the other man is already running through the woods nearby.
Jack runs after Chilton, and their chase ends in Chilton surrendering and basically pleading with Jack to kill him, which should be a huge red flag.
A Shocking Twist
In an earlier scene, Jack and the team found old medical books in Chilton’s house that depicted images of the Wound Man, which is what makes Jack realize Chilton has been a part of the Ripper case since before Will. So they have further proof that he’s the Ripper. Or so they think.
Chilton is arrested, and eventually questioned by Alana. She’s pissed, and won’t listen to him about not being the Ripper, and he tries to warn her, similar to Will’s warning earlier on.
Miriam is watching through the one-way window again, and she believes Chilton is the voice of the Ripper. Possibly because Hannibal can imitate him? She cries and freaks out, grabs Jack’s gun, and shoots Chilton through the glass! I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen in the book or movie!
The Next Move
In the final scene, a cleaned up WIll goes to Hannibal and says he needs to sort through his feelings for the doctor. He understands that what Miriam did was partially because she needed to take her life back, and he’ll do the same, but in a healthier way – through therapy.
He’s gotta be playing Hannibal, right? Why would he go to the guy for therapy when he thinks what he does about what the guy has done to him? Guess we’ll have to keep watching to find out just what game the two are playing now!
Hannibal airs every Friday night at 10pm on NBC.
(image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
