2.12 Tome-wan The penultimate episode of this season has certain responsibilities and Rymer, with a script by Chris Brancato, Scott Nimerfro, and showrunner/mastermind Bryan Fuller, manages to do everything that is necessary to set up a season finale that promises to explosively establish a dramatic new starting point for the recently announced third season. This week the Vergers’ (Michael Pitt and Katharine Isabel) storyline comes to a grisly conclusion, we discover what really happened between Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Bedelia (Gillian Anderson), Jack (Laurence Fishburne) gives an ultimatum, and Will (Hugh Dancy) plays his final cards. And it all leads up to this coming week’s violent brawl between Jack and Hannibal. This time around we get scenes culled directly from Hannibal (both novel and film) as Mason and Hannibal butt heads. From the way Hannibal kills one of his attackers, to the blood debt he is owed thereafter, to the dangling over the hungry pigs; these are all scenes that, if the series achieves Fuller’s goal of adapting all of the Harris novels, are going to have to be reimagined if we ever get to that point. But, given that having to reimagine Will’s discovery of Hannibal’s true nature has translated into one of the most spectacularly disturbing television seasons ever broadcast, I’m not really worried about what Fuller and company might have up their sleeves in the years to come. But that’s the future. What about this episode? But as Bedelia infers, whatever you think about Hannibal and the precariousness of his situations, that’s exactly what Hannibal wants you to think. Ultimately, Hannibal achieves his goals in a way that is satisfying and still avoids the possibility of capture. Because he doesn’t murder Mason, Will cannot provide testimony to that effect. And because Mason will not admit what happened, Hannibal remains free and virtually untouchable. Will’s nudging proves to be not quite up to snuff for the good doctor, who slips his head from the snare. If you were familiar with the Ridley Scott film adaptation of Hannibal, you already knew what Mason’s ultimate fate would be. The fun here, however, was in the journey. Michael Pitt’s extravagant Ledger/Joker-like performance suddenly and naturally morphs into the post-mutilation Gary Oldman intonations and damaged inflections of a man who has sliced off the majority of his own face. It’s a grisly and affecting scene, as a drugged-up Mason feeds his face to Will’s dogs before, at Hannibal’s suggestion, cutting off his own nose and having it as a snack. The normal beauty and grace of the Hannibal murder tableaux is missing here, replaced instead by a psychological and physical brutality that sets Mason apart from other victims in the series. He’s not just rude, he’s vile. Killing him would have been too easy. Leaving him paralyzed and disfigured, in his (woefully underused) sister’s tender care, is righteous punishment; it’s Hannibal embracing the power of god in a way that is tempered by Will’s own sense of righteous justice. He wasn’t lying when he said he was exploring Will’s perspective as much as Will was exploring his. This is a Hannibal who inflicts vengeance rather than just punishing the brutish. It’s a Hannibal who still feels that he and Will are best when together, two lonely souls finding a disturbed connection, but he clearly knows that Will has ulterior motives. Something that will trigger Jack coming to Hannibal’s home and initiating a brutal, bloody brawl. A brawl that will, no doubt, leave us all clamouring for more next season. Read Laura’s review of the previous episode, Ko No Mono, here.
