Hannibal 3x13 Thoughts
Sep. 20th, 2015 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaThe Wrath of the Lamb
Perfect.
It was the perfect ending and I'm amazed with how satisfying I found it. It works both as a season and a series finale and if there is never another ending this, and specifically the final ten minutes, were almost an ideal place to stop. I still want more [I really, really want more] but as an end to this story it was satisfying.
Hannibal/Will - The End
• Hannibal and Will killing Dolarhyde together, as a team, as a pair, was amazing. I loved how it only came to be in the heat of fighting for their lives. At first it's Hannibal saving Will and then Will saving Hannibal and then suddenly they're working together and winning. Then we get that pause as they look at each other and everything just clicks, and now they're moving as one. Hannibal jumps on Dolarhyde, Will rushes forward to disembowel him as Hannibal takes a chunk from his throat -- perfectly in tune to each other. This is them as Murder Husbands.
• "You see, this is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us." Perfect moment. I adore so much that it's Will that reaches out first and of course Hannibal is going to take his hand and help him up. He's been waiting for this for so long. And he doesn't let go, now that he finally has Will in his arms and by his side, he doesn't let go of Will at all. His expression as he held Will, omg! The closeness between them, the way they are leaning on each other, the way they look at each other, Hannibal's expression as Will leans his head on his shoulder and the way he leans his head against Will - it's beautiful.
Then Will wraps his arm around Hannibal's neck and topples them over the edge of the cliff. Because Hannibal is in love with him and Will's honestly in love with Hannibal too, and they just murdered a man together and it was so perfectly beautiful. He can't live without him but he can't live with him and this is the only end there could be. Of course, that's what empathetic, compassionate, trying so hard to be good and moral Will would do. And re-watching you can see so clearly all the steps leading him to this point.
Hannibal gets everything he ever wanted and then Will wins. If and until the show comes back their fates are left as a permanent Schroeder's Cat, both dead and alive, and I really, really love that as an end to their story? *hands* It just feels so appropriate and exactly as the show should end.
• I loved the song playing over the final scene. It was very darkly romantic and perfectly fitting. In those final seconds as the camera follows Hannibal and Will and looks down into the crashing waves - "I will survive, live and thrive. Win this deadly game." and as we join Bedelia the refrain repeats. It was gorgeous and perfect. [I keep using the word perfect but I loved everything.]
• I find the idea of Will post-fall fascinating. How would he react? I mean he killed someone with Hannibal and enjoyed it, he'd chosen even before that to save Hannibal, he had accepted not only Hannibal's feelings for him but his own for Hannibal and then he'd chosen to end both their lives... only for them both to survive? I can see Will, maybe a little resigned, going 'fuck it. I did all I could, I fought against Hannibal, I took him down once, I sacrificed both of us and none of it worked. So fine let's try another way.'
Chiyoh told him that there were 'means of influence other than violence' and in a world post-fall perhaps Will decides to try something different. He knows now that Hannibal is in love with him and he's accepted that he returns it. I could see a post-fall Will using their love for each other to try and steer Hannibal. To act as a mollifying force on Hannibal even as he gets dragged even deeper.
I love the idea of Murder Husbands but I have always had issues with it in reality because I can't see Will killing like Hannibal. I agree with Bedelia that he has too much compassion and empathy to be Hannibal. However a part of him does enjoy the killing, he has that darkness in him, and so I could see Will as a 'righteous' killer. I think if Hannibal only went after other serial killers and terrible people Will could be convinced to join him. Hannibal just needs to learn how to compromise. ('Rude' would not be on the menu.) I could even buy Will acceding to the cannibalism part because that is something he's done before.
If there was a season four it would be fascinating to watch Will and Hannibal try to negotiate through their new relationship dynamic. Where does each compromise? How much does Hannibal push at Will's boundaries - torn between wanting more and needing to not push too far in order to keep him. How far is Will willing to go and how does he push back when Hannibal does go too far? How does the push-pull between them change? Most importantly of all - how many dogs does Hannibal allow Will to have?
I would love to see how they deal when one of them inevitably pushes too far. (... okay, it would be Hannibal). The first thing that comes to mind is Alana. Hannibal made a promise to Alana but there is no way that Will would accept Hannibal going after her and her family. So how would that tension play out? I feel like this could actually be a breaking point for them but would Hannibal understand or accept that? [Now I'm imagining the season four finale being Hannibal going after them and Will going after Hannibal to stop him. Where would that confrontation go after all their previous ones? Will injuring Hannibal and him returning to jail in time for season 5 to be about Silence of the Lambs?]
Anyway there are actually a lot of these hurdles for them to meet - when is someone an appropriate target or not, how much torture will Will allow, is secretly feeding other people human-meat a faux pas? (Yes, the answer is always yes, Hannibal.)
There's also the emotional hurdles. Hannibal has never been so open and vulnerable. Will was completely right that he changed him too, and Hannibal changed even more over the course of the third season. How do those changes feel to him? There's Will trying to find a way to live with (and love) a cannibalistic serial killer both in a physical sense and emotionally. Does he continue to wrestle with the idea that murder/suicide is still on option?
That takes us to the short epilogue and Bedelia's dinner. What is Will's role in this? I feel like he'd at least try and convince Hannibal that one dinner was enough and it would be better to let her live but at the same time Will has stated that he thinks Bedelia deserves whatever happened to her. There is a lot of animosity between the two of them. Enough that he would observe her murder? IDK. I really can't see him participating. Of course another question could be how much of a time jump is it? Maybe that scene is playing out in the hypothetical season four finale?
• So clearly they survived the fall - there was a planned season four after all and it'd be hard to do without the main characters, the ending song says "I will survive", there were two empty seats at Bedelia's table, freaking Chilton survived everything that happened to him, Hannibal is a murder wizard/the devil, of course they survived duh - but the question is how. And it seems obvious to me because the show has laid the foreshadowing for it over the beginning half of this season -- Chiyoh!
One, she told Hannibal that she would watch over him and his escape was big news. She would have heard about it and she would have immediately gone back on the hunt. Two, Deus Ex Chiyoh is actually what she does. She saved Hannibal with Will, she saved Jack from the corrupt police and she saved Hannibal/Will from the Verger goons. She always shows up at the last minute to save the day. Granted, I don't think her fallback of shooting people (very effectively!) is going to work here but she's a smart lady so I'm sure she'll figure something out.
The only real question is how the hell she found them. My best guess: Hannibal and Chiyoh have been in contact these past three years - he does get and send mail - and thus he had a way to contact her which he then did as he was getting ready at the house.
Other Hannibal/Will
• Will taking a sip of his wine as Hannibal lies gasping and bleeding on the floor was lovely.
• The scene immediately following Dolarhyde's arrival rather felt like Will throwing Hannibal at a serial killer to see what would happen which felt like an echo of how Hannibal used to throw Will at killers. Will, calm and collected, curiously watching as Hannibal tries to talk himself through the maze of Dolarhyde's mind. I loved it.
• I find the fact that Will reached for his gun very interesting. I'm pretty sure that his plan going into this was for Dolarhyde to kill Hannibal and then for Will to kill Dolarhyde. Yet he seemingly deviates from that plan when Dolarhyde brings out the knife and Hannibal looks at him. Did he discover that he couldn't sit and watch Hannibal murdered? That's what it seemed like.
• "My compassion for you is inconvenient, Will." ♥
• I definitely think there could have easily been a kiss during their embrace at the end. There were two moments where I was expecting it - after Hannibal says "for both of us" Will stares at him and it honestly looked as if he was thinking of leaning forward and kissing him, and then after Will says "it's beautiful' Hannibal is definitely thinking about kissing him. It felt a little unfinished that there was no kiss. But only just a little. Even a little kiss to the side of Will's head before he rested his own there would have been wonderful.
• "You can go home again if there's any point. Is there any point?" - Hannibal. I love how he says that. There is so much pining in that last question. He says it so softly, like he can't help himself, he doesn't want to show his vulnerabilty but he has to ask. It's full of hope and need and "pick me, pick me!" He wants Will to give him some sign that there's some hope for them.
• I loved Will putting his hand on the glass of Hannibal's cell. I was really expecting Hannibal to put his hand up there as well. He totally did that after Will left.
• "You’d only do that, if I rejected you." Wait, is Will implying that his rejection of Hannibal post-Muskrat Farms was partially a ploy meant to force Hannibal to turn himself in? I don't know if I buy that.
• I loved Hannibal being unable to stop himself from asking Will if it was "good to see him" after Will said goodbye and his sad face when Will said no.
• I loved Hannibal's nonchalance after the prison vehicle escape. He's been locked away for three years and you can practically see the sense of freedom he feels. I also loved his "You know, Will, you worry too much." (lol) and him casually pushing the body out of the car while asking "Going my way?" (hee).
• I loved the layers to their second conversation. There was a lot more being communicated between the two of them than the nurses were aware of. I loved that Will was so blatant in the fact that he was manipulating the situation and Hannibal. The way he looked down and said "I need you, Hannibal." and then looked up with that little eyebrow wiggle all and cocky/challenging expression. The way Hannibal smiled in return, enjoying it so much.
• I think the Will/Reba scene is Will coming to gripes with the fact that Hannibal is in love with him and he's in love with Hannibal. He tells Reba re: Dolarhyde: "You drew a man with a freak on his back. There is nothing wrong with you." And so there is nothing wrong with Will either. Oh, Will. He was seeing himself and Hannibal all over that conversation, see also: "He couldn't kill you and he couldn't watch you die."
Other
• Hannibal was clearly sold on the plan as soon as he learned it was Will's plan but I love that he held out for more just because. I love best of all that one of his requirements is Will coming in person and saying 'please', heh.
• Our last Will/Bedelia scene was fun as always. Was Will there to mess with Bedelia or to warn her? Seemed like both and it was great. I loved her expression as the scene opens and her 'wtf' reaction to what Will was planning to do. I loved him throwing her own words back in her face. Basically I love their sniping forever.
"I'd pack my bags if I were you Bedelia. Meat's back on the menu." - Will
"You righteous, reckless, twitchy little man." - Bedelia.
LOL. Both amuse me so much.
+ "Who holds the Devil, let him hold him well." and "Can't live with him, can't live without him." God, this show and it's love of foreshadowing, I love it.
• Bedelia looked stunning in the little epilogue scene.
• I loved the shot of Alana and her family leaving. She's a Verger now so of course she can just up and leave. I'm so happy that she not only got out of this alive but also managed to keep her happy family. She got a happy ending, yay.
• I'm also happy that Reba escaped alive and physically unharmed. She's a little emotionally and mentally scarred - and that opening scene was genuinely terrifying, poor Reba - but in her scene with Will she shows that she's also tough and with enough self-knowledge that this won't damage her permanently. I loved too that during the encounter she did try to fight back in various ways - when she reached for him she took the chance to reach for his eyes and she chose to open the front door.
• I honestly don't feel much sympathy here for Jack. That was a terrible plan. Again. Just - completely awful, wtf Jack? Also he's a flipping FBI agent why is he getting involved in secret plots to murder two people?! (Even if they are serial killers.) Possibly I'm still holding a grudge over his willingness to sacrifice Will during the second half of the season. For whatever reason when it all blows up in his face I'm left mostly going "well what did you expect?"
• I wish we'd gotten one last scene between Molly and Will.
• Was Dolarhyde's in transport attack part of his and Will's plan? Because if it was that is by far the darkest thing Will has ever done and kind of unforgivable. That was somewhere between 7 and 11 innocent people that Dolarhyde just murdered and if it was part of Will's 'free Hannibal for real plan' just as much blame rests on him as well. No, it can't be. There is no way Will would sacrifice that a bunch of cops for his plan. That must have been a Dolarhyde improvisation.
Perfect.
It was the perfect ending and I'm amazed with how satisfying I found it. It works both as a season and a series finale and if there is never another ending this, and specifically the final ten minutes, were almost an ideal place to stop. I still want more [I really, really want more] but as an end to this story it was satisfying.
Hannibal/Will - The End
• Hannibal and Will killing Dolarhyde together, as a team, as a pair, was amazing. I loved how it only came to be in the heat of fighting for their lives. At first it's Hannibal saving Will and then Will saving Hannibal and then suddenly they're working together and winning. Then we get that pause as they look at each other and everything just clicks, and now they're moving as one. Hannibal jumps on Dolarhyde, Will rushes forward to disembowel him as Hannibal takes a chunk from his throat -- perfectly in tune to each other. This is them as Murder Husbands.
• "You see, this is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us." Perfect moment. I adore so much that it's Will that reaches out first and of course Hannibal is going to take his hand and help him up. He's been waiting for this for so long. And he doesn't let go, now that he finally has Will in his arms and by his side, he doesn't let go of Will at all. His expression as he held Will, omg! The closeness between them, the way they are leaning on each other, the way they look at each other, Hannibal's expression as Will leans his head on his shoulder and the way he leans his head against Will - it's beautiful.
Then Will wraps his arm around Hannibal's neck and topples them over the edge of the cliff. Because Hannibal is in love with him and Will's honestly in love with Hannibal too, and they just murdered a man together and it was so perfectly beautiful. He can't live without him but he can't live with him and this is the only end there could be. Of course, that's what empathetic, compassionate, trying so hard to be good and moral Will would do. And re-watching you can see so clearly all the steps leading him to this point.
Hannibal gets everything he ever wanted and then Will wins. If and until the show comes back their fates are left as a permanent Schroeder's Cat, both dead and alive, and I really, really love that as an end to their story? *hands* It just feels so appropriate and exactly as the show should end.
• I loved the song playing over the final scene. It was very darkly romantic and perfectly fitting. In those final seconds as the camera follows Hannibal and Will and looks down into the crashing waves - "I will survive, live and thrive. Win this deadly game." and as we join Bedelia the refrain repeats. It was gorgeous and perfect. [I keep using the word perfect but I loved everything.]
• I find the idea of Will post-fall fascinating. How would he react? I mean he killed someone with Hannibal and enjoyed it, he'd chosen even before that to save Hannibal, he had accepted not only Hannibal's feelings for him but his own for Hannibal and then he'd chosen to end both their lives... only for them both to survive? I can see Will, maybe a little resigned, going 'fuck it. I did all I could, I fought against Hannibal, I took him down once, I sacrificed both of us and none of it worked. So fine let's try another way.'
Chiyoh told him that there were 'means of influence other than violence' and in a world post-fall perhaps Will decides to try something different. He knows now that Hannibal is in love with him and he's accepted that he returns it. I could see a post-fall Will using their love for each other to try and steer Hannibal. To act as a mollifying force on Hannibal even as he gets dragged even deeper.
I love the idea of Murder Husbands but I have always had issues with it in reality because I can't see Will killing like Hannibal. I agree with Bedelia that he has too much compassion and empathy to be Hannibal. However a part of him does enjoy the killing, he has that darkness in him, and so I could see Will as a 'righteous' killer. I think if Hannibal only went after other serial killers and terrible people Will could be convinced to join him. Hannibal just needs to learn how to compromise. ('Rude' would not be on the menu.) I could even buy Will acceding to the cannibalism part because that is something he's done before.
If there was a season four it would be fascinating to watch Will and Hannibal try to negotiate through their new relationship dynamic. Where does each compromise? How much does Hannibal push at Will's boundaries - torn between wanting more and needing to not push too far in order to keep him. How far is Will willing to go and how does he push back when Hannibal does go too far? How does the push-pull between them change? Most importantly of all - how many dogs does Hannibal allow Will to have?
I would love to see how they deal when one of them inevitably pushes too far. (... okay, it would be Hannibal). The first thing that comes to mind is Alana. Hannibal made a promise to Alana but there is no way that Will would accept Hannibal going after her and her family. So how would that tension play out? I feel like this could actually be a breaking point for them but would Hannibal understand or accept that? [Now I'm imagining the season four finale being Hannibal going after them and Will going after Hannibal to stop him. Where would that confrontation go after all their previous ones? Will injuring Hannibal and him returning to jail in time for season 5 to be about Silence of the Lambs?]
Anyway there are actually a lot of these hurdles for them to meet - when is someone an appropriate target or not, how much torture will Will allow, is secretly feeding other people human-meat a faux pas? (Yes, the answer is always yes, Hannibal.)
There's also the emotional hurdles. Hannibal has never been so open and vulnerable. Will was completely right that he changed him too, and Hannibal changed even more over the course of the third season. How do those changes feel to him? There's Will trying to find a way to live with (and love) a cannibalistic serial killer both in a physical sense and emotionally. Does he continue to wrestle with the idea that murder/suicide is still on option?
That takes us to the short epilogue and Bedelia's dinner. What is Will's role in this? I feel like he'd at least try and convince Hannibal that one dinner was enough and it would be better to let her live but at the same time Will has stated that he thinks Bedelia deserves whatever happened to her. There is a lot of animosity between the two of them. Enough that he would observe her murder? IDK. I really can't see him participating. Of course another question could be how much of a time jump is it? Maybe that scene is playing out in the hypothetical season four finale?
• So clearly they survived the fall - there was a planned season four after all and it'd be hard to do without the main characters, the ending song says "I will survive", there were two empty seats at Bedelia's table, freaking Chilton survived everything that happened to him, Hannibal is a murder wizard/the devil, of course they survived duh - but the question is how. And it seems obvious to me because the show has laid the foreshadowing for it over the beginning half of this season -- Chiyoh!
One, she told Hannibal that she would watch over him and his escape was big news. She would have heard about it and she would have immediately gone back on the hunt. Two, Deus Ex Chiyoh is actually what she does. She saved Hannibal with Will, she saved Jack from the corrupt police and she saved Hannibal/Will from the Verger goons. She always shows up at the last minute to save the day. Granted, I don't think her fallback of shooting people (very effectively!) is going to work here but she's a smart lady so I'm sure she'll figure something out.
The only real question is how the hell she found them. My best guess: Hannibal and Chiyoh have been in contact these past three years - he does get and send mail - and thus he had a way to contact her which he then did as he was getting ready at the house.
Other Hannibal/Will
• Will taking a sip of his wine as Hannibal lies gasping and bleeding on the floor was lovely.
• The scene immediately following Dolarhyde's arrival rather felt like Will throwing Hannibal at a serial killer to see what would happen which felt like an echo of how Hannibal used to throw Will at killers. Will, calm and collected, curiously watching as Hannibal tries to talk himself through the maze of Dolarhyde's mind. I loved it.
• I find the fact that Will reached for his gun very interesting. I'm pretty sure that his plan going into this was for Dolarhyde to kill Hannibal and then for Will to kill Dolarhyde. Yet he seemingly deviates from that plan when Dolarhyde brings out the knife and Hannibal looks at him. Did he discover that he couldn't sit and watch Hannibal murdered? That's what it seemed like.
• "My compassion for you is inconvenient, Will." ♥
• I definitely think there could have easily been a kiss during their embrace at the end. There were two moments where I was expecting it - after Hannibal says "for both of us" Will stares at him and it honestly looked as if he was thinking of leaning forward and kissing him, and then after Will says "it's beautiful' Hannibal is definitely thinking about kissing him. It felt a little unfinished that there was no kiss. But only just a little. Even a little kiss to the side of Will's head before he rested his own there would have been wonderful.
• "You can go home again if there's any point. Is there any point?" - Hannibal. I love how he says that. There is so much pining in that last question. He says it so softly, like he can't help himself, he doesn't want to show his vulnerabilty but he has to ask. It's full of hope and need and "pick me, pick me!" He wants Will to give him some sign that there's some hope for them.
• I loved Will putting his hand on the glass of Hannibal's cell. I was really expecting Hannibal to put his hand up there as well. He totally did that after Will left.
• "You’d only do that, if I rejected you." Wait, is Will implying that his rejection of Hannibal post-Muskrat Farms was partially a ploy meant to force Hannibal to turn himself in? I don't know if I buy that.
• I loved Hannibal being unable to stop himself from asking Will if it was "good to see him" after Will said goodbye and his sad face when Will said no.
• I loved Hannibal's nonchalance after the prison vehicle escape. He's been locked away for three years and you can practically see the sense of freedom he feels. I also loved his "You know, Will, you worry too much." (lol) and him casually pushing the body out of the car while asking "Going my way?" (hee).
• I loved the layers to their second conversation. There was a lot more being communicated between the two of them than the nurses were aware of. I loved that Will was so blatant in the fact that he was manipulating the situation and Hannibal. The way he looked down and said "I need you, Hannibal." and then looked up with that little eyebrow wiggle all and cocky/challenging expression. The way Hannibal smiled in return, enjoying it so much.
• I think the Will/Reba scene is Will coming to gripes with the fact that Hannibal is in love with him and he's in love with Hannibal. He tells Reba re: Dolarhyde: "You drew a man with a freak on his back. There is nothing wrong with you." And so there is nothing wrong with Will either. Oh, Will. He was seeing himself and Hannibal all over that conversation, see also: "He couldn't kill you and he couldn't watch you die."
Other
• Hannibal was clearly sold on the plan as soon as he learned it was Will's plan but I love that he held out for more just because. I love best of all that one of his requirements is Will coming in person and saying 'please', heh.
• Our last Will/Bedelia scene was fun as always. Was Will there to mess with Bedelia or to warn her? Seemed like both and it was great. I loved her expression as the scene opens and her 'wtf' reaction to what Will was planning to do. I loved him throwing her own words back in her face. Basically I love their sniping forever.
"I'd pack my bags if I were you Bedelia. Meat's back on the menu." - Will
"You righteous, reckless, twitchy little man." - Bedelia.
LOL. Both amuse me so much.
+ "Who holds the Devil, let him hold him well." and "Can't live with him, can't live without him." God, this show and it's love of foreshadowing, I love it.
• Bedelia looked stunning in the little epilogue scene.
• I loved the shot of Alana and her family leaving. She's a Verger now so of course she can just up and leave. I'm so happy that she not only got out of this alive but also managed to keep her happy family. She got a happy ending, yay.
• I'm also happy that Reba escaped alive and physically unharmed. She's a little emotionally and mentally scarred - and that opening scene was genuinely terrifying, poor Reba - but in her scene with Will she shows that she's also tough and with enough self-knowledge that this won't damage her permanently. I loved too that during the encounter she did try to fight back in various ways - when she reached for him she took the chance to reach for his eyes and she chose to open the front door.
• I honestly don't feel much sympathy here for Jack. That was a terrible plan. Again. Just - completely awful, wtf Jack? Also he's a flipping FBI agent why is he getting involved in secret plots to murder two people?! (Even if they are serial killers.) Possibly I'm still holding a grudge over his willingness to sacrifice Will during the second half of the season. For whatever reason when it all blows up in his face I'm left mostly going "well what did you expect?"
• I wish we'd gotten one last scene between Molly and Will.
• Was Dolarhyde's in transport attack part of his and Will's plan? Because if it was that is by far the darkest thing Will has ever done and kind of unforgivable. That was somewhere between 7 and 11 innocent people that Dolarhyde just murdered and if it was part of Will's 'free Hannibal for real plan' just as much blame rests on him as well. No, it can't be. There is no way Will would sacrifice that a bunch of cops for his plan. That must have been a Dolarhyde improvisation.
