“This has all been Hannibal Lecter’s design. He’s a chef, an artist, a musician, a creator, a manipulator and in many ways, the author of this story.” —Jonathan Raeder

“Don’t you want to know how this ends?” 

This has all been Hannibal Lecter’s design. He’s a chef, an artist, a musician, a creator, a manipulator and in many ways, the author of this story. Minds as warped and brilliant as Hannibal’s find no purpose in anything other than exerting their own influence. Hannibal needs to be a god, to craft the story around himself, to remain in control at absolutely every moment. We’ve seen Will get the upper hand briefly, but “Yakimono” shows that Hannibal’s had many pieces in place for a long time. 

“Yakimono” is filled with parallels, weaving together nearly every character into some form of connection with another. Miriam and Will were both agents pushed to the brink by Jack and toyed with by Hannibal. Will and Chilton were both framed by Hannibal and received the hatred of the FBI agents before they were freed — Will by Hannibal and Chilton by, well, death. Chilton and Hannibal are both wealthy psychiatrists who manipulate their patients’ memories and are at one point suspected of being serial killers. And of course, Hannibal and Will have paralleled often throughout the show — Chilton pointing a gun at Will’s face only to have Will know he won’t shoot echoes the times when Will’s pointed a gun at Hannibal and left him alive.

All of these characters are implicated in this elaborate web — they’ve accused Hannibal, been framed, been manipulated by Hannibal, and most of them have probably eaten his kills. Hannibal is the show-runner here, and like Will, we’re going to stick with him enough to know how it ends, to find out how Jack Crawford ends up in Hannibal’s closet, a knife through his hand and the Chesapeake Ripper slamming himself against the door.

Of course, Will Graham will play the vital role in Hannibal’s downfall. In a stunning reversal from last season, Will is the only one who knows the truth — the only one who can see through every single Hannibal manipulation and who steadfastly believes in his guilt, despite the overwhelming evidence planted against Chilton. Will is finally freed, at least physically, and it’s easy to see his palpable happiness — a rarity with Will — when he’s reunited with his dogs in his snowy Virginia home. Alana’s there — probably just like he pictured — but she’s not teary-eyed with happiness. Alana has grown cold to Will, and her presence here poisons what would have otherwise been an unequivocally happy scene. It’s strange to see Alana drift over to the villainous side — even if it’s unintentional. She’s chosen Hannibal over Will, and it’s going to be a dark moment for everyone when she realizes she was wrong.

Even as Alana went from siding with Will to siding against him, Jack has made the opposite change. He has admitted to letting both Miriam and Will go, and although Miriam’s back, she’s definitely not whole or even sane. Despite everything, though, Will isn’t too far gone.

It’s difficult to tell just what Jack thinks about Hannibal’s guilt. He seems to have put the pieces together to the point of a strong suspicion, but like he did with Will, he’d like to cling to any other piece of evidence. Chilton has been served up on a silver platter, the final piece to move Jack away from Hannibal forever. It would make sense for Jack to finally stop suspecting Hannibal, to finally admit that the real Chesapeake Ripper has been caught and everyone can attempt to find their way back to normality. But Jack’s made that mistake before. Will told him that whatever they found next would lead them away from Hannibal. He might have thought it really was Chilton all along when he thundered into Will’s house and through the woods, screaming “Chilton!” All of that changed when he looked at Chilton, tired, raising his hands in the snow, entirely defeated. That is not the action of the Chesapeake Ripper. Chilton was no killer — anyone could see it.

The other piece of Hannibal’s plan was Miriam Lass, believed to dead and finally returned to life. She’s scarred, mentally and physically, but she’s surprisingly coherent. She should have been mentally traumatized, unable to speak. How thoroughly must Hannibal have manipulated her? Relying on her to not recognize him and to instead recognize Chilton and be sure enough to kill him on FBI grounds? That all seems risky, and putting so much stock into a mentally traumatized person behaving exactly as you want seems too dangerous for Hannibal. He must have been sure she would do exactly as he wanted. Just as Will said, no matter how much Jack may be glad to have her back, she can’t be trusted. She has become Hannibal’s agent.

“Yakimono” is a bit light on the beautiful imagery, at least when compared to other Hannibal episodes. It was still directed and shot masterfully — the scene when Chilton awakens, bloodied, and walks out to discover the massive slaughter of the FBI agents is set to brilliantly unsettling music.

And again, the episode dips into shots of flowers blooming. It’s the burst of life amid so much death that makes flowers an unexpected symbol of Hannibal. The internet fandom – Fannibals – have even taken to photoshopping flower crowns on Hannibal and Will for some inexplicable reason. The trend has been acknowledged in interviews, and Bryan Fuller, Mads Mikkelsen, and Hugh Dancy have all worn flower crowns in support of the fans. Flowers are beautiful and innocent — the tension that comes from the combination of the horrifying and the mesmerizing is perhaps Hannibal’s favorite emotion.

Five episodes remain of this season of Hannibal. Five episodes until Hannibal is most likely on the run. Will’s back in therapy with Hannibal, if only to stay close to his enemy and gauge where he stands. He still believes that Hannibal wants to be his friend in some way, and Will may actually be capable of playing Hannibal into believing that he also wants the friendship to continue. Hannibal is safe from capture, for now. Though a new difficulty arises for the Chesapeake Ripper. If the Ripper is perceived dead, then he can’t begin again. Hannibal isn’t going to give up being a cannibal, so he’s going to have to kill mysteriously for the foreseeable future. He may have planned this all along, but being pushed to killing off his criminal alter-ego has to show just how close he was to losing. Will and Jack only have to push a little harder and everything may fall into place.

Tidbits:

  • Alas, poor Chilton, your recently hilarious quips will be sorely missed. “I would like to remain not dead.” Well, you can’t always get what you want.
  • “You only threw up an ear!”
  • Guru? Has this been mentioned before? I think so, but it’s still kind of funny. I can’t imagine Will calling Jack the Guru, unless it was sarcastically.
  • I guess if you’re in the FBI your health benefits include robot arms. Workman’s compensation, I assume.
  • I hope that Alana turns around quickly, it would awesome for her to try to manipulate Hannibal if she’s convinced of his guilt.