Hannibal 2x11
Jan. 2nd, 2016 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitSpoilers!
Fucking hell, it was all a setup! I really believed Will had gone to the dark side.
In fact I'm not entirely convinced he hasn't. He didn't kill Freddie Lounds, but he definitely did kill the animal-suit guy. It could be argued that it was self-defense--except that beating someone to death takes time and pretty much requires the intention to do more than end an immediate thread. And then Will (and Hannibal?) made a sculpture out of the corpse, which even in the service of an undercover long game is a little extreme.
The trouble with undercover work is that people fall into the roles they play. Will could easily, easily become who Hannibal thinks he is, especially since Hannibal is seductive and the love and approval he's offering Will must be tempting.
This episode clarified something for me, which is that Hannibal genuinely believes he is making Will better and happier. Teaching him to kill is the equivalent of, for a normal person, teaching someone to cook beautiful food or make beautiful music or any other life-enhancing skill you might want to share with someone you love. (Of course Hannibal has taught/encouraged others to kill, but with Will it's all much more meaningful and intimate.)
I wonder if Hannibal suspects something's going on. He's the master of mindfuckery, so he ought to, but he may be trusting too much in his belief that he understands Will and that Will is fundamentally like him. (BTW, that scene where Will sees himself when he talks to Hannibal, and Hannibal sees himself when he talks to Will? Is fantastic.)
Also, I think I may be a terrible person, because I'm a little disappointed that it's not really (yet?) the world's most gorgeously dysfunctional romance. There have been some scenes of breathtaking eroticism between them, especially the one where Hannibal washes and bandages Will's hand. And the scene with the ortolans, where those images of mouths opening wide and things sliding into them were not at all unintentional.
By the time I come back to this post I'll have watched the rest of S2, so feel free to be spoilery up to that point.
ETA: I don't think I have the words. This show is just the most twisty devious thing EVER.
I don't understand what Will was doing, but then I don't think Will understood it either. The closest I can get to right now is that Will wanted two contradictory things simultaneously: to destroy Hannibal and to be with him forever.
"You were supposed to leave," just about broke me. But even there, Will's dividedness makes itself felt: he warned Hannibal in the same words Hannibal used to Garret Jacob Hobbs, and some part of him must have expected the result to be disaster.
And meanwhile Hannibal was planning the happy surprise where he resurrects Abigail and he and Will and Abigail run off to be a little family of serial-killing demigods.
I'm not sure what to make of Bedelia's reappearance at the end. Did Hannibal just sort of pick her up on the way out of town? They seem to have reconciled pretty well, but it doesn't make sense for this to have been a long game the two of them were playing: there were too many scenes of the two of them alone together in which they were clearly not conspiring, and I can't believe that Hannibal's feelings for Will were fake. What I can believe is Hannibal keeping his options open with Bedelia, just in case other plans didn't work out. He longs to be understood, and not to be alone--surprising needs in a psychopath, which is part of what makes Hannibal so confusing.
I can't see how Will could ever forgive Hannibal now or feel any affection for him. But then, that's what I thought at the end of S1.
Right, time to start S3!
Fucking hell, it was all a setup! I really believed Will had gone to the dark side.
In fact I'm not entirely convinced he hasn't. He didn't kill Freddie Lounds, but he definitely did kill the animal-suit guy. It could be argued that it was self-defense--except that beating someone to death takes time and pretty much requires the intention to do more than end an immediate thread. And then Will (and Hannibal?) made a sculpture out of the corpse, which even in the service of an undercover long game is a little extreme.
The trouble with undercover work is that people fall into the roles they play. Will could easily, easily become who Hannibal thinks he is, especially since Hannibal is seductive and the love and approval he's offering Will must be tempting.
This episode clarified something for me, which is that Hannibal genuinely believes he is making Will better and happier. Teaching him to kill is the equivalent of, for a normal person, teaching someone to cook beautiful food or make beautiful music or any other life-enhancing skill you might want to share with someone you love. (Of course Hannibal has taught/encouraged others to kill, but with Will it's all much more meaningful and intimate.)
I wonder if Hannibal suspects something's going on. He's the master of mindfuckery, so he ought to, but he may be trusting too much in his belief that he understands Will and that Will is fundamentally like him. (BTW, that scene where Will sees himself when he talks to Hannibal, and Hannibal sees himself when he talks to Will? Is fantastic.)
Also, I think I may be a terrible person, because I'm a little disappointed that it's not really (yet?) the world's most gorgeously dysfunctional romance. There have been some scenes of breathtaking eroticism between them, especially the one where Hannibal washes and bandages Will's hand. And the scene with the ortolans, where those images of mouths opening wide and things sliding into them were not at all unintentional.
By the time I come back to this post I'll have watched the rest of S2, so feel free to be spoilery up to that point.
ETA: I don't think I have the words. This show is just the most twisty devious thing EVER.
I don't understand what Will was doing, but then I don't think Will understood it either. The closest I can get to right now is that Will wanted two contradictory things simultaneously: to destroy Hannibal and to be with him forever.
"You were supposed to leave," just about broke me. But even there, Will's dividedness makes itself felt: he warned Hannibal in the same words Hannibal used to Garret Jacob Hobbs, and some part of him must have expected the result to be disaster.
And meanwhile Hannibal was planning the happy surprise where he resurrects Abigail and he and Will and Abigail run off to be a little family of serial-killing demigods.
I'm not sure what to make of Bedelia's reappearance at the end. Did Hannibal just sort of pick her up on the way out of town? They seem to have reconciled pretty well, but it doesn't make sense for this to have been a long game the two of them were playing: there were too many scenes of the two of them alone together in which they were clearly not conspiring, and I can't believe that Hannibal's feelings for Will were fake. What I can believe is Hannibal keeping his options open with Bedelia, just in case other plans didn't work out. He longs to be understood, and not to be alone--surprising needs in a psychopath, which is part of what makes Hannibal so confusing.
I can't see how Will could ever forgive Hannibal now or feel any affection for him. But then, that's what I thought at the end of S1.
Right, time to start S3!
