A quick review of tonight’s “Hannibal” coming up just as soon as I employ an ethical butcher…
This afternoon, in discussing the “webisodes” that Bryan Fuller and company made out of the unaired fourth episode, I noted that the scenes involving Lecter, Will, Dr. Bloom and Abigail separated very cleanly from whatever was going on with the Molly Shannon storyline they didn’t want anyone to see – and that the Killer of the (Every Other) Week stories have, by design, not been quite as engrossing as what’s happening with our ongoing characters.
The standalone killer in “Coquilles” is perhaps the most memorable of the series so far, if only because his design (to borrow Will’s favorite word) for his victims is so gruesome and bizarre. But what was ultimately most compelling about that story wasn’t the motivation of our Angel Maker, but the toll all these cases are understandably having on Will Graham. If your job involved learning to think like a cannibal, a man who turns humans into mushroom farms, and another who turns them into angels, you’d wind up feeling plenty of despair and self-loathing, too – sleepwalking would be a pretty mild side effect, I’d imagine. It’s a really strong episode for Hugh Dancy, whether Will is arguing with Lecter or Jack.
And speaking of Jack, Laurence Fishburne starts getting more to do in this one at both work and home, as we see just how hard (bordering on ruthless) Jack is pushing Will, and as we meet Jack’s wife Phyllis, played by Mrs. Fishburne herself, Gina Torres. Phyllis’ story not only offers insight into Jack (and Lecter, who seems genuinely fond of her), but offers a parallel with the Angel Maker, who was driven mad by his own ailment, where Phyllis has simply turned inward for now.
What did everybody else think?