Tonight, the best drama on network television wraps up its second season. Hannibal has been a hell of a ride, and the finale promises to be even more of one. And we have almost no idea what’s going to happen.
OK, so that’s not entirely true. The first episode opened with a two-minute fistfight between Hannibal and Jack, with a few very important details to note.
The first is that Jack is not trying to arrest Hannibal, he’s trying to kill him. This implies Hannibal does something tonight that finally pushes Jack far enough that he stops caring about the law. The second is that Hannibal doesn’t seem to realize Jack’s gun is in that wine cellar.
We also know from the events of season two that Hannibal has something underneath that wine cellar of distinct interest. We don’t know what it is; there’s speculation that it might be what’s left of Abagail. But we doubt it’s not going to come into play.
Secondly, we know that Hannibal and Will are locked in a dangerous game. Hannibal, last episode, all but told Will he knows what’s going on by discussing the legend of Achilles and Patroclus and saying that he’d give Jack a call and let him know he was the Chesapeake Ripper. There’s probably more to Hannibal’s game than just luring Jack to his house and killing him. As Bedelia points out, Hannibal is always in control, and slipping his grasp is harder than it looks.
That said, it seems unlikely Hannibal walks away from this one with no fallout. The show has made a big deal of Alana learning to fire a gun… which actually comes up in this episode’s promo trailer. Will can be surprisingly crafty himself. And let’s not forget dear old Freddie Lounds.
Oh, and Bryan Fuller has confirmed it’ll end on a cliffhanger of some sort. Really, would we have it any other way?