You can pretty much sum up Hannibal‘s season finale in two words: HOLY CRAP! But I’m paid to be slightly more in-depth than that, so here’s a look at the finale.
We can sum up the plot pretty simply: Hannibal stabs EVERYBODY. Well, OK, so there’s the surprise of Abagail still being alive, and she shoves Alana out a window. But by the end of the episode, Jack’s had his throat cut, Abagail has had her throat cut, and Will’s been stabbed in the abdomen.
To be fair, they all have strong odds of surviving. As Hannibal leaves the life he’s built, the authorities are pulling up, presumably with trauma teams. Considering this show’s love of both bumping off characters in a shocking manner and having them survive in an equally shocking manner, basically we’re not putting any money on anybody being dead until we see a grave stone. As has been pointed out in the comments, Laurence Fishburne has another TV series coming, but that doesn’t mean Jack can’t show up occasionally.
Hannibal suffers too, ironically enough, but emotionally. It turns out Will’s desire for justice broke his heart, and by the time the episode is over, everything he carefully built has burned to the ground. He may be walking away, but he leaves more of himself behind than he may think.
And even if everybody survives, Will and Jack are still in it up to their necks. Kade Prurnell had the rather logical reaction to discovering an FBI undercover mutilated a corpse with his boss’ blessing and issued arrest warrants for both of them. Hannibal has, as the coda to the episode shows, left the country with the help of Bedelia, and he’s a notoriously slippery character. And honestly this whole thing is, legally speaking, a bloody mess.
So season three won’t be short of any drama. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
