I’m such a dummy, I thought that Hannibal was only turning himself in so that he could break out again, but little did I know that would be it. That small scene at the end of the last episode was the conclusion of Hannibal’s reign of terror against Will, Alana, Jack, Bedelia, the Vergers, and the Chesapeake Bay that he has pursued since the series started. He has no intention of breaking out, at least not yet, and I’m not entirely sure what he has to gain from living the rest of his life in an institution, but I guess we have no choice but to go along with it.
However, Hannibal is also free (in a way). In his mind he’s not residing in a cell in the Baltimore city mental hospital; he is living in his mind palace. The scene where he sits in the chapel in Italy – where Will tracked him down earlier this season – and listens to a choirboy sing Hallelujah while he is being arrested is quite brilliant. We see flashes of his freedom throughout the episode, as when Fredrick, who is working on a new book about the Tooth Fairy, stokes his “competitive vanity”, and again when he’s cutting out articles about the Tooth Fairy and using it to once again lure Will back into his trap. When the camera trains on Hannibal, we see him in some lush setting, like the salons and sitting rooms that he’s used to. But when the camera focuses on someone else, we see the stark contrast of his reality. We see this dichotomy once again when Will takes the bait and asks for Hannibal’s help to find this new killer.
Let’s talk about this new killer, shall we? We don’t know much about him yet, but the dialogue-free opening sequence in which we were introduced to him was absolutely masterful. After finding one of William Blake’s engravings of Satan, or the Great Red Devil, this man decides that is what he wants to become. His exercise routine (more like an exorcise routine) was absolutely terrifying, as it looked like he was about to sprout wings and horns at any moment.
Later, when he was watching the home movies from the family he murdered (all right, I read Red Dragon, the book this storyline is based on, about 20 years ago, so I might have some extra insight), he turned himself into the projector, at least in his mind. It was like a mechanical animal, something akin to the stag that Will and Hannibal always see, but scarier and symbolizing something much darker. We know the Tooth Fairy likes clippings of his crimes and to touch his victims, but everything else is being kept vague as Will and Hannibal try to hunt him down. This episode was all about giving us glimpses into his life and setting the mood, which it did with freakish visuals, convoluted musical cues, and not a drop of dialogue. It was more like a commercial for the most Goth perfume ever created than a conventional network drama.
After skipping three years into the future we see Hannibal still captured in a psychiatric ward that is run by Alana. But where is Will? He’s married to a woman named Molly who has an 11-year-old son and a penchant for adopting stray dogs. When the Tooth Fairy emerges, killing an entire family in their home on the night of the full moon, Jack takes the trip up to Will’s house to ask him to come back and help solve the crime. Will says that not only is he not interested in going back, but he doesn’t think he’d be able to. “It’s dark on the other side,” he says. “And madness is waiting.”
Molly thinks that trying to solve this case is the right thing to do; especially because if he keeps reading about it and does nothing, it will sour him on the refuge he has with her. Hannibal also sends him a note with a clipping of the Tooth Fairy’s killing, and that’s enough to get Will interested. Maybe it was some sort of reverse psychology whereby Hannibal told him not to get involved so he decided to. Or maybe he’s just doing it because he knows Hannibal wants to rekindle their partnership and he can’t resist the siren song of his true soul mate.
Either way, Will ends up investigating the crime and we see something we haven’t seen all season: Will looking at a crime scene and reenacting it in his mind. It’s an especially grisly one, in which the Red Dragon kills a mother, a father, and their two children, placing shards of a mirror on their mouth and eyes and in some other places. He also has to touch the mother; making skin-on-skin contact is somehow imperative to his ritual. We don’t know why he does this or what drives him to kill, but we know it’s going to happen again, and it is the thing that brings Will and Hannibal back together. This really can’t be good for anyone, can it?
