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Hannibal: Releves

“Is it really mental illness? Or is it just that his mind works so differently from most peoples’ that we don’t know what else to call it?”

Everything's going to hell faster than usual. Because of course it is.

Also, I can’t do this anymore. Just kidding. But not really. Georgia dies the worst death ever since the last worst death ever while Will shrugs off his illness in favor of a trip with Abigail down memory lane. Abigail fesses up to Will about just how involved she was in her dad's mayhem and ends up running right into Hannibal's murderous arms. Yes, a lot is up in the air but what's not is the worst kind of awful.

Nothing more isolating than mental illness.

I mean Georgia Madchen lives in a hyperbaric chamber for god sake until her murder. Will putters around the hospital in his bathrobe largely disconnected from everything but an IV drip. Abigail is still separated from society in some remote forest (albeit housed in a drop dead gorgeous old mill house built from river stone). I can’t even fathom the mileage that Hannibal is getting out of the recent progression of his set-up. His sun rises and sets on the seclusion of mental illness. Personally and professionally.

So you’re wondering if the lines are blurring or if he’s onto something.

Jack and Hannibal come together several times in ‘Releves’ and Hannibal uses every single opportunity to cast more doubt on Will. If it weren’t so diabolical it would be doctoring (forgive me) lifted to the level of art. Maybe it still is. Hannibal always listens first. He hears the doubt in Jack’s voice, however faint then he responds with an equally as pale verification of that doubt. And he’s shown so much restraint thus far so that when he finally, explicitly, sells Will the fuck out, it lands like a ton of bricks on Jack’s head.

Complicated patients are conducive to complicated relationships.

If Hannibal had a subtitle, this could be in the running. I am endlessly fascinated that this series tells this exact timeline of the character’s history mostly because licensed psychiatrist. Watching the character that unraveled Hannibal become himself also unraveled is just more riveting than almost anything I could think up. On top of that, Bryan Fuller gave us a psychiatrist for Hannibal to have conversations with? And cast Gillian Anderson as that psychiatrist? How dare you.

I found a pattern and now I am going to reconstruct his thinking.

It’s a twisted kind of interesting to watch Hannibal lay track but it’s exhilarating to watch Will put together what’s happening with pretty damn great accuracy. Spinning the plot out to the Nth degree (I mean. A murderer copycatting a copycat copying him?) affords Will more of our support, our cheering, our admiration... our sympathy. With all of the outlandish crazy going on, somehow the show manages to stitch itself back together when Will’s holding the thread.

Tenez moi.

Odds and Ends

*Beverly has jury duty. Oh, okay. This why all hell's broken loose.

*Well now we know Bedelia’s kitchen is as gorgeous as the rest of her home. Good god, set design.

*How about Will waking up alone on an empty airplane and the flight crew’s resetting for the next flight? That was some shit right there.

*I love how the camera lingered on Hannibal immediately following some epic fuckery. Without ever cracking a smile he looked so pleased with himself.

Quotes

Georgia: “They’ll just know you are wrong.”

Will: “She’s my support group.”

Will: “Horrible way to die.”

Jack: “What are you doing here?”
Will: “I checked myself out of the hospital.”
Jack: “Well check yourself back in.” (Classic.)

Jack: “So what sparked the fire?”
Brian: “Inconclusive.”
Jimmy: “But not conclusively inconclusive. “ (Scott Thompson, I heart you.)

Abigail: “This wasn’t supposed to be my life.”

Dr. Bedelia: ‘Whatever you’re doing with Will Graham. Stop.”

Dr. Bedelia: “You cannot function as an agent of friendship for a man who is disconnected from the concept as a man who is disconnected from the concept.”

Will: “I’m awake and this is real.”

Jack: “And how long have you been aware of this?”
Hannibal: “He’s only recently started to discuss these episodes.”
Jack: “Well, unless recently means just before I walked into your office, you failed to mention any of this to me.” (Jack. Lol.)

Hannibal: “I thought it wise to be sure before making any kind of claims about Will Graham’s sanity.”

Abigail: “I was the lure.”

Hannibal: “I wanted to see how much like your father you were.”

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Just, wow!

    This episode had me shouting at my screen. Holy mother, but watching this all come to a head is compelling stuff. The final twenty minutes rank among the most intense I have ever seen. My mind is whirling.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris,
    I know. I love where this season has been and is going towards!

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  3. Teresa:
    I came on as the reviewer for 'Hannibal' after the first season was over thus am reviewing S1 retroactively. It should be up by the weekend's end.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, I didn't mean to sound curt, but reading the reviews is as much part of the experience as the viewing. X

    ReplyDelete

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