Whoa, phew, give me a second here.
Hol. Ly. Shit.
Well, spoilers incoming!
Season two of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal ends on the most catastrophic event we've seen so far. The show has been somewhat careful with its core cast. We lost Beverly Katz earlier in the season, and Abigail Hobbs looked pretty much dead (more on that later, ahem.) But beyond Will's supreme brain-fuckery (which is Hannibal's way of expressing friendship,) the characters have been at least physically safe so far.
NOT ANYMORE!
Jack, Alana, Will, and Abigail all end season two with life-threatening wounds. Given that this could have been the series finale (thankfully it's not, or that would be the biggest downer of an ending in decades - though I'm still working on Breaking Bad, so I could be wrong,) it might have been what Bryan Fuller described as Hannibal's ultimate "mic drop."
To recap: Jack comes to Hannibal's house as bait in his and Will's trap. Will has seemed to be wrestling with his allegiances in the back half of the season, but he proves (as I always expected he would, obviously) to be one of the good guys. Unfortunately, Hannibal figures out that Will's been lying to him, and in fact gives him an out, suggesting the two of them escape without killing Jack. But Will is pressing the trap, sticking to the game plan instead of re-adapting.
The FBI has gotten wind of the, frankly, batshit crazy plan that Will and Jack have come up with and are going to shut them down, which adds some urgency to moving forward (and moots Hannibal's offer.)
So Jack shows up and the fight we saw at the beginning of the season takes place. Jack winds up with a nasty neck-wound and trapped in the pantry. Alana shows up, and Hannibal offers her safe passage if she'll leave him, but like Will, she doesn't take the offer. Of course, Hannibal's already prepared a contingency, and Alana is forced to retreat. And that's when we get the episode's first major twist.
Abigail is alive! Yes, so far it looks like if we don't see a body, it means one is not dead. Abigail has spent the last year or so trapped by Hannibal and manipulated just as he did with Miriam Lass. But while Miriam so far looks like a fire-and-forget Chilton-seeking missile, Abigail became something like a slave or thrall, and she reveals this by pushing Alana out a second-story window.
Will arrives to find a badly injured, bleeding Alana on the front steps, and he makes his own solitary advance. But Abigail is there to draw his attention, and in doing so, allows Hannibal to get the drop on him. Hannibal guts Will, but the real punishment for him is that Hannibal then cuts Abigail's throat, right along the scar that her father left in the show's first episode.
With Jack, Will, Alana, and Abigail all bleeding on the floor, Hannibal walks out into the rain and we see him flying off on a French plane with none other than Bedelia.
That's the recap.
So first things first: Who is still alive? Fuller has said that at least someone will live and at least someone will die. Let's see what their odds are!
Will:
Will's the most likely to survive, because despite the name of the show, he's the main character. Narratively, Will needs to survive because despite this worst of breakups between codependent murder-buddies / heterosexual-husbands, there still remains a relationship. It means that Will will never be able to play the "I'm also a murderer" card on Hannibal again, and in fact I suspect there will be a lot more overt anger between them, even if Hannibal theoretically forgives him. Still, this is the show's core relationship. Also, while that gut-wound is bad, they say that that's the kind of thing that you can live with for a long time. And both Alana and Will called emergency services before going into that death-house, so I think Will's almost a guaranteed survivor. (In fact, even Bryan Fuller has alluded to Will's continuing story, which would be hard to do if he were dead.)
Alana:
Alana's chances, are, I think also pretty good. That fall must have hurt like hell, but she was still breathing when Hannibal stepped over her to leave the house, and while she might have broken her back or gotten some nasty cuts from the window shards (those can definitely be nasty, something I know from first-hand experience,) I think she's actually probably the least seriously injured (barring a broken back, that is.) Falling from an upstairs window isn't, like, safe, and she does hit concrete, but I think we're going to be seeing more of Doctor Bloom. I also think that there's fallout for Alana to deal with that could make for something interesting. Alana's been a somewhat frustratingly undeveloped character, but who shows sparks of potential, so it would be ashamed to sweep her out the door. Also, this series needs to hold onto its female characters...
Abigail:
Ok, well, Abigail's probably going to die. Unless they want to establish a running gag that in every season finale you'll think Abigail is dead and then she won't be, I think that narratively this makes the most sense. Abigail was the daughter in Hannibal and Will's murder-family, and Hannibal clearly slit her throat to punish Will, to burn down what they had. Abigail coming back from this could theoretically make for an interesting story, but if she does live, she's in one hell of a fucked up place. Granted, she has survived that exact injury before, but who knows what else she's been through (losing an ear being one example.) But given that Abigail was the link that first brought Will and Hannibal together, her true death would be a way to signal a complete severing of that bond, which is itself sad, given how dehumanized Abigail had already been by her father. Really tragic.
Jack:
Of all these characters, I'm most convinced that Jack is going to die, if he isn't already dead (his last act being to call his wife.) First off, that wound was really bad, and you can see that he's bleeding out quite a bit. Also, given that his fight with Hannibal is how we started the season, it would seem odd if he were just one of the people to survive. Still, Jack would be leaving a void and I don't know who would fill it. Someone has to be the main real FBI agent character, and I don't see Will or Alana stepping into that role (especially not Will. You saw the pictures of his bear-man!) Also, Laurence Fishburne is the most famous actor on the show, and he's got a role (though it could just be recurring) on a new show. Fishburne has been given some great stuff to play this season, but I could imagine that he's ready to move on. Jack could be the Sacrificial Lion that the show needs to move on from Hannibal's grand unveiling. In a sense, I can see it like this: Abigail's death is the price that the main characters pay for Hannibal's reveal. Will, Alana, and indeed Hannibal himself, are all deeply tied to Abigail, and her death is Hannibal's way of marking this break. But Jack is the price that Hannibal is making the world at large pay for seeing who the good doctor is. Abigail, tragic but likable girl that she was, is ultimately not a lot to most people. But Jack is "the Guru," he's the greatest monster-hunter in the land, and here he has been taken down by the greatest monster. It ups the stakes a bit, you know?
There is so much to unpack here that I think I'll need to make more posts about it. We will have to wait quite a while for season three, which could really take on any form. It will be sad to no longer have Hannibal's awesome office set, but I'm eager to see what the show does next.
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