In this last half of the last season (barring some last-minute reprieve,) Hannibal has finally caught up with the books (well... setting aside the Vergers.) This season began with a certain "where are they now?" set of reveals, but this mid-season transition is a far larger one, taking place three years after Hannibal was arrested.
Also, for the first time, the show breaks with its cuisine-focused theme-naming. Hannibal Lecter is no longer the serial killer whose crimes are at the center of the show, and so instead of cuisine, we now have episode titles that appear to be the names of William Blake paintings related to the new killer's fixation on Blake's Red Dragon.
So where do we find everyone? Hannibal is in the mental institution that once held Will Graham, using his imagination to transport him to his mind palace, though even what seems to be his real cell is rather fancy (it's not the bare-bones cell Will was stuck in during the first half of season two, and seems to have fancy wainscoting and such.)
We get a bit of a fakeout, but Dr. Chilton is no longer in charge of the institution, instead Alana Bloom is (and before you complain that that's a huge conflict of interest for Alana, remember what show you're watching and how it all operates on dream logic.) Alana and Chilton have successfully convinced the courts that Hannibal is insane, even though in private they agree that he's not insane, but something essentially impossible to categorize.
Alana and Hannibal are relatively civil with one another, even having wine together as she congratulates him on avoiding the death penalty - a favor that Alana is perhaps foolish to have done, given that Hannibal assures her that he keeps his promises, and will kill her eventually.
Chilton has written a book about Hannibal, but in a fairly meta moment, he tells Hannibal (while sharing a chocolate-and-cow's-blood dish Hannibal has made - this time with a literal cow, rather than a derogatory one) (also, Hannibal's allowed to cook? This sounds like a pretty cushy prison sentence) that he's writing a new one, this time about the "Tooth Fairy."
This brings us to the new killer - Francis Dolarhyde, aka the Tooth Fairy, though he'd prefer the Great Red Dragon.
We don't hear him say a single thing the entire episode, but we watch as Dolarhyde undergoes his transformation, inspired by a Time article about William Blake's Great Red Dragon. Dolarhyde kills entire families - apparently choosing those that seem happiest - killing them in their sleep and then adorning their corpses with mirror shards in their eyes and mouths (and other parts - the show usually avoids sexual violence, and so it does not dwell on the mention of where the other shard was found.)
Hannibal is clearly fascinated and perhaps envious of the Tooth Fairy. While a bit arrogantly dismissive of him, he definitely has an interest in finding out what he can about this new killer. Chilton warns Alana after speaking with him that "the young turk might inspire the old Lithuanian to become more interesting," which of course would be dire indeed.
The symbolic relationship between Lecter and Dolarhyde has a great deal of potential. The show has always portrayed Hannibal as a kind of Lucifer-by-way-of-Dracula figure, but with a strong emphasis on the "fallen angel" aspect of the devil. Lecter's devil is a profane imitation of God. He's devout, in a sense, because he thinks that God is just as much of a cruel sadist as he is. And thus it is that he views his corruption of people like Abigail or Will as a kind of blessing - granting his Grace to them. Hannibal represents a devil that is deluded into arrogance.
Dolarhyde, on the other hand, is bestial. When we first see him, he stretches his muscles and holds himself in such a way that it seems he is trying to break out of the human form that he is bound to. While Hannibal identifies (or rather we can identify him) with Lucifer the Fallen Angel, Dolarhyde is the beast of Revelations - the Great Red Dragon who is a rage-filled destroyer, feral and with no pretensions.
Of course, what's also kind of interesting is that the works of William Blake were part of a kind of reimagining of conventional Christian religion. Blake created his own mythology in an attempt to deconstruct and then reconstruct the idea of religion. So while the painting Dolarhyde obsesses over is meant to represent the Beast from Revelations, it's not strictly the traditional interpretation of the monster.
With two families confirmed dead by the same killer, both more or less at the full moon (though according to Fuller, the very first scene of the pilot episode was also one of Dolarhyde's kills, suggesting he's been at this much longer,) Jack approaches Will once more.
Will is hesitant, not only because of the pain that working for Jack caused him (see: seasons one and two) but also because he's moved on. He has a wife now and a stepson. We don't get to see much of Molly or the kid (I don't remember his name,) but it's clear that he's happy with them, and the idea that Will Graham could have some semblance of a normal, happy life, sounds so miraculous that you kind of want him to tell Jack no.
But Will can't stand the thought of not helping and letting another family die, so he goes back, and for the first time in a long time, we get one of the disturbing "This is My Design" scenes.
Still, Will is rusty, and he's worried that he can't provide enough help. He goes to Jack and confesses that he doesn't think he can get back into that mindset on his own. For this, he'll need Hannibal. Roll credits.
Though the Verger story was drawn from the book Hannibal (with many liberties as I understand it, especially given that the book takes place after Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs,) we're now fully in established territories, albeit with a lot of creative license taken by Fuller & Co. However, I have not read the book (or seen the movie,) so what key events are to take place, I do not yet know.
But the best news is Pryce and Zeller are back!
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
The Prologue Ends in Hannibal's Digestivo
The show Hannibal has, until the end of this episode, been a vast expansion of the backstory to Thomas Harris' Red Dragon. A reinterpretation, certainly, but given that these events largely did not take place in the book (To be honest, this is really more speculation given that I haven't read them) there's a certain air of legitimacy even if it's pretty clear that this is a work of very liberal adaptation.
Digestivo is the climactic episode perhaps of the series. By far, the most important event here is what happens at the very end - Hannibal finally gets "caught." I put that in quotations because, well, it's complicated. Let's start with the more immediate issues.
Mason Verger is disgusting and awful enough for you to root for Hannibal. Yes, Hannibal's the Devil, but at least he has class. Hannibal, despite his cruelty and the pain he inflicts on others, does what he does in a constructive way. Yes, Hannibal is still a sadist, but he's always seeking some higher understanding and higher expression. It's the reason why, despite the horror of what he is, there's something disturbingly compelling about him.
Mason is pretty pissed off about the whole "compelling him to feed his face to a bunch of dogs" thing from last season, and using the corrupt police of Florence (the Florence Police Department does not come off well in this show,) he kidnaps Hannibal and Will, inadvertently saving Will from having his brains sautéed.
Mason's plan is to take revenge against Hannibal and Will, the latter of whom he considers also responsible for his condition. He'll have Hannibal slowly butchered while still alive, Gideon-style, and eat the good doctor after Will's face has been transplanted onto his own. Mason's certainly got a sense of irony.
We find out early on that despite Mason's plan to have Jack left as if he were the "last victim of the Chesapeake Ripper," Jack is saved by Chiyo with a couple of judicious sniper rounds to some corrupt police officers. Jack is allowed to exit the picture for now.
Of course, Mason and his goons are not the only ones at the Verger estate. Margot and Alana are there as well, and Mason lets this bombshell drop - that he has given her the double-Verger child she needs to inherit the fortune and has a surrogate.
But Alana, naturally, can't abide letting Will get killed. She's fine with Hannibal dying (maybe not fine, exactly, but ultimately ok with it,) but Will is, relatively speaking, innocent, and certainly not deserving of the fate Mason has in store for him.
And ultimately, Alana decides that Mason has crossed "the Godzilla Threshold." Someone needs to stop him, and the person most capable of doing so, giving Margot a satisfactory patsy to blame Mason's death on, is the Chesapeake Ripper.
Alana and Hannibal have a last conversation, Alana asks "Could I have every understood you?" Hannibal replies, honestly for a change: "No." Of course, he also reminds her that he keeps his promises, and I think he promised at one point to kill her, so... beware, Alana.
So for the first time in a while, we get to cheer for Hannibal as he saves Will from a one-sided Face/Off situation, leaving Mason with his creepy doctor/butcher/henchman's face simply placed over his own (Silence of the Lambs reference?)
Alana and Margot track down the surrogate who is to give birth to the Verger heir, but just as Hannibal predicted, Mason found a particularly cruel way to deny her what she wanted - not only is the surrogate a pig, but the child died in utero.
Of course, while under for the face-transplant, and after Hannibal did in the henchman, they were able to... harvest Mason's seed, giving Margot the opportunity to have her heir after all (man, I feel bad for that kid.)
And as they struggle over the vial of sperm (NBC's S&P people must just go full blue-screen of death for this show,) Mason falls into his eel tank, drowning and then dying as the eel swims in through his mouth.
Holy shit that's a lot of fucking insane stuff that goes down.
Hannibal carries Will apparently all the way to his house in Wolf Trap, Virginia (the Verger estate was in Maryland. Maybe both were near the state lines?) and sets him down, and Will finally puts an end to their dysfunctional friendship. He's no longer interested in chasing after Lecter, to catch him or join him. He's ready for Hannibal to just be out of his life forever. Knowing that Hannibal's staying around would get him caught, Will is confident that he can finally put this all behind him.
And in that sense, Hannibal's actions are actually another act of sadistic cruelty. When the FBI show up, Will tells Jack that Hannibal has disappeared again. But he's wrong. Hannibal stayed and waited for them. He surrenders to the FBI, kneeling and allowing them to cuff him.
Jack's not fooled. When Hannibal congratulates him on catching the Chesapeake Ripper, Jack understands that the only person in control of this situation was Hannibal. Will said he didn't want to know where Hannibal was or what he was doing. Now he can't help but know.
What a monster.
And with that, the long story of "how Hannibal wound up in prison" has been told. The remainder of what is looking more or less confirmed as the final season will be the Bryan Fuller version of Red Dragon.
Digestivo is the climactic episode perhaps of the series. By far, the most important event here is what happens at the very end - Hannibal finally gets "caught." I put that in quotations because, well, it's complicated. Let's start with the more immediate issues.
Mason Verger is disgusting and awful enough for you to root for Hannibal. Yes, Hannibal's the Devil, but at least he has class. Hannibal, despite his cruelty and the pain he inflicts on others, does what he does in a constructive way. Yes, Hannibal is still a sadist, but he's always seeking some higher understanding and higher expression. It's the reason why, despite the horror of what he is, there's something disturbingly compelling about him.
Mason is pretty pissed off about the whole "compelling him to feed his face to a bunch of dogs" thing from last season, and using the corrupt police of Florence (the Florence Police Department does not come off well in this show,) he kidnaps Hannibal and Will, inadvertently saving Will from having his brains sautéed.
Mason's plan is to take revenge against Hannibal and Will, the latter of whom he considers also responsible for his condition. He'll have Hannibal slowly butchered while still alive, Gideon-style, and eat the good doctor after Will's face has been transplanted onto his own. Mason's certainly got a sense of irony.
We find out early on that despite Mason's plan to have Jack left as if he were the "last victim of the Chesapeake Ripper," Jack is saved by Chiyo with a couple of judicious sniper rounds to some corrupt police officers. Jack is allowed to exit the picture for now.
Of course, Mason and his goons are not the only ones at the Verger estate. Margot and Alana are there as well, and Mason lets this bombshell drop - that he has given her the double-Verger child she needs to inherit the fortune and has a surrogate.
But Alana, naturally, can't abide letting Will get killed. She's fine with Hannibal dying (maybe not fine, exactly, but ultimately ok with it,) but Will is, relatively speaking, innocent, and certainly not deserving of the fate Mason has in store for him.
And ultimately, Alana decides that Mason has crossed "the Godzilla Threshold." Someone needs to stop him, and the person most capable of doing so, giving Margot a satisfactory patsy to blame Mason's death on, is the Chesapeake Ripper.
Alana and Hannibal have a last conversation, Alana asks "Could I have every understood you?" Hannibal replies, honestly for a change: "No." Of course, he also reminds her that he keeps his promises, and I think he promised at one point to kill her, so... beware, Alana.
So for the first time in a while, we get to cheer for Hannibal as he saves Will from a one-sided Face/Off situation, leaving Mason with his creepy doctor/butcher/henchman's face simply placed over his own (Silence of the Lambs reference?)
Alana and Margot track down the surrogate who is to give birth to the Verger heir, but just as Hannibal predicted, Mason found a particularly cruel way to deny her what she wanted - not only is the surrogate a pig, but the child died in utero.
Of course, while under for the face-transplant, and after Hannibal did in the henchman, they were able to... harvest Mason's seed, giving Margot the opportunity to have her heir after all (man, I feel bad for that kid.)
And as they struggle over the vial of sperm (NBC's S&P people must just go full blue-screen of death for this show,) Mason falls into his eel tank, drowning and then dying as the eel swims in through his mouth.
Holy shit that's a lot of fucking insane stuff that goes down.
Hannibal carries Will apparently all the way to his house in Wolf Trap, Virginia (the Verger estate was in Maryland. Maybe both were near the state lines?) and sets him down, and Will finally puts an end to their dysfunctional friendship. He's no longer interested in chasing after Lecter, to catch him or join him. He's ready for Hannibal to just be out of his life forever. Knowing that Hannibal's staying around would get him caught, Will is confident that he can finally put this all behind him.
And in that sense, Hannibal's actions are actually another act of sadistic cruelty. When the FBI show up, Will tells Jack that Hannibal has disappeared again. But he's wrong. Hannibal stayed and waited for them. He surrenders to the FBI, kneeling and allowing them to cuff him.
Jack's not fooled. When Hannibal congratulates him on catching the Chesapeake Ripper, Jack understands that the only person in control of this situation was Hannibal. Will said he didn't want to know where Hannibal was or what he was doing. Now he can't help but know.
What a monster.
And with that, the long story of "how Hannibal wound up in prison" has been told. The remainder of what is looking more or less confirmed as the final season will be the Bryan Fuller version of Red Dragon.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Ant-Man
Ant-Man is the latest of Marvel's cinematic endeavors - a kind of odd epilogue to the massive Phase Two. This is the first movie number one since Guardians of the Galaxy, introducing a storied member of the Avengers that is, perhaps, embarrassingly comic-booky - it's relatively easy to sell a guy with a powered armor suit and a super-soldier with an infallible moral compass, but a guy whose power is shrinking requires a certain ironic detachment - something the film uses to great comedic effect.
So how good is it?
While the movie has some real strengths, it's kind of a middle-of-the-pack flick for the Marvel movies. The film drags in the middle, spending a lot of time setting up the big action of the final act, remaining largely confined to Hank Pym's admittedly cool house. Once the action does get going, though, it's a lot of fun. Paul Rudd is, as always, a pleasure to watch - a leading-man guy with a great sense of comic timing and also the uncanny ability to NOT AGE.
The movie straddles the idea of an origin story - Scott Lang's tenure as Ant Man gets its start here, but the tech has existed for a long time, with inventor Hank Pym serving as the original Ant Man (a contemporary of Tony Stark's dad.) Michael Douglas is technically the mentor figure in this movie, but he gets plenty to do - though this is partially due to the fact that the entire middle act is essentially Scott's training montage.
While the film does eventually devolve into your standard one-on-one fight between the superhero and the main villain (though this fight is, like I said earlier, very fun and humorous, especially when they have a train-top fight over an electric Thomas the Tank Engine train set) the structure up until that point is that of a heist movie - Pym's old protege has built a prototype using similar technology to the original Ant-Man suit, but of course he wants to sell it to freaking Hydra (who are apparently still around. Oh hell, nothing stays dead in these movies.)
The film is somewhat problematic in a couple of ways. Most notable is the problem that the movie itself struggles to address. Pym's daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) is more familiar with the technology, more familiar with the facility, and has essentially trained to be Ant-Woman her entire life. Pym drags Scott Lang into the role partially because of Lang's experience as a cat burglar, but mostly because he doesn't want anything to happen to Hope.
I get that the comics had Scott Lang take over the role, but Marvel's got a bit of a problem with its lack of female superheroes (seriously: do a Black Widow movie. There is no good reason not to. Scarlett Johansson wants to do it. She's awesome and popular, and you could do a fun spy film.) There's a tease in the post-credits scene that she will take over her mother's role as the Wasp (her mother is "dead" in the sense that she's just waiting to come back in the sequel) but... yeah, I think we could probably use more female superheroes.
The other problem is Lang's team of fellow thieves. He's got a group of three guys who help him out in the heist, and while there are some fun jokes that come from Luis (his old cellmate,) the guys are walking ethnic stereotypes. Luis maybe gets a pass, given that he is the impetus for some of the funniest sequences in the film - as we watch the chain of people giving him leads all lip-synch to what is clearly Luis' paraphrasing of what they said - but the other guys are pretty much "funny deadpan Russian guy" and... uh... "black getaway driver."
The other disappointment of the movie is the question of what might have been. The aforementioned lip-synching sequence feels very Edgar Wright - one of my favorite comedy directors working today - scratch that, favorite directors. Wright is incredibly inventive pushing the medium to the limit in terms of cramming as much cinematic brilliance onto the screen as possible (I just re-watched Hot Fuzz, and even if you consider it the worst of the Cornetto Trilogy, it's still a brilliant and hilarious piece of filmmaking.)
Marvel's movies do have something of a brand to them, and I get that that has been one of the key's to their success, but it does mean that they had to iron out some of the interesting wrinkles Wright must have introduced to the movie.
Still, if you like the Marvel movies (and I think most people who see them do,) you'll get a kick out of this one. It's funny and fun, and it's a nice change of pace to have a superhero movie where the fate of the world isn't at stake (well, one could argue it is, but they're putting a stop to the threat before it's on the level of an enormous city-meteorite that's going to wipe out humanity.)
And with that, we find ourselves at the conclusion of "Phase 2." Next up, starting phase 3, is Captain America: Civil War, which I have high hopes for mainly because I've really liked both of the solo Captain America movies (particularly the second.)
So how good is it?
While the movie has some real strengths, it's kind of a middle-of-the-pack flick for the Marvel movies. The film drags in the middle, spending a lot of time setting up the big action of the final act, remaining largely confined to Hank Pym's admittedly cool house. Once the action does get going, though, it's a lot of fun. Paul Rudd is, as always, a pleasure to watch - a leading-man guy with a great sense of comic timing and also the uncanny ability to NOT AGE.
The movie straddles the idea of an origin story - Scott Lang's tenure as Ant Man gets its start here, but the tech has existed for a long time, with inventor Hank Pym serving as the original Ant Man (a contemporary of Tony Stark's dad.) Michael Douglas is technically the mentor figure in this movie, but he gets plenty to do - though this is partially due to the fact that the entire middle act is essentially Scott's training montage.
While the film does eventually devolve into your standard one-on-one fight between the superhero and the main villain (though this fight is, like I said earlier, very fun and humorous, especially when they have a train-top fight over an electric Thomas the Tank Engine train set) the structure up until that point is that of a heist movie - Pym's old protege has built a prototype using similar technology to the original Ant-Man suit, but of course he wants to sell it to freaking Hydra (who are apparently still around. Oh hell, nothing stays dead in these movies.)
The film is somewhat problematic in a couple of ways. Most notable is the problem that the movie itself struggles to address. Pym's daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) is more familiar with the technology, more familiar with the facility, and has essentially trained to be Ant-Woman her entire life. Pym drags Scott Lang into the role partially because of Lang's experience as a cat burglar, but mostly because he doesn't want anything to happen to Hope.
I get that the comics had Scott Lang take over the role, but Marvel's got a bit of a problem with its lack of female superheroes (seriously: do a Black Widow movie. There is no good reason not to. Scarlett Johansson wants to do it. She's awesome and popular, and you could do a fun spy film.) There's a tease in the post-credits scene that she will take over her mother's role as the Wasp (her mother is "dead" in the sense that she's just waiting to come back in the sequel) but... yeah, I think we could probably use more female superheroes.
The other problem is Lang's team of fellow thieves. He's got a group of three guys who help him out in the heist, and while there are some fun jokes that come from Luis (his old cellmate,) the guys are walking ethnic stereotypes. Luis maybe gets a pass, given that he is the impetus for some of the funniest sequences in the film - as we watch the chain of people giving him leads all lip-synch to what is clearly Luis' paraphrasing of what they said - but the other guys are pretty much "funny deadpan Russian guy" and... uh... "black getaway driver."
The other disappointment of the movie is the question of what might have been. The aforementioned lip-synching sequence feels very Edgar Wright - one of my favorite comedy directors working today - scratch that, favorite directors. Wright is incredibly inventive pushing the medium to the limit in terms of cramming as much cinematic brilliance onto the screen as possible (I just re-watched Hot Fuzz, and even if you consider it the worst of the Cornetto Trilogy, it's still a brilliant and hilarious piece of filmmaking.)
Marvel's movies do have something of a brand to them, and I get that that has been one of the key's to their success, but it does mean that they had to iron out some of the interesting wrinkles Wright must have introduced to the movie.
Still, if you like the Marvel movies (and I think most people who see them do,) you'll get a kick out of this one. It's funny and fun, and it's a nice change of pace to have a superhero movie where the fate of the world isn't at stake (well, one could argue it is, but they're putting a stop to the threat before it's on the level of an enormous city-meteorite that's going to wipe out humanity.)
And with that, we find ourselves at the conclusion of "Phase 2." Next up, starting phase 3, is Captain America: Civil War, which I have high hopes for mainly because I've really liked both of the solo Captain America movies (particularly the second.)
Friday, July 10, 2015
Revenge Ain't So Sweet in Hannibal's Dolce
Let's start at the end here. Hannibal (the show) has plunged deep, deep into dreamlike abstractions. While I think it could maybe stand to come up for air, I'm still blown away that a network like NBC could show something as strange as this. Granted, they won't be showing it much longer. Hannibal was cancelled by NBC, but it looks like some other potential venues for it have passed as well, meaning that we're more likely than not watching the final season at the moment.
The final pair of scenes in Dolce show us the seeming ultimate defeat of Will, but also a bizarre switcheroo that dramatically changes the status quo of the season, and, if the show is actually heading to the situation from the books, will result in a Hannibal behind bars, but not before Mason Verger is taken out.
Will comes very close to having his brain pan-fried in front of him, in a nod to the infamous Ray Liota scene from the film Hannibal (I can't remember if that came before or after Red Dragon, but it's clear none of the other big-screen adaptations really lived up to Silence of the Lambs.)
Back in the US, Alana has teamed up with the Vergers to track down Hannibal, but the thing is that Mason doesn't just want Hannibal dead - he wants to eat the good doctor piece by piece - essentially subjecting Hannibal to what Hannibal did to Abel Gideon. The six million dollar bounty on Hannibal has turned the Italian police into an army of bounty hunters, and while Pazzi died trying to collect, that has not deterred others.
Also of note: Alana and Margot have some freaky kaleidoscope sex. This perhaps comes out of nowhere - the only reason I knew it was coming was because Caroline Dhavernas suggested it to Bryan Fuller in the middle of a commentary track on the season two DVDs. Margot is down a uterus after the events of season two, but she still wants to have a child - something that Mason even agrees to (and creepily, wants to be the father. Jeez, this is more fucked up than the Lannisters!) It seems Margot wants Alana to have her baby. Ok.
Jack and Will meet as the coroners are picking up Pazzi's body. They decide to keep up the story that Hannibal is really just Doctor Fell, to prevent other cops from going mercenary, but it's not really something they can manage.
They do, however, come to Hannibal's home and find Bedelia there. "Lydia Fell," after meeting with Chiyo, drugs herself, maintaining the story that she is an innocent, being manipulated like Miriam Lass. In an earlier scene with Hannibal, the two of them talk openly about his plans to murder and eat her (seriously, does Hannibal have any relationships that he does not intend to ultimately end by eating the other person?) but Bedelia's got a leg up. She isn't done "marinating," and she knows that Hannibal can't stay with everyone converging on him. Is she permanently safe? No, probably not, and paradoxically the very fact that she has out-maneuvered Hannibal probably makes it more likely for him to try to kill her later.
Bedelia meets Jack and Will, and while they see through her act with ease, she maintains it - she knows that she's not the one they're after, and ultimately, she's doing what she needs to survive.
As Jack tries to get the truth from her, Will disappears, and this proves to be a mistake. He goes to meet Hannibal at the Uffitzi, who is doing his sketches of Primavera - substituting in Will and Bedelia's faces. For Hannibal, this return to Florence has been a return to his roots.
He and Will walk out of the museum, not noticing that Chiyo has set up high above with a sniper rifle. It seems she's ready to take out Hannibal, but instead, she zeroes in on Will right as our hero pulls out a knife and gets ready to put Hannibal down.
Will awakens in Hannibal's captivity, and he is eventually sat down at a table while Hannibal spoon-feeds him a reduction of rosemary and thyme. The "soup" isn't for Will - it's to infuse him with flavor. Hannibal is finally going to kill him and eat him.
Jack walks in, as if to save the day, but Hannibal gets him by the Achilles tendon and sits him down on the opposite end of the table - so that he and Hannibal can chew Will's brain more literally than they were ever able to before.
Will is drugged to inaction, and Jack is forced to witness in horror as Hannibal takes a bonesaw to Will's forehead....
And then, images of clouds and hanging pigs, and Will and Hannibal are next to each other, hanging upside-down from hooks as Mason Verger wheels in, welcoming them to his farm.
I expect we'll find out how the hell that happened in the coming weeks, but we're left with quite a few questions. It's likely that the police officer interviewing Bedelia was the one to collect on the bounty, and that those loyal to him took Hannibal and Will right before the former could get into the latter's brain, but what about Jack?
We're now about halfway through what will probably be the show's last season. I expect next week's episode to be quite the climactic one. If the structure of this season is similar to the previous one, we might even see a massive time-jump to take us to the events of Red Dragon quite soon. After a whole lot of set-up, the show is moving pieces at a lightning pace.
The final pair of scenes in Dolce show us the seeming ultimate defeat of Will, but also a bizarre switcheroo that dramatically changes the status quo of the season, and, if the show is actually heading to the situation from the books, will result in a Hannibal behind bars, but not before Mason Verger is taken out.
Will comes very close to having his brain pan-fried in front of him, in a nod to the infamous Ray Liota scene from the film Hannibal (I can't remember if that came before or after Red Dragon, but it's clear none of the other big-screen adaptations really lived up to Silence of the Lambs.)
Back in the US, Alana has teamed up with the Vergers to track down Hannibal, but the thing is that Mason doesn't just want Hannibal dead - he wants to eat the good doctor piece by piece - essentially subjecting Hannibal to what Hannibal did to Abel Gideon. The six million dollar bounty on Hannibal has turned the Italian police into an army of bounty hunters, and while Pazzi died trying to collect, that has not deterred others.
Also of note: Alana and Margot have some freaky kaleidoscope sex. This perhaps comes out of nowhere - the only reason I knew it was coming was because Caroline Dhavernas suggested it to Bryan Fuller in the middle of a commentary track on the season two DVDs. Margot is down a uterus after the events of season two, but she still wants to have a child - something that Mason even agrees to (and creepily, wants to be the father. Jeez, this is more fucked up than the Lannisters!) It seems Margot wants Alana to have her baby. Ok.
Jack and Will meet as the coroners are picking up Pazzi's body. They decide to keep up the story that Hannibal is really just Doctor Fell, to prevent other cops from going mercenary, but it's not really something they can manage.
They do, however, come to Hannibal's home and find Bedelia there. "Lydia Fell," after meeting with Chiyo, drugs herself, maintaining the story that she is an innocent, being manipulated like Miriam Lass. In an earlier scene with Hannibal, the two of them talk openly about his plans to murder and eat her (seriously, does Hannibal have any relationships that he does not intend to ultimately end by eating the other person?) but Bedelia's got a leg up. She isn't done "marinating," and she knows that Hannibal can't stay with everyone converging on him. Is she permanently safe? No, probably not, and paradoxically the very fact that she has out-maneuvered Hannibal probably makes it more likely for him to try to kill her later.
Bedelia meets Jack and Will, and while they see through her act with ease, she maintains it - she knows that she's not the one they're after, and ultimately, she's doing what she needs to survive.
As Jack tries to get the truth from her, Will disappears, and this proves to be a mistake. He goes to meet Hannibal at the Uffitzi, who is doing his sketches of Primavera - substituting in Will and Bedelia's faces. For Hannibal, this return to Florence has been a return to his roots.
He and Will walk out of the museum, not noticing that Chiyo has set up high above with a sniper rifle. It seems she's ready to take out Hannibal, but instead, she zeroes in on Will right as our hero pulls out a knife and gets ready to put Hannibal down.
Will awakens in Hannibal's captivity, and he is eventually sat down at a table while Hannibal spoon-feeds him a reduction of rosemary and thyme. The "soup" isn't for Will - it's to infuse him with flavor. Hannibal is finally going to kill him and eat him.
Jack walks in, as if to save the day, but Hannibal gets him by the Achilles tendon and sits him down on the opposite end of the table - so that he and Hannibal can chew Will's brain more literally than they were ever able to before.
Will is drugged to inaction, and Jack is forced to witness in horror as Hannibal takes a bonesaw to Will's forehead....
And then, images of clouds and hanging pigs, and Will and Hannibal are next to each other, hanging upside-down from hooks as Mason Verger wheels in, welcoming them to his farm.
I expect we'll find out how the hell that happened in the coming weeks, but we're left with quite a few questions. It's likely that the police officer interviewing Bedelia was the one to collect on the bounty, and that those loyal to him took Hannibal and Will right before the former could get into the latter's brain, but what about Jack?
We're now about halfway through what will probably be the show's last season. I expect next week's episode to be quite the climactic one. If the structure of this season is similar to the previous one, we might even see a massive time-jump to take us to the events of Red Dragon quite soon. After a whole lot of set-up, the show is moving pieces at a lightning pace.
The Gift of Hindsight - Re-Reading A Game of Thrones
While a "book reader," I can't claim the hipster credibility of having read George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books "before they were cool." I had heard of the series, but I didn't delve into it until I began hearing how good the television show was.
I did purchase the first of the books before watching the first season of the show (which had finished by the time I decided to watch it) but I lent the book to a friend, as I was still working on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel (which has recently gotten its own adaptation, though a more modest BBC one - whose first episode I saw but have been unable to find a way to watch more.)
I watched the first season, but then I barreled through the other books, finishing, if I recall correctly, the fifth book before season two premiered (the only time I really slowed down was book four, which, to be frank, at least at the time felt really dull - I never cared much for the Dorne plot, and it looks like the showrunners didn't either.)
The thing is, the Song of Ice and Fire books are incredibly dense with backstory. Martin has gone to Tolkienesque lengths to give just about every town or castle a history, and that has provided myriad fan theories ample evidence to argue their cases.
As an example, the most popular fan theory that I'm not even going to bother marking as a spoiler, is the so-called "R+L=J" theory. Which is to say that Jon Snow is not actually Ned Stark's bastard son, but is instead the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and could potentially be the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rather than Daenerys. (Of course, as he is a member of the Night's Watch it's kind of moot, and Jon still might be a bastard, technically speaking. Wait a second, does that mean that Jon Snow should really be Jon Waters, if he's Rhaegar's bastard son?)
Martin clearly has a lot of hidden stories going on in the subtext of his novels, but it's also always interesting to see how a series evolves when it is written over the course of several decades. Take Stannis for example - while he's mentioned in the first book and first season, we never see him. We only know that he's the rightful Baratheon heir that Ned thinks should take the throne rather than Joffrey. But our introduction to him in book two, and particularly his adherence to the Lord of Light religion and Melisandre's influence, really fills out that part of the story (and of course muddies the waters on just who really should be in charge.)
Anyway, there's a ton of stuff that I missed simply trying to keep up with the text-level plot. But now that I'm far more familiar with that (having read the series and also watched the show - which certainly has some differences but tends to stay on the same course) I can dedicate my attention more fully to these subtext questions.
And I've been happy to discover that Martin has laid a lot of groundwork for future developments even in the very first few chapters. Daenerys' first introduction (and man is it weird to remember how naive and innocent she was, and how much she was dominated by her brother) sees her listening to the Red Priests stoking their fires for the night, and Ilyrio invoking the Lord of Light as a blessing. The faith of R'hollor in Westeros is seen as basically a small cult, but it does seem to be pretty mainstream in the Free Cities (though hopefully they do less person-burning.)
It's also within the very first Eddard chapter that we get some of the groundwork laid for R+L=J. We know that Howland Reed is the only person other than Ned to have survived the battle between Ned and the Kingsguard who were guarding Lyanna. She apparently died of a fever, which could have been complications from childbirth. Also, why would multiple members of the Kingsguard be guarding the "captive" of the crown prince during a massive war? The presence of an heir seems really the best way to explain it.
Anyway, another few notable things come up. One big thing is just how young everyone is. Eddard in the books is a mere thirty-five, but was played by a 52-year-old Sean Bean. And of course, the effect of this is far greater when it comes to the children. Daenerys is in her early teens, it seems, while Robb and Jon are I believe fifteen - compare that with their actors, who were all about 24 or 25 when the show began.
Of course, this was definitely for the best. It's easier to read about a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl being married off to some guy she's never met than to see it. And it's not as if that scene in the first episode of Game of Thrones was easy to watch either.
If I spot anything else notable enough to write a whole blog post about... I'll write a whole blog post about it. Anyway, it'll tide me over until Season/Book Six (whichever comes first.)
I did purchase the first of the books before watching the first season of the show (which had finished by the time I decided to watch it) but I lent the book to a friend, as I was still working on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel (which has recently gotten its own adaptation, though a more modest BBC one - whose first episode I saw but have been unable to find a way to watch more.)
I watched the first season, but then I barreled through the other books, finishing, if I recall correctly, the fifth book before season two premiered (the only time I really slowed down was book four, which, to be frank, at least at the time felt really dull - I never cared much for the Dorne plot, and it looks like the showrunners didn't either.)
The thing is, the Song of Ice and Fire books are incredibly dense with backstory. Martin has gone to Tolkienesque lengths to give just about every town or castle a history, and that has provided myriad fan theories ample evidence to argue their cases.
As an example, the most popular fan theory that I'm not even going to bother marking as a spoiler, is the so-called "R+L=J" theory. Which is to say that Jon Snow is not actually Ned Stark's bastard son, but is instead the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and could potentially be the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rather than Daenerys. (Of course, as he is a member of the Night's Watch it's kind of moot, and Jon still might be a bastard, technically speaking. Wait a second, does that mean that Jon Snow should really be Jon Waters, if he's Rhaegar's bastard son?)
Martin clearly has a lot of hidden stories going on in the subtext of his novels, but it's also always interesting to see how a series evolves when it is written over the course of several decades. Take Stannis for example - while he's mentioned in the first book and first season, we never see him. We only know that he's the rightful Baratheon heir that Ned thinks should take the throne rather than Joffrey. But our introduction to him in book two, and particularly his adherence to the Lord of Light religion and Melisandre's influence, really fills out that part of the story (and of course muddies the waters on just who really should be in charge.)
Anyway, there's a ton of stuff that I missed simply trying to keep up with the text-level plot. But now that I'm far more familiar with that (having read the series and also watched the show - which certainly has some differences but tends to stay on the same course) I can dedicate my attention more fully to these subtext questions.
And I've been happy to discover that Martin has laid a lot of groundwork for future developments even in the very first few chapters. Daenerys' first introduction (and man is it weird to remember how naive and innocent she was, and how much she was dominated by her brother) sees her listening to the Red Priests stoking their fires for the night, and Ilyrio invoking the Lord of Light as a blessing. The faith of R'hollor in Westeros is seen as basically a small cult, but it does seem to be pretty mainstream in the Free Cities (though hopefully they do less person-burning.)
It's also within the very first Eddard chapter that we get some of the groundwork laid for R+L=J. We know that Howland Reed is the only person other than Ned to have survived the battle between Ned and the Kingsguard who were guarding Lyanna. She apparently died of a fever, which could have been complications from childbirth. Also, why would multiple members of the Kingsguard be guarding the "captive" of the crown prince during a massive war? The presence of an heir seems really the best way to explain it.
Anyway, another few notable things come up. One big thing is just how young everyone is. Eddard in the books is a mere thirty-five, but was played by a 52-year-old Sean Bean. And of course, the effect of this is far greater when it comes to the children. Daenerys is in her early teens, it seems, while Robb and Jon are I believe fifteen - compare that with their actors, who were all about 24 or 25 when the show began.
Of course, this was definitely for the best. It's easier to read about a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl being married off to some guy she's never met than to see it. And it's not as if that scene in the first episode of Game of Thrones was easy to watch either.
If I spot anything else notable enough to write a whole blog post about... I'll write a whole blog post about it. Anyway, it'll tide me over until Season/Book Six (whichever comes first.)
Friday, July 3, 2015
A Bit of Catharsis, a Bit of Defenestration in Hannibal's Contorno
The noose is tightening for Hannibal as the people he didn't actually kill are coming for him. And while Hannibal treats one of them to the kind of historical allusion/horrifying death that he's known for, it would be hard to say Hannibal comes out ahead this week.
Will and Chiyo are heading to Florence, but Will's trip is delayed when Chiyo throws him off a moving train. Now, Will's our protagonist, but he desperately needs a shock to the system that being gutted didn't accomplish. Will has spent way too much time with Hannibal, allowing il monstro to worm his way into Will's mind. The danger of Will's pursuit is that he is still seeing the world the way Hannibal made him see it - that he either needs to kill Hannibal or run off to be murder-buddies with him. Will is stuck in a rut - he's forgotten that he wasn't always this way. Oh, he was messed up before, sure, but nowhere nearly as after his abusive friendship with Hannibal Lecter.
Will this train ejection help him? I sure hope so. Nothing would please me more than to see Will grow past the form that Hannibal molded him into.
Meanwhile, however, Jack has arrived in Florence. He spreads Bella's ashes in the Arno along with his wedding ring before meeting up with Inspector Pazzi, with whom he is collaborating to capture Hannibal.
Poor (former) Inspector Pazzi, who we find out is actually of the Pazzi family who rivaled the Medicis for power in Florence. (If you've played Assassin's Creed II, you've killed some of his ancestors!) Pazzi goes after Hannibal, but rather than calling in the police, he responds to Mason Verger's bounty, taking great risk for a 3 million dollar reward.
Foolishly, he meets Hannibal alone and Dr. "Fell" shows him a woodcut of one of his Pazzi ancestors who was hanged after attempting to kill Lorenzo di Medici - and according to Hannibal, had been paid thirty pieces of silver by the Church to do so. This hanging, as we saw in an earlier episode (I want to say Antipasto,) is how the death of Judas Iscariot is depicted as well. Hannibal continues his horribly blasphemous antichrist routine by giving Inspector Pazzi the same fate, hanging him with an extension cord after slicing his abdomen open (bowels out.) (So is a piece of silver worth $100,000?)
It's exactly how Hannibal's dealings tend to go - a highly symbolic death committed with immense cruelty.
But just as Pazzi's guts hit the pavement below him, Jack shows up.
And Hannibal clearly did not expect this, because we get the most satisfyingly one-sided fight I've possibly ever seen on television.
Hannibal spends a moment trying to prepare for the confrontation, and all of a sudden the music comes on (it's a really famous bit of classical music that I confess I don't know the name of) and, taking a page out of the good doctor's book, Jack sneaks up behind him in just his socks. And then, holy shit, the mother of all beat-downs as Jack just wails on Hannibal.
Lecter doesn't get a single significant hit in. He is quickly disarmed and then thrown through glass cases. All the while, Hannibal tries to press his advantage with (and forgive me if you haven't already become addicted to TVTropse) a Hannibal Lecture, only for badass Jack Crawford, as an avatar of justice and rage, to just not give a fuck (just going to leave this here.) Hannibal ends the fight bloody and broken on the ground after being thrown out a fucking window, hobbling off while Jack stands victorious.
Sure, this'd probably be a good time to arrest him, but clearly Will's going to need to be there for that.
Pazzi's dead, which is certainly on the negative side of things (and in a way that looks like it was quite painful) but that fight left me freaking cheering at the screen. Hannibal seemed so untouchable, so powerful as if he would never be defeated. But this set the record straight. Also, Jack is fucking badass.
Will and Chiyo are heading to Florence, but Will's trip is delayed when Chiyo throws him off a moving train. Now, Will's our protagonist, but he desperately needs a shock to the system that being gutted didn't accomplish. Will has spent way too much time with Hannibal, allowing il monstro to worm his way into Will's mind. The danger of Will's pursuit is that he is still seeing the world the way Hannibal made him see it - that he either needs to kill Hannibal or run off to be murder-buddies with him. Will is stuck in a rut - he's forgotten that he wasn't always this way. Oh, he was messed up before, sure, but nowhere nearly as after his abusive friendship with Hannibal Lecter.
Will this train ejection help him? I sure hope so. Nothing would please me more than to see Will grow past the form that Hannibal molded him into.
Meanwhile, however, Jack has arrived in Florence. He spreads Bella's ashes in the Arno along with his wedding ring before meeting up with Inspector Pazzi, with whom he is collaborating to capture Hannibal.
Poor (former) Inspector Pazzi, who we find out is actually of the Pazzi family who rivaled the Medicis for power in Florence. (If you've played Assassin's Creed II, you've killed some of his ancestors!) Pazzi goes after Hannibal, but rather than calling in the police, he responds to Mason Verger's bounty, taking great risk for a 3 million dollar reward.
Foolishly, he meets Hannibal alone and Dr. "Fell" shows him a woodcut of one of his Pazzi ancestors who was hanged after attempting to kill Lorenzo di Medici - and according to Hannibal, had been paid thirty pieces of silver by the Church to do so. This hanging, as we saw in an earlier episode (I want to say Antipasto,) is how the death of Judas Iscariot is depicted as well. Hannibal continues his horribly blasphemous antichrist routine by giving Inspector Pazzi the same fate, hanging him with an extension cord after slicing his abdomen open (bowels out.) (So is a piece of silver worth $100,000?)
It's exactly how Hannibal's dealings tend to go - a highly symbolic death committed with immense cruelty.
But just as Pazzi's guts hit the pavement below him, Jack shows up.
And Hannibal clearly did not expect this, because we get the most satisfyingly one-sided fight I've possibly ever seen on television.
Hannibal spends a moment trying to prepare for the confrontation, and all of a sudden the music comes on (it's a really famous bit of classical music that I confess I don't know the name of) and, taking a page out of the good doctor's book, Jack sneaks up behind him in just his socks. And then, holy shit, the mother of all beat-downs as Jack just wails on Hannibal.
Lecter doesn't get a single significant hit in. He is quickly disarmed and then thrown through glass cases. All the while, Hannibal tries to press his advantage with (and forgive me if you haven't already become addicted to TVTropse) a Hannibal Lecture, only for badass Jack Crawford, as an avatar of justice and rage, to just not give a fuck (just going to leave this here.) Hannibal ends the fight bloody and broken on the ground after being thrown out a fucking window, hobbling off while Jack stands victorious.
Sure, this'd probably be a good time to arrest him, but clearly Will's going to need to be there for that.
Pazzi's dead, which is certainly on the negative side of things (and in a way that looks like it was quite painful) but that fight left me freaking cheering at the screen. Hannibal seemed so untouchable, so powerful as if he would never be defeated. But this set the record straight. Also, Jack is fucking badass.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)