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.
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