Hannibal Season 2, Episode 6
"Futamono"
Original airdate: April 4, 2014
Writers: Andy Black, Bryan Fuller, Scott Nimerfro, Steve Lightfoot
Director: Tim Hunter
Cast: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, Raul Esparza, Suzy Eddie Izzard
"Who does he have to kill before you open your eyes?"
Rewatching Hannibal in an era of global violence and mass death like this one is a fascinating experience. It shifts your psyche in ways you don't even realize until you're in the grip of someone else's fiction machine, and in the case of Bryan Fuller's series at this particular point in the story, that means watching things through the lens of decorum obscuring reality. Hannibal Lecter is many things, but paramount among them at this point in the story is his ability to maintain what Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier called his "well-tailored person suit." How could a man so obsessed with refinement, courtesy, and impeccable precision be so brutal? How long would it take you to believe that?
For Jack Crawford, the answer is Quite A While, but when Will Graham asks him the question this time, he does at last seem more receptive. He's running out of room to dismiss Will's theories, particularly since Will has taken on the tactic of suggesting Hannibal's guilt rather than outright stating it. This time, fresh off his unsuccessful attempt to kill Hannibal by proxy, Will feels every bit the evil genius in his cell in Baltimore. He's even recycling some of Lecter's own The Silence of the Lambs dialogue (a very clever nod in this moment from Fuller and the writing team) to make his point. And his point is to not just ask the question, but to challenge Jack.
The Chesapeake Ripper, Will says, kills in clusters because "If he waits too long, then the meat spoils." That means that he's using all the organs he harvests for something. Hannibal Lecter likes to throw dinner parties every once in a while, and Will hypothesizes that the next time they get a Ripper victim, a dinner party at Dr. Lecter's won't be far behind.
And so we're off with "Futamono," an episode that's one long tightening of the noose. The question is: Whose neck is in the loop?
Hannibal's starting to feel at least a little like it might be him. His near-death at the hands of a wannabe last episode has left him scarred and a little worse for wear, but Hannibal doesn't let any literal or emotional meat go to waste. His attempted murder means he can garner fresh sympathy from Alana and Jack, who understands when Hannibal declines to consult on yet another murder case. In backing away from the FBI, Hannibal hopes to shed certain connections that could get him in trouble, and while Jack faintly sniffs that, he's also still firmly in his friend's corner. But that's also about to come into question, because just like Will predicted, another body just turned up.
And it's here that we pause to ponder what is, for many Fannibals, the most beautifully rendered crime scene in the show's history. This time, the Ripper has killed a local politician and left him posed in a parking lot, expertly entwined with the roots and limbs of a living tree. His chest is carved open, and in place of his organs the Ripper has placed a glorious assortment of poisonous flowers because, as it turns out, this particular politician had a reputation for prioritizing building projects over nature conversation. He was, as Jack says, "a poisonous man" who literally paved paradise and put up a parking lot, and so the Ripper is mocking his transgressions in a scene of breathtaking beauty. Hannibal Lecter is an arts and crafts master and I want an alternate version of this show where he's just working at Michael's, giving out tips to customers. But I digress…
While Jack works the crime scene and Hannibal works on himself (i.e murders a bunch of people), Will is still tangling with Dr. Frederick Chilton and Dr. Abel Gideon at the asylum. Through the shared wall between their cells, Will grills Gideon about his decision to rat Will out before Hannibal could die, and Gideon's more than happy to keep playing his own game. Aware that Chilton's recording everything, he drops intimate details of Hannibal's home to back up Will's story that he's been there, setting Chilton's mind alight with fresh possibility. Talking with Jack, Chilton offers up Gideon as a potential star witness in the Ripper case, and they discuss Will's theory that the Ripper (i.e. Hannibal) is eating his victims and feeding them to dinner party guests.
"Cannibalism is an act of dominance," Chilton offers. Even he, the most cynical and manipulative man on the entire show, is getting closer to the truth than Jack is at this point. Meanwhile back in his cell, Will stews, imagines himself sprouting antlers so vast and ornate that they become a calcified tree shading him. He has become Death, and even if he is closer than ever to turning the tables on Hannibal, he might never come back from this. Jack needs to see the light not just to save the Ripper's future victims, but to save Will from becoming the next Ripper. It's one of the show's delicious ironies throughout Season 2. The longer Will is locked up for something he didn't do, the more ruthless he gets, the closer he becomes to the thing everyone believed him to be.
Meanwhile, Gideon decides to have a little fun with the asylum guards, insulting the nurse he murdered so thoroughly that they beat him and toss him down a shaft, and Hannibal pays a visit to Will and basically cuts off their friendship. It's a brutal breakup for Hannibal, and in one of the most brilliant moments of dark comedy in the show's history, the camera pivots from that scene to a shot of Hannibal literally slicing up human hearts to prep for cooking. He is heartbroken and he is a heartbreaker.
And yes of course he's throwing a dinner party! It's meant to be his glorious return to public life after a near-death experience, so he's pulling out all the stops, and Jack is invited, giving him a perfect platform to test Will's theory. With this, I want to give an overdue shout-out to Janice Poon, the food stylist for the series, who worked with her team to craft all the ornate tablescapes, platings, and preparations you've seen so far in the series. Her work is masterful, and its especially masterful in "Futamono" because the context of the dinner party changes. The audience has, of course, known all along that Hannibal is eating people. It's kinda his whole deal. But now, with Chilton even uttering the phrase "Hannibal the Cannibal" out loud for the first time, the characters are onto him. As Jack and Chilton stand together, quietly chatting while eyeing often ghoulish platings (the dish with chicken claws sticking up out of what looks like a grave is a particularly wonderful touch), it starts to lock into place. This guy has been flaunting something at everyone all along, and over the course of one scene we get to see the mood swing in an entirely new direction, as Jack truly starts to wonder if his friend, the man who literally saved his wife's life, might be a killer.
Being a smart investigator who's also very aware of Hannibal's dedication to courtesy, Jack greets his host, then says he'd like to take some food to go. Hannibal tries to get it directly from the kitchen, but Jack presses one of the cater waiters to instead just bring him a box, so he can take food right from the passed plates. Mads Mikkelsen, long a master of subtle expression, absolutely nails this moment. When Jack takes it back to the lab, it doesn't test positive for human meat, but that's not the point of the panic behind Hannibal's eyes. It's not the meat that counts here. It's the realization that his closest ally in law enforcement has begun to suspect him.
So Hannibal makes another shrewd play to preserve his perceived innocence while, as an added bonus, getting one over on Will. After the dinner party, at his harpsichord, he seduces Alana Bloom. After years of flirting and professional admiration, they fall into bed together, but it's not just because Hannibal likes her (everyone likes Alana, except maybe Chilton). It's because he needs an alibi. With Alana asleep in his bed, Hannibal heads across town and abducts Abel Gideon from his room in the hospital infirmary, tying up yet another loose end. So when Jack heads over the next morning to look into Gideon's fresh disappearance, Alana's there, wearing one of Hannibal's dress shirts, happy to report that she was with him all night. Hannibal can't always win a scenario, but he can always find a way to tangle it just enough that he doesn't lose. He is, like his well-gardened first victim in the episode, a poisonous man who taints every trace which ties him back to these crimes.
Hannibal didn't just kill Gideon outright. No, Dr. Abel Gideon, the wannabe Chesapeake Ripper, gets a special kind of final indignity. Hannibal amputates one of his legs, debones the thigh, then bakes it in a beautifully sculpted clay dome because, again, he is the single best crafter in the serial killer community. He'd make a killing on Etsy. Gideon, ever fascinated by Hannibal even as he's aware now that his final meal will be, well, himself, opts to try the meat because, as Hannibal reminds him, "The tragedy is not to die, Abel, but to be wasted." Abel, Will, and Frederick all perceive Hannibal as the devil now, and he's doing nothing to dispel the notion.
But Jack gets the last word this time around. The tree from the first crime scene, you see, was not native to the area, which means it's easier to trace where it grew. When the FBI team comes up with a location, Jack heads out to investigate, opens a dark shaft in an old building, and uncovers…his old trainee, Miriam Lass, not dead but captive and missing an arm, crouched in an oubliette. How on earth will Hannibal get out of this one?
Next Time: "Yakimono"
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