Hannibal Season 3, Episode 9
"...And The Woman Clothed in Sun"
Original airdate: August 8, 2015
Writers: Don Mancini, Bryan Fuller
Director: Guillermo Navarro
Cast: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Richard Armitage, Gillian Anderson, Rutina Welsey
I think we may have reached our last slow episode of Hannibal. Not bad, mind you, but until its dramatic conclusion setting up next week, "...And the Woman Clothed in Sun" is definitely rather slow. It's about moving certain dramatic pieces into place, and those pieces don't require much in the way of murder, so for the moment, we sit back, and we see where everyone stands.
At the end of the last episode, Francis Dolarhyde revealed himself as the Great Red Dragon to Hannibal over the phone. We hear more of that conversation to open this episode, as Dolarhyde intimates that he'd love to meet Hannibal, perhaps even show him his work. Hannibal wonders if he is meant to be the John the Baptist to Dolarhyde's Christ, and instead Dolarhyde invokes William Blake's art yet again, positioning himself as the Dragon who will stand before the Great Beast 666. Hannibal gets the information he wants by flattering Dolarhyde, but Dolarhyde gives as good as he gets. He even goes so far as to steal into Lecter's old office, imagine himself sitting across from greatness.
Will Graham continues to hunt the Red Dragon/Tooth Fairy murderer, but his encounters with Hannibal have him picking at old scars, so he goes to see Bedelia (Gillian Anderson's back!), who's made her version of the narrative of her life with Hannibal into a lucrative new career. She lectures on what she went through, the way he "brainwashed" her into forgetting who she really was, and roped her into his criminal enterprise. In discussing Hannibal's devious nature, she makes a brief note about Dante, the first writer to imagine Hell in terms of a bureaucratic structure. Before Dante's Gates of Hell, she says, there was only "The Mouth of Hell," and her point is helped along by a giant Hieronymus Bosch reproduction in the background.
It's not hard to see the connection to Hannibal, particularly since Will and Bedelia soon bring up Hannibal devouring them both in their conversation following her lecture. Even behind bars (or in his case, bulletproof glass), he is an endless appetite, hungry not just for stimulation but transformation, for something that will make his life more than his admittedly luxurious captivity. In Dolarhyde he seems to find it, and he springs into action, hacking his phone so he can get Will's home address under false pretense.
Before we can learn of any danger to Will's wife and son, though, we have to turn back to Bedelia. This is the episode in which she finally recounts (mostly) the full tale of what happened to the patient she killed. This patient (Zachary Quinto) was also a patient of Hannibal's, who came to her for help when he realized that Hannibal had been using light therapy (of the same kind he'd used on Will) to induce seizures and compliance. The reality of the situation seems to have been that he was a pawn for Hannibal to help him get closer to Bedelia, which worked perfectly. Bedelia only thought she escaped from the belly of the beast, but the Mouth of Hell isn't quite so wide.
It's here that things start to pick up a bit. Will returns to Hannibal, and they discuss William Blake, a misunderstood genius who died in poverty and is now considered one of the most revolutionary artists of his age. Blake's "Great Red Dragon" series of paintings is obviously of immense personal significance to Dolarhyde, something Hannibal is willing to share (after all, once Murder Husbands, always Murder Husbands). Fortunately for Will, there is an actual Blake watercolor of "The Great Red Dragon, and the Woman Clothed with the Sun" at the Brooklyn Museum.
Dolarhyde, who's just had his first sexual encounter with Reba (Rutina Wesley) followed swiftly by a vision in which he killed her, is headed to the very same museum, but he's not just there to gain visual insight. He's there to absorb the painting entirely, incapacitating the curator who granted him access and literally devouring Blake's work, bite by bite. Will shows up moments later, and the two glimpse one another. Will pursues, but can't find the Red Dragon. After all, he's more powerful now. His becoming has hastened, and now his one great ally in the world knows where Will Graham lives.
Much of the episode is devoted to Dolarhyde's date night with Reba, which I haven't touched on very much here because, frankly, I don't find it all that interesting. I find Dolarhyde's tenderness with her interesting, and I find his attempt to wrestle with his own nature when she's around interesting, but the sustained application of it just doesn't work for me. That said, the sequence in which Francis arranges from Reba to touch a sedated tiger (another important Blake symbol) is stunning stuff.
Otherwise, like I said, this is very much a bits and pieces episode, preparing for the chaos to come in the final stretch of three episodes. We have moved Dolarhyde and Will Graham closer. We have exposed Hannibal's direct application of his manipulative nature to the situation, opening the Mouth of Hell wider. We've been reacquainted with Bedelia, and we already know that Jack and Alana are waiting in the wings with their own agendas. Many of these people are going to get what they want, but they're also going to pay for it dearly. It's time for the home stretch.
Next Time: "...And the Beast From the Sea"
