Hannibal: Sakizuke   Rewatch 
March 16, 2015 3:15 PM - Season 2, Episode 2 - Subscribe

The BAU team narrows in on the origin of the discarded bodies from the soupy crime scene, working to discover the killer's artful plan, while Will Graham begins an artful plan of his own from within the asylum.

Possibly the most horrifying cold open the show's done to date, and for me one of the bigger "how do they get away with this on network TV?" moments of season two. And Bedelia gets the eff out of dodge... (or does she). Hannibal seems so sad when he finds her apartment empty...

The script is available, as is a recap by Cleolinda in two parts.
posted by sparkletone (16 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
All of the Bedelia stuff is now super interesting in retrospect but there's this deleted scene from either this episode or the previous one that I think is REALLY telling.

I can see why it was cut, it doesn't add anything new, but it does put a finer point on things that come up later.

Yes that cold open is horrifying, I still have yet to see it without fingers in the way.

This is also the first time we see Will deliberalty performing for Alana and Hannibal- I don't think he's figured out a plan yet, but he is testing the waters.
posted by The Whelk at 3:56 PM on March 16, 2015


This is also the first time we see Will deliberalty performing for Alana and Hannibal- I don't think he's figured out a plan yet, but he is testing the waters.

This was definitely something that stood out to me on this particular rewatch. It's even literally what he's saying to them, "I'm an unreliable narrator."

And it's funny that another important thing happening in this episode is Bedelia very pointedly not buying into Hannibal's story to the point where he sees her as enough of a threat to put on his plastic murder suit and pay her a house call. She was right all along.
posted by sparkletone at 4:19 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fun thing about Bedlia, she never lies.
posted by The Whelk at 4:26 PM on March 16, 2015


Also! Bev taking up the Clarice mantle, I remember it but forgot how quickly it happened. everyone else is still in shock, Bev is immediately trying to figure it out cause everything on her face is going "Nothing about this makes sense."

Also, considering how Will has to become enough like Hannibal for his plan to work it's great that they gave Will all of Book!Hannibal's lines and some of his Red Dragon plot points.
posted by The Whelk at 4:39 PM on March 16, 2015


Interesting how still we are in the world of relative reality, Body-Quilt takes up all our magical realism murder time, it's like a callback to the first half of season one where thinks are ...mostly sane before they become full on man-inside=a=tree art murder crazy. But Hannibal cutting off a leg with comic abloom is a sign of things to come.
posted by The Whelk at 9:51 PM on March 16, 2015


So, Bedelia implies to Jack that Will Graham has the ability to show people the face they want to see, and Jack is focusing on Will and not on what Bedelia is saying about Hannibal.

Bedelia CAN'T express an opinion about Will, because she's never met him. She can only express an opinion about Hannibal, and that is that Hannibal saw a reflection of himself in Will, and that Will is a chameleon. This, of course, means Hannibal is a chameleon. When she tells Jack he's wrong about Will, that's because EVERYONE is wrong about Will, because everyone is wrong about Hannibal.

Embedded in what Bedelia says about Hannibal is that he is "antisocial". This is a HUGE warning put right in front of Jack even as his attention is drawn away from it.

And this is the episode where Will really does start utilizing people's tendency to see themselves in him by actively reflecting back at them what they want to see, instead of protesting that he's not who they think he is. Jack says he saw in Will an asset... oh and um, yeah, a friend. Well, now Jack is not sure if he sees in Will a ruthless heartless bastard, or what, just as he's not sure if he sees in himself a ruthless heartless bastard or what. Will assumes the shape of a posturing narcissist for Chilton's benefit. For Alana (who shares to an extent Hannibal's resistance to being shaped by her environment), he shows her the Will she has always seen and has been longing to see since he was jailed: a wretched, sobbing, pathetic figure who won't survive without her help. Alana's expression is the most telling: her face is all crumpled up with pity, but also puzzlement. It's BY giving her what she wants that she gets an inkling that it's not quite how she imagined it. And Hannibal sees him performing for Alana... he really is like Hannibal!

He plays Hopkins!Lecter to entertain Beverly and, because she is the least biased of all the observers and the one who most wants to get to the truth, they cast off the performance fairly quickly.

At this point, Bedelia really does seem to think that Will is who Hannibal says he is. She's gradually understanding the truth of what Hannibal did to her by seeing it play out through Will and she only has to interact with Will for a moment before she believes him.

This is what people don't get - whatever else Bedelia is, she is a victim of Hannibal's abuse. She DOESN'T UNDERSTAND the situation she's in until this late in the game.

I'm hoping they won't villainize her in S3, but I guess we'll see.
posted by tel3path at 6:55 AM on March 17, 2015 [4 favorites]


Alana takes a sip of Will's pain, and finds it... tastes a little off.
posted by tel3path at 6:58 AM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


And you know, when Jack says he saw Will as an "asset"... that suggests Jack mostly sees himself as a means of getting the job done.

You know how we keep saying Small Cast Syndrome, there are like 2 psychiatrists in Baltimore and 2 people with surgical skills? And I keep saying "but Jack was counseled by a total stranger and the sole purpose of that scene must have been to show us that professionals do exist outside of the inner circle"?

Well, if there really are only 2 surgeons in Baltimore then these people really do suck at their jobs because the Ripper suspect list would always have been incredibly short.
posted by tel3path at 3:24 PM on March 18, 2015




What I like about that brief glimpse of Jack's therapy session, was that it shows that there are not only OTHER therapists in this world, but there are GOOD therapists in this world.

Remember what Miriam Lass said in Entree about how tough investigations go in ever decreasing circles - that's what's happening to the cast.

Bedelia is another good therapist (we assume) who can't escape Hannibal's clutches. But get someone who has no direct connection to any of the main characters and they manage to do a massive amount of good in the space of like one hour.
posted by tel3path at 11:48 AM on March 24, 2015


Hannibal gives off crazy radiation, it's one of his vampire powers.
posted by The Whelk at 11:51 AM on March 24, 2015


So I'm watching season 2 for the first time now, maybe 6 months after watching season 1, and I'm glad you're doing this rewatch here. But I am having a lot of trouble following. What aroused Bedelia's suspicions? Sorry if this is too basic, it's entirely possible I missed major things.
posted by bobobox at 8:31 PM on March 27, 2015


But I am having a lot of trouble following. What aroused Bedelia's suspicions?

There's a thing Bryan Fuller says in a bunch of interviews about people not suspecting Hannibal because most people look at him and see Frasier Crane. Bedelia notably does not thanks to a past experience involving Hannibal and a former patient who died (it's first mentioned somewhere in S1 and details on what exactly happened are scant but maybe season three will flesh this out more).

When he says "neither do you" in response to "the FBI doesn't know what you're capable of" in the season premiere, she finds it probably as chilling as the audience does and gets the hell out.
posted by sparkletone at 1:17 AM on March 28, 2015


Thanks, sparkletone. I've begun reading the Cleolinda recaps as if I really have time for it. There are so many delightful little details though!
posted by bobobox at 10:15 AM on March 28, 2015


Just rewatching this one again.

In the morgue, Hannibal is giving them a really excellent portrayal of what an actual serial killer disguising himself as a profiler would actually look like.

I mean he's so obviously having the time of his life. To look at him with any degree of skepticism at all - as Bev does - is really revealing really quickly.

And as for Bev "okay so don't trust him, just listen to him" GAME, SET AND MATCH.

How can you have genuine trust in anyone if you don't pay fucking attention to what they actually say and do? You can't.
posted by tel3path at 11:27 AM on May 17, 2015


Just watched Kade Purnell come over with her offer.

He's biting back tears at least twice in that conversation. Astonishingly, the fandom doesn't seem to understand that all this actually hurts him. Everyone just says "lol unstable Will what a basket case amirite?" if he's emotional, and "the guy's just like Hannibal" if he isn't.
posted by tel3path at 11:59 AM on May 17, 2015


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