Hannibal: Kaiseki Rewatch
March 7, 2015 5:23 PM - Season 2, Episode 1 - Subscribe
While Will continues to assert his innocence, Hannibal and Jack try to come to terms with the fact that he's in jail; Kade Purnell visits Will.
Hypnosis, powers that be trying to sweep things under the rug instead of helping, people in a silo, people in a river instead of fish, people on a plate that looks like fish, Jack and Hannibal punching each other a lot!
Hypnosis, powers that be trying to sweep things under the rug instead of helping, people in a silo, people in a river instead of fish, people on a plate that looks like fish, Jack and Hannibal punching each other a lot!
OH THIS IS WHAT WE'RE DOING NOW.
I'm with tel3path, assume Alana knows something is fuckinng hinky with Hannibal and she's trying to play dumb/stay on his good side.
posted by The Whelk at 5:50 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm with tel3path, assume Alana knows something is fuckinng hinky with Hannibal and she's trying to play dumb/stay on his good side.
posted by The Whelk at 5:50 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
MY BODY IS NOT READY
Of course not, Hannibal likes his meat well done :-)
posted by Pendragon at 10:54 AM on March 8, 2015
Of course not, Hannibal likes his meat well done :-)
posted by Pendragon at 10:54 AM on March 8, 2015
As with season one, Hannibal starts in the season in a white suit and tie that gets progressively darker as the season progressed, plus the added fun of white being a funeral color in Japan, connecting it to the meal.
This is, more than season one, a season spent inside people's heads and subjective reality so it helps to get outside what you're seeing and ask "why the hell is this person saying/doing this?" No one wants to give away anything, so everyone is lying.
posted by The Whelk at 11:02 AM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is, more than season one, a season spent inside people's heads and subjective reality so it helps to get outside what you're seeing and ask "why the hell is this person saying/doing this?" No one wants to give away anything, so everyone is lying.
posted by The Whelk at 11:02 AM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I just. Is the flounder anyone we know?
"He" was a flounder - how do you tell a little boy fish from a little girl fish anyway? Does a boy fish have a moustache? Creepy.
posted by tel3path at 12:10 PM on March 8, 2015
"He" was a flounder - how do you tell a little boy fish from a little girl fish anyway? Does a boy fish have a moustache? Creepy.
posted by tel3path at 12:10 PM on March 8, 2015
I can think of any number of good reasons as to why it was cut from the final episode, but I love this bit that's in the script from the scene where Jack and Hannibal discuss the bodies they found in the river. In the script, Zeller and Price are actually wearing waders and standing in the river:
ZELLER: We're standing in people soup.
PRICE: We're spoons. And it's gazpacho.
ZELLER: What?
PRICE: It’s cold. So it’s gazpacho.
ZELLER: I thought that was vichyssoise.
posted by sparkletone at 2:19 PM on March 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
ZELLER: We're standing in people soup.
PRICE: We're spoons. And it's gazpacho.
ZELLER: What?
PRICE: It’s cold. So it’s gazpacho.
ZELLER: I thought that was vichyssoise.
posted by sparkletone at 2:19 PM on March 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
The Cleolinda recap for this episode as it aired part 2
posted by The Whelk at 3:24 PM on March 8, 2015
posted by The Whelk at 3:24 PM on March 8, 2015
I can't quite bring myself to read the scripts at this point. I'm so emotional. But I cherish every scrap that you dole out to me.
posted by tel3path at 3:53 PM on March 8, 2015
posted by tel3path at 3:53 PM on March 8, 2015
I will happily read the scripts and get unnecessarily deep in my feelings about them. I love this show, and this episode, a lot.
posted by Stacey at 4:45 PM on March 8, 2015
posted by Stacey at 4:45 PM on March 8, 2015
I'm going to watch it again tonight with an eye toward FORESHADOWING, BUT I remember the themes of master/appearance, people as raw material, and rigged systems set up pretty early
posted by The Whelk at 5:00 PM on March 8, 2015
posted by The Whelk at 5:00 PM on March 8, 2015
Plus, all the mirroring of the Will/Hannibal dynamic but the show does that a lot anyway
posted by The Whelk at 5:01 PM on March 8, 2015
posted by The Whelk at 5:01 PM on March 8, 2015
Some notes :
Everyone is still kind of in shock from the last season so, for once, almost no one is lying. Everyone is stating their intentions pretty clearly, even Bedelia, who never lies (just chooses her words carefully) is pretty open about her fears and concerns. Like the whole dance of lies and seduction and double agents is going to start soon but right now everyone is still pretty raw.
Like Alana is still convinced , or just telling everyone she is , that Will is guilty but also innocent cause he didn't know what he was doing - like he was a puppy she didn't paper train well. It manages to be both concerned and kinda patronizing, cause she has to keep twisting her opinion into odd little turns to avoid the obvious: her mentor is a serial killer and she speaks up she's the next course.
Speaking of seduction, Bev just totally shuts down Hannibal's overtures of friendliness. She's giving him the stink eye the whole time.
Wow, that Wendigo Buffet. Complete with pomegranate seeds! Such an arrestingimage in an episode full of them.
Team Sassy Science in plastic suits, talking next to bodies coated in plastic. Hmm.
posted by The Whelk at 9:21 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Everyone is still kind of in shock from the last season so, for once, almost no one is lying. Everyone is stating their intentions pretty clearly, even Bedelia, who never lies (just chooses her words carefully) is pretty open about her fears and concerns. Like the whole dance of lies and seduction and double agents is going to start soon but right now everyone is still pretty raw.
Like Alana is still convinced , or just telling everyone she is , that Will is guilty but also innocent cause he didn't know what he was doing - like he was a puppy she didn't paper train well. It manages to be both concerned and kinda patronizing, cause she has to keep twisting her opinion into odd little turns to avoid the obvious: her mentor is a serial killer and she speaks up she's the next course.
Speaking of seduction, Bev just totally shuts down Hannibal's overtures of friendliness. She's giving him the stink eye the whole time.
Wow, that Wendigo Buffet. Complete with pomegranate seeds! Such an arrestingimage in an episode full of them.
Team Sassy Science in plastic suits, talking next to bodies coated in plastic. Hmm.
posted by The Whelk at 9:21 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've been planning to rewatch the whole series with commentary. Once I buy the DVDs I'll be all up on this thread...
Since this is a "spoilers about later episodes can be freely shared here" thread, I'd just like to say... who would have believed, watching this episode, that just a scant few weeks later we'd be knee-deep in Canon MurderHusbands?
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:58 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Since this is a "spoilers about later episodes can be freely shared here" thread, I'd just like to say... who would have believed, watching this episode, that just a scant few weeks later we'd be knee-deep in Canon MurderHusbands?
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:58 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think The Plot To Seduce Hannibal wasn't formed until the trial. This episode (and the one after it) feel like a continuation of season one. Season two's particular nightmare courtship and uncoupling from reality vibe hadn't kicked in yet.
posted by The Whelk at 12:03 PM on March 9, 2015
posted by The Whelk at 12:03 PM on March 9, 2015
This episode (and the one after it) feel like a continuation of season one. Season two's particular nightmare courtship and uncoupling from reality vibe hadn't kicked in yet.
According to various interviews and commentaries, this was explicitly what they had in mind, especially this first episode. They're tying off season one and only just barely beginning to set the table for season two. This episode is Hannibal (the show) putting on the plastic murder suit and climbing the silo ladder, next week is peering down into said silo (both literally and metaphorically), and then after that we get to standing around inside it going, "Well isn't this just all kinds of fucked up."
posted by sparkletone at 1:00 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
According to various interviews and commentaries, this was explicitly what they had in mind, especially this first episode. They're tying off season one and only just barely beginning to set the table for season two. This episode is Hannibal (the show) putting on the plastic murder suit and climbing the silo ladder, next week is peering down into said silo (both literally and metaphorically), and then after that we get to standing around inside it going, "Well isn't this just all kinds of fucked up."
posted by sparkletone at 1:00 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just think of the horrible sinking realization, the implications of which you hardly dare to peek at through your fingers, that Hannibal Lecter loves you. With the fetid dark green slime of awareness seeping in inch by inch that he is actually. in. love. with. you.
All leading up to the crowning moment of smutty fanart.
I mean, as fanfic, it's a blast. Not so much fun if you're the canon hero in a world tethered to reality.
Poor Will, having to lie back and think of every Anglophone country on the surface of the earth and it's still not enough.
At this point, Will is in a comforting state of innocence compared to where he's going to end up.
posted by tel3path at 4:45 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
All leading up to the crowning moment of smutty fanart.
I mean, as fanfic, it's a blast. Not so much fun if you're the canon hero in a world tethered to reality.
Poor Will, having to lie back and think of every Anglophone country on the surface of the earth and it's still not enough.
At this point, Will is in a comforting state of innocence compared to where he's going to end up.
posted by tel3path at 4:45 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
With the fetid dark green slime of awareness seeping in inch by inch that he is actually. in. love. with. you.
"He wants to ...know me."
posted by The Whelk at 4:48 PM on March 9, 2015
"He wants to ...know me."
posted by The Whelk at 4:48 PM on March 9, 2015
Yes, and it was more than a year ago today that The Whelk and I were gibbering with tense anticipation of genuine!fake!Hannigram and fake!genuine!Hannibloom running in parallel. It couldn't happen, could it? Yes? No? It could? It DID???
At the time, it seemed too good to be true.
The smutty fanart was our peak fandom moment, just as our most beloved dogheart experienced the horrifying joy of Hannibloom to its fullest.
Like Hannibal himself, Bryan Fuller gives us exactly what we desire only to tear our still-beating hearts out in part exchange.
posted by tel3path at 4:51 PM on March 9, 2015
At the time, it seemed too good to be true.
The smutty fanart was our peak fandom moment, just as our most beloved dogheart experienced the horrifying joy of Hannibloom to its fullest.
Like Hannibal himself, Bryan Fuller gives us exactly what we desire only to tear our still-beating hearts out in part exchange.
posted by tel3path at 4:51 PM on March 9, 2015
"He wants to ...know me, in the Biblical as well as the relational sense, and I can't figure out which is worse"
posted by tel3path at 4:52 PM on March 9, 2015
posted by tel3path at 4:52 PM on March 9, 2015
I'm with tel3path, assume Alana knows something is fuckinng hinky with Hannibal and she's trying to play dumb/stay on his good side.
At the risk of sounding like the resident Alana defender (which I totes am, let's be honest) I think that Alana doesn't want to know that SHE KNOWS. She's taking it all in, things are piling up, her mind is doing the calculations and ... shutdown time. She's not so much fearing for her physical safety as much as she is fighting to preserve a worldview that feels warm and safe; a world where Hannibal is a kindly mentor/father figure/sexy back burner crush set to a low simmer.
Her mind is like living in a top-floor apartment with a panoramic view of the city where you constantly hear downstairs neighbors (logic and truth) have a screaming match in a dingy basement studio at the back of the building. You can make out what they're saying if you listens closely but then it gets too disturbing; you can turn on the stereo to drown out the noise or cram earplugs in to muffle the sound but you can't kill it completely. The sound becomes a vibration that no music or earplug can cancel out; the best you can hope for is distraction.
posted by echolalia67 at 9:04 PM on March 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
At the risk of sounding like the resident Alana defender (which I totes am, let's be honest) I think that Alana doesn't want to know that SHE KNOWS. She's taking it all in, things are piling up, her mind is doing the calculations and ... shutdown time. She's not so much fearing for her physical safety as much as she is fighting to preserve a worldview that feels warm and safe; a world where Hannibal is a kindly mentor/father figure/sexy back burner crush set to a low simmer.
Her mind is like living in a top-floor apartment with a panoramic view of the city where you constantly hear downstairs neighbors (logic and truth) have a screaming match in a dingy basement studio at the back of the building. You can make out what they're saying if you listens closely but then it gets too disturbing; you can turn on the stereo to drown out the noise or cram earplugs in to muffle the sound but you can't kill it completely. The sound becomes a vibration that no music or earplug can cancel out; the best you can hope for is distraction.
posted by echolalia67 at 9:04 PM on March 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh yeah. I think Alana unknows.
I don't think that she lucidly and factually knows and is intentionally making statements that she's aware are untrue.
I think Alana would be a less interesting character if she were a knowing accomplice anyway. I love that they've said Alana is the audience because hers is such a commonplace reaction and you don't usually see it portrayed onscreen. This is why people don't know what to make of her character. A TV character who knows would go straight to the gunfight in Mizumono, wouldn't they? (Yes, that's why Alana very firmly doesn't know!)
posted by tel3path at 12:15 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't think that she lucidly and factually knows and is intentionally making statements that she's aware are untrue.
I think Alana would be a less interesting character if she were a knowing accomplice anyway. I love that they've said Alana is the audience because hers is such a commonplace reaction and you don't usually see it portrayed onscreen. This is why people don't know what to make of her character. A TV character who knows would go straight to the gunfight in Mizumono, wouldn't they? (Yes, that's why Alana very firmly doesn't know!)
posted by tel3path at 12:15 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
Okay, just rewatched, and I notice how Will greets Beverly as his real self, curious as to why she's visited.
Then she pulls out her briefcase and says "there are a lot of people missing".
He swallows, has a brief moment to center himself, and THEN he shapeshifts into an understated version of the psychopath she wants to see.
It's heartbreaking not only because of his realization that this isn't a friendly visit. It's heartbreaking because he's realized that no-one cares who he is naturally and he has to perform like a dancing monkey to get anyone's attention.
Alana so eager to hypnotize him to "help him remember" and she's so explicit about what she intends him to remember. God, that's chilling. Having absolutely no doubts about using such a dubious technique in the first place, and making no bones about leading the patient.
The Hallucidinner in vivid technicolor, and the real memories in black and white when they finally resurface. Just like Abigail's memories of luring the girls on the train were in black and white.
Oh Hannibal, you utter and complete and utter bastard from Planet of the Bastards. Beverly also clearly thinks the same. She must be an MD herself, mustn't she? Does she actually perform autopsies herself, or is she all about the hair and fibre? She is polite and cordial to him, but... just... very clearly doesn't like him. It's obvious she's been thinking about Hannibal's inadequacy a lot. But not without remembering that she didn't see it either.
HANNIBAL, I HATE YOU
Why oh why are these characters so bad at taking into account each other's knowledge state? Hannibal not only now knows what everyone knows about forensics, he knows exactly how the people investigating him operate! He's allowed to traipse around the lab while they're doing it! Why in the frilly heck would Beverly think that he'd murder somebody and then keep the suit he murdered them in?!? A ten-year-old would know better than that, FFS!
posted by tel3path at 10:35 AM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Then she pulls out her briefcase and says "there are a lot of people missing".
He swallows, has a brief moment to center himself, and THEN he shapeshifts into an understated version of the psychopath she wants to see.
It's heartbreaking not only because of his realization that this isn't a friendly visit. It's heartbreaking because he's realized that no-one cares who he is naturally and he has to perform like a dancing monkey to get anyone's attention.
Alana so eager to hypnotize him to "help him remember" and she's so explicit about what she intends him to remember. God, that's chilling. Having absolutely no doubts about using such a dubious technique in the first place, and making no bones about leading the patient.
The Hallucidinner in vivid technicolor, and the real memories in black and white when they finally resurface. Just like Abigail's memories of luring the girls on the train were in black and white.
Oh Hannibal, you utter and complete and utter bastard from Planet of the Bastards. Beverly also clearly thinks the same. She must be an MD herself, mustn't she? Does she actually perform autopsies herself, or is she all about the hair and fibre? She is polite and cordial to him, but... just... very clearly doesn't like him. It's obvious she's been thinking about Hannibal's inadequacy a lot. But not without remembering that she didn't see it either.
HANNIBAL, I HATE YOU
Why oh why are these characters so bad at taking into account each other's knowledge state? Hannibal not only now knows what everyone knows about forensics, he knows exactly how the people investigating him operate! He's allowed to traipse around the lab while they're doing it! Why in the frilly heck would Beverly think that he'd murder somebody and then keep the suit he murdered them in?!? A ten-year-old would know better than that, FFS!
posted by tel3path at 10:35 AM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
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As to the episode itself... A pretty perfect start to the second season. Damn if that opening doesn't still pack a wallop even after having seen it a bunch of times. The intubation scene is also just as horrifying as ever (good god, that plastic-pipe-being-scraped sound)!
Also, the script is up for download (as are the rest of season 2's).
posted by sparkletone at 5:29 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]