The team is called in when a body is found in a meadow, the cranial cavity converted into a beehive. Meanwhile, Beverly continues to work on the mural killer case, secretly consulting with Will to decipher the killer's human tapestry. Will insists that the killer was put in the mural by Hannibal, and urges her to prove that Hannibal is the real Chesapeake Ripper and Copycat Killer.
After a trip down the legal thriller road last week, Hannibal returns to the type of stories it does well in "Takiawase." It tells emotionally damaging stories about its characters as they confront both the truth and death while also offering up one helluva cliffhanger.Death is a huge focal point of the hour as both Amanda Plummer's killer and the returning Gina Torres' Bella Crawford see the end as a cure for the pain. Different than any other serial killer Jack and the team have tracked, Plummer's isn't trying to avoid capture. She wants others to understand why she did what she did to these two men. She was trying to cure them of the pain they've carried throughout life. She give them a version of the dreams they always imagined living. Sure, she did it in the most fantastical way possible - by lobotomizing them and using bees to numb their pain. But in her mind, she was helping these men and is proud of that fact.
Bella on the other hand views death as a way to ensure she doesn't have to make her husband suffer any more because of her lung cancer. He's hopeful that she can still be cured - sending her to chemotherapy which weakens her and researching alternative medicines online. It allows for a great scene where the two smoke a drug together. However, Bella is aware that the end is near. She's made her peace with that and death is the only thing left for her. In her mind, suicide is the best course of action. She's taking her life and her death into her own hands but effectively denying Jack his goodbye to her. Her relationship with Hannibal is one of the most intriguing ones on the show simply because he has no manipulative stake in this story. He's not driving her to one conclusion or another. He knows death is near for her and doesn't actively need to push things just for the sake of amusement. That's a side of that character we don't see a lot. He always has an agenda and is clever enough to ensure his secrets don't come out. Here, he flips a coin to decide what to do - let her die and honor her wishes or save her because it is the ethnically right thing to do.
Elsewhere, with Will's trial shelved, he has to find a new way to investigate his concerns about Hannibal. Fortunately, he has Beverly - his closest ally despite her skepticism. They have a mutually beneficial relationship where he helps her with psychological profiles on cases and she promises to continue to look into his claims about Hannibal. Additionally, he has made a new pact with the shifty Dr. Chilton. Now, I don't quite get why Will would trust him to psychologically help him given his previous stated thoughts about Will's condition. But it leads to a great sequence where Will uncovers just how much Hannibal was manipulating him last season. He was psychically driving him into seizures and insanity. That he is aware of now and makes Chilton question his alliance with Hannibal. Furthermore, he recalls the events of the night he chased Gideon to Hannibal's dining room and suffered that seizure. It all but confirms the truth that Hannibal is the Chesapeake ripper as he hates it when someone's trying to take credit for his work. But Will is still lacking the physical proof.
Beverly then gets a breakthrough while investigating the body of the mural killer as well as amble time to snoop away Hannibal's kitchen. She finds that proof that Will needs and stumbles upon his dungeon of secrets. The hour ends with Hannibal returning and her firing a couple of rounds. It's a very exciting moment to end on. We know that Hannibal is going to survive this encounter because of the flashforward from the premiere as well as the grand Hannibal mythology. But what is to come with Beverly? Is this the end for that character? It's a great point to make that the FBI aren't completely oblivious from uncovering Hannibal's true nature while also exciting and keeping the narrative moving at a steady but satisfactory pace.
Some more thoughts:
- "Takiawase" was written by Scott Nimerfro & Bryan Fuller and directed by David Semel.
- The pushing of drugs has never looked as artful as it does when Will gets injected with the drugs to open him up to therapy or Hannibal saving Bella's life.
- But with everything that Beverly knows about the Chesapeake Ripper and how he has eluded capture by the FBI for so long and is lethally dangerous. Shouldn't she have been more cautious or called for backup before heading down to his secret lair?
- There was a lot more Scott Thompson and Aaron Abrams in this episode. That's fine because they bring a nice sense of levity to the series. But are they getting more focus here to prepare us for the impending loss of Beverly?
