Review: Hannibal, Episode #10

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

EPISODES 10: Buffet Froid

THE MENU: Will Graham’s sanity is starting to unravel when his grasp on reality is pulled into question during a scoping of a crime scene, this leads to Dr. Hannibal Lecter taking a proactive approach to help his friend with the help of a neurologist named Dr. Sutcliffe.

THE MAIN COURSE: Mental health was the name of the game for tonight’s episode, and I dug it. Up until now Will Graham was able to contain his talent for re-creating a crime scene through a killer’s mind’s eye and keep a bit of a hold on the things that were troubling him, tonight for whatever reason all that unraveled when his hallucinations led to him contaminating a crime scene. He’s dealt with gnarly crime scenes all season; I guess it all had to catch up to him eventually. Plus, the added stress of obstructing justice by keeping a murder a secret would undoubtedly help with the unraveling of my mind. The proceeding after Will’s second MRI led me to believe the circumstances may have led to suspicion from his team for good ol Graham and it still may.

As for the killer of the week Georgia (played by Ellen Muth), she was pretty damn effective I thought. As the episode was focused more on Will’s mindset we didn’t get much from her. The backstory we got via her mother’s interrogation gave us some creepy backstory into her condition, the bit about her walking up to her mother and saying she’s been thinking of killing her sent chills down my spine. On the flip side of that coin I feel the whole element with Georgia not being able to see faces was a bit forced to make sure she couldn’t be an eye witness to Lecter’s activities. With this in mind, is there any point in having her character return? It was pretty strongly alluded to. I guess we’ll have to wait and see, I wouldn’t be opposed to it, Georgia was a compelling character.

Aside from Hugh Dancy’s performance which increasingly gets better week in and week out, the gruesome elements of this episode is where it shined for me. From the opening scene of this week’s victim getting dragged under a bed followed by blood shooting out a few feet, to Will’s first hallucination of committing this gruesome murder (that poor girl drowning in her own blood was cringe inducing). We got other goodies like the gruesome after effects of what happened to victim of the week, and you never know how much a completely peeled off layer of arm skin will freak you out until you see it. Finally, we see Hannibal more at his murderous self than we’ve seen yet and it was insane to see, first seeing the aftermath of the act then the flashback of the finishing touches which led to the framing of Georgia.

The last scene of tonight’s episode leads us back to Dr. Sutcliffe, another colleague of Dr. Lecter’s that eventually rued the day he ever met Will Graham. A neurologist brought on to figure out the extent of the damage to Will’s mind, and when he does indeed discover some insight is forever silenced by our favorite cannibal. This episode blended everything that was going on this week together so perfectly that I think it is one of my favorite episodes thus far, Hannibal continues to protect what in his twisted mind is a friendship with Will Graham, and the end of the episode contains one of those chilling offhanded threats that Lecter hopes Georgia doesn’t remember what she saw to prevent Hannibal from having to…well…do what he loves to do.

DESSERT: Great performance this week from Hugh Dancy, the man knows how to carry the emotional weight of an episode on his back. Great cinematography, loved that bit with Graham’s face reflected in a pool of blood. A decent killer of the week, although I think with the way the episode ultimately went her not being able to see faces was a bit convenient, but that just may be me being nitpicky. On a positive note the scene where Graham finally comes face to face with Georgia was pretty touching, great glimpse into his “empathy disorder.” It will be interesting to see if Georgia will be featured again based on the episodes closing seconds, and once again Hannibal pushes the envelope in terms of its gnarly visuals and sometimes it disturbs me that I find that this aspect is part of the shows unrelenting appeal. Ah well.

Next weeks episode is titled “Rôti”, and it sees Eddie Izzard’s bizarre character being brought back into the mix and I can’t wait to see him interact with Hannibal and the crash course he seems to be heading into with Alana Bloom. Looks like sh*t just keeps getting better. Check out a promo here

RATING ON 10

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