In the seventh episode of the first season of Hannibal, the Chesapeake Ripper appears to strike again, but Will isn’t so sure this is the case. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Hannibal.
WHAT IS THIS SHOW DOING TO ME
- Like, okay, I went into this knowing it would be violent and disturbing because it has to be. BUT THIS IS SO UNREAL TO WATCH. And there’s a deliberate attempt by the people making this show to give everything a surreal air to it through the cinematography. The colors used in “Sorbet” swing between a vibrant use of contrast to images full of palettes and tones that seem dead. That intentional juxtaposition is FUCKING ME UP. Dr. Lecter’s feast is so fucking pretty but IT’S ALL PEOPLE. AND WE WATCHED HIM MAKE IT ALL OUT OF PEOPLE
- EVERYTHING IS PEOPLE
- AM I EATING PEOPLE AND NOT KNOWING IT?
- IS ALANA’S BEER PEOPLE TOO? This is a vital question that requires an answer.
- (Spoiler alert: I’m sure everything Hannibal serves is people. I’m going to assume this from here on out.)
- This episode also serves to strip any sort of subtlety from Lecter’s modus operandi. Oh, the show is still subtle itself, but the viewer is no longer allowed to live in denial about how much Hannibal Lecter is actually accomplishing. He is absolutely the Ripper, he’s manipulating everyone forever, and now he’s LONELY.
- While I appreciate how serialized this is and the fact that it’s such an in-depth character study of Will, Jack, and Hannibal, I admit that I wish we had a bit more about the three characters who work on these cases. This episode highlighted the fact that Jimmy and Brian constantly argue with one another, though it’s in a playful manner. And Beverly Katz is often an assertive force in the narrative. She’s comforted Will in the past and is responsible for solving the new case that they get in “Sorbet.” But I still don’t know much about these three at all. More please!
- Continuing from what we saw in “Entrée,” this episode shows us just how intense Jack Crawford’s obsession with catching the Ripper has gotten. He’s hallucinating; he’s ignoring the evidence that Will presents that the most recent murder (in the bathtub) does not fit the Ripper’s profile.
- More on that later. THIS EPISODE HAS ELLEN GREEN IN IT. Oh my god, everyone go watch Pushing Daisies IT’S SO GREAT.
- I honestly thought that at some point in “Sorbet,” Hannibal would kill and eat Franklyn. If Hannibal’s thing is to eat the undignified, surely Franklyn qualifies for that! But perhaps Dr. Lecter doesn’t pluck victims from his patient list, lest he risk getting caught. It’s not out of the realm of possibility! That’s how Miriam Lass tracked him down, and someone else could.
- But Franklyn’s obsession with his psychiatrist is based on his desire to have a friend, one who isn’t a paid professional. Dr. Lecter balks at the suggestion, but then, over the course of “Sorbet,” we see him obsessively wish that WILL was his friend. Well, not just Will, but his psychiatrist.
- PLAYED BY THE QUEEN OF MY HEART
- GILLIAN ANDERSON
- WHO IS 90% OF THE REASON I WANTED TO WATCH THIS SHOW.
- Oh my god, I don’t even know her name, but she’s already one of the most intriguing characters the show has ever introduced. And yeah, I’m so biased here because Gillian Anderson is literally one of my favorite human beings in the universe, BUT LOOK AT HER ACTING OFF OF MADS MIKKELSEN. It’s unreal because she exhibits no fear of him, and she fucking knows. I mean, I don’t think she’s aware of everything Hannibal does, but she knows that he’s meticulously crafted a human mask which he presents to the world. SHE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS OH MY GOD.
- And now we have confirmation of how Dr. Lecter chooses his victims: They’re all people he sees as undignified, and I don’t think it’s hard to imagine that the Rolodex of business cards is all full of people who have offended him or his sensibilities at some point. They’re people whose path he crossed at one point or another, even if it was just for a few minutes, which means that it would be nearly impossible to ever link them back to him.
- Of course, this is all a performance for him. He kills the rude, and then he presents them to others in a garish display of opulence.
- WHILE MAKING A BILLION CANNIBAL PUNS
- OH MY GOD HE IS LITERALLY TELLING ALL OF YOU THAT YOU ARE EATING PEOPLE
- CONSTANTLY
- AND HE LOVES IT
- YOU ARE SO FUCKING TERRIFYING.
- Which is why I spend so much effort shouting at these characters every single time they get within a mile of Hannibal Lecter. The scene where Alana helps Hannibal prepare a meal is unbearable. DON’T DRINK THAT IT’S PEOPLE. DON’T LET HIM SEDUCE YOU HE’S GOING TO MANIPULATE YOU AND THEN PROBABLY SERVE YOU TO JACK CRAWFORD.
- I also think it’s important to note that yet again, Alana has stated that everyone needs to leave Will Graham alone. She is 100000% right and she doesn’t even know how right she is. This is so terrible, PLEASE LISTEN TO ALANA BLOOM.
- I mean, isn’t it frustrating to watch Jimmy, Brian, and Beverly get so close to the truth, and yet remain so far from it? I think without Jack’s presence on the case, they might have been more willing to believe Will’s theory that there were two killers at work. To have that sort of pressure on you? Well, we’ve seen what it’s done to Will, and while the technicians aren’t experiencing the same level of stress as Will, I think the dynamic is undeniable. Jack hovers over this whole investigation, and now it’s starting to haunt him.
- I admit it’s weird to think of Dr. Lecter being lonely because… well, it’s not easy to assign anything human to him. But that’s how I viewed the scene where he sat at his desk, uncertain of what to do now that Will was late. Was he coming to genuinely enjoy his time with Will? Perhaps, but at the same time, I can’t care about this because of what Dr. Lecter has done to make Will’s life worse. Even if Dr. Lecter really wants to have a friendship with Will, he can’t. He’s treated Will like a pet, a stray dog, an experiment. He can’t undo that.
- It’s also obvious how much Dr. Lecter gets off on the power of what he does. That scene where he feeds the Ripper’s motives to Will is eerie and horrifying and I’M GONNA BE SICK. Because I’m worried that Will is going to continue to see Dr. Lecter as a source of advice and guidance. ABORT MISSION. SOUND ALL THE ALARMS.
- (I still don’t know if this show is eventually going to get to the Red Dragon canon, so I also don’t want to comment on where this might go.)
- I’m a little confused by what Devon Silvestri was doing. Was he trying to use these people as a way to test his medical proficiency? How connected was he to the Ripper? I got the sense that Lecter didn’t know him at all, and that Silvestri just used the Ripper murders to hide his own work.
- HEY SO HOW MANY LITTLE CLUES DID HANNIBAL DROP IN HIS CONVERSATION WITH WILL PRIOR TO THE MEAL? Did he actually lose a patient? I don’t know if that was the truth or not. And no victims in his psychological therapy? Perhaps that was the truth, if my earlier theory sticks.
- THE NON-VEGETARIAN LINE
- HE IS TEASING ALL OF YOU TO YOUR FACES
- OH GOD.
The video for “Sorbet” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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