Just in case you thought this strange bromance couldn't get anymore messed up, Hannibal decided to take things to a whole new (not to mention highly unsavory) level. I might as well just come right out and say it. Hannibal wants to eat Will Graham as a form of penance for when Will betrayed him last season. As we learned in Thursday night's episode "Secondo" — which found Will visiting Dr. Lecter's childhood home — Hannibal is responsible for killing and eating his sister, Mischa. Of course, he was smart enough to shift the blame onto somebody else, but it's an act that weighs heavily on his mind even today.
He loved his sister, but "she influenced me to betray myself," Hannibal shared with Bedelia during one of their therapy sessions, which included bathing and piano playing. But he was able to forgive her. How? By consuming her. So if his past behavior is any indicator of future events, there's only one way he can go about forgiving Will… by having him over for dinner, not as a guest, but as the main course. Obviously, this revelation is not great news for our tormented FBI profiler and will place a further wedge on their already damaged (and deranged) friendship. I mean, I know Hannibal is all for poetic justice and everything, but really when did a sincere apology stop being enough between two close friends?
Those of you who have seen the movies or read the books know full well by now that Hannibal adding Will to his dinner menu is by all accounts probably not going to actually happen. That is, unless Bryan Fuller decides to go completely rogue with the subject matter. Will's destiny is to capture Hannibal, thus gearing him up for his nice little one-on-one chats with Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs. So in order for this to happen, we have to take this disturbing concept off the table (both literally and figuratively). Otherwise, the show is gearing up to head into an entirely new and uncharted territory.
That's not to say that Fuller couldn't actually pull it off. The series has proven time and time again that it can serve as its own separate entity from its book and TV counterparts. But given how heavily Hannibal and Will's relationship has been featured throughout these past few years, I have a feeling that when this friendship does reach its inevitable conclusion, it won't be to satisfy Hannibal's palate. Or at least, I hope not.
Images: NBC (2)
