Will Ate Hannibal Alive
What are the flashbacks with Abel Gideon in Antipasto all about? Why is it placed as the first episode after Mizumono? It’s placed in this way because it’s explaining that Will essentially ate Hannibal alive when he betrayed him. Abel goes on and on about what Hannibal is doing to him will one day happen to Hannibal. This seems like foreshadowing to something very important. But it never happens. Except if we think of it as a metaphor for what Will did to Hannibal.
It isn’t the first time that this is foreshadowed. All the way back in Season 1 when he is talking with Tobias Budge in the context of Tobias killing him Hannibal says:
At this point of course he rejects Tobias’ offer of friendship because he wants Will’s friendship. And when this line is echoed in this episode as Hannibal’s response to Abel’s assertion that “everybody gets et”:
and it’s also having to do with Will. As Hannibal says it can’t just be anyone who would eat him:
Will is Hannibal’s equal. What he did to him was therefore cannibalism by Hannibal’s definition. There is an odd sense in which Abel is both foreshadowing what will happen to Hannibal and also embodying how Hannibal was feeling at the time and how he’s feeling now. He talks about not having the urge to “fight or flee” but Hannibal completely turns the point around and starts talking about having “terminal restlessness”. He says, “The body fills with adrenaline and feels compelled to go-go-go.” Since it’s the total opposite of what Abel is feeling, I see this as Hannibal explaining why he left Will and is still running. Abel goes on to say that all of this, even though he’s alive, is “posthumous”. Hannibal says, “You’re not dead yet. You still have to eat.” I can’t help but see that as Hannibal reassuring himself after all that has happened. The exchange when Abel says, “Why do you think I’m allowing this?” Hannibal repeats the question with the emphasis on himself. It’s like a question that he’s asking himself. Why am I allowing Will to eat me? Why did I do that?
It’s because he let himself to be caught up in the fairy tale.
The Mizumono script also tells us this:
Hannibal believed the ideal about Will, the fairy tale, before the betrayal. At least for a brief moment he allowed himself to, despite all of his other concerns.
And Will talks about that in Secondo:
Will: We construct fairy tales. And we accept them. Our minds concoct all sorts of fantasies when we don’t want to believe something.
Hannibal knew what was coming but he had a fairy tale about Will that he told himself because he didn’t want to believe that Will would betray him.
And it wasn’t. His life was torn down because of Will and he has to start another one. Abel goes on to say that the snails have no idea they’re going to be eaten, but “we do”. Abel is hinting that Hannibal knew he would be “eaten” by Will. But he can’t stop himself because that’s how much he longs for Will and Abel knows that’s why:
Hannibal can’t help himself though because as he says, Will influenced him to “betray himself”. And Abel can’t wait to know what Hannibal will feel like when all of this:
And it then cuts to how he feels when it has happened to him:
His heart is broken.
So beautiful and sad!
Such a bless to still be able to read about the analysis on Hannibal after all these years passing by! Thank you for sharing this wonderful article!!
