You know the one theme I fucking love in gothic horror and fiction is you start off with one monster or maybe a few and by the end of it, you question who are the real monsters in the story. Hannibal is no different.
One thing I do like about SOTL in particular is Hannibal Lecter, the supposed monster of the story, knows the clear distinction between people like himself and Buffalo Bill.
“Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse”
Hannibal knows with certainty that he himself was a monster born. While someone like Buffalo Bill and Dolarhyde are monsters made.
And the accusation and analysis he makes of Will is they are just alike. In that case, Will is probably a monster born too. It’s what makes Hannibal so attracted to Will since their kind is rare and they seem to have an understanding of each other when no one else does. And try as Will might to disprove the things Hannibal tells him, the reaction he gets from Molly and even Jack by the end of the story makes us question if Hannibal was right all along.
You know now that I think about it, who’s not to say that Alana’s view on her family is just full of delusion and that reality is far different than what she perceives? She never talks about Margot or her son to Hannibal, but boasts about her married life to Will in all the wrong ways.
Who’s not to say that back at home, Margot is actually feeling the crushing pressure of being a trophy wife and is seeing all the similarities between Alana and Mason, but she won’t admit it? That she fools herself into believing she’s in love and life is perfect when she knows Alana has a death grip on the Verger fortune and business?
Instead of being seen as this triumphant power house of the Verger family, business partners see her as nothing more than an arm candy to Alana. No one takes her seriously and everyone dismisses her as “the wife”.
She’s back to where she started. She’s just wearing different clothes.
Just the way she was so dimissive of Margot when talking to Will was so telling and how little we actually see of their relationship.
You really had her say that after planting herself in front of Hannibal basically every day for 3 years definitely stoking his determination to kill her and them as soon as possible because Hannibal definitely will go after all of them: Alana being brave, Margot and Morgan to collect the debt she owed him for saving Will (something he would have done anyway without that whole rigamarole in the Verger barn) and expect us to believe that they truly and genuinely love and respect each other??
Nah! Alana is extremely self-centered and self-serving. Ultimately, Margot and Morgan are a mean to an end. She's a lot like Will, now that I think about it. 🤔
Trying to use a more traditional family structure and aesthetic to fix what's "wrong" with her not even trying to do any real introspection.
Margot was so desperate to escape her situation that she had unprotected sex with a man she barely knew.
I think she largely latched onto Alana because she, like Alana, thought that Alana had any real control over someone like Mason Verger.
I really wonder what their relationship looks like. How much does she see the shades of her brother in her wife? How much does she think about how she jumped from one abuser to another? Does she have to continuously convince herself that Alana loves her and that she loves Alana? How much resent does she hold for Alana for being about to have the Verger heir and not her? We saw how desperate she was to avoid destitution and using her son to become financial independent only to have to depend on someone else. Does she just accept the financial abuse because you can't convince me that there isn't any going on?
Alana definitely was named executor of the Verger estate until Morgan comes of age. How much if any say does Margot have in how the money is spent?
The vendetta against Hannibal is expensive. How does she stop the resentment from growing every time that Alana spends money that is rightly hers that she earned in blood and pain?
How do she feel to struggle and fight so much and so hard to end up basically back where she started with her brother and papa lording over her?
People get mad at me when I say “It wasn’t about the money until it became about the money”.
Maybe it was something somewhat genuine in the beginning given Alana’s massive savior complex where she needs to be the hero of the story. But as @finitefall once said, once she got the money and the baby, Alana technically didn’t need Margot anymore. Marrying her was less love and more of a courtesy to her to get her share of the Verger fortune and baby. But in reality, Alana controls everything including their future. She could easily take that away with the wave of her hand.
Will saw that Margot and Alana had as an ideal family and asked why she didn’t step away from Hannibal. And that’s a valid question. In the end, control over Hannibal and her ego was more important than her family. Money was more important than love. And her son’s status as the Verger heir was more important than his safety and happiness. She’s setting him up in the same hell hole position as Mason and casting aside Margot as the accessory trophy wife.
As much as Alana criticizes Chilton, they aren’t that different. They both were nobodies before Hannibal and after him, they became somebody. And boy did that all go to their heads.
Yes, vengeance against Hannibal is expensive, but I’m a big fan of the Faustian Bargain. Alana is going to pay. But Margot…well, if she does what she needs to do, she and Morgan will survive.
It is interesting to think about how Margot is living in season 3B since we only caught a glimpse of her as they leave. Not having her point of view included at any moment during those episodes, not even a few seconds, makes it seem like she's not relevant. But we know she is: Alana is a main character, so her wife will be relevant to the story as Hannibal, now free, can now track and kill Alana as promised.
I actually love Margot and I really hope that given the opportunity, she will make the right choice for her son and herself. Marlana is not a great sapphic ship and Margot deserves better. I'm not sure how anyone can not see this when Alana makes it very clear the Verger heir is her son (not the words of a proud wife and mom, guys). She helped Hannibal, with Chilton, to be declared insane so she could have power over him for the rest of his life ("You're welcome, Hannibal. The needle was garanteed, but you beat it all on an insanity plea.") He had reminded her when she let him go in Muskrat Farm that he always kept his promises. He promised to kill her, the safest way was for him to be declared responsible of his crimes and sentenced to death. That's what someone who knows what Hannibal is capable of and wants to protect their family would have wanted, but not Alana. She wanted him at the BSHCI and her ruling as its new director to have power over him. She became the new Chilton in more than one way.
As a person who read my fic (shameless self promotion), I hope I gave you what you wanted with Margot.
Narratively speaking, it was by design that Alana became as despicable as she did. All the things she did to Hannibal was what Chilton did to Hannibal in Red Dragon in the novels. And they sure as hell enjoyed it. We were supposed to start hating her and siding with Hannibal. That’s the entire point.
Interesting thing about the script is that in the final moments of Margot and Alana’s life in S3B, it says they both have their hands tightly wrapped around Morgan’s hands and they look down at him before Alana takes one wistful last look at Muskrat Farm. It was slightly different in the TV version.
It makes you wonder if they were thinking the same thing about Morgan or if they had different thoughts. You would think a mother’s priority would be always be her child and to Margot, that’s probably true. She was the one who took Morgan and held him tightly against her bosom as she walked away. But for Alana, her last moments were looking at Muskrat Farm and what she had to leave behind.
Hannibal said “Your wife, your child. They belong to me”. He has enough compassion for Margot (and maybe even Margot) to believe they should be relevant in Alana’s life (also alluding to the Faustian contract). But I would think he’s smart and perceptive enough to know where Alana’s priorities lie. His last words to her was that he spun gold for her after bargaining for Will’s life. Hannibal knows. He always does. And so does Will.
See, this is what I played with heavily in my fic in the Cuba arc. What’s really important to Margot and Alana. And how the husbands can easily dismantle what they have without needing to do anything at all.
Yes, you have. It was also refreshing, as most fics deal with Margot very differently (not blaming the authors at all since my two favorites Hannigram fics don't end well for Margot). Margot is both likeable and very interesting to me. She starts off as a victim, but with a potential Hannibal sees and cultivates. He's never had anything personal against Margot and still doesn't. Some might see Hannibal's statement to Alana that her wife and child belong to him as a death threat, but it's a simple statement: Alana's fate belong to him as he promised her, so Margot's and Morgan's fates depend on what Hannibal will decide. Alana's fate is already decided, Margot is the only one who can change hers and their child's. Margot standing up for herself and Morgan against Alana would be a perfect character's arc. She's never been afraid to get dirty to get what she needed to survive, she is a survivor at her core and I would like to think even years with Alana would not have changed this, especially now that she also has a child counting on her to do what needs to be done.
You know now that I think about it, who’s not to say that Alana’s view on her family is just full of delusion and that reality is far different than what she perceives? She never talks about Margot or her son to Hannibal, but boasts about her married life to Will in all the wrong ways.
Who’s not to say that back at home, Margot is actually feeling the crushing pressure of being a trophy wife and is seeing all the similarities between Alana and Mason, but she won’t admit it? That she fools herself into believing she’s in love and life is perfect when she knows Alana has a death grip on the Verger fortune and business?
Instead of being seen as this triumphant power house of the Verger family, business partners see her as nothing more than an arm candy to Alana. No one takes her seriously and everyone dismisses her as “the wife”.
She’s back to where she started. She’s just wearing different clothes.
Just the way she was so dimissive of Margot when talking to Will was so telling and how little we actually see of their relationship.
You really had her say that after planting herself in front of Hannibal basically every day for 3 years definitely stoking his determination to kill her and them as soon as possible because Hannibal definitely will go after all of them: Alana being brave, Margot and Morgan to collect the debt she owed him for saving Will (something he would have done anyway without that whole rigamarole in the Verger barn) and expect us to believe that they truly and genuinely love and respect each other??
Nah! Alana is extremely self-centered and self-serving. Ultimately, Margot and Morgan are a mean to an end. She's a lot like Will, now that I think about it. 🤔
Trying to use a more traditional family structure and aesthetic to fix what's "wrong" with her not even trying to do any real introspection.
Margot was so desperate to escape her situation that she had unprotected sex with a man she barely knew.
I think she largely latched onto Alana because she, like Alana, thought that Alana had any real control over someone like Mason Verger.
I really wonder what their relationship looks like. How much does she see the shades of her brother in her wife? How much does she think about how she jumped from one abuser to another? Does she have to continuously convince herself that Alana loves her and that she loves Alana? How much resent does she hold for Alana for being about to have the Verger heir and not her? We saw how desperate she was to avoid destitution and using her son to become financial independent only to have to depend on someone else. Does she just accept the financial abuse because you can't convince me that there isn't any going on?
Alana definitely was named executor of the Verger estate until Morgan comes of age. How much if any say does Margot have in how the money is spent?
The vendetta against Hannibal is expensive. How does she stop the resentment from growing every time that Alana spends money that is rightly hers that she earned in blood and pain?
How do she feel to struggle and fight so much and so hard to end up basically back where she started with her brother and papa lording over her?
People get mad at me when I say “It wasn’t about the money until it became about the money”.
Maybe it was something somewhat genuine in the beginning given Alana’s massive savior complex where she needs to be the hero of the story. But as @finitefall once said, once she got the money and the baby, Alana technically didn’t need Margot anymore. Marrying her was less love and more of a courtesy to her to get her share of the Verger fortune and baby. But in reality, Alana controls everything including their future. She could easily take that away with the wave of her hand.
Will saw that Margot and Alana had as an ideal family and asked why she didn’t step away from Hannibal. And that’s a valid question. In the end, control over Hannibal and her ego was more important than her family. Money was more important than love. And her son’s status as the Verger heir was more important than his safety and happiness. She’s setting him up in the same hell hole position as Mason and casting aside Margot as the accessory trophy wife.
As much as Alana criticizes Chilton, they aren’t that different. They both were nobodies before Hannibal and after him, they became somebody. And boy did that all go to their heads.
Yes, vengeance against Hannibal is expensive, but I’m a big fan of the Faustian Bargain. Alana is going to pay. But Margot…well, if she does what she needs to do, she and Morgan will survive.
It is interesting to think about how Margot is living in season 3B since we only caught a glimpse of her as they leave. Not having her point of view included at any moment during those episodes, not even a few seconds, makes it seem like she's not relevant. But we know she is: Alana is a main character, so her wife will be relevant to the story as Hannibal, now free, can now track and kill Alana as promised.
I actually love Margot and I really hope that given the opportunity, she will make the right choice for her son and herself. Marlana is not a great sapphic ship and Margot deserves better. I'm not sure how anyone can not see this when Alana makes it very clear the Verger heir is her son (not the words of a proud wife and mom, guys). She helped Hannibal, with Chilton, to be declared insane so she could have power over him for the rest of his life ("You're welcome, Hannibal. The needle was garanteed, but you beat it all on an insanity plea.") He had reminded her when she let him go in Muskrat Farm that he always kept his promises. He promised to kill her, the safest way was for him to be declared responsible of his crimes and sentenced to death. That's what someone who knows what Hannibal is capable of and wants to protect their family would have wanted, but not Alana. She wanted him at the BSHCI and her ruling as its new director to have power over him. She became the new Chilton in more than one way.
I CANNOT scream loudly enough that you Hannibal people are disgusting! There’s no way that your kind can possibly by kind or nice or anything like that because you LITERALLY glorify toxic relationships, cannibalism, and hyperviolence! You may have fooled other people but all of your souls are black and TAINTED! It’s disgusting! No morals! Stop acting all high and mighty, what you watch isn’t art, it’s FILTH. Fuck you and your little cannibal friends, you’re all DISGUSTING
reblog if your soul is black and tainted, you have no morals, and are disgusting
Will Graham and the Addiction and Sobriety Metaphor
CW: Drugs, addiction, recovery, sobriety
The metaphor for Will succumbing to darkness as a metaphor for addiction has been discussed repeatedly in the fandom space for years and it’s actually something Bryan mentioned while the show was still airing.
Bryan likened Will’s relationship with Hannibal as "drug addict returning to the needle," in that he is very well aware that it’s harmful for him, but he craves it anyways. He keeps going back again and again despite the damage it causes him in multiple areas of his life and functioning.
Bedelia has described it best during her sessions with Will:
“Your experience of Hannibal's attention is so profoundly harmful, yet so irresistible, it undermines your ability to think rationally”
Anyone who knows about addiction of any kind would understand that this is what it looks and feels like. And it goes both ways since Hannibal is also increasingly profoundly harmed in the same way when it comes to Will.
So we know all the “bad” things that come with the addiction. Then what about the sobriety? The funny thing is in Substance Abuse training, there is a form of therapy known as the “empty chair” exercise where a person will confront their addiction as an entity and literally tell it how it feels about it. They can think of it as a monster to conquer or even a friend they need to say goodbye to. If we take what occurred in Digestivo as a metaphor turned to literal form, Will was attempting to say goodbye to Hannibal who is either to addiction itself or the harmful friend who has brought the addiction into his life.
Now here’s where it gets whacky. Because here comes the talk about sobriety.
Although there are many forms of therapy and paths to sobriety, the ultimate goal is to cut out the addiction from the addict’s life. The misconception that people often have about sobriety is that it’s simply about “not using drugs”, but that is incorrect. Sobriety is a practice and a lifestyle that an addict must surrender to in discipline and follow for the rest of their waking days. It is not meant to be followed half hazardously or half heartedly. It is a full blown commitment.
If we ask if Will has been committed to his sobriety away from everything harmful Hannibal brought into his life, I would say “not really”.
Although Will has moved states, made a family, and has seemingly completely tuned out everything he used to think about when it came to Hannibal, we see multiple instances of him “cheating his program”. He reads up on newspapers with gruesome details of crimes that The Dragon has committed and against his better judgment, he hides away and reads a letter from Hannibal in his secret little shack away from his wife and child.
And here’s where the irony starts.
While Hannibal would have once done anything to manipulate Will back into his radar, he explicitly told him to turn Jack away if he comes. You would find such a message highly suspicious from someone like Hannibal, but it is solid and sound advice. It almost sounds like something coming from someone who has gone through his own rehabilitation of sorts. And Jack, the one who comes knocking, now seems like the harmful friend who’s tempting Will back into a world of addiction. One who doesn’t care for any peace he built for himself. But it’s not just him.
When Will eventually does get swept up by Jack back into the FBI, the friends he once knew to be supportive and warm and wanted to keep him safe, are all now lack of the better word, deep in their own addiction. And all roots point back to Hannibal who is now in his little cage. No antics. No trouble. Just him in a highly controlled environment (this is a real term used in substance abuse treatment) behaving like a model prisoner. The people around him now more or less “wearing his skin” and enabling Will’s addiction even further. And since neither him nor Hannibal are truly “rehabilitated”, both also stoke the fires of their respective addiction as well.
Some may argue that Hannibal is merely acting the “good boy” until he finds a way out and that is partially true. He knows who he is and he likes it. Why should he pander to normalcy if that is the case? But for those who read a previous post of mine regarding Hannibal’s change while in prison, you know that what he does for Will now is something different than just pure manipulation. It is allowing him to have the autonomy to make his own choices and come to his own conclusions. Although he would rather force it onto Will that he doesn’t belong in a life of mundane normalcy, he instead offers him multiple chances to figure that out for himself. Even offers him a chance to save his family and his carefully built life of sobriety before unleashing The Dragon onto them. And yet Will’s focus is on Hannibal more than anything. And therefore he seeks anything and everything including TattleCrime and an “old flame” to bring him closer to Hannibal behind everyone’s backs while willingly neglecting his wife and child. And neglecting life obligations is a symptom of addiction.
Towards the end of the case, one might think that Will is finally committing himself back into a life of sobriety and leaving Hannibal and all this chaos behind for good, but if you look at it through the lens of substance abuse treatment, he’s actually more unstable than ever. He states he’s committed to his wife and child, but he already stated to Bedelia that he lost them to Hannibal. To the addiction. And although Molly doesn’t say much, she knows. Wally knows. And the whole neighborhood knows. They all know. They always have.
Although Hannibal seems like he’s desperately begging for Will to stay, he is also once again offering very sound advice. Will does not belong with his family and they certainly do not belong with him nor his addiction. One day he will cause them more harm than he knows. The best option is to step away, yet he remains petty and stubborn that life won’t change as Hannibal says. Unfortunately it will, because the big, ugly truth is a family that is affected by an addict and their unaddressed addiction and subsequent behaviors from uncommitted sobriety is one that will ultimately pay the price and carry the burden on their back.
Eventually, Will does take Hannibal’s advice and steps away, but their joint addiction is one that both seem to mutually understand is both destructive towards others and themselves. It is unaddressed, unrestrained, and probably one that cannot be resolved by any simple or realistic measures. And that is where the metaphor ultimately comes to a complete halt.
The story deviates from reality into fantasy and ultimately returns and belongs to the realm of gothic romance and fiction. From here on, it’s a beast of another caliber.
That look that Jack gives Will after Hannibal surrenders and says "I want you to know exactly where I am, and where you can always find me," really says it all. Like, oh yeah, he knows.
By now, Jack has learned how to play the long game. And he’s learned to take the combined advice of everyone who’s aided him in his becoming. Chilton, Bedelia, Bella, and Hannibal himself. He knows this isn’t the end. Hannibal got caught on purpose and one day Will would be inclined to go back to him. And when that day comes, they’ll all play another game together. And that it is an inevitability.
The cryptic thing about Jack is he always kept his eye on Will afterwards. He moved states, got married, started a new life, and even a new family. But all of that was irrelevant. When he needed him, he went to Will and beckoned him to come play a new game. And he knew he would go see Hannibal not as a side quest, but as a necessity.
Another Fannibal had a theory that I’m now somewhat more inclined to entertain. That when Jack made plans to kill Hannibal and Dolarhyde, he had intended for Will to die as his sacrificial lamb. Not as a collateral or by accident, but by design. If Will continued to exist, so too would Hannibal. And this might be his only chance to get rid of this much chaos and carnage in the world.
He was cutting it all out. He was crushing the bird.
I think the theory that Jack was willing to sacrifice Will to get rid of Hannibal is really interesting. Because the plan to capture Dolarhyde by faking Hannibal's escape was indeed stupid and while Jack is many things (and I do have some grief with him), he's absolutely not stupid. But even before that, going back to 3x08, when Jack goes to Will for help he told Molly: "I know what I'm asking. I wish to God I didn't have to."
When we first see this episode, we can think that Jack is only saying he knows how hard it's gonna be for Will to do this again. But when Will says he needs to talk Hannibal, Jack isn't surprised and doesn't even argue against it. He not only knew this was exactly what Will would do, he doesn't tell Alana to not allow Will to see Hannibal, he doesn't try to convince Will to not see Hannibal. Nothing. And without permission, Will couldn't have gone to see Hannibal.
Some people have been arguing that Jack thought Will had truly moved on, given that three years had passed and he had a normal life with a family. That Jack thought the Will who told him he called Hannibal to warn him because he was his friend and because he wanted to run away with him, and later told him that a part of him would always want to slip away with Hannibal, was the old Will. That this new Will with his family was someone he could trust. But this argument doesn't hold when Jack is not the slightest bit surprised at Will wanting to see Hannibal, it doesn't hold when Jack agrees to Will's stupid plan. People who argue that Jack didn't have any reason to trust Will because three years had passed and he had a family haven't been paying enough attention. Jack had every reason to not trust Will, Jack isn't stupid and his reaction (or lack of), the look on his face when Will says he needs to see Hannibal, when Will tells him the plan and when Will tells him to let people believe he let Hannibal escape are proof enough.
Just to be clear: I don't believe sacrificing Will was Jack's plan when he came to him for help. It came later. But I'm saying it was already a possibility for him. Because if he knew (and he did) that Will was gonna see Hannibal again, his words to Molly ("I know what I'm asking. I wish to God I didn't have to") mean a lot more than "It's gonna be hard for him, sorry".
Lastly, the whole conversation between Hannibal and Jack in 3x12 is highly interesting since it's when Will is mentioned as the sacrificial lamb:
H: Will's thoughts are no more bound by fear or kindness than Milton's were by physics. He is both free and damned to imagine anything.
J: Now that he's imagined the worst.
H: Like ducklings, we imprint on those ideas that grab our attention.
J: What's got your attention, Doctor? God, the Devil and the Great Red Dragon?
H: Lest we forget the Lamb.
J: Will is the Lamb of God?
H: Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.
J: Who's "us"?
H: You, me and the Great Red Dragon. The Lamb's wrath touches everyone who errs. His retribution is even more deadly than the Dragon's.
J: It is, for you.
H: The seals are being opened, Jack. The Lamb is becoming a lion. "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
J: I'll still be standing.
H: Is your conscience clear?
J: As clear as yours.
H: Righteousness is what you and Will have in common. "In righteousness, the Lamb doth judge and make war." War against the Great Red Dragon.
J: He's not the Dragon, you are. The Devil himself bound in the pit.
H: Then that makes you God, Jack.
J: Yes, it does.
H: All gods demand sacrifices.
Honestly, this conversation could be analysed for hours - but for the theory of Jack intending for Will to die as his sacrificial lamb I only highlited some lines. The players here are God, the Devil, the Dragon and the Lamb: we already know Dolarhyde is the Dragon, here Will is established to be the Lamb, Hannibal the Devil and Jack to be God.
And now I made myself want to rewatch the second part of season 3, so I'm gonna do just that.
We also need to consider that Jack by S3 is the Jack in the novels. We know what kind of man Jack Crawford is in the novels. He is a man who’s willing to sacrifice anything and everything to not capture bad men, but to kill and eliminate them at any cost. When he lost Will to Dolarhyde and Lecter, he felt disappointment that he became a disfigured drunk, but he had a new toy now in Clarice and quickly moved on. And by the last novel, Clarice has become disillusioned by Jack and turned to Hannibal for a life of luxury, love, and comfort. The only solace she gave him was reading his obituary after he died of a damn heart attack of all things.
In the show, Jack takes into consideration, but doesn’t care for the means to the ends whether it be family, subordinates, or even prisoners who will be sacrificed and lost to get what he wants. And what he wants is to feel alive by continuing to eliminate evil. He is absolute justice incarnate.
While he wants to believe in Will’s righteousness and make him the Joan of Arc of the FBI, he simultaneously knows and understands that his sentiment for Hannibal is too great to carry out the deed. So he does what he must by “cutting out” his own sentiments for Will and allows him to be the necessary sacrifice to kill Hannibal by killing himself. The only regret he has being that his little plan evolved past his control and Will bit through the leash he put on him. That he didn’t think retribution would be coming for him.
When he sees Will next, it’s not going to be a happy reunion like in Florence where he’s relieved to see him. He knows what he has to do. And that is to either kill Hannibal and institutionalize Will for the rest of his life with no chance of escape or kill them both so nothing can rise from their blood and ashes.
Knowledge of the books is very important to understand Jack Crawford in season 3, indeed. He's definitely gonna look for Will and Hannibal to stop them both no matter the cost, but he's not gonna succeed. Hannibal was never caught, he surrendered. There's no reason to think Jack would be able to catch them now. He's as doomed as in the books and dying of a heart attack after everything was brilliant from Harris and - for me - exactly what would also happen in the show.
I'm kinda in love with your brain after reading so many of your posts, but don't worry I'm a vegan.
That look that Jack gives Will after Hannibal surrenders and says "I want you to know exactly where I am, and where you can always find me," really says it all. Like, oh yeah, he knows.
By now, Jack has learned how to play the long game. And he’s learned to take the combined advice of everyone who’s aided him in his becoming. Chilton, Bedelia, Bella, and Hannibal himself. He knows this isn’t the end. Hannibal got caught on purpose and one day Will would be inclined to go back to him. And when that day comes, they’ll all play another game together. And that it is an inevitability.
The cryptic thing about Jack is he always kept his eye on Will afterwards. He moved states, got married, started a new life, and even a new family. But all of that was irrelevant. When he needed him, he went to Will and beckoned him to come play a new game. And he knew he would go see Hannibal not as a side quest, but as a necessity.
Another Fannibal had a theory that I’m now somewhat more inclined to entertain. That when Jack made plans to kill Hannibal and Dolarhyde, he had intended for Will to die as his sacrificial lamb. Not as a collateral or by accident, but by design. If Will continued to exist, so too would Hannibal. And this might be his only chance to get rid of this much chaos and carnage in the world.
He was cutting it all out. He was crushing the bird.
I think the theory that Jack was willing to sacrifice Will to get rid of Hannibal is really interesting. Because the plan to capture Dolarhyde by faking Hannibal's escape was indeed stupid and while Jack is many things (and I do have some grief with him), he's absolutely not stupid. But even before that, going back to 3x08, when Jack goes to Will for help he told Molly: "I know what I'm asking. I wish to God I didn't have to."
When we first see this episode, we can think that Jack is only saying he knows how hard it's gonna be for Will to do this again. But when Will says he needs to talk Hannibal, Jack isn't surprised and doesn't even argue against it. He not only knew this was exactly what Will would do, he doesn't tell Alana to not allow Will to see Hannibal, he doesn't try to convince Will to not see Hannibal. Nothing. And without permission, Will couldn't have gone to see Hannibal.
Some people have been arguing that Jack thought Will had truly moved on, given that three years had passed and he had a normal life with a family. That Jack thought the Will who told him he called Hannibal to warn him because he was his friend and because he wanted to run away with him, and later told him that a part of him would always want to slip away with Hannibal, was the old Will. That this new Will with his family was someone he could trust. But this argument doesn't hold when Jack is not the slightest bit surprised at Will wanting to see Hannibal, it doesn't hold when Jack agrees to Will's stupid plan. People who argue that Jack didn't have any reason to trust Will because three years had passed and he had a family haven't been paying enough attention. Jack had every reason to not trust Will, Jack isn't stupid and his reaction (or lack of), the look on his face when Will says he needs to see Hannibal, when Will tells him the plan and when Will tells him to let people believe he let Hannibal escape are proof enough.
Just to be clear: I don't believe sacrificing Will was Jack's plan when he came to him for help. It came later. But I'm saying it was already a possibility for him. Because if he knew (and he did) that Will was gonna see Hannibal again, his words to Molly ("I know what I'm asking. I wish to God I didn't have to") mean a lot more than "It's gonna be hard for him, sorry".
Lastly, the whole conversation between Hannibal and Jack in 3x12 is highly interesting since it's when Will is mentioned as the sacrificial lamb:
H: Will's thoughts are no more bound by fear or kindness than Milton's were by physics. He is both free and damned to imagine anything.
J: Now that he's imagined the worst.
H: Like ducklings, we imprint on those ideas that grab our attention.
J: What's got your attention, Doctor? God, the Devil and the Great Red Dragon?
H: Lest we forget the Lamb.
J: Will is the Lamb of God?
H: Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.
J: Who's "us"?
H: You, me and the Great Red Dragon. The Lamb's wrath touches everyone who errs. His retribution is even more deadly than the Dragon's.
J: It is, for you.
H: The seals are being opened, Jack. The Lamb is becoming a lion. "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
J: I'll still be standing.
H: Is your conscience clear?
J: As clear as yours.
H: Righteousness is what you and Will have in common. "In righteousness, the Lamb doth judge and make war." War against the Great Red Dragon.
J: He's not the Dragon, you are. The Devil himself bound in the pit.
H: Then that makes you God, Jack.
J: Yes, it does.
H: All gods demand sacrifices.
Honestly, this conversation could be analysed for hours - but for the theory of Jack intending for Will to die as his sacrificial lamb I only highlited some lines. The players here are God, the Devil, the Dragon and the Lamb: we already know Dolarhyde is the Dragon, here Will is established to be the Lamb, Hannibal the Devil and Jack to be God.
And now I made myself want to rewatch the second part of season 3, so I'm gonna do just that.
Guys, you need to stop saying Alana and Margot didn't get enough screen time to judge their chemistry.
The Silence of the Lambs movie was my introduction to the Hannibal universe. I was obsessed with the amazing performances of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster and every scene between Hannibal and Clarice. Then I read the novels by Thomas Harris and watched the other movies. From the beginning, it was Hannibal and Clarice for me. I was obsessed, like I said, and not a fan of the other movies.
When I first heard about the show Hannibal, I wasn't convinced to watch it for a few reasons. The first one is that I loved Hopkins' Hannibal and wasn't familiar with Mads Mikkelsen back then. When I love an actor, I have a hard time giving a chance to another. There was no Clarice, my favorite character, but instead Will. Now, I thought Will was a very interesting character, but I wasn't as invested in his dynamic with Hannibal and I had heard about how it was playing out in the show. I honestly didn't think I would like it, which is why it took me years to finally give the show a chance. And from the first episode, I realized my reasons were crap because this show with this Hannibal and with Hannigram was everything.
Yes, there's a point to this: Hannibal and Will had chemistry since the first episode, since their first scene. That's how a ship becomes so popular and while the writing is of course important, it depends on the actors. Sometimes writers decide on a romance because of the chemistry the actors have. You can have amazing actors with zero chemistry together, it's just something that's here or not.
Caroline Dhavernas and Katharine Isabelle are both hot. Like, smoking hot. Way more than Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy for me. It doesn't mean they have chemistry together. Each time I saw a scene with Caroline and Katharine, I saw two hot women with zero chemistry. Each time I saw a scene with Mads and Hugh, I felt chemistry I had never experienced before on tv.
Saying we needed more scenes, more episodes to see the chemistry like it was magically gonna appear over time reminds me of people trying to convince others that they should keep reading a book series because it gets really good at one point. Nope, if we have to wait until the second or third book to be invested in the story and characters then it's not an amazing book series.
Unpopular opinion: Alana and Margot have zero chemistry. Like, both beautiful, can see both as lesbians, but theirs is the most uninspiring ship imaginable.
I am very curious how you guys feel about this one.
I’m gonna get a shit ton of hate for this one, but those two are more a situationship more than anything. I read a fic once where it was Husbands vs Wives and Will summed it up perfectly:
Will and Hannibal work and are endlessly devoted to each other, because they’ll sacrifice anything and everything for each other and because of that they are equals and have equal power over each other. It is something they granted each other and for each other. They respect each other. They transform each other. Margot and Alana are not equals. Alana is the one with control and power and money and she is not at all shy about it. Margot has no power over Alana and despite her carrying the Verger name, Alana is the one calling all of the shots. She practically forfeited that power to her and could make herself believe she owed it to her.
Alana hopped from one vulnerable person to another after she became disillusioned by everyone around her and turned her savior complex elsewhere. After completing their plan, Margot became nothing more than a trophy wife along with their son who is the Verger cash cow. At one point or another, Margot is going to have to realize this. Or be made to realize this.
This is a marriage that can be easily dismantled and crushed with enough effort by the husbands. And I am quite sure that their combined curiosity will allow for it to be entertaining.
Also, I’m gonna have to find that fic because I do want to credit the author.
Edit: Found it: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6325822/chapters/14493937
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
This is one of my favorite fic ever, definitely read it!
I never liked Alana and Margot as a couple. I don't understand why anyone was happy to see them together like it's great f/f rep because it's not. First of all, it seems like they just wanted to make Alana more interesting and they failed. You can't just say your main female character has become interesting because of her sexual orientation, it's stupid and frankly insulting. We never even see Alana and Margot progress from strangers to lovers, we're just supposed to accept it was love at first sight when they have zero chemistry.
Margot definitely has no power in the relationship and Alana knows it. She's a therapist, she only had to take one look at the dynamic between Margot and Mason to understand Margot was looking for a savior (and needed someone to have her Verger baby since Mason made sure Margot couldn't have one herself). Alana knows she's holding the power and she's not even trying to hide it when she sees Will again in 3x09 ("...And the Woman Clothed with the Sun"). He asks her if she and Margot are still together, she answers that yes, and they have a Verger baby, a son. When Will says "Good for Margot", she's quick to correct: "Good for me. I carried him. He's my son. He's the Verger heir."
If you watched this scene and thought "oh yeah, murder wives, the feminine version of Hannigram!", you're being delusional. Alana doesn't need Margot anymore. Alana is not even trying to hide that she has the power and that she loves it that way. Will and Hannibal always need each other no matter how much they may not want to and they'll always both have power over the other. Hannibal saw an equal in Will, Alana saw an opportunity in Margot.
make me choose: thominho asked â–· will graham or elliot alderson
“It isn’t very smart to piss off a guy who thinks about killing people for a living.”
maybe yours isn't sophisticated enough to know that Will's is. but Hannibal essentially told him his family was the next on the Dragon's list and he :) let :) them :) die :)
I think Will did care for Molly, but he also cared for others (Abigail, Alana, Beverly) in the previous seasons and always put himself and/or Hannibal first. It just doesn't matter how much he might care about someone in the end. He probably still cares about Alana on some level but let's be honest about the fact he's not gonna tell Hannibal to not kill her and her family (I can't believe some people actually believe this is how it would go after the finale lol).
Will also has a history of not wanting others to see him - except Hannibal. Once he agreed to go and stop the Dragon, once he saw Hannibal again (because he wanted to, not because anyone asked him to go see him mind you), there was no way he could stop Molly and Wally from seeing him - and Molly did notice he changed at the hospital. He knew this, but in typical Will fashion he didn't just tell Molly they were over because it would be a confession he didn't want to make. When she joked about him being a criminal mind on the phone, he immediately becomes defensive: he knows, Hannibal knows, others don't have the right to know.
Yes, Hannibal almost spelled it out for Will: "When you close your eyes, it is your family you see?" and "They're not my family, Will. And I'm not letting them die, you are." It's literally so obvious that saying he didn't understand is calling Will stupid - one flaw he does not have. For me, Will saw it as an opportunity to not have to face rejection from them, to not have them see him.
