I have this headcanon of a possible first episode of Hannibal Season 4:
After The Fall, Hannibal and Will end up in a cabin in Scotland (it’s a cliffside cabin to parallel the safe house). As usual, Hannibal is almost completely unharmed, and Will has suffered hypothermia that has driven him to near death. He fades in and out of consciousness throughout the episode, coming to as Hannibal nurses him back to health.
At some point, Will makes a jab at what must be in the stew Hannibal makes him. Hannibal responds with, “Do you consider yourself above the creatures of this earth, Dear Will? The wolf would tear its brother to pieces without remorse before starving, the rabbit would devour its own young in a haze of confusion. Predator or prey, life will always be the victor.” And Will would ask “Dr. Lecter, am I a grasshopper? Whose life are you trying to preserve?” Before shivering into sleep.
Throughout the episode, Will is getting better without acting like it. He keeps trying to make Hannibal think he’s weak. The final part of the episode happens when Will decides to act.
He stashes a knife when Hannibal is gone, and acts like he’s asleep. Hannibal comes back and when he turns to lock the door, Will comes at him with the knife. Hannibal grabs Will’s wrist just as it’s centimeters from his neck (cue soft familiar instrumental music).
Will says, “I am not your pet anymore, Hannibal. You can’t keep me trapped in your little golden cage.”
Hannibal pulls Will’s hand closer to his neck so the knife is on it and says, “Darling Will, the door has never been locked for you. When you lie in my bed, it is by your own doing.”
And it’s a parallel of the Season 2 finale, but instead of stabbing him, Will kisses him, and the lyrics of the song start to play, and it’s the chorus of Take Me to Church.
The scene of them kissing is interspersed with Alana and Margot at the bottom of the cliff, because Alana won’t rest until she sees Hannibal’s body. They’re looking as it hits “No masters or kings when the ritual begins” and it switches back to Hannibal and Will on “there is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin” and when it gets to “in the madness and toil of that said earthly scene” it’s Margot running when she hears Alana shrieking her name “only then I am human, only then I am clean”/ the brief instrumental break cuts to Will and Hannibal’s cabin, with them cradling each other’s faces, but they’re both the antler humanoid versions of themselves.
When it gets to the “Amen” repetition, it cuts to the cliffside where there are tons of police cars / FBI personnel, and the music starts to fade out and the sirens are ringing. Jack comes up to Margot and Alana who are holding each other and in front of them is two human hearts bound together by black rose stems that connect two human skeletons cradling each other.
“They’re alive, Jack.” Is the last thing Alana says in a shaky voice.
The chorus of Take Me to Church kicks back in, and the camera pans up the cliff rather than down it and the episode ends.
