will using abigail as a scapegoat for his love and forgiveness for hannibal because he couldn't stomach that part of himself, until he's in the church and she fades away. in the moment that he realizes he's forgiven him, already forgave him since the moment the knife tore him open. carved hannibal's gentle smile into his stomach. even in death, will cannot see abigail as more than an extension of him, a vessel for his goodness. the wrong thing is the right thing to do. it's too ugly on him, so he plasters it on someone beautiful. someone he can never see as more than her good parts, her innocence. even in death, she was innocent to him. a victim in their carnage, a sacrifice to their love. and he sacrifices her visage on those holy steps, to their reunion. when he speaks to her, he speaks to himself. she's there smiling in the stream. as he is brought back from death, she is there, being made to look alive. she is his innocence, she is his faith, she is the purity and hopeless optimism of his love for hannibal. she is the part of himself he feigned for so long, a hesitancy that died in him when he shot hobbs. he holds her neck as darkness in him begins to fester, he holds her neck as it mutates into forgiveness. he doesn't think of her anymore, the way he does not think of himself before hannibal lecter. she died as part of him, both in his mind and on hannibal's kitchen floor. she could never be anything more
