Hannibal
Season 3 Episode 11 “…And the Beast from the Sea”
Directed by Michael Rymer
Written by Steve Lightfoot
Created by Bryan Fuller
Starring Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas, Gillian Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, Scott Thompson, Aaron Abrams, Nina Arianda, Rutina Wesley, Richard Armitage
NBC
Air date: Saturday, August 15th, 2015, 10pm

The latest episode of Hannibal, titled “…And the Beast from the Sea,” wastes no time in jumping into a signature moment from the Red Dragon novel (I don’t view spoilers from the novels as sacred text, especially considering how fast and loose Fuller and company have played with source material; so I’d ruined this particular twist for myself quite some time ago) and then lets the chips fall where they may as Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen), Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage), and Will (Hugh Dancy) all deal with the consequences.

I appreciate how Hannibal uses Molly to both challenge and almost comfort Will from the hospital bed. Will realizes the danger he placed the two of them in by re-upping with Hannibal and the FBI again, but she also realizes he was in a place to do the most good. It’s a delicate balance, an area the show has always floated in, used to great effect this week. Rage has always been a nice shade of red for Will Graham and there’s certainly plenty of it to go around this week.

Dolarhyde’s attempt on the Graham’s homestead is something I thought we’d see saved for next week, but now that we’ve bridged that gap, it places the character and the show in frightening territory. Unhinged, very angry, and very aware of his pursuers; the Red Dragon is left scrambling to recover. What’s so great about Fuller and Lightfoot’s script this week is just how emotional the breakup of Reba (Rutina Wesley) is and how much I felt for Dolarhyde, considering he’d just tried to kill Will Graham’s entire family.

Hannibal, on the other hand, is acting as the world’s worst father: seemingly pitting two of children against one another. And again, Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) and Jack (Laurence Fishburne) make the mistake of thinking they can control him. But as Hannibal points out at the end of the episode, change is something that fits him like one of his many suits. You can remove the amenities, but he’ll always fit in.

“Don’t you crave change, Will?” It’s a fitting question, one that I suddenly realized the show has been obsessed with since the beginning. But these last few episodes have really explored that action (or lack thereof) in many of our characters. Will came close to the edge of change for the bad and we saw those results. How might he have to change to finally capture the Red Dragon?

Quick Thoughts:

– “Save yourself. Kill them all.” Some absolutely horrifying work from Mads Mikkelsen in this episode, with that line being a particular standout.

– Dolarhyde’s shadowy hunt was some great, tension building, gut-wrenching work from director Michael Rymer.

Video

Hannibal – Hitting Close to Home (Episode Highlight)

Molly and Walter find themselves the latest targets of the Red Dragon.