Age of The Nerd
‘Antipasto’ marked the debut of season 3’s Hannibal on Thursday night. And the show has never evinced quality and style like it most recently did before!
Hannibal is enjoying his continuing freedom in France, but gone is Lecter’s professional psychiatrist suit, replaced with little more than a biker’s attire. Accompanying him is Bedelia Du Maurier, and the question of why she is with him at all will continue to frustrate viewers as we are being slowly drip fed the answers we all want. So, just exactly what was answered this week?
Well, we were treated in quite thorough detail the fate of Dr. Gideon. If fans remember, Gideon was last seen with all his limbs missing, framing Dr. Chilton of his and the Chesapeake Ripper murders. Piece by piece, Lecter made Gideon pay for attempting to claim credit for the Chesapeake Ripper murders by making him consume himself, literally.
Furthermore, we got a glimpse of what really happened between Bedelia and that mysterious attack from a former patient of her’s that was also previously under Hannibal’s care. Hmmm. During what would appear to be tenderly, Hannibal wiped the blood away from Bedelia’s face, telling her that all she had to do was ask him for help and he would do so. She took him up on the offer. Unfortunately, we are yet to discover further details. Another flashback shown almost after the events in the finale of season 2 showed a bruised up Hannibal taking a shower and getting ready for his departure from the US with Bedelia sitting opposite, gun in hand. Why she did not pull the trigger on him is never disclosed but did mention later something about curiosity. Could it be that, as a doctor, she wants to study the psyche of somebody like Hannibal Lecter?
As far as what the present day bought the episode, Lecter swiftly despatched somebody by the name of Dr. Fell. Hannibal nearly always kills somebody for some deluded reason, and in this case it was to assume his identity. But things do not go smoothly right away when somebody called Anthony Dimmond appeared, letting Hannibal know of his suspicions, considering he knew the real Dr. Fell. After being invited for dinner, Bedelia found it difficult to consume the food put in front of her, waiting for any fatal strike from Hannibal put on Dimmond. But it never came, much to her shock.
However, Dimmond’s luck was only temporarily when he met up with Hannibal once again during a lecture about Dante’s Inferno, a scene that was lifted from Ridley Scott’s Hannibal movie. In fact, it appears that producer Brian Fuller is lifting a number of elements from this installment what with Lecter assuming the identity of Fell, too, and of course fleeing to another country while on the run. Anyway, by this point, it seemed that Bedelia had, had enough and she packed her things and got ready to leave. But as she approached the front door, the knob slowly turned and in walked Hannibal and Dimmond! After picking up an ornament, Hannibal struck Dimmond in the head. Still alive and desperately trying to crawl to the front door, Hannibal finished him off by snapping his neck in front of a horrified Bedelia.
The end of ‘Antipasto’ finished with Lecter on a train with Dimmond’s body in a trunk onboard and reminisced about one of his meals with Dr. Gideon, with the cannibal admitting that he kept Gideon alive just to simply have company. Gideon fired back “if only that company could be Will Graham.”
It is anybody’s guess right now when Jack Crawford and Will Graham will make a return this year, although it is recalled reading a quote from Brian Fuller that we won’t get to know what happened to Alana, Abigail, Will and Jack until the third episode. As this was quite some time ago, perhaps plans have changed. Or maybe not. Right now, it is just a waiting game in that regard. Although Will and Jack free, Antipasto was refreshing in its approach but still contained just as much tension and style that is just as delicious as the episodes in the first two seasons.
The one thing we know for certain is that time is ticking down on Hannibal Lecter’s freedom and it looks to be a slow build up to what should be something groundbreaking for the show.
Patience is a virtue in this case.
