Age of The Nerd
Mason Verger returned in last week’s episode of Hannibal, titled ‘Aperitivo’. And he is out for vengeance!
In another episode that had an unhurried pace, we got to discover the fate’s of characters of Dr. Chilton, Jack Crawford and his dying wife, Bella. It just so happened that Chilton did not die from that gun shot wound fired by Miriam Lass last season, after all! The bullet may have passed through his face but it missed his brain by inches but it did leave some long lasting damage. In a meeting between him and Verger, they both challenged one another to “reveal” themselves. Chilton was left blind in one eye and with some of the inside of his face missing, while Verger showed the horrific surgery job he was left with after Lecter encouraged him to tear up his face. Afterward, and as was told in the movie Hannibal, Verger disclosed that he was willing to offer a million dollars to anybody who can give him information to Lecter’s whereabouts in order to capture him.
A hard decision was made by Jack as he euthanized Bella in hospital. At the funeral he saw a mysterious envelope with his name on, on the coffin. It was a letter from Hannibal! The cannibal expressed his sorrow at the passing of Bella, although one wonders if his sympathies were genuine.
A bombshell was dropped when Will told Jack that he wanted to run away with Hannibal when he was asked why he let Hannibal know that Jack was coming for him in the season two finale. Jack was understandably shaken! But is Will playing some kind of a game of his own? In a rather surreal sequence and going back to one of the season 2 episodes where Hannibal was serving dinner to both Jack and Will, the tortured agent restrained Jack while his “pal” Hannibal sliced his throat, showing us an alternative outcome if Will had decided to run away with him. The thing is, season two played this game with the viewers and it seems that it is going down a road that it already has only a short time ago. In the end, Will, on his own, set sail on the rough seas in his search for Hannibal, setting up what should finally be the start of a big showdown to his final capture.
NBC decided to cancel the show last week, causing a storm on the web! A number of petitions were created by fans and many calls, emails and live chats to places like Netflix occurred. It is half expected that the show will be picked up by another channel or streaming service. Producer Bryan Fuller said the chances right now are “50/50” and it is hoped that something groundbreaking for Hannibal will be announced at next month’s Comic Con event in the US.
But not meaning to be negative, this latest episode is starting to make watching the show a little painful. It is great that Fuller wants to spend time on building character and filling some gaps, but is he being too thorough at this point? That is the feeling here, and dare it be said that the last four episodes since season 3 debuted are now starting to feel like filler. And this reviewer always hesitates to use such a word! We know the action has to kick off at some point and it is just a matter of waiting.
Let’s just hope that the reward we deserve for being this patient in the past few weeks is given to us in ‘Contorno.’
