Age of The Nerd
Hannibal Lecter has finally surrendered and has been thrown behind bars. Well, a very clear glass screen to be exact. Three years have gone by since the events in Digestivo took place, but the complex friendship between Lecter and Will Graham is bound to continue!
Entering the Red Dragon segment for the first time in the show, we were given what was merely a small sample of the going on’s in Francis Dolarhyde’s mind in episode ‘The Great Red Dragon.’ Unlike Hannibal Lecter, Richard Armitage’s Dolarhyde seems to be something of a physical force of nature instead of a mental force, but it is early days yet until we really understand him as a character. Unlike in the movie adaptions, we got to see Dolarhyde proclaim that he is the “Red Dragon” by removing his clothes and showing us the familiar monumental Red Dragon tattoo which covers his entire back next to a shattered glass mirror very early to set the tone.
Dr. Chilton is happily gloating that he is in possession of one of the most dangerous and cunning cannibal killers ever to grace the Earth. He is not shy about eating dinner with him, taunting Hannibal about the book he wrote about him. When Hannibal asked him if he had any plans to write another one, Chilton confirmed so but that it was going to this time be about the ‘Toothfairy.’ When pressed for what he thought about the psyche of somebody like Dolarhyde, Hannibal simply stated, “I don’t think he likes being called the Toothfairy.” Perhaps Will Graham will have better luck extracting more valuable information! Alana Bloom sarcastically congratulated Hannibal for being classified as officially insane. She told him that she knows that could not be further from the truth. For once her and Lecter shared some common ground, all the while Bloom was sitting behind the opposite side of the glass drinking wine, one of Hannibal’s former favourite pastimes. But what Chilton and Bloom may or may not know is that both Lecter and Dolarhyde are becoming simultaneously obsessive with one another! Both are saving newspaper clippings of the happenings of the ‘Toothfairy.’ But as it turned out, Dolarhyde is also working on a separate clippings album containing the trial and capture of Lecter. Just what will this escalate into?
Meanwhile, Will Graham has met a woman called Molly and the two have been living together for quite some time, secludedly. With them is Molly’s 11 year old son. But there was the sense early on that Hannibal Lecter is still living on in the back of Graham’s mind. Jack Crawford, now back with the FBI, arrived to ask Will to help investigate the ‘Toothfairy Murders,’ as the newspapers call them. After understandably insisting that he now has a new life, he finally relented, maybe realising that he cannot run away from destiny. Later on, and with the two getting ready for bed, Molly let him know of her concern in going back to the FBI. Will asked her if he should, to which she replied that only he can make that choice. In the middle of the night, Will got up and opened a letter. It was from Hannibal. In it, Lecter told Will that he knew the moment would come when Jack would ask for Will to return.
Entering the home of Dolarhyde’s latest victims, the Leeds family, he used his unique empathy talent to work out what happened. As was told in the movies, he soon realised that Dolarhyde could not resist touching one of the female victims and removed one of his gloves, leaving traces of talcum powder on her. In Manhunter and Red Dragon, this moment was delivered like some major revelation in the form of a cheap jump scare, but not so here. To have recreated this for a third time would have been quite repetitive, and Bryan Fuller must agree.
After investigating the grisly scene, and deliberately attempting to solve the case by himself without the assistance from we know who, Graham finally realised that he has to face the one monster that he has tried hard to keep away from for three years. In a meeting between him and Crawford, he told him that it is time to come face to face once again. In a cliffhanger of a final scene, Will walked slowly up to a standing figure, his back turned. The figure swiveled round. The first words from Will surged through the clear glass. “Hello Dr. Lecter.” Lecter reciprocates. “Hello, Will.”
