Great news released this week, NBC has picked up Hannibal
for another season! They hesitated, and
had me a little scared, but at least I’m guaranteed another thirteen episodes
of the awesomeness that is Hannibal.
This week, the plot thickens as Graham’s hallucinations
grow stronger, making him believe he murdered a woman, and Hannibal makes a
decision that puts Graham in danger.
As I’ve said before I love this show, but if there is one
aspect of the show that makes me nervous it’s Graham’s psychological
problems. They make the character more
interesting, I don’t dislike the decision to take his gift and make it a curse,
but in Red Dragon, both the book and the movie, I don’t remember the mental
cost of profiling being as high as it is in the show. He obviously felt empathy for the victims in
that story, but he never had to grapple with dementia. This has raised questions for me in this show
about how much that changes the original character and I believe that this
episode has begun to answer my concerns.
The circumstances are hard to discuss without spoilers so if you haven’t
seen this episode, and you don’t want an important plot point spoiled, skip
forward to the last paragraph. Lecter
refers Graham to a neurologist to see if Graham’s condition is psychological or
physiological. The MRI reveals that
Graham is suffering from an advanced form of encephalitis. This would suggest that Graham is suffering
enhanced side-effects from his pure empathy because of his physiological
disease and not because of psychological weakness. This would allow his character to overcome
the hallucinations and black outs that plaque him in this season. I don’t know how this is going to play out
yet, but I’m interested to see where this goes.
One of my favorite facets of Hannibal is the show’s
emphasis on character instead of twists (even though I do love a good
twist). Instead of revealing something
shocking to keep the viewer intrigued, how the characters act create the
surprises. In this episode in
particular, Hannibal’s decision to hide the cause of Graham’s symptoms from him
in order to study his behavior was a shock.
I’m not really sure why, though.
I should’ve expected that from Hannibal, but the fact stands I wasn’t
expecting it. He is purposefully keeping
Graham mentally imbalanced to examine Graham’s behavior. I have a couple of different theories on why that
is. Firstly, Hannibal is The Chesapeake
Ripper, who Jack Crawford is obsessed with catching and Graham is Crawford’s
key to catching him. Keeping Graham
mentally imbalanced calls into question every decision that Graham makes,
allowing Hannibal to stay one step ahead of the authorities while also allowing
him to sit right under their noses.
Secondly, I think Hannibal is professionally curious with Graham’s
ability as a pure empathetic. Hannibal
is described in the books as a pure sociopath meaning that he doesn’t empathize
with other humans. He sees humans as
maybe a scientist would see a lab rat.
He can study them and understand their behavior, but he isn’t capable of
forming any sort of empathy with them.
Graham being a pure empathetic puts him at the exact opposite end of the
spectrum, and I’m sure Lecter is curious how empathy, let alone pure empathy,
works. His is a doctor. This also leads me to a theory about Hannibal’s
cannibalism, and I think this goes along with his interest with Graham’s
empathy. Hannibal studies the human mind
without being able to make a connection with any other human because of his
lack of empathy as a sociopath. If the
belief is correct that serial killers kill because they seek some sort of
connection, whether it be sexual or otherwise, I believe that Hannibal kills
and eats humans to try to imbibe their ability to feel normally. Now, I do believe this happens on a
subconscious level for him, I don’t think he rationalizes his killings this way
to himself, but the symbolism of eating something is to draw power from the
thing we eat. We eat food to power our
bodies, and I believe Hannibal might eat people to try and better understand
them.
I continue to be drawn into this show. And I definitely recommend this show to
anybody. Sure it’s about serial killers
and has a lot of gore, but if you are interested in the human psyche and
psychology, I think you will find this show immensely entertaining.
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