Hannibal Episode 103
“Potage”
Teleplay By: David Fury & Chris Brancato & Bryan Fuller
Story By: David Fury
Directed By: David Slade
Original Airdate: 18 April 2013
In This Episode...
Abigail Hobbs wakes from her coma. Alana alerts Will, but doesn’t want him to see her yet. Instead, Alana visits Abigail alone. She has been transferred to a psychiatric hospital until Jack is convinced she wasn’t an accomplice. Abigail is strangely logical about her situation. Alana and Hannibal have differing opinions on whether Abigail is in shock or a sociopath, or perhaps somewhere in between. Jack decides it is time for Will to speak to Abigail.
He and Hannibal visit, but discover Freddie is already there, trying to convince Abigail to share her story with her. Freddie warns her against Will, saying that he catches insane men because he can think like them. The men overhear this; Freddie does not seem embarrassed. Abigail remembers Will as the man who killed her father. She is concerned that she will have nightmares, that she will be “messed up,” that she should have seen the signs... you know, all the things you worry about when you discover your father is a serial killing psychopath. When Will and Hannibal Leave, Freddie is waiting for them. She offers a weak-ass apology and wants Will to feed her information, promising she can make things better - or much worse. “It’s not very smart to piss off a guy who thinks about killing people for a living,” Will hisses. This quote makes it into Freddie’s latest column. Jack is not happy, and blames Hannibal.
It is time for Abigail to return home. Will, Alana, and Hannibal escort her. “Cannibals” is painted across the door. Abigail is quiet as she tours her family home. She says goodbye to her mother over the bloodstained patio; stares at the place where her father died. Most belongings had been packed into evidence boxes. Abigail quickly becomes aware that they are trying to (gently) get information out of her; namely, where the remains of the girls are. Abigail remembers back to her hunting trips with her dad, and how he taught her that no part of the body - pelt, meat, bone - should go to waste; otherwise it was just murder. She says that they will never find any “remains.” Later, she comes to the horrifying realization - confirmed by Hannibal - that her father was likely feeding the family the meat of the girls he killed. Will asks her about the tip-off phone call. She didn’t recognize the voice. Will believes the call came from the Shrike copycat. A neighborhood friend sees that Abigail has returned home and drops by to say hi. The girls go for a walk at the edge of the property, and are accosted by a man who jumps out of the woods. Nicolas is the brother of Cassie, the girl who was the victim of the Shrike copycat. Freddie had told him earlier that Abigail was awake, hinting that she was responsible and justice needed to be served. So he jumps out at the girls, yelling at them. Abigail’s friend, Larissa, throws a couple rocks at him. Hannibal and Will come running, and Nicolas gives up on whatever he was planning and leaves.
The next day, Abigail takes the authorities to her father’s cabin. If there was going to be any evidence, or anything that spurred memories in her, it would be in the cabin. Blood drips onto Abigail’s face and Will goes upstairs to investigate the source. It is Larissa, stripped to her panties and crucified on the antlers. Will believed that this was the work of the copycat again, which would mean he was wrong when he originally said the copycat would never kill this way again. This leads Hannibal to believe that Abigail was not involved in her father’s murder spree - but she may very well be a target. Clearly the copycat is setting up Nicolas to be the new suspect - he even took a bit of skin from the rock that struck him in Larissa’s teeth.
The crew returns with Abigail to her house so she can collect some things and be out of there for good. Two disturbances - one from Larissa’s mother, another from Freddie - leave Will, Hannibal, and Alana outside while Abigail heads in. She clutches a pillow that her father made from various animal hides, thinks for a moment, then cuts it open. She finds it stuffed with human hair. She screams, and is again accosted by Nicolas. He insists she listen to his tale of innocence - but he does so by throwing her up against the wall. Abigail acts on instinct and stabs him in the gut with the knife she is still holding. Hannibal and Alana come in, but Hannibal sees what is happening. He knocks Alana’s head into the stone wall so she blacks out, then goes to Abigail, who is more than a little freaked out. Hannibal places enough doubt in the girl’s mind that, even if it was truly self-defense, people will just see her as another murderer in a family of murderers. She can take her chances with the self-defense argument, or he can help her hide the body. She chooses the latter. Alana has no memory of the event, and Jack just assumes that Nicolas attacked her.
Hannibal is later visited in his office by Abigail. She is wracked with guilt because she didn’t use any part of Nicolas, and therefore did not honor him - it was just murder. She also confronts Hannibal about being the man who called the house that fateful night. Hannibal waves it off as an innocent phone call, but Abigail is not convinced. “You are a serial killer like my dad?” “I am nothing like your dad.” A tentative agreement is reached to keep each other’s secrets.
Dig It or Bury It?
A surprisingly sedate episode, this one was kind of difficult to recap because there wasn’t a lot of action and there was nothing to be snarky about. It was a very cerebral episode.
The question that weighs on my mind is, who cares for Will’s dogs when he is traveling for a case?
Prophecies?
Will has begun sleepwalking. Maybe his next case will get his mind off it - it has to do with victims being flayed and suspended to look like angels.