Hannibal Episode 107
“Fromage”
Written By: Jennifer Schuur & Bryan Fuller
Directed By: Tim Hunter
Original Airdate: 16 May 2013
In This Episode...
This week’s victim is Douglas Wilson, a trombone player with the Baltimore Orchestra. He is found with his neck broken, dangling almost behind him, a cello neck shoved down his mouth, throat cut open. The killer was trying to play the victim’s vocal chords like a violin. We know that Tobias is the killer. He owns a cello and violin shop, where he makes his own strings from human guts.
Franklin is on to Tobias. Or at least, he thinks he is. Franklin tells Hannibal that he has been concerned over some of the dark things Tobias has been saying, and checked off a multitude of psychopathy markers. Then Douglas shows up dead, and Franklin remembers that Tobias once said he wanted kill someone and play them like a violin. Hannibal pays Tobias a visit at his shop, and he ends up at Hannibal’s house for dinner. Hannibal asks him point-blank if he killed the trombonist. “Did you really have to ask?” Tobias is not concerned about the cops. He will clearly be a suspect but he will just kill anyone who shows up. He wants to kill Franklin too - he is looking forward to that. Tobias also knows about Hannibal’s secret, having followed him one night. He won’t tell anyone what he saw Hannibal do, but he was impressed with how he did it. Tobias initially wanted to kill Hannibal too, but once he saw they have the same hobby, he wanted to be his friend. Hannibal doesn’t want him as a friend; he too had plans to kill his dinner date. Will interrupts the tense dinner, and Tobias leaves before Will can see him. Hannibal violates his ethics and tells Will about what Franklin told him, about Tobias.
Will follows up on the lead and heads to Tobias’ shop the next day, two cops in tow. Will thinks he hears something (more on this later) and goes outside to check. When he comes back, he finds the shop empty. He pulls out his gun and investigates. One of the cops is dead from a neck wound; the other has been strangled with cello chord and drowned in a chemical bath. Tobias tries to attack Will with a garrote. He tries lamely to shoot Tobias, but all he accomplishes is temporarily deafening himself and scaring Tobias away.
Tobias goes straight to Hannibal’s office, interrupting his session with Franklin. He is specked with blood and announces he just killed two men. Franklin tries to talk Tobias down with all sorts of psychobabble, believing that if he turns himself in, Tobias can get rehabilitated and turn his life around. Hannibal snaps his neck, which angers Tobias - he was so looking forward to doing that. The men start to fight, with Tobias swinging around chords like nun-chucks. Hannibal manages to gain the upper hand when Tobias throws a punch, misses, and his arm goes between ladder rungs. Hannibal breaks his arm, then drops him to the ground, grabs an iron statue and bashes it over Tobias’ head. When the FBI comes in to survey the scene, Jack looks suspicious that Tobias would kill two cops then go straight to see Hannibal. The story Hannibal tells is that he came to kill Franklin, his patient, then attacked Hannibal. He merely defended himself.
Also: Will has started to have auditory hallucinations. While at home, he thinks he hears a dog howling in trouble, but he can’t find one outside (and his dogs don’t bark in response). He calls Alana to come help him look, thinking he will find an injured dog, attacked by a coyote. They find nothing. That night, while working on his fly fishing stuff, he hears a clawing noise coming from the chimney. He ends up breaking into the wall to look for whatever is in there - but there is nothing. Alana had stopped by to check in on him on her way home from work. Will finds it strange that Alana has avoided being alone in a room with him since they met, but now she is making house calls. They kiss deeply, but Alana eventually pulls away. They aren’t good for each other, and she worries that, even though she isn’t his shrink, she would analyze him constantly.
Dig It or Bury It?
I’m not sure where the whole Alana/Will thing came from. I feel like that was just thrown in. There was no lead-up. I think it was all in Will’s head. The first time, out in the field, may have been real, but I don’t believe that the second time, in his house, was real. Both interactions happened while he was in the midst of other hallucinations (which, by the way, was so obviously in his mind - otherwise all his pups would have been barking).
I feel like there is more to Tobias’ story. Clearly he has killed before, but why the escalation? Was it pure ego? Were his other murders unexceptional and therefore not linked to him?
Also, Gillian Anderson is being highly underused. I think she is only in one more episode. I miss her already.
Bon Appetit
When Hannibal tells Tobias he had him over for dinner so he could kill him, he assures him: “I didn’t poison you. I wouldn’t do that to the food.”
Prophecies?
In addition to all his other problems, Will is now having blackouts and losing time. But sure enough... he knows who Hannibal is now.