TV Review: ‘HANNIBAL Season 2 Episode 4: TAKIAWASE’

Where to begin with this episode? I think I’ll start with the one thing one everyone’s mind: that cliffhanger ending. As Beverly Katz is snooping through Dr. Lector’s  basement/slaughterhouse, she flips a switch and sees something that makes her say “Oh My God!” and of course he’s standing right behind her. What could she have seen to make her nauseated? I’m hoping that next week we’re going to get a rogue gallery of corpses from previous episodes hanging on meat hooks, a visual that Brian Fuller has used before in Pushing Daisies, but we’ll just have to wait until Friday to find out. And of course she turns around and draws her gun on him and shots are fired leaving us to wonder who will emerge from the basement. I’m really hoping that Beverly doesn’t become tomorrow’s course of the day, Hettienne Park has been doing a great job this season and I really don’t want her to shuffle off this early.

The creepy killer of this week leaves two souls: one man found in the woods with a beehive forming around his corpse and another man left alive, but with his eyes removed and sense of touch numbed by bee stings. The culprit is an acupuncturist  played extremely creepily by Amanda Plummer. She steals the scenes she’s in (the eye gouging sequence caused me to wince like never before) but unfortunately her role is kind of put on the back-burner for the two other main plot lines.

The first major plot point is Will’s therapy session with Dr. Chilton. Will agree’s to undergo a form of advanced light therapy to help him recall any memories that he may not remember. Before the episode ran, a black card indicating viewer discretion should be advised due to “flashing lights with strobe effects” and they’re used in this scene to great effect. Will is able to recall a dinner he had at Hannibal’s with Abel Gideon in attendance. He also recalls the time Dr. Lector made him draw a clock and sees Hannibal’s face as a distorted Picasso painting of sorts. This shot practically made me jump out of my seat. It’s here that Will comes to realize that Hannibal had been encouraging his Encephalitis. After telling Chilton what he’s learned, Chilton then discusses this revelation with Hannibal but ultimately decides to keep it under wraps seeing as they’re both doctors accused of provoking patients to murder.

The second major plot point has Jack’s wife Bella come to see him about killing herself, which he actually encourages. Being the intelligent psychopath he is,  reminds her that Socrates referred to death as a “cure.” The next time she comes into his office, she overdoses on morphine and dies. Before she passes she gives Dr. Lector a coin as a token of her appreciation. He flips it, and based on his call, revives her with an adrenaline shot so she can see Jack in the hospital, then slap Hannibal across the face for reviving her.

I find it interesting how they essentially boil it down to having Will’s story line be plot driven and Bella’s story be the emotional core, leaving the murder of the week to just sort of be there to give the FBI team something to do. It’s creepy, Amanda Plummer does an excellent job with what she’s given, and it definitely fits with the show’s style, but it kind of feels tacked on to the episode. Weirdly enough this episode’s best performances are with the guest stars. Plummer, Gina Torres, and Raul Esparza all steal the scenes they’re in and Eddie Izzard’s re-appearance as Gideon hopefully signals that he’ll play a bigger role in the rest of the season. Overall a great episode with an excellent cliffhanger leaving us with a taste of what’s to come.