Looking to ‘Hannibal’ Season 3: Where Have We Been, What’s Ahead?

Last night I re-watched the final episodes of “Hannibal” season two, just to get reacquainted with the show, the characters and the mood of it all. NBC has made available to press the first three episodes of the upcoming third season, premiering June 4 (10-11 p.m. ET), and while I’ve already watched the season premiere (twice) I didn’t want to go any further before writing a look back at the last season so as to approach it with virtually the same mindset as everyone else so as not to offer too many hints as to what’s to come, but more a tease of what you can expect from the first episode of this third season.

So, the question to begin with, I guess, is what do we know?

At the end of the second season we saw the bloody battle between Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen), Jack (Lawrence Fishburne), Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) and Will (Hugh Dancy), not to forget the appearance and then bloody death of Abigail (Kacey Rohl). Following these events Will is left bleeding out on Hannibal’s kitchen floor, Jack is bleeding to death in the pantry, Alana is injured on the front porch after Abigail pushed her out of the second floor window and Hannibal is finally seen flying away to Europe with Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson).

Let’s first look at those left in Hannibal’s bloody wake. We know everyone other than Abigail survives, the marketing for the third season is enough to tell us that. The repercussions, however, are curious. Inspector General’s Office investigator Kade Prurnell (Cynthia Nixon) seems unlikely to be done with Jack and Will, there were some direct violations in play when these two showed up at Hannibal’s place and Alana is likely to be lumped in with them. Of course, their hunches turned out true so that is likely to give them some leniency, especially considering this is a television show and not real life.

However, we know the third season premiere, which finds Hannibal and Bedelia first in France and then finally settling in Florence, Italy, takes place one year after the second season finale. I will also say the June 4, season three premiere is entirely focused on Hannibal and Bedelia. Will, Jack and Alana are not in the episode at all, we pick up with them in the second episode, which, as I said, I have not yet watched.

Presumably, the leap forward in time will allow for any disciplinary action on Jack, Will or Alana to have taken place, not to mention the necessary healing of wounds.

Following the end of the second season I did a little speculating as to where I’d like to see things go and it would seem the above first look promo suggests I might be getting some, if not all of what I asked for:

As for the future of the show, I’d like to see Hannibal caught rather quickly into season three, or at least midway through with the season finale hinting at the events of Harris’ “Red Dragon”, a story in which Jack is very much alive. It would be great to see early signs of Francis Dolarhyde as well and obviously there will also be a wedding for Will as he and his wife Molly will need to move to the Florida Keys after the eventual capture of Hannibal Lecter.

We have the continued story of Mason Verger (Joe Anderson taking over for the great performance by Michael Pitt) and Richard Armitage (The Hobbit) as Francis Dolarhyde (aka the Red Dragon). Now whether or not that means Hannibal will be captured by the end of the season (I certainly doubt he’ll be caught early on) or not is unclear, but this show has done such a great job building up not only the title character, but everyone around him, I can actually imagine large portions of this story taking place without Hannibal’s direct involvement. He could be imprisoned and the story could go on with the investigation of the Red Dragon and eventually the introduction of Clarice Starling and the story of “The Silence of the Lambs” before we eventually come all the way back around to Mason Verger in “Hannibal”.

Based on what I’ve seen in the first episode of this third season the writers have taken a bold step in an all-new direction for the show. This show has always been unlike any show I’ve seen on network television, not only due to the large amount of gory violence, but merely in its approach to story and the style in which it’s told. It can get a little full of itself at times and just in watching those last three episodes of the second season, whenever David Slade is directing he tries to get really “fancy” with his shot techniques, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I definitely respect the effort. There certainly isn’t a lack of trying when it comes to “Hannibal”, which isn’t something I can say about a lot of network television I’ve watched in the past.

The fun for us was like, ‘We have to make her smart. We can’t make her brainwashed or be duped by Hannibal.’

The third season looks to focus a lot on the relationship between Hannibal and Bedelia, with the first episode looking into her past and some of the demons she’s hiding there. As for that story, creator Bryan Fuller recently said, “[The relationship between Hannibal and Bedelia] is hard to quantify for the audience because they think, ‘What is she up to? Why is she on that plane?’ The fun for us was like, ‘We have to make her smart. We can’t make her brainwashed or be duped by Hannibal.’ She has to be a woman in charge of her own story and be driving her own story in the same way that Hannibal has to drive his own story.” This is great not only because it is a different approach to most of the relationships Hannibal gets involved in, but because it also gives us another strong female character on primetime television.

As for the state of Will in this third season? Well, I haven’t yet watched episode two, but with all the debate surrounding the feathered stag and the Wendigo, I interpret that shot near the end of the season two finale, “Mizumono”, of Will lying on the floor, and seeing Abigail as the bleeding stag as the moment any hold Hannibal held over Will as finally being expelled. I don’t think there is any clear interpretation of the stag seen throughout the show as much as I think many interpretations work as they all virtually lead to the same place. Whether you see it as the embodiment of evil, as representative of Hannibal’s hold over will or that dark side of Will he always knew was lurking in the dark but he was never quite able to pull the trigger and kill it for good, something we see rather explicitly in the final episodes of season two. Now, with that aspect of his character seemingly dead, he’ll have to pull the pieces back together once again, though he’ll most likely be looking for closure to the whole story of Hannibal, as will, I assume, Jack and Alana.

All that said, stay tuned, I will be doing weekly recaps of “Hannibal” season three, beginning the night of June 4 following the premiere of “Antipasto”. Now here are a couple of new previews to devour before we get started on the main course.

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