Review: Hannibal: Season 1, Episode 3 – Potage

(Spoilers!)

Episode 3 of NBC’s Hannibal is light on psychopathic pharmacists this week and instead dishes out a rather complex narrativisation of the Garret Jacob Hobbs fiasco. A lot is compacted into this episode and it does feel particularly dense in comparison to previous weeks – no wonder it is entitled Potage.

This week primarily deals with Abigail Hobbs and the aftermath of recent familial tragedy. Unfortunately for her, not only has she discovered her mum was murdered by her now-dead father - a believed serial killer responsible for the death of eight teenage girls - she is ALSO (now awake from her coma) an essential tool to the FBI’s investigation. The FBI team (Will Graham, Dr. Lecter and Dr. Alana Bloom) accompany Abigail back to her house in the hope that she will unearth some incriminating evidence toward her father. This is not the case, however, as we learn from the episode's opening sequence, every morsel of his victims were consumed - "eating her is honoring her, otherwise it's just murder". It's a particularly sinister opening, in which we see the true creepy colours of Abigail's father. 

Whilst at home, Abigail encounters the brother of a past victim (Nicolas Boyle) who accuses her of being an accomplice to her father, acting as bait and luring in the teenage girls. First and possibly believed as an act of revenge by Nicolas Boyle, the FBI team soon discover Abigail’s best friend mounted on some antlers (akin to Nicolas’s sister).You didn't think they would do a whole episode of Hannibal without a little bit of disturbing imagery did you? However, Nicolas is quickly murdered by none other than Abigail, as (and I say this loosely) an “act of self defence”. Dr. Lecter witnesses this and helps Abigail cover up the murder and protect her innocence. But is she innocent at all? Or is this some dark and twisted manipulation on behalf of Dr. Lecter? There seems to be a latent understanding and acknowledgment between himself and Abigail, a serial-killer code or empathetic mantra. This is all the more confirmed in the episode’s final sequence in which Abigail and Dr. Lecter mutually swear each other to secrecy – he knows she committed a murder and she knows it was Dr. Lecter that made the phone call to her father, warning of the FBI’s discovery. 

This episode sustains the shows ever present visual flare, even simple staging whilst characters converse is alluringly constructed (particularly the green house sequence) and the displays of murdered victims remain as the epitome of sadistic beauty. Freddie Loundes also continues as a brilliantly hateful and manipulative journalist, cleverly getting a rise out of Will Graham - “Miss Loundes, it is not very smart to piss off a guy who thinks about killing people for a living”. Dr. Lecter, however, is the most enigmatic feature this week. His wise musings are put on the back-burner and instead, equally effective intermittent shots of his silently calm and composed nature take the spotlight. It forever keeps you questioning his thoughts and motives. Even when Will is so close on his tail, presenting a lecture in profiling Garret Jacob Hobbs’ copycat killer (Dr. Lecter), he appears almost proud of his psychiatric guinea pig. Dr. Lecter's calm and composed nature is an all the more effective tool in creating a shock, when we witness his first act of physical violence. It is brief moment but one so cleverly implemented out of nowhere, we are definitely kept on our toes.  

There are a few scruples this week, primarily nonsensical continuity errors – in a house surrounded by the FBI, how was a murder scene so quickly and effectively cleaned up? And why was Abigail left alone in the house in the first place? But these are minute issues which ultimately have no bearing on yet another stellar episode of this bold, beautiful and complex network series. 

What are your thoughts on this week's episode? Post a comment!