NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ season 2, episode 11 review: Freddie Lounds, Alana Bloom, and shockers

Obviously, the great news prior to Friday night’s “Hannibal” “Ko No Mono” was the announcement that the cult favorite has been renewed for a third season. This casts the rest of the season in a pretty great light! There’s not many opportunities that you can actually watch the show with a smile on your face … mostly because this is one of the most disturbing hours of TV you can possibly watch.

On tonight’s episode, you had an opportunity to celebrate the renewal by basically watching a Shiva ritual occur with the charred “remains” of Freddie Lounds’ body. You are welcome, Planet Earth.

Also, the show has a candidate for “most terrifying moment to date” watching Mason Verger try to make his own sister Margot miscarry. This is one messed-up guy, and Michael Pitt is finding a way to try and at least come close to the performance Mads Mikkelsen delivers here on a pretty regular basis. We almost lost Mason as a part of his horrible acts, as Will threatened him after being threatened with pigs (quite a strange threat, really). Instead, though, this was just a plan by Will to ensure that he threw Hannibal into the crosshairs rather than anyone else.

When it comes to big shockers that further along what is the show’s principal story, as in the attempts for the BAU to solve the Chesapeake Ripper case. Alana Bloom is finally catching on! As soon as she realized that Dr. Lecter was not the classy, skillful cook / therapist that she thought, she went to Jack with the news … and in turn, she found out the truth. Freddie’s alive! This is why we put “remains” in quotes, people! Of course she is still around, since it proves that Will is very much a player in the game rather than a deliberate killer.

Overall, a heck of an episode that accomplished quite a bit, and connected the Verger family back perfectly to the main storyline. This isn’t just some tiny arc now, and it makes Hannibal’s opponents much more unified (if they all fall in line, that is). Grade: A-.

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Photo: NBC