NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ season 2, episode 5 review: Did Hannibal die … in swim trunks?
Last week on “Hannibal,” the series pulled off what may have been its biggest shocker of season 2 so far: The murder of Beverly seemingly at the hands of Dr. Lecter. The episode began tonight with her already dead and placed within what has to be the creepiest tableau / presentation of the evolutionary scale to date.
We were caught on this moment for quite some time and for so many reasons, especially since we even saw Will carted to the crime scene in order to pay his respects. But, the second half of the story certainly did enough to have us move forward rather quickly. Blame the Matthew character for that, as Jonathan Tucker got to play one heck of a creepy man with a mission: Destroy Hannibal Lecter under the “orders” of Will Graham.
This entire battle culminated in a heck of a dramatic scene at the end of the episode, where Matthew did everything that he could while at a pool in order to destroy Mads Mikkelsen’s character … including hanging him. There was enough swim-trunk action in here to make many Fannibal happy, and there was of course good drama to boot. The BAU on this show is not always on the ball, but of course when they are, it is at a time when they can actually save Hannibal from a certain death.
The irony of Jack as the savior here should not be lost on anyone, since every scene featuring his character this year brings us back in part to that epic battle that we saw in the flash-forward during the premiere. Will’s plan behind bars has been foiled, and it’s now back to the drawing board. Matthew’s gone, and Beverly was one of the few actually inclined to believe him.
While we were not necessarily as shocked this week as with the last episode, there is still little doubt in our minds that “Hannibal” still created another crazy episode tonight. There is nothing better airing on a Friday night anywhere. Grade: B+.
One other reminder here that we are going to start up the “Hannibal” podcast with our frequent collaborator Jason Prager after the next episode. So if there are any show-related topics you want discussed, we definitely want to hear from you.
What is your take on Friday night’s new “Hannibal” episode? Share your thoughts with a comment, and to check out more news related to the show (including a preview for the next episode), just be sure to click here. You can also sign up to get more updates from our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: NBC
Peter
March 29, 2014 @ 9:47 am
Watching the show with its arty corpse displays and so on I wondered whether it was targeted at a certain audience that would appreciate the aesthetics of a show over say logic/reality. Then I noticed how much of the material is really presented either as inner realisations, or as dialogues, in other words lonely people sharing lonely thoughts. It is probably commonplace to characterise arty intellectual types as lonely, they require solitude no doubt for their cerebral exploration and this show presents the apex mind, so inward that questions of taste are the only ones that matter. And I suppose there is a little snob value in all that. There is nothing better on television perhaps but there is also nothing more ridiculous. How many serial killers with visual flair are actually in this town? Where does Hannibal get all of his equipment? How on earth did he get her clothes to separate so cleanly? Who cares? It’s gothic television, even Mads accent sounds like a vampire.