‘Hannibal’ season 3, episode 13 (finale) review: Giving ‘cliffhangers’ whole new meaning

“Hannibal” the past six episodes has told a narrative quite like no other in their Red Dragon arc, one that started with a creepy villain and escalated into something else entirely: A story about “becoming,” and whether or not one can truly escape their past.

For Will Graham, what we learned in the closing minutes of the finale is that no matter what he may choose to tell himself, that longing to be something else is still there. His inner monster was born tonight almost out of necessity, given that he and Hannibal together were in a position to fight for survival. They killed the Red Dragon before they could be killed, and it came after a deliberate plan to try to ensure the destruction of both villains went sideways. Maybe a part of Will always wanted this to be it, so that he could finally fulfill some of his urges at the same time.

Now that the deed is done, our male leads sink into the abyss … or in this case, they go off a cliff. Is this the end of the story? It works as a finale if there is not any more story still to go, since it is fair now to speculate over what could become of Will, Hannibal, and many of the show’s other characters now.

Yet, there is still a longing for much more. We want to see more of Margot and Alana’s travels, and see what the BAU learns from all of this. It’s great experience for future cases, if nothing else … but we are sure that they never want to deal with something like this again.

The scenes tonight were gory and crazy as always, and there were a nice welcome surprises, especially when it comes to Francis striking on Hannibal before the original plan could even come to fruition. Occasionally the Red Dragon was perhaps a little too much like the Juggernaut in all of this, but we get it: The guy basically considers himself a god.

Since nothing can be tied up too neatly, our biggest cliffhanger (other than the literal cliffhanger) is Bedelia having a little dinner in the form of … her leg? As her time with Hannibal transformed her? Is she being forced to? With this being an original character, the glory here is that there is no telling where this story could go … if we are ever going to get a sense of it.

Overall, “The Wrath of the Lamb” concluded season 3 in strong fashion, even if we wouldn’t say it was on the same insane level as the end of season 2 or even “Digestivo” earlier this season. Grade: A-.