NBC’s hit show HANNIBAL returns tonight with a new episode. In “Futomono,” a city councilman’s body is discovered intertwined with a tree, suggesting the work of the Chesapeake Ripper. Elsewhere, growing suspicions surround Hannibal as he hosts a dinner party, and Alana is drawn closer to Hannibal. Eddie Izzard guest stars.
On last week’s episode when one of the team’s own was found in a grotesque tableau, Will volunteered to assist with the profile and informs Jack that it was the work of the Chesapeake Ripper and the Copycat Killer… the two are one and the same. Dr. Able Gideon was brought back to the asylum to help confirm Will’s claims of the Ripper’s true identity (Hannibal Lecter), but instead suggested to Will the idea of putting an end to the Ripper once and for all. Confined behind bars, Will enlisted the help of Freddie Lounds to contact his murderous admirer through her website. Once he had the killer’s attention, Will asked for help dealing with Hannibal. Alana became suspicious of Will’s intentions after reading Freddie’s article, and Gideon confirmed her suspicions, sending Alana and Jack rushing to find Hannibal before it was too late.
On tonight’s episode When a city councilman’s body is found in a parking lot, intertwined with a tree, the artistry and missing organs suggest the work of the Chesapeake Ripper. Jack (Laurence Fishburne) and the team race against time to catch the Ripper while he’s still on his killing spree. When Will (Hugh Dancy) suggests the possibility that the Ripper is filling his pantry with the victims’ organs, Jack crashes Hannibal Lecter’s (Mads Mikkelsen) dinner party to collect evidence and test the meat for human DNA. Jack’s growing suspicions drive Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) even closer to Hannibal, believing he is the victim of a witch hunt. Meanwhile, clues from the tree man help the BAU zero in on a location they believe the Ripper used. There they discover the most shocking revelation of Jack Crawford’s career—Miriam Lass alive. Also starring Aaron Abrams, Scott Thompson, Raúl Esparza and Anna Chlumsky.
Tonight’s season 2 episode 5 looks like it is going to be amazing, so be sure to tune in for our live coverage of NBC’s new series at 10:00 PM EST! While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about this new series so far.
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Hannibal plays the harpsichord beautifully. He makes notes on the sheet music – he’s composing a song. Will sits in his cage but stands when Jack comes in. He says that Jack is carrying his concentration like a brimming cup. He tells Will that Hannibal was almost murdered. They also think he killed the bailiff and the judge. Will says he only killed the bailiff. He says that the Ripper killed the judge. Jack asks if he told the orderly to kill Hannibal and he says he did not make that happen.
Will tells him he feels contempt for the Ripper and what he does. Jack asks what he does. Will asks what need he serves by killing and Jack says to get the organs. Will says he kills in three or four hours and asks if he knows why. Jack tells him to tell him. Will says the meat will spoil – he says the Ripper eats them because he sees his victims like livestock. Jack insists that Hannibal isn’t the Ripper. Will says that Hannibal throws dinner parties and serves up the people they were trying to get justice for. He tells him that both he and Jack have likely eaten people at his table.
Will asks who Hannibal has to kill before Jack will open his eyes. Hannibal slices up a heart while Alana watches him. He’s making skewered food and says it’s because his heart feels skewered. He tells her he can still feel the noose around his neck and says he has nightmares and he never did before. Alana tells him not to make the same mistake she made and act as your own psychiatrist. She says she assessed her feelings instead of acting on them and tells him he needs to process his feelings.
He tells her he is working through it by composing a new piece of music. Hannibal tells her that he needs to get his appetite back and things will be better. We see him look at a business card for a Sheldon Isley – a councilman – and a recipe for something to do with kidney. We see a series of images of flowers blooming. Then we see them growing in the cavity of someone’s body who is dead and strapped to what looks like a Japanese cherry tree. The tree is in the middle of a parking lot. Cop cars pull up all around it.
Jack is on scene and asks Jimmy what it is. The vines have been grafted throughout the body and he tells Jack it was tricky vascular work. Jimmy tells him the Ripper usually takes a few organs, but in this case, they are all gone except for the lungs. You can see them clearly. Jack says this work took a lot of time and shows great pride. There are specific flowers in place for each organ and they are all poisonous blooms. Jack says the Ripper must feel the victim was a toxic person.
Jack and Hannibal share a drink and Jack tells Hannibal there is a pattern taking shape that he’s refused to see. Hannibal says he has realized the same and says he can’t help or trust Will or stand in the shadows with him. Jack says he feels the same way then tells him they found another Ripper victim. Hannibal says he’s sorry but has to let this all go because he almost died and would have if it wasn’t for Jack. He says he cant’ dwell on death anymore and that they both need to focus on life. Jack says once he figures it out, he should let him know. Hannibal says he’s going to start by hosting a dinner party and Jack says he won’t miss it.
Will tells Gideon he should have let Hannibal die and says that Hannibal will kill him too. Gideon thinks he’s safe in jail, but Will tells him he can get him anywhere. Will says that anyone that gets too close to him is stamped with an expiration date and he’ll get got because Hannibal is the devil. Will tells him that Chilton should be nervous too. He says the only way that Chilton and Gideon will stay alive is if the Ripper is stopped. He says that Hannibal deserves to die. Chilton listens to this on his monitoring equipment.
Gideon says that Will didn’t bring him there to kill Hannibal and he says he brought him there to bear witness. Gideon says that he should tell Jack about being in Hannibal’s house asking him if he was the Ripper and Hannibal dodging the question and suggesting that he kill Alanna Bloom. Will says yes. Gideon describes Hannibal’s room perfectly. Gideon says he’ll tell Jack if Will can tell him why Hannibal did it. He says Hannibal wanted to see what happened.
Chilton plays the recording for Jack who tells him Gideon is a lunatic. He tells Jack that he’s psychotic but he can perfectly describe his home which means he was likely there. Chilton says he has heard all their conversations and says Will never described Hannibal’s home. Chilton says he knows what Will is accusing of. Jack asks if he believes it. He tells Jack that Hannibal once served him tongue and then made a joke about feeding him his own tongue. He says he only eats salads at Hannibal’s house now.
Chilton says it would be narrow not to consider that what Will is saying is true. Jack seems to be considering it and tells him the Ripper is killing again and that Hannibal is throwing a dinner party. Chilton tells him that cannibalism is an act of dominance.
Hannibal works on his piece of music. He seems to have finished the song. He sees flowers on the notes and we see Zeller working on the victim – they are cutting him loose of the tree. They tell him the victim is a councilman who paved over a nesting area of songbirds. They show him a songbird nest that had served as the crown. They tell him he was posed before rigor set in and Jack asks what the lungs coughed up. Zeller says he was drowned in a strange manner. They show him some diatoms that will show them where he drowned. It was in a 50 mile radius.
Alana and Jack walk in the woods with Will’s dogs. She says she’s clear that Will tried to kill Hannibal and Jack says he thought it was righteous. Alana says Hannibal has always been a mentor and teacher and says Will’s dogs represent the best part of him but now he’s dangerous and manipulative. Will sits in his cage and we see antlers grow out of his back and head and out through the bars that confine him. They are enormous. He’s back to normal and greets Hannibal who has come to visit.
Hannibal says he feels like he’s been watching their friendship on a split screen and Will says it’s a terrible feeling. Hannibal tells Will he’s been lying to him and he says that Beverly died at his behest. Will says he is very angry with whoever murdered her, not at himself. Hannibal says it’s hard not to take it personally that he tried to have him killed. Hannibal says he knew what he was doing and that Will decided to try and have him killed. He says that Will is more in control now than he ever has been. Hannibal asks him how many more people will be hurt by his actions and tells him he’ll give Alana his best. Will just glares.
Looks like Hannibal is on a killing spree. He pulls out business and recipe cards and we see several hearts on his cutting board. He’s making beautiful appetizers and entrees from the parts of those he thinks need to die. He has trays of beautiful canapes ready to serve. At the FBI morgue, Jack stares at the tree as they wheel the victim away.
Chilton waits outside Gideon’s cell when he’s brought down. He asks if they enjoyed tossing his cell and Chilton says the nurse he murdered were well liked as were the attendants he killed. He tells Gideon that Jack is coming to talk to him. Gideon asks Jack how Chilton described him and he says he’s a pure sociopath but Gideon says respected psychiatrists don’t use this term. Gideon lies to him and says that Chilton was the one who described Hannibal’s dining room. He says Will wants to believe than Hannibal is the Ripper and that neither want to deny Will of his belief. Chilton walks out Jack and Gideon calls after him to say that the nurse/orderly that Chilton hired was the one that tried to kill Hannibal and tells Jack maybe he should think about that rather than blaming Will for the attack.
Gideon is brought down and says he knows the nurse that he murdered was a good time girl. He keeps talking smack about her until the guards attack him and beat him then drag him back upstairs. Blood drips down into the coffee of an orderly doing paperwork and we see the guards throw Gideon down the stairs onto a grate above his head.
At Hannibal’s, there’s a party in full swing. Liveried waiters set out the human snacks. Guests mingle and a small orchestral group plays. Alana and Hannibal watch them play. The guests seem to be enjoying the food. Jack comes in and watches the people eating the food and looks concerned. He watches Alana eat a piece of something and seems to shudder. Chilton looks at an appetizer with trepidation then tells Jack that he won’t be eating anything. Chilton calls him Hannibal the Cannibal and says that’s what they will kill him. Chilton tells him he thinks Gideon was speaking truth to Will but can’t be seen speaking to Jack because he doesn’t want to be seen as a threat. He walks away.
Hannibal sees Jack and comes over. He says he’s happy he came and Jack says he can’t stay but asks if he can take the food to go. He tells Hannibal to just have someone get him a container and he can serve himself. He asks for permission and Hannibal has no choice but to agree. Alana walks up and Jack greets her a little cooly. Jack leaves. Chilton and Hannibal have a little stare down and Chilton looks away first.
Jack brings the food to the lab and tells Zeller to test it. Alana plays chopsticks on Hannibal’s harpsichord. He tells her it may be the perfect ending to his song. She tells him that Jack is treating him like a suspect. Hannibal says he’s walked away from Will but can’t escape the accusations. She says she has too but can’t forgive Will for what he did to Hannibal. He asks what walking away leaves them and she says “each other” and kisses Hannibal. He kisses her back. Aaaagh!! Hannibal lies in bed beside a sleeping Alana and looks at her. He snaps his fingers near her ear. She doesn’t wake so he carefully gets up. He takes a handkerchief and wipes her lipstick off a wine glass. He covers her with a blanket and walks away.
Gideon lies in a hospital bed and wakes to a noise. He sees someone beyond the curtain. The shadow moves around and finally the person comes in. It’s Hannibal in surgical scrubs and a mask. He says “Hello Doctor Gideon.” Jack comes into the crime scene at the hospital. Gideon is gone and the guard is strung up with fish hooks – hand tied flies like Will used to make. His entrails are in a pile on the bed below him – he is strung up prone a few feet above the bed but facing downward looking down on his intestines. His badge sits atop them.
Zeller says Gideon couldn’t have done this with the injuries he suffered and Jack says he’s likely going to find the Ripper and says that last night the Ripper found Gideon. Alana wakes to find Hannibal sleeping beside her. He opens his eyes and she smiles at him. She says she was thinking about funerals and how they make you want sex. She says this wasn’t funeral sex and Hannibal says it was in a way since they both just buried Will as a friend. She says letting him go is liberating. He kisses her and says they have lots of reasons to have sex, not just funeral reasons. She kisses him back and the doorbell rings.
He says the last time someone rang that early it was a census taker. It rings again and he goes to answer it. It’s Jack. He says they need to talk. Jack says Gideon was taken and a guard killed in another Ripper murder. Jack says he didn’t escape because his back was broken. He asks where Hannibal was last night and he says he was here. Jack asks if he was there all night and asks if anyone can verify it. Alana says she can because she was with Hannibal all night. She’s in his shirt and walks into the room. She asks what Jack is accusing Hannibal of. He says he’s just asking his whereabouts and Hannibal gets snotty and says that’s not all he’s asking.
Hannibal cooks a lovely meal for Gideon. He has him sitting and on an IV. He tells him he loves cooking with clay because it makes the meat succulent and the meal more theatrical. He cracks open the clay shell and asks Gideon if he should carve. Gideon says he already has. Hannibal says his legs were no good anyway because of the fracture that rendered him paralyzed. Nice – Hannibal is serving Gideon one of his own legs!!! Hannibal says this is a more practical use of his dead limbs.
Gideon says it’s hard to have anything and that it’s a damned slippery life he’s leading. Hannibal sits and tells him he wanted to know the Chesapeake Ripper and now is his opportunity. Gideon asks if he means him to eat himself as his own last supper and Hannibal says yes. Gideon asks how you politely refuse a dish under these circumstances. Hannibal says the tragedy is not to die, but to be wasted. Gideon picks up his knife and fork and digs into his own leg meat. Hannibal watches with interest as Gideon chews. He swallows and says “my compliments to the chef.”
Jimmy says the appetizers were all animal protein. They tell him he wasn’t serving people. Zeller says that the Ripper was using people parts in the flies he tied. Optical nerves from the judge, Beverly’s hair and a bunch of others. Jimmy explains that the ties are identical to those found in Will’s house and the new lures also have body parts from Abigail Hobbes and Georgia Madsen. Jack finally gets it – Will didn’t kill any of the people he’s accused of harming. He says there was never a copycat. It was always the Ripper finally taking credit for all his murders.
Zeller says they also found bark from a tree that’s almost non-existent. It’s also in the search area where the tree guy drowned. Zeller shows him the one place where the two coincide. Jack pulls up to the barn in the middle of nowhere and a tree like the one they found. There’s also a door with a padlock on it. Hannibal sits calmly playing his harpsichord in his house while Jack investigates the barn. He breaks through the door and goes into the cellar. He finds a light switch and turns it one and sees a trapdoor on a cistern. He opens this and shines his light in. He sees a grate further down and some murky water.
Jack creeps around and finds another grate that he pulls open and finds Miriam – the missing FBI agent with her arm missing! Hannibal has had her for a couple of years! OMG!!
THE END!!
