Review: Hannibal ‘Hassun’

As things move along for poor Will Graham and his murder trial, the rest of the world continues to turn. Hannibal is up to his old tricks, Graham’s former allies are flip-flopping about trying to decide whether they think he’s innocent or not and Graham himself is trying to understand exactly what has happened to him so that he can outsmart Hannibal once and for all. ‘Hassun’ brings another solid entry into the series as we wind our way through season 2.

It’s time for Graham’s murder trial. So out he goes into the courtroom, a nasty and corrupt lawyer at his side to ensure that he goes free. But things don’t play out the way that everyone wants them to, beginning with Jack Crawford taking the stand and pleading in Will’s defense. This doesn’t make his boss happy, of course, but Jack sticks to his guns. Then Hannibal decides that he’s also going to get up and defend Will, albeit he has a very different agenda. For there is a new killer on the loose and whoever it is (maybe Hannibal?) is targeting those involved in Graham’s case and using methods of killing that are very similar to the ones that Graham is supposed to have used.

Thus, things get complicated. But the judge doesn’t believe that the new killings are related to the old ones, despite a few bits of evidence here and there. So he kicks that evidence to the side. Which leaves the copycat killer no choice but to kill the judge and take his brain away (midnight snack, anyone?).

As all this unfolds, it becomes fairly apparent that Hannibal is behind it. A few brief scenes show that our favorite cannibal has more than just professional feelings for Graham. He brings up the idea of friendship on more than one occasion and isn’t killing those who would prosecute Will the sort of thing that one friend does for another? Hannibal doesn’t want Graham to go free, but he doesn’t want him sitting in the electric chair either.

Once again, the highlight of this week’s episode is the interplay between Will and Hannibal. Will knows what’s going on and Hannibal is reasonably sure that Will knows, but he still tries to communicate to Will that all the killings are in the name of friendship. Of course, with Hannibal it could just be that he wants someone to study, but I don’t think that’s the case. Hannibal lost his psychiatrist last episode and now he has no one that can relate to him. So why not Will?

It’s great to see these two poking and prodding each other, but another wonderful thing about this show is the dynamics of the characters. Crawford once again proves that he is a very organic character, a person that is filled with doubts yet still willing to trust his instincts. The other characters don’t yet have any trust in Will, but the game is only three episodes in. Hannibal and Will shall have to compete for allies as his trial commences. And it’s questionable whether Hannibal will regret his decision to help Will get a mistrial when Will’s collected forces start piling up against him.

Next week, Will works harder to get Beverly on his side, Will discovers more about what Hannibal has been doing to him and Hannibal runs around being Hannibal. Check out a promo trailer for ‘Takiawase’ at this site.

Photo Credits -           

Hassun courtesy of wevgotthiscovered.com