Three years have passed since the events at Muskrat Farms, and a new killer has began to terrorize families.

NBC

“HELLO, DOCTOR LECTER.”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

Further emphasizing the fact that this season of Hannibal is really actually two rather distinctly different seasons joined together, we’ve now jumped forward three years in the story. It’s a massive jump forward, but one that appears quite necessary to realistically move things along. We just had that massive “break-up” moment in the last episode, so it wouldn’t have been right for Will and Hannibal to immediately be interacting with each other once again. It also allows there to be a little reshuffle of our main characters. This season kicked off with us not knowing the current status of Will, Jack and Alana, and we reverted to that slightly here as we got to catch up with them in their new, post-Hannibal-capture lives.

It was always going to take something big to draw Will back into FBI work, and the “Tooth Fairy” killer certainly fits the bill. Whereas Hannibal is an elegant sort of monster, the Tooth Fairy feels like a more primal beast. He murders whole families in a violent, yet still organized way. Using a set of false teeth to bite his victims, he stages the murder scenes with broken mirrors. Overall, it’s fairly horrific stuff. Hannibal has never shied away from showing us some outrageously inventive violence, but there’s something even more unsettling about seeing a whole family brutally murdered, even more so when we’re watching Will acting as a stand-in for the killer. Richard Armitage had zero lines of dialogue here, but he did a very good job portraying just how deranged this killer actually is. It’s also clear from his little scrapbook that he has some link or fascination with Hannibal too, which is obviously going to come into play very soon.

Hannibal himself has spent the last three years locked up in a cell, managing along the way to avoid the death penalty through reason of insanity. There was some great shots of scenes from Hannibal’s perspective and reality, as Hannibal used his “mind palace” to imagine he was anywhere but where he actually was. It’s funny that while Will wants nothing more to do with Hannibal, Alana still finds herself drawn to him. I suspect that may have something to do with her wanting to gloat over his capture now that he actually won’t be dying any time soon. Chilton has continued to try and make as much money as possible out of the situation, but he continues to play a very dangerous game with Hannibal. He may be locked up, but Hannibal still remains a threat, and his letter to Will proves that his manipulative tendencies are still on full display.

NBC

It was almost sad to see Jack showing up at Will’s home. Will actually managed to survive Hannibal Lecter with his mind and body seemingly intact. He’s got a home, his dogs and now a new family to share them with. Jack showing up to pull him back into that life just feels like history repeating itself yet again. Will may very well be the best person for the job when it comes to catching this killer, but Jack knows what it could do to him, and he damn well knew that Will would likely have to speak to Hannibal. Not cool Jack, not cool! There was no way that Will was ever going to turn Jack down in the end, but I did like the conversation he had with his girlfriend Molly. Will knows that he’s going to come back different again, and I hope Molly will be able to be strong for him. It does immediately start to worry me, though, that Will now has a family right when he’s about to go up against a lunatic who murders whole families!

THE BREAKDOWN

After the madness of the last few episodes, it’s kind of good to slow things down a little. For the second time this season we’ve had to get our bearings and figure out exactly where all of our characters were in their lives. With Hannibal imprisoned, Will and Jack had seemingly moved on with their lives, but a new, terrifying threat pops up to start the cycle all over again. It didn’t take Will and Hannibal long to find their way back to each other, but it’s going to take a lot of effort to catch a killer as deranged and seemingly random as the Tooth Fairy.

I’d like to know of all of your first impressions on the Tooth Fairy, and your thoughts on the time jump. Tweet me @OldSnake24. And be sure to follow us @YouNerded!

*We do not comment on anything relating to previews for the next episode and beyond.