As Dolarhyde stalks his next victims, Hannibal continues his manipulative ways.

Images via NBC

“SAVE YOURSELF. KILL THEM ALL.”

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

The surprise for me with this episode wasn’t that Dolarhyde went after Will’s new family, it was that he went after them so soon. I’m perfectly happy with that too. I’ve mentioned in my reviews that I expected this to happen, but I had thought it might happen later on in the season instead of right now. It’s actually great because now that it’s out of the way, it leaves the remainder of the season for more twisted Hannibal goodness.

The scene where Dolarhyde broke into Will’s house was intense and exciting. Hats off to the quick-thinking Molly and her fantastic hearing to react like she did and get both her and Walter out of the house. We’ve seen through Will’s eyes exactly what Dolarhyde does to his victims, so the thoughts of Will’s family suffering the same fate was not very appetizing at all. Molly didn’t get away unharmed, however, with a nasty gunshot wound leaving her with a reminder of how close to death she actually came. Now I’m going to assume that they’re safe now. Surely Molly and Walter will be kept under 24-hour protection until Dolarhyde is captured. He did “fail the dragon” though, so it remains to be seen whether he’ll take another swing to get back on its good side.

I’m still really enjoying Armitage’s performance here. He seems to bring something new to the role each week. Other than his assault on Will’s family, his big conflict of the week was the one inside himself. The Great Red Dragon continues to exert its influence on him, and now Reba’s life is on the line. It’s funny to see the contrast between the cold-blooded killer and the man who clearly has real feelings for Reba. His last, desperate attempt to keep himself from killing her was to sever ties with her completely, but I’m not sure if that’ll be enough to save her in the long-run. Likewise, I’m not expecting Dolarhyde to get any less deranged now that he’s lost the one bit of hope he had left in his life.

Images via NBC

Hannibal was especially devious this week. He’s always been great at subtly bending people to his will, but here he was a little more direct with Dolarhyde. He didn’t even try and be subtle at all, he just gave Dolarhyde Will’s address and told him to “kill them all.” It’s always hard to tell why Hannibal does the things he does, so I can’t be certain whether he did this because he feels jilted by Will, or because he wants Will’s family out of the way. He also completely screwed Alana and Jack over by letting Dolarhyde know that they were on to him, but it’s a little clearer why he did that. This all lead to the fantastic moment where we got to see Hannibal in a mask very reminiscent of the iconic Silence of the Lambs gear. I enjoyed Alana’s little power play of taking away all of Hannibal’s various little luxuries, including his toilet. Considering that Hannibal has always been a rather stylish fellow, I’d imagine that this will annoy him a lot more than he’ll let on.

THE BREAKDOWN

Dolarhyde’s attempt to kill Will’s family provided us with the highlight of another excellent episode of Hannibal. Thankfully, the deranged killer didn’t succeed, but he’s still out there in the shadows, biding his time. Hannibal continues to be the true puppetmaster though, manipulating Dolarhyde and pushing everyone else’s buttons. I’m not sure exactly where they’re going to take the story next now, but with only two episodes left, anything could happen.

With Hannibal now locked down tighter than ever, what role will he play in the remaining two episodes? Tweet me @OldSnake24. And be sure to follow us @YouNerded!

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