As Dolarhyde slips deeper into his delusions, Will and Jack devise a plan to capture the deranged killer.

Image via NBC

“DO YOU SEE?”

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

Chilton has never been a very likeable character. Like others on the show, he was cunning and devious, and most definitely out to serve himself. Despite all of this, he didn’t really deserve what happened to him here. There’s been a lot of gruesome stuff shown on this show, and Dolarhyde biting Chilton’s lips off will be right up there. It perhaps wasn’t as bad as Mason Verger calmly eating his own face, but Chilton’s screams made it quite disturbing. Adding to the disturbing nature of the scene was Dolarhyde himself, who was in full Red Dragon mode. Just when it looked like Chilton could actually make it out alive, Dolarhyde “transformed” and bit a chunk out of his freaking face.

“Collateral damage” is a term I have scribbled down a couple of time in my notes for this episode. Will and Jack’s master plan to lure in Dolarhyde went full steam ahead with very little regard for Chilton’s safety at all. I’ve spoken about how manipulative Jack has been in the past, but Will was right there beside him here. They used Chilton to antagonise Dolarhyde, and quite clearly the two-man protection detail wasn’t good enough. Again, it’s not easy to feel a huge amount of sympathy for Chilton, but it is easy to feel more than a bit disappointed by Jack and especially Will being reckless. The worst thing about it is that Chilton actually survived in the end, with Dolarhyde following up the biting by setting Chilton on fire and rolling him down the street in a wheelchair. Chilton’s an absolute mess now and it’d be incredible if he actually lived for much longer, but he has survived getting shot in the face before.

The lip-biting did lead to one of the most bizarrely funny moments we’ve had on the show in a while. Dolarhyde sent Hannibal a lovely little package containing Chilton’s lips, and of course the good doctor helped himself to one of them with a quick slurp. Hannibal’s presence was always going to be slightly diminished after getting locked up, but I feel I’m missing him more now that the show is most likely coming to a close. It’s very likely that the next episode is going to be the last time we see these exact characters together, so I wish Hannibal was out and about causing trouble. Dolarhyde has been a very effective foe for Will and co. to face in the second half of the season, but Hannibal feels a little side-lined going into the finale. The quick mouthful of Chilton lip proves that he can still be a headache for everyone, although I’m not sure why the hell Alana would even let him have that package in the first place without opening it first.

Image via NBC

I was happy to see Bedelia making another appearance, and even happier to see her and Will having a little therapy session together. This was absolutely fascinating stuff. We know Bedelia’s a bit of a psycho herself, and so does Will. He most likely feels some sort of connection to her considering they’ve both been Hannibal’s playthings at one stage or another. There have been many little nods to Hannibal and Will being more than “friends” throughout the season and even much further back. The Internet has been rife with speculation about whether they’re in love with each other or not, but I always felt like it was being left to the audience to make their own judgement on it. That’s why I was quite surprised to see it so directly addressed here. Will and Bedelia talked about Hannibal being in love with Will, and she confirmed that he was. We didn’t get a confirmation from Will about whether those feelings were reciprocated or not, but it’s fairly obvious that Will has incredibly strong feelings of some sort towards Hannibal. With the end rapidly approaching, I don’t think we’ll go much further with this whole angle, but it was certainly interesting to see it so directly addressed.

THE BREAKDOWN

So we’ve nearly reached the end of this bloody fantastic show. Well, what will most likely be the end. I’ve already accepted that this next episode will be a series finale, so if we do end up getting more down the line, I’ll be ecstatic. That being said, we still have quite a lot up in the air heading into the finale. Whether it is a love story or not, we need to get closure of some sort on the Hannibal and Will front. I’d also like to know whether Chilton survived much longer, and whether Jack will actually pay any sort of price for using Will like he has. There’s also the small matter of Francis Dolarhyde, who has now abducted Reba and is sliding deeper into the Red Dragon’s clutches. There’s plenty of things to be resolved, and while it’ll be bittersweet considering the fate of the show, I can’t wait to see how it ends.

This week, I just want to know how you think everything will play out in the finale. Tweet me @OldSnake24. And be sure to follow us @YouNerded!

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