By Aditi Singh
Hannibal is an American psychological thriller developed for television by Bryan Fuller. It explores the individual complexity of the two main characters of the series, namely, Will Graham who’s an FBI profiler and Dr Hannibal Lecter who’s a psychiatrist.
Will Graham holds an exceptional imagination which largely helps him re-enact the crime through the lens of the criminal, but that can’t always be good, can it? Unfortunately, this gift haunts him tremendously and challenges his morality in various ways. Due to the concern of his degrading mental stability, Dr Hannibal is consulted to ensure he holds the capacity to be involved in decoding some truly gruesome crime scenes.
As the series proceeds, Hannibal keeps consuming his victims (literally), and the FBI remains perplexed. The character of Dr Hannibal Lecter remains to be a very unique one through its various versions. He’s manipulative, narcissistic and arguably a sociopath. He also caries great sophistication, is highly intelligent and has impeccable tastes (not an intended pun). He’s deeply offended by people who exhibit ill manners and operates by the motto of ‘eat the rude’ which for some reason, doesn’t exactly apply when it comes to Will Graham.
It is initially made clear that Hannibal is extremely fascinated with Will, the way his mind works, the way he envisions himself to be the perpetrator and mostly because of how his own mind horrifies him.
As Will and Hannibal spend more time together, either in sessions or outside of it, they form an intricate relationship which isn’t explicitly termed as romantic in the series but it can easily be inferred. Hannibal keeps pushing Will just to quench his own thirst of curiosity. He doesn’t actually consider Will a human who suffers. He lies to Will about his Encephalitis which leads him to believe he's going insane due to the recurring hallucinations and nightmares. It is believed that Hannibal’s goal was just to learn about Will and he was simply curious of ‘what Will would do’ in a particular situation. But things took a different turn as Hannibal found himself starting to care for Will.
These affections, over time, were reciprocated by Will Graham. Alienated from everyone, manipulated and used to an unimaginable extent, but still he would chase Hannibal.
Now, looking at this relationship, it was crystal clear how toxic and deadly their dynamic was. It was wrong, unethical, almost impossible for them to be together. Despite their relationship being fueled by loss, grief, betrayal and lot of hurt, the audience rooted for them. They were the kinds of people who could never belong together to begin with. But as we move forward in the story, both their lives take drastic turns where they realize that they could be together, just not in life.
In the last episode ‘The wrath of the lamb’, both of them are extremely wounded and bleeding as they succeeded in killing the Red Dragon. It was at that moment that it felt like Will could finally understand Hannibal.
Hannibal, grasping onto Will says, “This is all I ever wanted for you, Will.”
To which, Will rests his cheek on Hannibal’s shoulder and replies, “It’s beautiful.”
Both of them, a bloody mess, in each other’s arms is possibly the most intimate they’ve ever been or they ever could be. At this moment, Will most likely realizes that there’s not a place for them together as long as they’re alive. So, he holds Hannibal tight and they throw themselves off the cliff together.
The ambience this moment created definitely made everyone shed a tear or possibly countless. It was poetic and tragic and of course, immensely beautiful.
Hannibal puts forth an unimaginable face of love, which is certainly toxic but warms hearts at the same time. It’s a genius representation of something which would alarm your imagination and would petrify you in reality. But Bryan Fuller manages to keep you hooked despite all wrongdoings and hurt they cause each other only to end it in a way which would make your heart ache as bittersweet tears roll down your cheeks.
By Aditi Singh
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