Hannibal S2E2 - "Sakizuki" Recap

Our victim from last episode begins the painful process of trying to remove himself from the massive colour palette of bodies but the adhesive used is no joke. In order to pull himself away from them, pieces of his flesh are torn and after breaking out of the locked door, he encounters his would-be killer as he drives up. He hides and the killer follows after him with a flashlight and a gun. He hides in a car, as there are several abandoned ones there but when the killer reaches it, he has already fled into the nearby cornfield. The chase continues and the victim eventually reaches a cliff over a large body of water. Knowing he has no other option, he leaps down into it. Unfortunately, he strikes his head on the way down and ends up dead anyway.

Hannibal and Alana meet with Will, who says he needs help as he doesn't know who he is anymore. Hannibal offers up his services but after Will is returned to his cell, it's implied that there is a great plan at play. Later, Hannibal tells Dr. Du Maurier that he will be resuming therapy with Will. She informs him that he is ending their professional relationship and will no longer be his therapist. They dance around a lot in their past that we have yet to be filled in on but she has come to the conclusion that Hannibal is dangerous.

The team gathers around the newest body in the morgue and Beverly brings forth the colour palette theory. Jack confronts her, knowing that this idea had to have come from Will. She tells him she visited him because she knew he would have said no but they needed his expert perspective. He warns her that they are all under close investigation and he has been ordered to get a psych evaluation after what happened with Will. However, he then gives her indirect permission to visit Will again but explicitly states that this conversation never took place.

Hannibal has suggested that the team look for evidence in the cracks of the victim's embalming but when their attention is otherwise occupied, he smells the body to get his own clues. He has a vision of himself in a cornfield with body on the slab so it would appear he is on his way to discovering the location of the other victims.

Hannibal visits Will again. Eventually talk shifts to the case and Will thinks the killer see the victims as a human mural, with each victim being like a brushstroke. Beverly also visits Will again and he advises her to ignore all the evidence against him and start over fresh. If he's guilty, she will only see more evidence to support that theory. She agrees to try this and then gives him the file. Using his own methods, he concludes that the victim had a high tolerance for opiates, given Beverly's insight that he had drug problems, and that the victim tore himself free and escaped to the river. He suggest that they look upstream from where he was found for a building from which the killer could work in secrecy. He also questions Beverly as to what Hannibal had said to the team and tells her that he knows more than what he had stated.

Hannibal has found the killer's hideout and pays it a visit draped in a plastic bodysuit. He watches from above and when the killer returns, Hannibal tells him, "I love your work." Later, the FBI descends upon the location and Hannibal has little to contribute to help them in their investigation. He is also skeptical as to whether or not the killer will strike again. At Jack's psych evaluation, he speaks about how he thought that Will would be able to fight his way back through the darkness that Jack put him through but now that he has failed, the world seems a much darker place. He just can't see Will as a killer, which may foreshadow his learning of Will's innocence later on...

There were 47 bodies found and 19 were identified. One body, John Doe 21, has an inexplicable missing leg... that is cooked into a meal by Hannibal!

Dr. Du Maurier speaks with Jack and politely requests that the FBI no longer speak with her about Hannibal. She tells him it would be irresponsible for her to continue helping Hannibal and that she is currently not feeling emotionally secure.

Beverly and Hannibal visit Will to get more help and show him a photo of the eye configuration of the bodies. He sees himself in the killer's mind and finds that the latest body does not belong in the configuration. He also sees the nightmare-stag looking down at him from the same place Hannibal had looked at the layout from his first secret visit. Will tells them that this man is the killer and then we see Hannibal putting the killer into the mural in the same manner as he had done to each of the victims.

Kade Prurnell visits Will to talk about his case. She wants him to plead guilty, promising to make his stay in the facility more comfortable if he does. Will refuses, more determined than ever to prove his innocence. Following this, Du Maurier visits Will. She tells she believe he can survive what has happened to him and when she approaches the bars, whispering to him that she believes him. The guards escort her off after telling her she is required to stay behind the line.

Finally, Hannibal visits Dr Maurier's house and finds the furniture covered in sheets. We are left to assume that she has moved (or run away). A bottle of perfume has been left on a chair and as Hannibal sniffs it, he remembers her words about his being dangerous.

Hannibal airs on NBC on Fridays at 10PM.