Hannibal S2E4 - "Takiawase" Recap

Will sees himself fly-fishing with Abigail, teaching her to tie a knot. Will comes to in his cell and is visited by Beverly. She tells him he was right about the killer being in the centre of the mural. Beverly theorises that James Gray had a partner that sewed him into the mural but Will tells her that Gray worked alone and that the killer would have had to have known him well enough to convince Gray to be part of the mural. Beverly asks who could have done that and Will says it was Hannibal. He says that Hannibal has no reason other than his own amusement and curiosity and asks Beverly to find a hidden clever detail. She says she will look for the detail, but not Hannibal. Will is fine with that as long as she is looking.

A bee flies into a hive that has formed on a corpse in a tree.

Will tells Chilton that he'll give him the same deal he gave Beverly. He knows Chilton has been recording him and that he is a hot topic in psychiatric circles. Will says that he is either a psychopath, delusional, or right about Hannibal Lecter and goads Chilton's curiosity. He is willing to allow Chilton to test him under the condition that he will not share any more information with Hannibal.

Bella has a session with Hannibal. She is sleeping 18 hours a day or not at all and vomiting up her stomach lining. Her best option at this point is pain management. She wants her life to end with dignity and she is considering ending it herself. He asks her how that makes her feel, to which she says, "alive." She asks him the same question and he says that the idea that his life could end at any moment frees him. He tells her that Socrates killed himself with the perspective that death was not defeat, but a cure.

The FBI are looking at the bee hive corpse. Jimmy tells Jack that the body has been there roughly two weeks. The eyes and part of the brain were removed to make room for the hive.

Beverly has Hannibal help her with an autopsy. She needs help figuring out who put Gray in the mural. She also tells him that she's pleased Will is no longer accusing Hannibal of being the murderer. She shares Will's theory that the killer may have hidden something. He takes a magnifying glass and looks over the stitching. He advises her to go deep beneath the skin to the understand the killer's pathology.

Chilton provides Will with a consent form for Will to be injected with sodium pentothal. Will asks him what drug would be used to induce memory loss. Chilton says that protein synthesis may be interrupted, certain skills are required, and a certain level of unorthodoxy. Will asks if Hannibal possesses those skills and tools and Chilton admits that he may be. Will signs the consent form and is injected. Will watches the lights flicker and sees Hannibal telling him to draw a clock. Chilton asks Will questions and Will sees Hannibal ignore the oddly drawn clocks before Hannibal's face becomes distorted. Will comes out of his vision and tells Chilton that Hannibal was inducing seizures and encouraging blackouts. Chilton says that this would only work under certain circumstances and Will mentions his encephalitis. Chilton looks unsettled and says that this would suggest a radically unorthodox therapy. Will agrees with him.

Hannibal visits the hospital and Chilton tells him that his appointment with Will has been cancelled. He says that after doing a narco-analytic interview, his opinion of Will is evolving. He says that he is now thinking Hannibal may have been driving Will to violence and reminds him that he is not the only shrink accused of this and that they have to stick together. I'm sorry, what?

Bella has some marijuana as part of her cancer treatment. Jack asks for some and when Bella asks about whether he will have drug testing, Jack merely says that he is supporting his wife. He tells her about a new treatment he recently read about. She tells him she watched her mother go through lung cancer and the severe pain she experience as the end neared. There will be a time that there will be nothing he can do. He promises to hang on to the good memories of her.

The man with the bee hive was a man named Duncan, who had been missing for six month. His white blood cell count was high when he died and puncture wounds show that he had been lobotomised. The killer appears to be religiously motivated.

An old man with arthritis pain is receiving treatment from a woman who supports the use of bee venom. She gives him small acupuncture treatment. He says that he can't feel anything and she says this is good. She pulls out a long spike and begins hammering it into his eye and then twisting it while smiling the whole while. Later, a little girl encounters the man walking in a park. When he is examined by the FBI medical team, they find he has empty eye sockets, there are lesions in his frontal lobe, and he is covered in bee stings. Beverly comes in and when the team says that the bee stings are hiding acupuncture marks, she has a revelation. She goes back to examine Gray's body and finds that the stitches are hiding stitches. She finds that Gray's kidney is missing.

Will is remembering things from his time with Hannibal. He sees Hannibal telling Dr. Gideon that Will is having a mild seizure. Hannibal asks Gideon if he is the man who claimed to be the Chesapeake Ripper. Hannibal says that he is not the actual killer and when Gideon asks if he is the ripper, Hannibal says that it's a terrible thing to have your identity taken from you. Will watches the entire scene from an outside perspective.

Beverly shows her findings to Will, who tells her he believes Hannibal to also be the Chesapeake Ripper. She tells him that she asked Hannibal to consult on the autopsy and Will warns her not to do that, as it puts herself in great danger. He asks her to bring it to Jack but she says she doesn't have enough to support the theory yet. The Chesapeake Ripper had a habit of taking trophies. Beverly asks Will what Hannibal is doing with them and Will has a realisation: "He's eating them."

The bee lady, named Catherine, is collecting honey when Jack, Jimmy, and Zeller come knocking on her door. They ask about her two former patients (the victims). They question her on what she was treating Duncan for and she says he had several immune deficiencies. She says he couldn't envision a dignified end so dying in a meadow with a head full of bees is nicer. None of them try the honey, including her, as it seems too morbid. She says she only quieted his mind and brought him to the field so he could die in peace. Lloyd had crippling arthritis and afterwards, she saw him walk pain-free for the first time in a long while. She says she protected them from hopelessness.

Bella visits Hannibal and he has to help her walk across the floor. After chemotherapy, she was so weak that Jack had to carry her across the threshold. She has brought Hannibal a gift - it's a special coin. She thanks him for showing her that death is not a defeat, but a cure. He asks what she has taken and she admits to having taken all her morphine. She didn't want to die at home, where Jack would find her and have to make the call, after which he'd have to wait with her body. She is slowly beginning to slip away and Hannibal tells her she has denied him his goodbye. She says she only denied him a painful goodbye and has allowed herself a peaceful one. She tells him to tell Jack that she loves him very much. She says goodbye to Hannibal and tears fall from her eyes as her limbs go limp. "Goodbye, Bella." Hannibal sits back and looks at Bella's body. He picks up the coin she gave him and flips it. When it lands, he stands up and retrieves a syringe from his cabinet. He sticks it in Bella's neck and she wakes. She is upset to find herself alive again.

Beverly is searching for Jack and is informed that he has gone to the hospital to be with his wife. She also learns that Hannibal is in the hospital. Bella wakes and is met by Jack who repeatedly tells her he is there. Hannibal is in the room and Bella asks him what he is doing there. He apologises and says he could not honour what she asked of him. He gives her back the coin and she slaps him, gasping from the exertion. She orders him out and he calmly leaves.

Beverly is searching Hannibal's place. First, she looks in the fridge and then she picks a lock to a room where she finds a meat cutter and a freezer filled with slabs of meat. She finds a kidney and then spots fluid on the floor. She discovers a secret room and upon turning on the light, she is horrified by what she sees. Hannibal is there and she shoots at him. He runs off and we hear more shots fired.

Hannibal airs on Fridays on NBC at 10PM.