Hannibal S3E2 - "Primavera" Recap

Flashback to the season 2 finale when Will and Hannibal last had their showdown and Abigail ended up with one hell of a knife wound. But you may as well call Abigail, "Kitty," because having nine lives must be the reason that this girl is still managing to end up walking around. Do any major characters die for real on this show? Oh yes, that's right, Beverly Katz. *angry hissing noises*

Will wakes up in the hospital and Abigail tells him that cutting her throat had always been part of the plan, as Hannibal had told her in advance the precise way for him to cut her throat without her ending up dead. Yeah, right. Did any of these writers ever pay attention in their science courses? Abigail's developed quite the affinity for Hannibal, and isn't happy with Will for turning down Hannibal's offer to join their twisted, killing-family.

Eight months later and the two are travelling in Europe together to search for Hannibal. In Italy, they examine Tony the poet's corpse that was placed on the church podium by Hannibal. Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi wants Will's help, despite knowing the checkered past Will has from being temporarily incarcerated. Pazzi has encountered the serial killer known as Hannibal some twenty years earlier. Then, he gained the name, The Monster of Florence." At the time, he would kidnap people, murder them, and arrange the bodies in the same manner as the Sandro Botticelli painting "Primavera." Just as Primavera represents spring, these killings were the early blossoming of Hannibal's killing ways.

Will works his special means of deductive reasoning regarding the murder of the poet. He goes through Hannibal's MO and then Will envisions the slab of meat unfolding itself and growing into horrific stag-like monster that begins moving towards him. Abigail pulls Will out of this vision and he determines that the body is a message: that of Hannibal's broken heart. Abigail thinks that Hannibal misses them, though Will points out that Hannibal is always playing with them. Will asks if she really wants to be back with Hannibal and she says she does. But their heart-to-heart conversation is interrupted when Abigail's neck begins to slice open and bleed. It turns out she was never there to begin with, as we get a flashback, real this time, of Will being tended to in the hospital while Abigail's corpse is wheeled off to the morgue. As Will is shown to have been patched up and his wounds stitched up, the same was done to Abigail but only to normalise her body.

But in the present, a very real Hannibal (we think) was shown to be watching Will from a hidden area in the cathedral. Will seems certain that Hannibal will kill Pazzi, and we can't help but agree. As the two descend into the church caves to follow Hannibal, Will calls out to him to say he forgives him. Hannibal hears the apology but a face-to-face reunion isn't going to happen just yet.

Hannibal airs on Thursdays on NBC at 10PM.