"Hannibal" Review/Recap: “Ko No Mono”

Adam Reynoso ’15 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

 
After last week’s events, it was beginning to become unclear whose side Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) was actually on, but “Ko No Mono” has finally begun to shed light on a few different agendas and to where it could be going in these last two episodes of the season.
Since his release and resuming therapy with Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), Graham has been walking the line between Hannibal and Jack (Laurence Fishburne). He continued to work with Jack and help the FBI with their cases while maintaining his sanity in the process. But as seen in the last couple of weeks, it does seem that he’s been leaning more towards the dark places, having killed Hannibal’s former patient in the previous episode.

In an earlier episode, Hannibal talked about how he can feed and teach a caterpillar all that he can, but in the end, what hatches is beyond his own nature; that describes the evolution of Will’s character, especially after the events of last season. He’s aware of everything Hannibal has done to him, as well as what Hannibal thinks he’s doing. But as it was revealed at the end of the episode, Will’s been working with Jack this entire time to catch Hannibal, and they used Freddie Lounds’ (Lara Jean Chorostecki) death to gain Hannibal’s trust even more.
With this revelation, it also clued Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas) into what has been transpiring as well. In this episode especially, she’s begun to realize how dangerous Will and Hannibal’s relationship is and that perhaps she doesn’t know Hannibal as well as she’s previously claimed. The entire time, she’s been on his side, but it’s only after realizing that someone had to be guiding Will–that it could in fact be Hannibal himself.

On the Verger front, their storyline has been intriguing. It has revealed that Margot (Katharine Isabelle) has used Will to impregnate herself in order to usurp her brother and have a new heir to the Verger inheritance. Meanwhile, Hannibal, in his therapy with Mason (Michael Pitt), has divulged this information to the brother, resulting in Mason taking action against Margot and terminating the pregnancy.
The thing with Mason is that while Hannibal is a dark, intelligent murderer, Mason is the opposite. His own motive is to keep himself at the top of the food chain and he abuses his power in any way he can. And that makes him dangerous, even to Hannibal.
But at the episode’s close, Graham confronts Mason for what he’s done to Margot and with a gun to his head, reveals that this is exactly what Hannibal wants. It goes back to Hannibal’s first meeting with Margot where he told her that perhaps she could get someone else to kill him.

With this episode, a majority of the characters are beginning to see Hannibal for what he is and how he’s manipulated all of them to where he wants them to be. With this information in mind, it makes one wonder if Hannibal has any indication to Will’s own manipulation and what that outcome will be.
The episode proved to advance the story and show what the layout for the next two episodes could be. And without any real killer of the week, it’s cleared the way for the development of the relationships between the characters, which has always been as beautifully constructed as the murders the show has displayed.
Overall Episode Grade: A