After a week of waiting, the eighth episode this season offers no word on the condition of fan favorite Frederick Chilton (Raúl Esparza). Sure, things looked pretty grim as the doctor took a bullet to the face, but people (and in this episode birds) have survived stranger things. After all, with Beverly Katz (Hettienne Park) and Abel Gideon (Eddie Izzard) already gone, Bryan Fuller could be crowned the next George R. R. Martin. While the lack of Chilton information is a bit of a disappointment, the rest of “Su-zakana” is mostly not. It is not the strongest episode, but it is still disturbing and clever.
While ice fishing, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) and Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) discuss Hannibal through a fishing metaphor. “You hook him, I’ll land him,” Jack tells Will. There’s admittedly quite a lot of this in the episode. Everyone seems to have come to an uneasy truce for now, but the underlying aggression remains. What we’re left with are some jabs that feel a bit more Mean Girls than Silence of the Lambs. It doesn’t become too overbearing, but it is noticeable.
While Will, Jack, and Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) eat the very purposely brought trout at one of Hannibal’s dinners, a human corpse is found inside a dead horse in a stable. We’ve seen some unusual things this season, but this takes the cake. Dead bodies sewn together in a mural seem almost tame compared to this. Of course, wherever there’s weird death, our favorite investigators aren’t far behind. “This is a birth… or at least it was intended to be,” Will says as they comb the crime scene.
We’re also introduced to a new character this episode. We first see Margot (Katharine Isabelle) going through some kind of physical assault ending with her tears being used in a martini. Perhaps Hannibal isn’t the only one with odd tastes. Next we see her in Hannibal’s office as a therapy patient where she discusses her brother. It’s assumed that this is the same Margot that appears in the 1999 novel, Hannibal. In the book, her brother is the main antagonist. Is this evidence that Fuller is returning to the novels for source material? It’ll be interesting to see where the introduction of this character leads.
As Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) and Hannibal continue their fling, the investigators find a bird inside the corpse that was inside a horse. This development makes it hard not to crack a turducken joke when viewing the episode. Perhaps the weirdest part is that this bird is alive; it flies out of the victim’s chest after being cut out. How this bird survived is a mystery, but what might be even more interesting, is that it is a starling. Perhaps a nod to Clarice?
Will does “his thing” and profiles the killer. He determines that this was “Not murder. This was grief.” All of this leads them to Peter (Jeremy Davies), who is socially impaired after a kick to the head from a horse. He’s a strange fellow that Will can relate to. His oddness makes Will’s change since last season that much more apparent. Since his stint behind bars, Will has been a lot more “normal” this season. Perhaps this is indicative of him growing into a confident predator ready to take down Hannibal, or maybe it’s a bit of an oversight. Either way, Will sees himself in Peter and tells Jack that he doesn’t think he’s the killer.
Things are a bit tense in Will’s therapy appointment. He warns Hannibal not to lie to him, and Hannibal asks him to do the same. When Hannibal asks if Will will attempt to kill him again, Will says no, not when he “finally finds him interesting.” The back and forth between Hannibal does start to get a little bit exhausting this episode. We know Will is trying lure Hannibal into taking his bait, but the constant growling at one another has run its course. Hopefully from here on out there will be a bit more action.
Soil from the horse victim is traced to some land where fifteen more victims are found. Questioning Peter further leads to his creepy social worker, Clark (Chris Diamantopoulos). Will suspects the social worker is the killer, but Jack can’t detain him without evidence. Luckily they are about to get some evidence.
Will and Hannibal go to see Peter, whose precious animals have been let loose, and whose social worker has killed a horse as part of his plan to frame Peter for the sixteen murders that he committed… the same social worker who’s now being sewn into the dead horse. Will then utters what is probably the strangest line ever said on NBC: “Is your social worker in that horse?”
Will talks to Peter away from the horse where he discovers that Peter didn’t kill Clark. The following scene is disgustingly awesome as Clark claws his way out of the horse and grabs a hammer only to be confronted by Hannibal saying, “Might want to crawl back in there if you know what’s good for you.”
Will then has Clark at gunpoint. The scene that follows is tense, as Will decides he is going to kill Clark. Will sees the parallels between Peter and Clark and himself and Hannibal, and decides to get revenge by proxy. Hannibal tries to talk him down, but Will proceeds anyway. Clark is saved at the last moment as Hannibal takes the gun away. The episode ends with Hannibal almost giddy with how impressed he is with Will and his unpredictability.
“Su-zakana” may not have been the strongest episode so far this season, but its imagery is some of the most surprising and unnerving that we’ve seen in a while. Overall, the tone of the episode felt very much like last season. With a new killer to deal with, and all of our players back to their original positions (like Will returning to investigating), the episode perhaps felt a bit too familiar. Of course, there were some new elements introduced as well, like Margot. As we draw closer to the end of the season, It’ll be well worth watching to see how this all plays out. This episode did a fine job of building up that tension.