What a way to end a season! “Mizumono” will not only stun viewers with its boldness, but will leave many questions unanswered. After this one you’ll be antsy for Season Three. And with such a stellar season, Fuller and company have truly earned that renewal for next year. It’s a shame to see this season come to a close, but it certainly goes out in style.
The episode opens with Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) penning an invitation for Jack (Laurence Fishburne) in delicate calligraphy. Is there nothing this man can’t do? You’d think all his hobbies would keep him too preoccupied to worry about cannibalism, but perhaps when your name rhymes with it you gotta do what you gotta do. Of course, this dinner invite is a trap for Jack, just as Jack’s attendance is a trap for Hannibal.
Will (Hugh Dancy) plays partner to both sides in a scene that very nicely builds tension. The rhythmic ticking in the sound design combined with the visual of faces blending half and half conveys Will’s growing anticipation and resolution perfectly.
Will returns home for the return of the ghost of Garret Jacob Hobbs (Vladimir Jon Cubrt), who has him shoot the feathered stag; a representation of Will’s uncertainty of his survival through this situation.
Meanwhile Bella (Gina Torres) is drawing closer to death as her cancer progresses. They discuss Hannibal interrupting her suicide and she seems to have forgiven him. She asks Hannibal to watch after Jack when she’s gone. Bella has survived this season, but not everyone will.
Will speaks with Freddie Lounds (Lara Jean Chorostecki) and asks her to let Abigail “rest in peace.” In other words, leave her out of Freddie’s surely best-selling crime novel. Unfortunately for Will, this visit with Lounds has some unintended consequences.
In Hannibal’s office, he is burning a plethora of notes on his patients. Will is there to help, and Hannibal smells something familiar on his clothes. Through more bold imagery, Hannibal recognizes Freddie Lounds’ scent, and what her being alive means: He’s been betrayed.
Kade Prurnell (Cynthia Nixon) tries to stop the whole dinner disaster from happening, by telling Jack that it’s entrapment. Jack turns over his badge and gun, but this won’t stop the inevitable. Kade tells Alana she plans to have Jack and Will arrested. Alana then warns Will, who in turn warns Hannibal.
And so the stage is set for the jaw-dropping finale. We start off with the expertly planned fight scene between Jack and Hannibal from the season opener. That ends as it did before, with Jack in a pantry desperately trying to stop the bleeding after being stabbed in the neck, and Hannibal trying to bust down the door.
Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) shows up and holds Hannibal at gunpoint. But, when she pulls the trigger, nothing happens. Hannibal tells her that he took her bullets. This feels like a little bit much, as how could Hannibal possibly be so on top of things that he knew Alana had a gun? It feels like that one step too far in making Hannibal’s manipulations flawless. Perhaps if we had seen a small scene of him doing this instead of telling us, it would be more believable.
In any case, Alana runs upstairs where she finds Abigail (Kacey Rohl), still alive and well. Instead of this being a friendly reunion, Abigail mutters a tearful “sorry” and shoves Alana out a window, thus making Alana showing up at the house entirely useless. She came only to be grievously injured and helped no one. This was so very much not Alana’s season.
Will arrives and finds the barely alive Alana on the ground. She tells him to “go” and he does. He too is shocked to find Abigail and is caught off guard when Hannibal is behind him. Hannibal holds Will to him and cuts him across the belly, spilling blood and guts on the floor. He lowers Will to the ground and tells him that he “gave him a rare gift” in allowing Will to truly see him and know him. It’s a good bit of acting and a rare glimpse of emotion as Hannibal’s mask slips due to Will’s betrayal. He asks Will if he believed could change him. Will says, “I already did.”
Hannibal tells Will that he forgives him and asks that Will do the same. He calls Abigail to him and slices her throat open as Will begs for her life. He leaves them both there to die as he escapes the house. The camera pans over all the bleeding bodies, leaving the audience to wonder if they’re watching Hannibal or Hamlet.
Then the episode ends, leaving nearly every main character’s fate undetermined. While Will is a likely candidate for survival, others may not be so lucky. After the credits, there’s a small scene of Hannibal on a plane. He has a companion with him who is revealed to be Bedelia du Maurier (Gillian Anderson); one last surprise for the viewers.
“Mizumono” is a fitting end for a great season. It may have had its flaws, but overall Season Two of Hannibal is superior to the first. The episode wraps up things nicely while still holding many surprises. One can only assume that next season will revolve around chasing Hannibal, but in the meantime fans will be talking about this finale for a long time to come.