Review: ‘Hannibal’ Season 3, Episode 5, ‘Contorno’: Throw Will From The Train
PREVIOUSLY: Review: ‘Hannibal’ Season 3, Episode 4, ‘Aperitivo’: Revenge Society
Appetizer
Previously, Will teamed up with Chiyoh, Jack teamed up with
Inspector Pazzi, and Hannibal waited for everyone to come to him. Much more
importantly, Mads Mikkelsen showed up in the new Rihanna
video John Woo-ing a
pair of money guns, and that’s just amazing.
Will Graham: Doin’ Stuff!
Concern set in early this episode, with yet more gratuitous
slow-mo and snail close-ups. And things weren’t looking much better when Will
and Chiyoh settled in their train car with a good old-fashioned mope-off.
(“No, Hannibal hurt me more!”) Chiyoh offers this gratuitous
insight: “If you don’t kill him, you are worried you are going to become
him.” Yeah, we know! We’ve been watching this whole time! At this point, I
was worried we were in for another stretched-out slog of an episode.
But all was forgiven when Chiyoh led Will to the back of the
train, planted a kiss on him, and then threw him over the railing. Ha
ha, eat train track, Will! Chiyoh remains a complete cipher, but at least she’s
shaking things up.
Willucinations
Just a short one of Chiyoh, impaled on a bunch of antlers.
And the trusty stag shows up. Y’know, the usual. Whatever, Will got thrown off
a train! He had such a goofy look on his face! Priceless.
Hannibal and Bedelia’s European Vacation
Once we’re through all the Will ponderousness, the plot
kicks in and the episode really picks up. Pazzi investigates the missing
professors Hannibal off’ed, which was really Hannibal just putting up the
Hannibal Signal yelling “Here I am!” Pazzi recognizes him right away,
but doesn’t alert the authorities. He tried the law the first time, and it
didn’t work out. Now he’s willing to sell Hannibal to Mason Verger for a tidy
profit. Hannibal, of course, has Pazzi figured out immediately, and tells
Bedelia so. Between Pazzi’s greed and the new, young wife Pazzi introduces to
Jack, Pazzi’s imminent demise is about as subtly foreshadowed as Dead Meat’s in “Hot
Shots.”
Most Wonderfully Unsubtle Moment
Mason Verger has very specific evidence needs in order to
give Pazzi the bounty; he wants a thumbprint that can be independently
verified, so Pazzi has to go confront Hannibal again. It should be mentioned
that Joe Anderson’s speech as Mason has wandered into “cartoonish
yuppie” territory — he sounds like the Tyrannosaurus from that old claymation
Christmas special. It’s rather distracting.
Anyway, Hannibal’s in full-on “playing with his
food” mode, and he shows Pazzi a carving of one of Pazzi’s ancestors, who
was hanged for being a paid assassin. The carving depicts the hanged man,
disemboweled. Boy, it’d be really ironic if our Pazzi got killed in the exact
same way!
Grand Guignol
So Hannibal kills Pazzi in the exact same way. But first
he’s able to ascertain that it was Mason who hired Pazzi, and that Pazzi hasn’t
told the police about Hannibal. Hannibal, in good spirits, admits to Pazzi,
“I called his the number on his ‘wanted’ site once. Far from here, just
for fun.” Jolly Hannibal is pretty great. Hilariously, Alana picks this
exact moment to call Pazzi (possibly to tell him not to go after Hannibal), and
Hannibal picks up. “You’ve caught me at a rather awkward moment. Nice to
hear your voice.” Hannibal’s downright sassy this episode! It’s a nice
change of pace from mooning over Will.
Finally, Hannibal disembowels Pazzi and throws him out the
window, hanging him. The force of the noose halting knocks all of his guts
clean out of his body. Yeah, that’ll do it for Pazzi. Hey, a recurring
character will actually stay dead!
Jack Attack
This week: a literal Jack Attack! Jack shows up looking for
Pazzi just as his intestines splat all over the cobblestones. It’s fair to say
that at this point, Jack has really had it with Hannibal’s shit. The Hannibal
sass train continues, as he asks Jack, “Did you get my note?”
Hannibal continues to taunt Jack about Bella, but Jack manages to catch
Hannibal off guard and make him eat his words. I mean, Jack just destroys
him. Throws him through a bunch of glass panes, punctures his leg with a rusty
hook, crushes his arm in a wheel, the works. It’s extremely cathartic and
satisfying.
Jack tosses Hannibal out the same window he sent Pazzi out
of, but Hannibal’s able to break his fall by grabbing on to Pazzi’s corpse. He
and Jack exchange meaningful eye contact and Hannibal is able to limp away to
lick his wounds. Turns out, this show is much more exciting when the characters
aren’t forlornly looking into the middle distance and hitting the same thematic
points for weeks on end!
Grade: B+
READ MORE: ‘Hannibal’ Canceled by NBC, But Bryan Fuller Hopes to ‘Dine Again’
