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In the latest episode of Hannibal, Entrée, we start with the usual introduction.  Graham and Crawford are brought into a psychiatric hospital to check out the scene of a murder.  This time, however, the question is not who is doing the murders, but whether that person is connected with some serial killings of the past.  The person in question, a doctor by the name of Gideon (played by Eddie Izzard), is already locked up nice and tight.

The suspect may or may not be a currently inactive killer who goes by the title of the Chesapeake Ripper.  Though the style of the killing is similar, Graham is not so convinced that this is the guy.  So the team sets out to figure out who could be trying to make Gideon look like the Ripper and to what end.

As it turns out, Crawford worked on the original Chesapeake murder investigation.  He also happened to lose a cadet during the investigation and the actual killer was never caught.  To deal with the recurring grief from his loss, as well as the trouble he’s having with his wife and her refusal to talk about her cancer, Crawford heads over to talk to our beloved Hannibal Lecter.

As the story progresses, Crawford receives some phone calls from his dead former cadet, or rather a recording of the last words she spoke to him.  Clues lead him from one place to another and in order to potentially draw out the real killer, they enlist the services of the unscrupulous journalist that keeps showing up.  She runs a story saying that Gideon is indeed the Ripper in hopes of making the real Ripper upset enough to reveal himself.

As we soon find out, the real Ripper is actually Hannibal and he is just a bit upset that someone else it taking credit for his killings.  He is the one that leads Crawford the body (or at least some of it) of his former cadet.  In another scene, we get to see Hannibal in the company of the hospital’s head doctor, letting him know that he’s aware that Gideon’s actions were caused by some bad head shrinking.

This one still has yet to resolved, but most things in the show tend to carry on to future episodes.  That’s one of the strengths of Hannibal, the continued storyline that takes a nice, leisurely pace.  We now know that Lecter is responsible for these old killings and can see that they resemble just a bit too much the antler-mounting guy from previous episodes.  Whatever Hannibal is up to, it will likely be a while before we get to find out.

As the series progresses, Bryan Fuller is doing an excellent job with many other things besides just the pacing.  The views into Graham’s head as he goes through the motions of how the killers operate are sometimes truly disturbing.  It’s easy to sympathize with him and understand exactly why his sanity is always on the verge of collapsing.  And every time someone goes to confide in Hannibal I cringe.  He’s certainly the last person you want digging around in your head.  The more the series goes on, the more it seems like all the little killings and other screwed up stuff that Hannibal does are some sort of bizarre therapy, as he always seems to use these events to help someone with a problem or two.  Some very unorthodox therapy indeed.

I am eagerly waiting to see how the series pans out over the next weeks.  With so much going on and such deep insight to both Crawford and Graham, I shudder to think what’s in store for them.  Somehow, I don’t think Fuller has plans to have Hannibal fail in his task.  At least not if they want to continue on to a second season.  For an early look at next week’s episode (featuring Gillian Anderson!), head over here.

Hannibal Entrée still courtesy of screenrant.com