Home Reviews

Hannibal Review: “Sakizuki” (Season 2, Episode 2)

Wow! It's a good time to be a Hannibal fan, because the show just gets better and better as it goes along. Last week's premiere hit the ground running, showing us a glimpse of where this season was heading and casting a cloak of tension and anxious anticipation over the proceedings. While last week focused mostly on the mind games played by our titular intelligent psychopath, this week upped the ante in every way possible, beginning with a truly gruesome sequence that just might make Hannibal the goriest and most cringe-inducing show on television.

sak

Recommended Videos

Last week we saw that Hannibal has become “the new Will Graham,” taking over as a consultant on the human mural case. He doesn’t just jump on board, he takes control of matters, throwing the FBI off of the killer’s trail just long enough to make a trip to the evil silo himself (dressed in a plastic body suit), to look at the killer’s work himself. He climbs atop the silo and looks down, gazing upon the mural, which creepily and beautifully resembles an eye.

“The eye looks beyond this world and into the next, and sees the reflection of man himself,” he says.

In one of the show’s best moments, Hannibal sees the killer enter the silo. Rather than hide, he simply says, “Hello, I love your work.” What follows is a wonderfully filmed sequence in which Hannibal cooks up the man’s leg, savoring the kill while enjoying the fruits of his labor.

Unlike the other murders we’ve seen Hannibal commit, in which he brutally takes down his prey, here he connects with the killer and truly admire his work. Mads Mikkelsen plays the role spectacularly as always, respecting the man for his accomplishment enough to sew him into it, right in the spot that our victim ran from earlier.

A lot happens in this episode, as Will is visited once again by Dr. Katz (who was scolded by Crawford for doing so, then encouraged to continue) for his expert opinion on the human mural case. It’s he who tells the team that the victim wasn’t discarded but had escaped, and then later points out that the newest member of the mural is in fact the killer himself. Will sees a vision of the Antler Man at the silo, before seeing himself as the center of the mural with Hannibal sewing him into place.

The show, as always, succeeds in its unique visual flare, adding creepiness and depth to what other showrunners might have made a straightforward police procedural. It’s clear the Fuller is creating something truly great with this series, and it’s nice to see that that creative vision lives on and gets better week to week.

The biggest moment of catharsis came near the end of the episode when Will is visited by Dr. Du Maurier, who leans in closely and tells him that she believes him. It’s the closest any human being has been willing to get to him since his imprisonment, and the fact that someone is by his side, and that that someone knows Hannibal better than anyone else, is a moment of immense relief. Of course, Maurier disappears after that, leaving Hannibal a bottle of perfume in her home and knowing full well that he would pay her a visit.

In the end, this was a standout episode for the series and one of the best ones we’ve seen so far. It shifted the playing field ever so slightly, giving Will a bit of ground to stand on and the encouragement to play Hannibal’s game for his own survival. Coupled with amazing gore and some truly great scenes for Mikkelsen’s performance to shine through, this episode proves that Hannibal is truly in a league of its own.