‘Hannibal’ Recap: Will & Bedelia Learn About Lecter’s Childhood In ‘Secondo’

Hannibal episode “Secondo” opened with Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) returning from Palermo, where he watched on as Will (Hugh Dancy) analyzed his latest tableau. Talking to Bedelia (Gillian Anderson), Hannibal reveals that Will had forgiven him, inspiring hope that their friendship could resume, but Bedelia tells him to exercise caution, as he still needs to forgive Will.

Hannibal Recap

Will, meanwhile, has gone to Lithuania to find Lecter’s family home. Once there, he scales the high gates and wanders about the estate. At the cemetery outside the locked castle, he discovers the grave of Hannibal’s sister Mischa. While Will dives into memories of a conversation with Hannibal about his childhood, a Japanese woman appears on the grounds of the estate with a shotgun. Will thinks that she’s aiming it at him, but it’s actually a pheasant that’s in her crosshairs. Will watches on through binoculars as she plucks the bird, one of many she’s killed.

Will decides to remain in the woods near Castle Lecter as night descends. When he spots the woman making her way towards the building, he decides to follow her inside. He traces her steps as she goes down into a wine cellar, where the walls are covered with snails, and pheasant bones cover the floor. Once inside the chamber, Will spots a caged prisoner. Before he can take everything in, the woman aims her gun on him. Will tries to explain that he is a friend of Lecter’s as the woman leads him up and out of the cellar with the gun trained on his back. It’s not until Will shows her the scar on his stomach that she lowers the gun.

The woman, named Chiyoh (Tao Okamoto), has no problem with Lecter’s cannibalism and takes her job watching over his prisoner seriously. That prisoner is the man who, according to Lecter, killed his sister. As the two get to know each other, it’s learned that Chiyoh prevented Hannibal from killing the man she now keeps alive – though barely. And, Will confesses that he wants to reconnect with Hannibal because somehow the cannibalistic killer helps him to better understand himself.

In the middle of the night, Will makes a move to free Chiyoh and Hannibal’s prisoner. But, the prisoner returns to his cage. When Chiyoh’s back is turned, the prisoner tries to kill her and nearly succeeds. Before she’s choked of her last breath, she manages to ram a pheasant bone into his neck. Will then shows himself, and Chiyoh realizes that, like Hannibal, Will had constructed a scenario to see if she’d kill him. Will then contorts and decorates the body to resemble the fireflies he saw outside and hangs the body from the ceiling. Will and Chiyoh then leave together to go find Hannibal.

While Hannibal was happy to lure Will Graham to Italy, he might be less thrilled to know that Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) is now getting a look at the heart sculpture made out of Antony Dimmond’s remains. Florentine police chief Inspector Pazzi (Fortunato Cerlino) engages Crawford about Il Mostro and wants his help in tracking him down. Though Jack suggests that Hannibal likely returned to Florence, he’s not here for him, but for Will.

In Florence, Hannibal and Bedelia have Professor Sogliato (Rinaldo Rocco) over for dinner. He’s unknowingly served a human arm along with punch romaine – the last drink served to the Titanic’s first class passengers. Sogliato continues to antagonize Lecter until the doctor can take it no more, and rams an ice pick into the professor’s temple. Bedelia, showing some mercy, pulls the ice pick out to end his suffering. “Technically, you killed him,” Hannibal observes. At their next dinner party, Hannibal and Bedelia serve their two guests Professor Sogliato’s lungs.

After dinner, Bedelia takes a bath with Hannibal sitting behind her and washing her hair. Bedelia presses Lecter about his childhood and about the home in Lithuania he’s so intent on avoiding. He tries to explain that nothing happened to him there; it’s just that he happened. Putting everything together, Bedelia asks, “How did your sister taste?” Bedelia then realizes the similarities between how Hannibal felt about Mischa and how he now feels about Will. She wonders how he’ll manage to forgive Will, and Hannibal confesses, “I have to eat him.”

Hannibal Recaps:

‘Hannibal’ Recap: Will Forgives Hannibal In ‘Primavera’

‘Hannibal’ Premiere Recap: The Cannibal Doctor Is A New Man In Florence

Get Hannibal: Season Two here: