Hannibal Recap: “Buffet Froid”

by Veronique Medrano:

Hannibal Recap: “Buffet Froid”
Original Air Date (NBC): Thursday May 30, 2013
Season 1 Episode 10

A young woman heads to her home in the woods. Every odd noise in nature is meant to signify that someone is out there watching and stalking.The unknown woman is about to go to bed when a leak starts coming down from the ceiling above her bed. She investigates the attic and notices there is a hole in her roof and the falling snow is coming into her house and pooling on the floor as it melts.  She gets a tarp and covers the hole. On her way back to her room she notices wet footprints leading up to her bed. She nervously investigates it, but before she can discover the cause she is dragged under her bed and killed.

Sounds like something straight out of a paranormal film.

Loss of Time

Will Graham is still bothered by the fact that he and Hannibal lied about Abigal killing Nicholas Boyle. Hannibal tries very hard to convince him that they did the right thing for Abigal and that only they understand what it’s like to kill to protect themselves. Graham is still concerned about keeping in touch with reality and so Lecter asks him to draw a clock so that Graham, while focused on the clock, can keep his mind in the present moment. We see him right down a normal clock, this is of course through Will’s point of view, when Lecter sees it he notices that the clock is not drawn correctly.

Will is back at home cutting open a fish he caught early that morning and as he zones out on the blood that pools out of it, he comes back to Beth LeBeau  lying on the ground. A Cheshire grin is cut onto LeBeau’s face and Will is in a state of shock.He comes out with his hands covered in blood and scared. As he is washing his hands, Jack Crawford is concerned and tells Will that he is worried that he may have broken Will. Graham guffaws at the thought that now Crawford is concerned about his well-being when it’s really him covering himself from possible problems.

When Graham goes and sees Dr. Lecter to discuss his recurring problem with losing time. Graham really believes that there has to be something going on in his body physically since the symptoms have been so pronounced recently. Lecter concedes to Will’s concerns and tells him that he will get some tests run with a neurologist he knows. If the results come back that his suspicions are correct they will take care of it, but if Hannibal is correct, then Will needs to accept that he might have a mental illness. As Graham is getting ready to be tested, Dr. Lecter and Dr. Sutcliffe discuss Will’s malady. Lecter acknowledges that Will has encephalitis and that he’s known for quite some time, but that he’s wanted to get a second opinion on his observations. Lecter pleas to Sutcliffe’s ego on making a scientific discovery and using it as an opportunity to further his career. Sutcliffe bites on the opportunity and lies to Will Graham about what is wrong with him, agreeing with Hannibal’s false hypothesis that Will might have a mental illness.

Hannibal is clearly laying out his trap for Will Graham and he continues by talking with Jack about the possibility of Will having a mental illness. Jack doesn’t believe it at first, but the concern is there. All the while, Will heads over to the house where the murder took place, trying to put together the missing pieces of the murder together. When he walks into the room, he looks at his watch and says his name, the location he is at, and the time out loud. As soon as he says this he looks down and someone is peeking out and looking at the light coming from the flashlight. Graham is about to kneel down to try and confirm if there really was a person under the bed, but it pushed up over him. The mysterious woman rushes off and Will tries to grab her arm, but is left with the flesh of her hand that peeled away from where he grabbed her.

The stress of it jumps Will’s mind forward in time and he is alone in the woods screaming what his name, the time, and where he is at in a desperate attempt to control the madness that is clearly present. Will Graham calls Beverly Katz in to help him affirm that what he saw happened. She is concerned that if he is correct and the person came to reaffirm they didn’t kill someone, then is that the reason why he is there. Katz makes him aware that there is talk about him at the bureau and that many of his actions lead people to believe that he has gone over the edge.

Back with Dr. Lecter, he draws another messed up clock and they discuss the possible mental issue the current killer Will is trying to track down, has i.e:  Cotard’s Syndrome. Will & Jack interview the mother and all the symptoms she brings up sound very similar to  Cotard’s Syndrome, the mental illness that Hannibal described. After the interview with the mother, Jack Crawford tries to convince Will that he should think of Jack as his stable support and that he will not let what happened to Miriam happen to Will.

Lecter and Sutcliffe are having dinner and Sutcliffe broaches the subject of why Hannibal feels that Will is a ‘rare’ client. Hannibal divulges that Will’s state of mind is built on an over-active imagination and total empathy that allows him to see anyones point of view, which scares Will because he doesn’t understand it. Sutcliffe makes Hannibal aware that Graham has asked for more tests. This does not faze Hannibal, he feels that this gives them an opportunity to hide from him since they know what’s wrong and how to warp the tests to hide what they know until it needs to be known.

Will is at Sutcliffe’s clinic for his second round of testing, but the testing doesn’t even start.  He looks around to see what is going on and as he is about to leave the testing center he sees a doorknob covered in blood. He opens the door and finds Dr. Suttcliffe’s dead. His face maimed the same way as Beth Lebeau. He goes back home and while he is asleep the dogs start to act up. Georgia is at the bottom of his bed and he is trying to coax her out, while at the same time trying to break her out of the delusion that she is dead. She extends her hand out to him, realizing she is alive. Georgia is in an oxygen tank stares off into the distance, and we see what she is thinking about.

In her mind, she is replaying what happened to Dr. Sutcliffe. Georgia walks into the room and someone is in the process of maiming Sutcliffe’s face, but because of her mental illness she can’t see who it is. We see Dr. Lecter standing over SuttCliffe’s body, positioning it the way Georgia had done to Beth LeBeau. Lecter eventually notices Georgia and remains as calm as possible. He hands her the weapon he used to kill Sutcliffe and as she grabs it he walks away.

Jack Crawford meets up with Dr. Lecter to discuss the death of Dr. Sutcliffe and points out his lack of remorse for his colleague. Lecter tells Crawford that he is grieving in his own way for his colleague. Crawford expresses to Lecter that he hopes Georgia can remember something about the murder of Dr. Sutcliffe. Lecter doesn’t agree. He says that for her sake it would be better not to recall what occurred.