History Fridge / Hannibal

** Alana: "I taste oak...what else do I taste...?"

* In the reason Bedelia left the perfume behind in ''Sakizuki'' is because she knows [[spoiler: Hannibal could track her down with his [[TheNoseKnows sharp sense of smell]]]], regardless of whether or not she was wearing it.

** In the novel, Jack Crawford says that Hannibal is an InsufferableGenius and that this was the only weakness he ever saw in him; in both book and film he warns Clarice Starling that "you don't want Hannibal Lecter running around inside your head". Given that in those novels, Hannibal was captured before Jack even met him, he was likely talking about how he acted during interviews and his trial, but this show gives Jack a much more up-front look at how Hannibal behaves and his future words carry much more weight as a result. Jack also assigns Clarice because he thinks Hannibal will respond better to a woman- we see that in this show, such as him opening up to his female therapist (for a given value of "opening up"), his "friendship" with Abigail, and in the fact that [[spoiler: when he killed Abigail and Meriam Lass, its implied that he preserved their bodies rather than eating them, showing his respect for them- this also calls forward to ''RedDragon'' as we know that a police officer will see something horrible in Hannibal's basement that will give him "emotional problems"- since Hannibal eats most of his victims, its possible that the preserved bodies of Abigail and Lass- and maybe others- are in Hannibal's basement, waiting to be found.]]

* '''''All''''' of "Fromage". [[spoiler:The entire hour is Hannibal manipulating people who are annoying the hell out of him into situations in which he can kill them without exposing himself. It starts with Franklin inadvertently passing on a "message" from the killer-of-the-week Tobias, which prompts Hannibal to invite Tobias for dinner so as to sound him out - only for Tobias to not only admit that, yes, he's a killer, but that he knows that Hannibal is the Chesapeake Ripper. Afterwards, Hannibal plays the situation like a fine instrument; Tobias admits that his latest killing (a trombonist made into an cello by chemically treating his vocal chords into strings) will draw the FBI to him simply as an expert in stringing instruments, and Tobias plans on killing them before escaping; Hannibal wants to keep Graham alive, so he passes on Franklin's "message" to keep him on his toes. When Tobias escapes from Graham and shows up at Franklin's next therapy session, Hannibal takes the opportunity to kill his annoying fanboy, knowing that Tobias will be blamed for it. He then engages Tobias in combat, and purposefully takes a few nasty-looking but otherwise superficial wounds before proceeds to '''[[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]]''' Tobias; first using a rope-a-dope on a rather conveniently placed ladder (that ''he himself moved'' during the course of the fight) to pin and break Tobias's arm, then an almost nonchalant larynx strike that drops Tobias like a sack of potatoes. Following that, he not only uses his handkerchief to pick up a heavy statue - [[ArcSymbol of a deer, no less]] - before smashing Tobias's head with it, he uses the handkerchief to tip over the table it was on - no fingerprints means it looks like Tobias fell against it, dropping the statue on his own head. Then he delicately folds up and tucks the handkerchief back into his pocket, as neat as you please; you'd never think he moved it at all. Hannibal: 3. Tobias, Franklin, FBI: 0.]]

** [[spoiler: In "Kaiseki", we get to see a nice sequence of Hannibal forcing a long tube down Will's throat, which he then stuffs Abigail's ear down. Will is unconscious, presumably drugged or delirious. It's about as Squick as you might imagine.]]

* So much of this series works as {{Foreshadowing}} for the planned future seasons which are to be adaptations of the books; but more than that, they put them in a new light. When Dr Chilton bullies Lecter in ''SilenceOfTheLambs'', for instance, it seems petty and motivated by jealously- his prisoner is smarter than him and doesn't bother to hide it; but in this show, given everything Chilton goes through thanks to the Chesapeake Ripper fiasco, finding out that the guy he thought was helping him was in fact the real Ripper himself and had been playing him for a fool the whole time, thereby nearly ruining his career, [[spoiler: exposing Gideon as not the Ripper but then dumping Will on him as if he ''was'' a SerialKiller when he wasn't, and very nearly getting him painfully killed]]; suddenly, Chilton's grudge against Lecter takes on many new dimensions. Lecter basically humiliated Chilton over the course of the entire first season, and will probably continue to do so over the course of the second- of ''course'' Chilton is pissed off at him!.

* Miriam Lass's fate. She went missing about two years ago, right around the time Hannibal started brewing that special, odd-tasting beer Alana is so fond of. Further, preserving in alcohol would explain how her arm is whole and intact enough to be recognizable to Jack and the team. Last piece of the puzzle? [[http://cartooncat.newsvine.com/_news/2010/12/16/5658716-vindaloo-beer-and-offal-ale-brewer-creates-weird-beer-for-every-week-of-year Offal beer is a real thing]]: it involves dumping organs or other meat into the brewing vat and then fishing them out later.

* When they first meet in the pilot episode, Hannibal is somewhat hostile toward Jack Crawford. He tells Jack to wait outside, while he presumably is in his office clearing his schedule. He invites Jack in eventually, and the two observe an amazing drawing Hannibal has made of his former boarding school in Paris, pointing out his use of a scalpel instead of a sharpener to get the edge right on his pencils. Lecter basically asks Crawford why the FBI would be investigating him, to which Crawford tells him they aren't but want his help. After this and more flattery on Jack's part, Hannibal's mood is significantly lighter and he hears out Jack about profiling Will Graham. For those new to these characters, it probably didn't seem too suspicious. [[spoiler: However, those already keenly aware of [[ManipulativeBastard Lecter's]] [[ImAHumanitarian true]] [[CompleteMonster nature]] will see that he was ready to murder Jack Crawford right in the middle of his office, or abduct him the way he had his protege, Miriam Lass, who is revealed later on to have been caught, mutilated and killed by Lecter. This would explain why Hannibal is immediately defensive toward Jack, he knew him and assumed he was being caught. He likely was hiding evidence while Jack was in the waiting room (a precaution he failed to take with Lass). The only real evidence of this in the scene is a solo close-up of the scalpel in Lecter's hands. Though we don't see it again, he's staring at it as he turns to ask Jack why he's being investigated. If Jack had beaten around the bush a few moments longer, Hannibal might have slit his throat with that scalpel and disappeared him the way he always seems to be able to do.]]

* Miriam Lass's fate. She went missing about two years ago, right around the time Hannibal started brewing that special, odd-tasting beer Alana is so fond of. Further, preserving in alcohol would explain how her arm is whole and intact enough to be recognizable to Jack and the team. Last piece of the puzzle? Offal beer is a real thing: http://cartooncat.newsvine.com/_news/2010/12/16/5658716-vindaloo-beer-and-offal-ale-brewer-creates-weird-beer-for-every-week-of-year ; it involves dumping organs or other meat into the brewing vat and then fishing them out later.

* When they first meet in the pilot episode, Hannibal is somewhat hostile toward Jack Crawford. He tells Jack to wait outside, while he presumably is in his office clearing his schedule. He invites Jack in eventually, and the two observe an amazing drawing Hannibal has made of his former boarding school in Paris, pointing out his use of a scalpel instead of a sharpener to get the edge right on his pencils. Lecter basically asks Crawford why the FBI would be investigating him, to which Crawford tells him they aren't but want his help. After this and more flattery on Jack's part, Hannibal's mood is significantly lighter and he hears out Jack about profiling Will Graham. For those new to these characters, it probably didn't seem too suspicious. [[spoiler: However, those already keenly aware of [[ManipulativeBastard Lecter's]] [[ImAHumanitarian true]] [[CompleteMonster nature]] will see that he was ready to murder Jack Crawford right in the middle of his office, or abduct him the way he had his protege, Miriam Lass, who is revealed later on to have been caught, mutilated and killed by Lecter. This would explain why Hannibal is immediately defensive toward Jack, he knew him and assumed he was being caught. He likely was hiding evidence while Jack was in the waiting room (a precaution he failed to take with Lass). The only real evidence of this in the scene is a solo close-up of the scalpel in Lecter's hands. Though we don't see it again, he's staring at it as he turns to ask Jack why he's being investigated. If Jack had beaten around the bush a few moments longer, Hannibal might have slit his throat with that scalpel and disappeared him the way he always seems to be able to do.]]

* As Hannibal mentions in Releves [[spoiler: before killing Abigail offscreen,]] he has killed many more people than Garret Jacob Hobbs. But if the police only know about his killings done [[spoiler: in the persona of the Chesapeake Ripper,]] and if he sometimes kills in different ways, or copies other killers, then it's probable there have been many killings even they don't know about... And even as [[spoiler: the Chesapeake Ripper,]] he already seems to be the most infamous serial killer currently active in the world of ''Hannibal.''

* As Hannibal mentions in Releves [[spoiler: before killing Abigail offscreen,]] he has killed many more people than Garret Jacob Hobbs. But if the police only know about his killings done [[spoiler: in the persona of the Chesapeake Ripper,]] and if he sometimes kills in different ways, or copies other killers, then it's probable there have been many killings even they don't know about... And even as [[spoiler: the Chesapeake Ripper,]] he already seems to be the most infamous serial killer currently active in the world of "{{Hannibal}}"

* The degree to which Garrett Jacob Hobbs' relationship with his daughter resembles abuse or an incestuous relationship into which he has forced her, as if it weren't bad enough on its own. The rationale of "I have to do this to you so I don't do it to anyone else" as well as its inverse (what actually happens to Abigail and which she [[spoiler:herself buys into, helping her father capture other girls out of fear for herself]] is horribly common and is a big part of why survivors of rape and incest don't speak out, or feel guilty themselves for the fact that their abusers ''do'' hurt other people. Abigail's fear that will think she's complicit in it/tainted as a result or that living with her dad ''has'' warped her beyond repair [[spoiler:especially as she played along to save her own life]] is also realistic for someone who grew up in the shadow of another kind of monstrous crime. Hobbs might not be sexually assaulting the girls he kills, but obsessively hunting girls who resemble his teenage daughter as a symbolic way of keeping her from ever ever leaving him (and the somewhat infantilizing way he re-dresses the girl whose body he returns) really don't bode well.

** They show you in the episode! There were only two people in the van with him, a cop (who looks near to Gideon's age) and an orderly (younger); and then there was the driver, whom he got the drop on. They were in a small space, where Gideon's lack of height would can given him more room to manoeuvre. Gideon himself isn't overweight to a degree that would hinder him in combat - he's stocky and sturdy, as well as a surgeon familiar with anatomical weaknesses and probably used to making quick decisions under pressure, though in this instance he's killing people rather than keeping them alive. Honestly, it was probably easy in comparison with surgery.

* A few of the killings we see would be ''really'' difficult, if not impossible to pull off:
** The Angel Maker [[spoiler: kills and suspends himself from the rafters. This involved somehow making "wings" of the flesh on his back, (how he reached it is anyone's guess,) hanging them from the ceiling, before tying himself into the correct position. Even if we accept that he was somehow immune to the agony, shock and crippling blood-loss, it would still be virtually impossible for him to kill himself in that way]].
** In ''Trou Normand'' the killer who makes a massive totem pole of his victims is [[spoiler: an old man, who is shown to be very weak and frail, despite somehow managing to tie dozens of bodies to a huge pole of wood, and then somehow standing the pole upright. The latter would have to have been done with heavy machinery, but we don't see him have access to any.]]

** How the hell did [[spoiler: Lecter manage to get Abigail's ear into Will's mouth?!?!]]
*** [[spoiler: Will has fugue states and seizures, during which he has no awareness of his surroundings. After Hannibal murdered and mutilated Abigail, he probably took her ear and some blood to the cabin where she told him she'd left Will. If Will was in a fugue state, Hannibal could have fed him the ear, smeared the blood under his fingernails, and scratched him to create the illusion of a struggle.]]
*** [[spoiler: Or it could already have been in the sink before Will threw up in it.]]

** In Episode 10 it's hard to see how the killer [[spoiler: being a sick woman, would have the brute strength necessary to drag her victim under the bed the way she did, even ignoring the fact that fitting two struggling bodies under a normal-sized bed would leave very little room for her to build up any leverage or momentum.]]

* How did Dr. Gideon, an overweight middle-aged man [[spoiler:not only overpower and kill someone but ''overpower several guards younger than himself''?]]

** This could be another sign of some psychopathology residing in Freddie's mind.

* How does Freddie manage to [[spoiler:recover from her ordeal at the hands of Dr. Gideon with no mental side-effects and, more, pointedly, why does she still want to work on a book with Abigail... after all, she herself got kidnapped and forced to work with a serial killer. Couldn't she simply write a book about her own recent experiences?]]

* The degree to which Garrett Jacob Hobbs' relationship with his daughter resembles abuse or coerced incest, as if it weren't bad enough on its own. The rationale of "I have to do this to you so I don't do it to anyone else" as well as its inverse (what actually happens to Abigail and which she [[spoiler:herself buys into, helping her father capture other girls out of fear for herself]] is horribly common and is a big part of why survivors of rape and incest don't speak out, or feel guilty themselves for the fact that their abusers ''do'' hurt other people. Abigail's fear that will think she's complicit in it/tainted as a result or that living with her dad ''has'' warped her beyond repair [[spoiler:especially as she played along to save her own life]] is also realistic for someone who grew up in the shadow of another kind of monstrous crime. Hobbs might not be sexually assaulting the girls he kills, but obsessively hunting girls who resemble his teenage daughter as a symbolic way of keeping her from ever ever leaving him (and the somewhat infantilizing way he re-dresses the girl whose body he returns) really don't bode well.

* The degree to which Garrett Jacob Hobbs' relationship with his daughter resembles abuse or incest -- as if it weren't bad enough on its own. The rhetoric of "I have to do this to you so I don't do it to anyone else" as well as its inverse (what actually happens to Abigail and which she [[spoiler:herself buys into, helping her father capture other girls out of fear for herself]] is horribly common and is a big part of why survivors of rape and incest don't speak out, or feel guilty themselves for the fact that their abusers ''do'' hurt other people. Abigail's fear that will think she's complicit in it/tainted as a result or that living with her dad ''has'' warped her beyond repair [[spoiler:especially as she played along to save her own life]] is also realistic for someone who grew up in the shadow of another kind of monstrous crime. Hobbs might not be sexually assaulting the girls he kills, but obsessively hunting girls who resemble his teenage daughter as a symbolic way of keeping her from ever ever leaving him (and the somewhat infantilizing way he re-dresses the girl whose body he returns) really don't bode well.