Season 3, Episode 7:
Digestivo
Hannibal Lecter must ally with his enemies — and victims — if they are to escape the clutches of Mason Verger.
Tropes
- Anti-Climax: Hannibal surrenders himself to Jack's manhunt, instead of being caught. The true climax of the story is the death of Mason, and Will rejecting Hannibal's friendship.
- Asshole Victim: Mason and Cordell's deaths are horrific, to be sure, but nobody deserved them more.
- Big Damn Heroes: Chiyoh and her sniper rifle save Jack from getting his head cut open. She also assists Hannibal by gunning down the mooks pursuing them from Muskrat Farm.
- Chekhov's Gun: Mason's eel.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- Mason receives an appropriately horrific death: drowned in his aquarium, while his prized eel crawls down his throat.
- Cordell has his face cut off without anesthesia and is left to die of blood loss.
- The Dog Bites Back: After a lifetime of Mason's torment, Margot finally gets her revenge and kills him, albeit with the help of Alana.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Tied up, at Verger's mercy and facing imminent death, Will bites off part of Cordell's face simply in protest.
- Evil Versus Evil: Hannibal vs. Mason (and Cordell).
- Fate Worse than Death: Mason's plans for Hannibal. Hannibal would have his hands and feet chopped off first, then cooked and served to Mason and himself. Cordell would keep him alive, gradually chopping off bits and serving them, such as Hannibal's tongue and genitals. Finally Hannibal would succumb to his mutilations, at which point Cordell would preserve his meat and keep serving them to Mason.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cordell plans to remove Will's face without anesthesia and graft it onto Verger's head. Instead Hannibal severs Cordell's face and lays it on Verger.
- Man Bites Man: Will chews a chunk out of Cordell's cheek.
- Meaningful Echo: When Mason tells Margot he preserved her eggs (including the one fertilized by Will), he says there will be ‘a Verger baby, our own baby—yours, mine... mostly yours.’ When Margot finds out what Mason did to her biological child and comes to confront him and tell him she had his sperm stolen, she repeats his words almost exactly.
- Noble Demon: Hannibal acts at his most honourable in this episode, helping Alana and Margot, saving Will, and keeping his promises. This particularly contrasts him with the ever deceptive and self-serving Mason.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: After Alana gives Hannibal the knife, he frees himself from his restaints, stands up... and the next time we see him, he is covered in blood and carrying a sharp instrument.
- Stupid Evil: Mason reveals he has had Margot's baby inside a barely-living sow after he himself is basically on life support. Ultimately, this proves Too Dumb to Live when she kills him for it.
- The Reveal: Hannibal was interrupted in his attempt to saw Will's head open by some Italian policemen that Mason hired.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Or to turn himself in to the authorities, rather. After Will was rescued by Hannibal, they share a long and calm conversation. Right off the bat, Will makes it clear he wants nothing more to do with Hannibal, and that Hannibal can run free again, so as long as he does not involve himself in Will's life anymore. In contrast to his reaction when he realized that Will was merely tricking him to have him arrested in "Mizumono", this time Hannibal surrenders, even though he had every chance to escape once more.
- Significant as Will even gives Hannibal more than enough opportunity to run. He intercepts Jack to avoid him stepping foot into his house, informing him that Hannibal was already long gone, only to have the man himself emerge from somewhere on back with his hands in the air. Hannibal proceeds to drop to his knees under the watchful eye of heavily armed agents and peacefully surrenders to the FBI.
- Tear Off Your Face: Cordell and Mason plan to cut off Will's face (without anesthesia) so Mason can eat Hannibal with Will's face. Ultimately, saving Will, Hannibal actually does the operation on Cordell and places the face on Mason without suturing it on.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Hannibal helps Margot and Alana harvest Mason's sperm, giving them the chance for a biological Verger heir.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Of a sort. Margot has always wanted to kill Mason. After Hannibal helps harvest Mason's sperm, he is no longer necessary to procure an heir, so she kills him.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Will momentarily lashed out at his predicament by biting off Cordell's cheek, he sees Hannibal watching with an amused smile. In response, he grows more irritated.
