The one thing that is interesting about Abigail is she was always more scared of being seen and found out than she was of being killed. And that is largely due to her role of being a survivor.
Abigail grew up with a serial killer as a father and was an unwilling participant in his slaughter and rituals as both an object of his obsession and an accomplice. She learned to navigate this dynamic that was always razor thin to mortality where death wasnāt just a possibility, it was a probability.
In fact, when her father gets the phone call from Hannibal that the authorities are coming, instead of letting anyone else have her, he chooses to take her with him in a murder-suicide. Abigail is frantic and begs him to stop, but when she falls to the kitchen floor to bleed, she lies still. She doesnāt fight, because she knew this would happen one day. What she didnāt expect was she would survive.
Although sheās saved by Hannibalās field intervention, when she wakes up she is alone and feeling an insurmountable burden on her shoulders. With both her mother and father dead, she alone must now carry the dark secret of her relationship and deeds with her father. She had survived. And with that survival came a narrative she now needed to protect.
Since Abigail grew up with adults she couldnāt trust, naturally she didnāt trust any of the adults who came into her life. To her, sheās either only known dangerous men and passive and victimized women. She could navigate toxic masculinity and femininity was something she perceived as fragile and weak. So she acted accordingly to protect herself and preserve her building narrative. She was a victim. She was a survivor.
But the more time she spent with adults, her schema of what she knew began to change. She learned from Alana and Freddie that femininity comes in many forms and can become tools to her survival. From Alana, she adopted her mannerisms and her looks and from Freddie, she adopted her wit and ferocity to survive as a child in the instability of the adult world. Two adult females she couldnāt trust, but could act as resources for her to explore what she hasnāt explored about herself and to add to her toolbox of her ongoing survival. It allowed her to oscillate between being and being perceived as both a victim and a survivor.
But her past was always lurking in the corner and in her mind. Despite all that she was now learning about herself and internalizing to protect her narrative, it went to shambles when she encountered Nick Boyle and gutted him. Now faced with the possibility of being found out, she turned to what was familiar in Hannibal. A dangerous man like her father, but a situation she knew how to navigate unlike the unconscious Alana who was now more or less the epitome of the femininity she always rejected.
Notice that even when being confronted with the possibility of being killed, she is still utilizing tactics of manipulation sheās known and learned versus her panic and desperation when she is at risk of being seen and found out. She bats her lashes and almost looks seductive, weaponizing her femininity to her advantage. She knows Hannibal wants something from her just as her father had. She can control and navigate this situation. Or so she thinks.
As much as Abigail believes she can navigate and control the situation and her rapidly changing narrative of survival, Hannibal Lecter is not her father. He is much more sinister. He is the Devil. No matter which way she tries to maintain control, she is at a disadvantage. Even if things were fine and dandy in the start with her becoming a fledgling killer, the tasks become too enormous and the blade too sharp for her to hold. She is a survivor. But at what cost?
By the night of Mizumono, sheās so far into a deep pit that she believes that she needs to do whatever Hannibal says to survive. But even then, when Will arrives, she throws him under the bus and practically tells him that she didnāt know what to do so she did as Hannibal told her, seemingly absolving herself of all wrongdoing and once again taking on the role of a victim. Maybe if she appeals to Will, she can still be saved. She can be a survivor.
But when Will is gutted and incapacitated, she no longer sees him as a gateway to salvation. She perceives him as weakness and hopelessness. What can he even do for her? Instead, she goes to Hannibal when he calls for her. Inside, she knows it might mean certain death. That deadly probability again. Yet she canāt help but trust him and bargain her life with him. After all, what could be worse than the situation at handā¦?
With the teacup shattered, Abigail once again found herself bleeding onto her fatherās kitchen floor. However, this time she didnāt lay still and succumb. She fights for her life until the very end. She gasps for air and desperately tries to stop the blood from gushing out of her wounds. Even as she hurling towards death, Abigail is a survivor. Itās just this time, she didnāt make it.
