Okay but Will literally could have just gutted Hannibal and tossed him off that cliff so easily tho. He could have made good on his promise to kill him and he could have walked away and gone back to his life with Molly and Walter safely. The dragon would have been dead. Hannibal would have been dead… Logically this is what he should have wanted. This is what he claimed to want for damn near the entire episode.
But what did he do instead? He reached out for Hannibal and fucking embraced him. He looked him in the eyes and he told him “it’s beautiful,” and he wasn’t afraid of how good it made him feel, finally. And I think he almost had himself convinced for a long time that he could let Hannibal go, that he could kill him and forget about him if the time came, but in that moment he remembered that being with Hannibal is the only thing that truly makes him feel alive.
And whether Will intended to fake their deaths by throwing them off that cliff, or if he truly did just want them to die together in that moment, in each others arms, finally at peace with who they are together, he wanted them to be together, and that is the most important thing.
I don’t like to think that these two have changed each other, but rather that they have brought out things in one another they would normally suppress and fight and feel is contrary to their true natures. Will is compassionate, but he is also capable of taking great pleasure in violence. Hannibal takes great pleasure in violence, but when it comes to Will he is capable of so much love and compassion.
Hannibal called that compassion an inconvenience, but he looks at Will with such love and adoration, he touches him so tenderly, and it’s clear that he has come to terms with the fact that he does not have to fight his love for him. Likewise, Will finally came to terms with the fact that he does not have to fight the pleasure he gets from killing with Hannibal, and he does not have to fight the fact that being with him is what he truly wants.
The duality that exists within both of them when they are together is beautiful. They killed Dolarhyde with as much passion as they then tenderly expressed to one another once it was done. I think they are finally in a place where they can truly be equals now, because they have both come to understand and embrace the very best and the very worst parts of each other, and despite everything that has happened they are so very much in love…
