#nbchannbal

The first few seconds of Hannibal: The food on the table that is first seen is very aesthetically pleasing to the eye, with complimentary shapes and colors (and presumably tastes to match), speaks of experience and an eye for art, the beautiful, and education on the psychological impacts and impressions on the people who would observe the meal (and if he was alone as is implied with the shot, shows that he prefers to appear classy at all times, in control)

Next we see that his movements are intent and purposeful, no hesitation which implies experience. He doesn't waste a single dreg on the knife from moving the meat and cutting it into the bite he wanted (scraping the dregs off onto the fork with the bite he was taking). Again, implies control and a kind of appreciation for the food, seeing it as impolite and wasteful to not eat even the "scraps" from the cutting.

To further emphasize his appreciation and knowledge of high quality goods, he chews very deliberately to spread the taste around his mouth to get the full range of tastes available in the bite of meat and seasonings/spices/veg/whatever it was. The slight smile afterwords implies satisfaction with the taste and, by implication that he made the meal himself, his own abilities to live up to his palette

Next, the scene with Franklyn and Jack: When Franklyn asks for the tissues, Hannibal (almost pointedly) doesn't lean very far forward to offer them. This forces Franklyn to instead lean so far forward that he's almost completely out of his chair when he grabs the tissues. Hannibal is sitting far back in his chair-implying that he's comfortable but also putting distance between himself and Franklyn-this is most noticable with how far forward in his seat Franklyn is and in how, when Hannibal leans forward to brace his elbows on his knees, he doesn't seem to move any distance out of his chair at all even though his body language is trying to convey comfort and reassurance. This one is a subtle note on how he views Franklyn-like he isn't worth putting a lot of effort into.

When Franklyn drops the tissue on the stand next to the chair, Hannibal rather pointedly looks at it for several seconds and continues to do so right when he begins speaking. You can almost see his thought process, his distaste for something that unclean on the rather well-kept and practically pristine top of the metal stand.

Then, when Jack shows up and immediately tries to enter the office Hannibal shuts him down with the "You can wait in the waiting room." line, asserting his control over his environment and a sudden situation therein that presumably caught him slightly off guard. This is also demonstrated with the line "unless this has something to do with [Franklyn]" where he tries to deflect any suspicion or blame off himself momentarily in order to suss out Jack's exact reason for randomly appearing.

I'll be honest, I wasn't really sure what to make of the lines referring to Hannibal's absentee secretary. Maybe he killed her, maybe he didn't, I'm not really sure.

Then comes the comments about Hannibal's drawing, his eye for detail, and his very precise memory. This probably plays very well into his eye for art, beauty, and aesthetics. It also could be a brief demonstration of his uncle-taught ideas of class and elegance. These few shots also show off Hannibal's office and how well kept, designed, and generally clean it is. He obviously takes very good care of his things.

Hannibal asking about Jack's motive for visiting, his posture, and having the scalpel and pencil in hand (combined with the audience's knowledge that Hannibal is a cannibalistic serial killer) also shows us how adaptable Hannibal is. Hannibal stated a few minutes earlier that he had no other patients pending and combined with his body language, this can imply that if Jack had actually been there to investigate Hannibal that Hannibal had been fully and totally prepared to kill Jack right there in his office. Presumably, with the comment about no patients (no secretary either to accidentally walk in), Hannibal would have had the time to kill Jack and clean up before anything could come of it. It could also lead to a credible alibi. Franklyn had seen and spoken with Jack very briefly and, if Hannibal had patients later in the evening but with enough time between the clean up and the next patient, Hannibal could claim that Jack left after getting what he wanted and his patients (if questioned) wouldn't notice anything off about Hannibal's office because it is already nearly immaculately clean.

Hannibal further shows off his ability to manipulate others (first demonstrated with the way he sits and offers the tissues I discussed above) with the "layman" exchange with Jack. However, this gets turned on its head and shows off, instead, how well Jack can manipulate others; turning Hannibal's compliment on Jack's experience with the FBI into an irrelevant fact by implying that Hannibal still has some knowledgeable authority in one area over Jack with the "I am when I'm in your company, Doctor."

Next is the scene with Will, Hannibal, and Jack in Jack's office. I won't dwell too much on what Hannibal says here, instead focusing on what he does and his appearance: Hannibal has a very upright posture, back straight, his chest isn't necessarily pushed out but it is definately a feature of his full-side profile, and his chin is either held constantly level or up just a hint. All of this says, to me, this is a man who is full of self-confidence, control, and assertive-a dominant man who has impeccable control and knowledge of himself, his strengths.

Hannibal takes great care of his appearance. Starting off-his hair. He keeps it trimmed and styled a certain way to communicate an air of bookishness (floppy, dry and healthy but appears to be greasy like he might run his hands through it on occasion (though we never see the act on screen) or he runs his fingers along the line of it to keep it out of his eyes-I'd like to point out that its trimmed perfectly to rest just above or on his eyebrow no matter the angle, so any of those ticks which would usually imply nervousness (like running fingers through it) would be completely unnecessary and probably be done to give anyone he's conversing with a false sense of either confidence or reassurance that he's as uncomfortable as they are when he isn't). Next, his clothes-all coordinated again to match colors or colors that compliment each other and kept incredibly unwrinkled. This is a man who is not only in complete control of himself but also his environment and, in a way, in control of what others think of him. He appears purposefully to others as a man who is confident and thoughtful, manipulating the way that they think about him with his body language (the leaning I mentioned earlier with Franklyn and later with Will, the observations about his hair).

Next is the crime scene and Hannibal's dinner: Hannibal, with this murder (which the audience finds out he is responsible for later in the season), demonstrates further insane control over himself and his life. In order to have pulled off this kind of murder it would have taken at least some preliminary scouting to find a girl who fit the profile and to find a stag's head both large enough to support the girl and one that could easily be stolen. Minnesota is a fair distance from Maryland and we later see Hannibal preparing the lungs taken from the body to eat. This tells us that Hannibal not only killed that girl and staged that crime scene but also that he scouted the area, the girl, the location from where he stole the stag's head, did it all, and drove back to his home in Maryland all within a certain timeframe (one that I have not calculated but I am guessing would take at a minimum of 24 hours). His control comes into play when you think about this. Hannibal is demonstrated to have a fairly good social and professional relationship with Alana Bloom later in the season, a good social circle of aquaintences and "friends" from the opera, and a working relationship with his patients. How could he have done all this without anyone noticing something was up? Hannibal has an incredible ability to manage his time, somehow working in the time needed to drive or fly to Minnesota (probably several times) to do the scouting work, the killing, and coming back while transporting human lungs. Pulling all this off would have required a remarkable ability to estimate exact times down to the minute, let alone factoring in who might notice him doing all these things.

The shots of Hannibal preparing then eating the lungs themselves show off further experience and taste for the refined and elegant. He cuts, beats, and sautes (I'm not sure if that's the right term for the oil and fire in the pan thing) the lungs with culinary expertise to further demonstrate his experience in that field (tied to comments about his eye for aesthetics in the first shot mentioned at the beginning). His manner of eating also shows us how much he enjoys and savors finer tastes, the smile he has demonstrates not only his satisfaction with the taste but also satisfaction with how well he prepared the meal.

Finally, his interactions with Will and the end of the episode with Garret Jacob Hobbs' death/Abigail's injury. When Hannibal shows up at Will's motel room, the first and last things he says while outside the door are "May I come in?" Again, asserting control over his situation. He pays close attention to Will's mannerisms, quirks, and ticks (first appearing back toward the beginning in Jacks' office when he made a comment on Will's hesitance to make eye-contact). He also seems to be mentally cataloging Will's social class knowledge and cues from how Will eats and forks the breakfast scramble out of the bowl and onto the plate, probably comparing it to his own and then mentally recalling what kind of social upbringing would result in those particular types of movements during a meal.

Hannibal makes a momentary slip, only about a second long, during the conversation. He's in control, as he always is. He's communicating interest and concern with his body by leaning in, then back, then in again while Will talks and he retorts. However, right after he says "You will." (which, in and of itself, is a very arrogant comment) but just before he starts speaking again, Hannibal's head ticks to one side just slightly as if he's noting to himself either how good or how bad the bite of food he just put swallowed is. This slip shows us, again, his taste for finer things but also shows just a crack in his iron-clad control-as if he can't resist patting himself on the back for a well made meal when he's in the company of someone lesser than himself and he can't be bothered to hide said pat on the back.

Then Hannibal further demonstrates his ability to manipulate people and read people with Will's comments about the crime scene being "gift wrapped." Will all but states that someone staged the scene specifically for him in order show Will a contrast to compare to the Shrike murders. The audience knows that Hannibal is the one who staged the scene, thus we know Hannibal made the scene specifically for Will. This shows that Hannibal can not only read Will, his needs, his strengths, and his weaknesses like an open book but also that Hannibal can provide the resources necessary to help Will take advantage of these strengths (knowing the difference between how the two crimes were done and the emotional motives behind them). Hannibal has an amazing sense of self and an amazing ability to read others and this scene is the first of many throughout the series to show it.

Another tell about his need for control-the "Finish your breakfast." line towards Will just after the conversation above.

The "peeking behind the curtain" line and the momentary hesitance of thought just before getting out of the car to check the records building tells me that this is a learning experience for Hannibal-not only to see how the FBI does its investigations in general but also what he himself might have to do in order to further cover up his own activities (which he already does an admirable job of).

I can't quite tell what his motive behind the call was. Whether he wanted to see what Garret Jacobs Hobs would do in a panic (or he already had an educated guess as to what they would find), he wanted to see what Will would do when presented with blatant danger or fatal failure, or just to fuck things up, I can't be sure. I'm inclined to believe the second option because, so far, he's shown a seemingly genuine interest in Will and Will's behavior. This is backed up by his detached behavior while Will tries to comfort Garret Jacob Hobs' dying wife and daughter, his cold and detached way of walking by her after a courtesy pause to examine her without bending down, and his pause before going to help Abigail.

His upright and straight posture seems jarringly out of place when he's going with the stretcher that Abigail is on. Its almost like he's trying to show Will, who is catatonic or in shock, "look how in control I am." as he goes by.

Then, finally, his appearance in the hospital room with Abigail. He's dressed down a bit, relaxed, and asleep. Despite the concern and attempt at familiarity that he's communicating with the hand-holding, Hannibal's body is facing towards the open bulk of the room and the pathway that anyone who enters the room might use. Thus is can be inferred that he's going to try and address anyone who enters the room (the control factor coming in to play again). Its less concern for Abigail than it is simply he needs to know what is going on with her, again the control thing.