#scott nimerfro

We open this episode with Will walking along an empty road at night, dressed only in his underwear, and hallucinating our old friend, the Ravenstag. This sleepwalking and hallucination scene is the first real clue the show gives us that Will is really not okay– that we aren’t just talking about weird trauma from the Hobbs case and his own pre-existing social inability, but that his work in the FBI and his relationship with Hannibal are having psychological consequences we cannot yet measure. As he tells the police officers who find him, “I’m not even sure I’m awake now.”  Will was already starting to lose grasp of his own identity, as a result of his empathy disorder, but now he might be losing grasp on reality too.

We are now starting to see just how much Will trusts and already relies on Hannibal: after getting back home, Will immediately drives an hour from Wolf Trap to Baltimore and turns up at Hannibal’s house apparently unannounced, as Lecter has not had time to get changed. This is also the first time Hannibal calls Will his ‘friend’. They discuss Will’s sleepwalking, and Will suggests a seizure (only one of many moments in this episode that foreshadow his encephalitis), while Hannibal simply blames it on the emotional and psychological stress from working with the FBI, and both of them express their dissatisfaction with Jack, as Will says he no longer feels like a fragile teacup (a metaphor which will be heavily exploited in the next seasons) but like an old mug, and Hannibal flat out states that Jack manipulates Will.

This episode’s killer of the week ties with the main plotline in a number of interesting ways: most obviously, his brain cancer mirrors Bella’s story (who is possibly the only character in the entire series who has absolutely no bearing on the main plot), but it also provides a few moments of foreshadowing for Will’s encephalitis in the very episode in which it starts to affect him. And lastly, it’s the beginning of the series’ use of heavy christian symbolism, excluding Hannibal’s speech on God in Amuse-Bouche. The theme of transformation through murder seems oddly reminiscent of Dolarhyde’s “Becoming”, as does Budish’s obsession with religious imagery.

Back at Hannibal’s office, the psychiatrist continues his attempts to, as Will himself puts it, “Alienate [Will] from Jack Crawford,” questioning whether Will feels abandoned by the head of the BAU. In scene, the staging is again relevant, as it’s a reverse of their first session in Amuse-Bouche: if then, Will was uncertain and distrusting, facing away from Hannibal and staying up on the balcony, now it’s Hannibal who’s up there, towering over Will. This comes at the moment where Hannibal begins to manipulate Will in earnest, assuming the upper hand in their friendship.

And all this manipulation seems to be working, as Will talks back to Jack, frustrated at his inability to understand the Angel Maker, until he snaps, essentially telling him to actually do his job instead of just shoving everything into Will’s arms. Jack’s reaction makes the entire team excuse themselves and leaves Will muttering a half-assed apology like a misbehaving teenager, calling to mind last episode’s mention of Jack as a stern father figre for the BAU. As he leaves, Will goes back to contemplating one of the series’ most religiously charged tableaux: The victim not only was wings like an angel, but was also set up to appear as if floating in mid-air, guarding over his murderer. The light behind him suggests the heavenly light associated with angelic appearances in art, while the shape of the alley is even reminiscent of the long rectangular towers of gothic cathedrals. And, as this post points out, there is a second, smaller light shining just behind Will’s head. It’s clearly a foreshadowing of the episode’s last scene (which is in itself another foreshadowing of Will’s encephalitis), but the most obvious association is of course, that of a halo.

Bella’s cancer is handled in a very interesting way during this episode: first, we are lead to believe that she is, indeed, having an affair, as in her first session with Hannibal they only mention her doctor as “him,” and never mention a disease, while focusing on her guilt and Jack’s possible reaction. It’s only after Jack tries, in an extremely awkward way, to confront her about his suspicions that her condition is outright stated, though the episode had been throwing some hints at us, especially with Hannibal smelling her and immediately telling the story of his teacher’s cancer, clearly telling her that he knows (he will diagnose Will’s encephalitis in the same way later in the episode). Instead of making it a big twist, her disease is told to us in a nonchalant way, as if the earlier omission had been simply on accident. This avoids a “plot twist” type of revelation, and instead creates a certain level of tension as we wait for Jack to realise what is the real problem, watching his face fall as he connects the dots between Bella’s behaviour and Elliot Budish’s, as recounted by his wife.

Will and Jack’s confrontation at the shed seems to confirm that Hannibal’s attempts to turn Will against Jack are working: Will complains about Jack about the lack of the support he was supposed to be giving, and mentions that’s it’s getting harder and harder to empathize with the killers he’s trying to catch. This had been discussed earlier in the episode, at Hannibal’s office, and is almost a reversal of Will’s earlier situation: before, he empathized with Garret Jacob Hobbs to the point where he would feel like they were doing the same things at the same time– even after he was dead. Now, he’s unable to connect with Budish enough to catch him in time. It could just be a side effect of his growing encephalitis, or could it be that his mind is so full with Hobbs and the copycat that he cannot focus on others?

The scene where Will hallucinates Budish still alive has an interesting background: In the script, it plays in the exact same way, except it’s not a hallucination– Budish actually drops down and tries to “transform” Will before collapsing. This change fundamentally alters the significance of this scene, since it isn’t Budish who believes Will to be a criminal, but that is how Will views himself. The vision of his head in flames may be more than guilt, too: it could be that he’s aware there’s something physically wrong with him, instead of simple trauma, as Hannibal would like him to believe. And this scene ends with a very deliberate foreshadowing to the Dolarhyde plot, three seasons away– just before the dream fades away, Budish tells Will: “I can give you the majesty of your Becoming.”

Despite their fight in the shed, Jack and Will do manage to have what is possibly their closest moment at the end of this episode, as Will gently demands Jack be honest with him about what’s going on in his personal life. But their earlier conflict is more than just a hiccup in their relationship–it’s one of the biggest turning points of the season. Will has just begun to see the signs of the disaster that will befall him, and attempts to get off before the train crashes, while Jack, in a very fatherly manner (and reminding Will he is not his father), tells Will he can quit if he wants to (and making it clear that’s not quite an option). Had Will actually bailed then, he probably would have escaped mostly unharmed, but then there would be no series. This episode is the point of no return. Having made his choice not to leave the BAU, Will has made himself a powerless victim to all that will happen in the rest of the season.