Stuck in the In-Between with You

Bryan Fuller explained its genesis. Amina will soon explore the mythological significance of its animal components. But multiple rewatches later, I still puzzle over the meaning of the Ravenstag. What is its narrative function, and what does it convey to and about Will?

The Ravenstag first appears in the “misty forest” of Will’s mind in “Aperitif”

The Ravenstag makes an appearance in five of the first six episodes. In “Aperitif,” the creature enters “the misty forest” of Will’s mind before Hannibal awakens him with a knock on the door (Final Shooting Script, 18). In “Amuse-Bouche,” Will dreams of the Ravenstag trotting down the corridor outside Abigail’s hospital room. As he wakes, the sound of its hooves turn into the clicks of Alana’s footsteps. In “Potage,” the Ravenstag becomes a focal point in Will’s nightmare. He “stares at the beast” before slitting Abigail’s throat (Final Shooting Script, 30A). In “Coquilles,” it follows Will as he sleepwalks down the road. When Will pauses, the Ravenstag nudges his elbow—either a directive to keep moving or a display of tenderness. Awakened by police sirens, Will turns to discover Winston covering his six. And in “Entree,” the Ravenstag approaches Will as he sits behind his desk in his FBI classroom. Startled out of his reverie, he finds Alana and Jack to be his visitors instead. 

The Ravenstag drops by during Will’s office hours in “Entrée”

Cancer and Cannibalism, Typhoid and Swans

One of my favorite things about “Coquilles” is that we’re introduced to Jack Crawford’s wife, Bella. An absolutely necessary character who plays out a complex individual narrative and who humanizes an increasingly unsympathetic Jack, Bella’s first scene also involves some of my favorite dialogue of the first season.

Bella: Would I be a horrible guest if I skipped this course?

Hannibal: Too rich?

B: Too cruel.

H: The first and worst sign of sociopathic behavior: cruelty to animals.

Jack: That doesn’t apply in the kitchen.

H: I have no taste for animal cruelty, which is why I employ an ethical butcher.

B: An ethical butcher? Be kind to animals and then eat them?

H: I’m afraid I insist on it. No need for unnecessary suffering. Human emotions are a gift from our animal ancestors. Cruelty is a gift man has given himself. 

It’s a whopper of a line. It begs more than one question, including who does Hannibal see as human, and who as animal? How does Hannibal feel about cruelty to animals versus cruelty to people? Does Hannibal consider himself cruel? Does he consider himself human, animal, or other?

Sing for Absolution

“Coquilles” may not make the strongest impression upon first viewing. In the context of only the four previous episodes, it initially appears as just another crime of the week. One of the most intriguing crimes of the week—flayed bodies on network television!—but a crime of the week nonetheless. With the benefit of knowing the entire series, however, “Coquilles” proves itself a potent narrative omen and one of the most compelling episodes of the season. 

Of the many portentous scenes that occur, none fascinate me quite like the imagined exchange between Will Graham and Elliot Budish, also known as the Angel Maker. Team FBI arrives at Budish’s childhood farm to find their target strung from the barn rafters by his own hand—the Angel Maker’s final transformed sinner. Following a tense conversation with Jack Crawford, in which Will urges Jack to understand the incredible and irreversible toll that his involvement takes on him, Will finds himself face to face with a reanimated Budish. 

Emperor Jack

I love tarot. I’ve been reading cards off and on since high school, having gotten more serious about it in the last few years. I only read for myself and my friends, but it’s an important part of my life, and so of course I’ve found a way to think about tarot in terms of Hannibal and Hannibal in terms of tarot, because I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t. 

Tarot has also played a role in the actual show, most obviously seen in Hannibal’s broken heart in season 3, which notably references the three of swords card. But as an esoteric tool steeped in symbolism, mythology, and psychology there’s a lot of more generalized overlap between the narrative of the tarot and the narrative of Hannibal.