TV Recap: 'Hannibal' Episode 110 - 'Roti'



hannibalHannibal Episode 110
Written By: Steve Lightfoot and Bryan Fuller & Scott Nimerfro
Directed By: Guillermo Navarro
Original Airdate: 6 June 2013

In This Episode...

Dr. Gideon is being transferred. He is suing Dr. Chilton for “psychiatric driving,” claiming that Chilton implanted the idea in his head that he is the Chesapeake Ripper. Chilton vehemently denies this, which was the tactic Hannibal suggested. Gideon blames Chilton for the nurse’s death, and Alana doesn’t entirely disagree.

Unsurprisingly, Gideon kills the two guards who are transporting him, plus the driver, and escapes. He leaves the three corpses beneath some barren trees and ties their organs with their veins and hangs them from the bare branches like the world’s most violent Christmas tree. This is yet another clear sign to Will that Gideon is not the Ripper - the Ripper would never leave healthy organs behind. When the CSI team get the corpses back to the morgue, they discover that Gideon scrambled their brains, “just like they scrambled his brain.” This signals to Jack that Gideon will be targeting any psychiatrist who ever analyzed him. Alana is on that list.

Freddie Lounds gets a call from Dr. Paul Carruthers, asking her to meet him at his office - he wants to collaborate with her on a book about Gideon. It is clear (to me, at least) that this is actually Gideon calling Freddie. Sure enough, Gideon is waiting for her at Carruthers’ office. Carruthers is there too, but he isn’t saying much - Gideon gave him a Columbian necktie (he slit the doctor’s throat, cut the tendons and ligaments, and pulled his tongue through the hole). By the time the FBI gets there, Carruthers is dead, and Gideon is gone. An article about the murder on the Tattler’s website tells Will that Gideon now has Freddie.

In fact, Gideon has Freddie and Chilton, and has taken them both back to the observatory. Since Chilton spent all that time digging around Gideon’s brain, he thinks it only fair that he be allowed to dig around in Chilton’s belly.

Meanwhile, a second therapist, Carson Nom, has turned up dead. He was killed in the exact same way as Carruthers, but with one important difference: his arm has been cut off. It is an interesting game of psychopath cat-and-mouse. Gideon left the Tattler article as a a clue that he wants the real Chesapeake Ripper to follow him to the last place the Ripper struck: the Observatory. This clearly has the desired effect, as Hannibal reads the article and is furious. But he is also too smart to go after Gideon himself. Carson’s body was a message to Jack, telling him exactly where he can find Gideon. Of course, by the time Jack and his team deploy upon the observatory, Gideon is gone. Chilton is alive, though barely: Freddie is using a manual ventilator to keep him alive... while he holds a pile of his organs on his chest.

Through all this, Will’s grip on sanity is still spiraling away from him. He admits to Hannibal that he feels like he has gradually been becoming a different person for awhile now, and he fears not knowing who he is. In a simple but eloquent phrase, Will says it feels like “someone got into my head and moved all the furniture around.” It is familiar, but wrong. He “feels fluid,” and his hallucinations all involve water: drowning him in bed, a wave crashing over him, leaking out of morgue drawers, or even just causing his clock to melt. It doesn’t help any that his encephalitis has given him a dangerously high fever and severe infection.

When Jack and his team move in on the observatory, he insists Will wait in the car. Will doesn’t, but he is distracted away from the observatory by another elk hallucination. He follows. In a strange jump in time (something that this show does often, which I believe is meant to throw audiences off-balance, just a little bit, to better understand what Will is dealing with), the authorities are gone and Gideon is staring at the now-quiet observatory from a distance. He gets in the car, but is not alone. He was expecting the Ripper, and isn’t entirely sure that Will, brandishing a gun, isn’t the Ripper. He does notice that Will is very, very ill. Will doesn’t even believe he has Gideon in his sight - he thinks this is Garrett Hobbs, back from the dead.

Gideon delivers Will to Hannibal. Hannibal brings them both in, and Will admits that he believes he has Hobbs there. Gideon sits silently, waiting to be outed, but instead Hannibal tells Will that there is no one there - he came alone and is hallucinating Hobbs. Will freaks out, accuses Hannibal of lying to him, and promptly has a seizure - all while still standing. Hannibal and Gideon speak in a verbal version of the cat-and-mouse chase they engaged in before. Hannibal offers to tell him where he can find Alana.

When Will regains consciousness, Gideon is gone. The last thing Will remembers is being with Hobbs. Hannibal insists that he killed him once; he will figure out a way to kill him again. He leaves Will there, promising to tell Jack where he is while he goes to check on Alana. This is all a ruse to leave Will alone with the gun that Hannibal had confiscated from him when he first came over. Will takes the bait, and he heads to Alana’s house, gun in hand. Gideon is outside, staring at Alana through the window from a distance. Will still sees him as Hobbs. They speak to one another sincerely about identity, and their shared lack of one. Will ends up shooting Gideon, then collapses over his body.

Will is admitted to the hospital, but the doctors can’t seem to find the source of his infection. Jack is still in denial, citing Will’s ability to take down Gideon with a 105 degree fever as a sign that he is resilient. He refuses Hannibal’s request to suspend Will’s gun license.

Dig It or Bury It?

Poor Will. I just want to give him a big hug. He is being manipulated by everyone and everything he trusts: Hannibal, Jack, his own mind. Alana might be the only one on his side, and even she has ulterior motives. This is why he “hoards” dogs. Dogs don’t play mind games; they don’t want anything from you besides a bowl of kibble and a place to sleep. In return, they love you unconditionally. 

I am disappointed that Gideon had to die. I am a rabid Eddie Izzard fan, and I knew it had to happen, but that doesn’t mean I wanted it to happen.

Miss Manners

Will is sure that if Gideon and the Ripper ever meet, the Ripper would kill him because it is “rude” of him to take credit for someone else’s work. But Gideon himself is rather polite. When he kills Carruthers, he drains him of every drop of blood - then leaves it in IV bags in a cooler of ice, with a note asking that it be donated to the Red Cross. 

Bon Appetit

Hannibal serves Chilton sheep curry. “I have no interest in understanding sheep - just eating them.”


Will’s dissociative personality disorder worsens further, and it seems like he is inching closer to being the FBI’s top suspect in the Chesapeake Ripper case.