Digestivo - Blog Posts

Expanding on my last post to add a few more things about Mizumono and Digestivo:

Imagine young, mute Hannibal in the orphanage watching as other children get adopted—but no adults ever approach him or seem to want to get to know him because the other kids (and staff) are wary of him and warn the prospective adopters that he’s difficult—that sometimes he has violent outbursts, wets the bed, has night terrors, and can’t speak. His first experience of rejection.

Only, this present rejection from Will in Mizumono feels ten times more agonizing because he’s overcome those past struggles and society finally views him as normal and an acceptable, highly-respected presence. But even after overcoming all that—it isn’t enough—because Will doesn’t want him or the life he planned for them to have. A life he never imagined he would be able to have.

That’s why each of Will’s future rejections cut so deep. Hannibal turns himself in because he couldn’t handle the thought of Will losing him—of Will not knowing where he would be. Because he’s been lost before—stumbling through the snow, cold and starving—after losing everything that mattered to him. He’s known what it’s like to have no one care about his whereabouts—and nothing would sting more than having to live with the knowledge that Will didn’t give a rat’s ass about where he ended up. His reputation and freedom mean nothing in comparison to his need for Will. He kneels in the snow just as he had decades prior—waiting for a savior to come and find him—because it’s the only thing he knows to do.

For three years he waits in the BSHCI for Will, his savior, to hopefully come and find him.

"'The end and aim of my love formerly lay in the greeting of this lady to whom you are perhaps referring, and in this greeting dwelt my bliss which was the end of all my desires. But since it pleased her to deny it to me...'"

"'...my lord, Love, through his grace, has placed all my bliss in something that cannot fail me.'"

"Then these ladies began speaking among themselves, and just as the rain can be seen falling mingled with beautiful flakes of snow, so did I seem to hear their words coming forth mingled with sighs."

From Dante's La Vita Nuova, chapter XVIII

Hannibal 3x07 - "Digestivo"