The Horror Returns - THR Bonus Ep. - Hannibal Season 1, Eps. #2 & #3

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

This week, Brian and Lance cover episodes 2 and 3 of the first season of Hannibal. Enjoy! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR X: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thehorrorreturns?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc

All right, is Lansombe, all right, is Lansing, Brian, back with the patron. exclusive breakdown of Hannibal so last week we brought to you guys episode number one feels like months ago

Brian it does it does it does doesn't it look man this is a work in progress we're doing our best to get this stuff rolled out but

we did record episode one a while ago but we're trying to wait to put everything out one week at a time for Patreon and then what's the what's the plan after that man you wanted to try to get on the regular stream yeah these will

of course be released exclusive to our patreon donors and then a couple weeks maybe two or three weeks after it will release it to everybody all right well we'll uh we'll hit we'll get it started here with episodes two and season season one episodes two and three uh so we'll start out with episode two and dude you you fuck up pronunciations wait till you hear mine

I think I think I'm gonna I think I'm gonna beat you on this one I think you got me alright let me try Amuse Bouchet Amuse Bouch Okay

All right All right Amoos Dush Bush Okay Amuse Bouch Will and Jack kind of killer who is bearing his victims

alive so they will become fertilizer for his garden of fungus man spoiler alert huh if you uh if you're gonna if you were gonna just listen to us and then watch the episode you're pretty much fucked now because that's it's kind of the whole

story um yeah all right while the tabloid journalist Freddie and I get some things to say about her Brian because uh I have I have a question about her too pertaining to what we've seen in the movies

and the book and the books okay all right so yeah we'll get into that I guess let me get through the intro and then we can get into that first if you want

while the tabloid journalist Freddie sets targets in on will I don't know what that's supposed to mean I'll get that at IMDB I guess she's targeting him to build stories around him or whatever director Michael Reimer also known for picnic

at Hanging Rock. You ever seen that show? No. I think it's Canadian. And oh, Battlestar Galactica. I have seen that. I assume the new one. All right, so I'm going to go with your pronunciation, Brian.

A moose bouch is a French origin. It is single bite-sized hors d'oeuvres. It does not appear on a menu for order. Rather, it is given gratis by the chef. of his or her own selection. So I guess it's some freebies that the chef hands out before the meal. Abigail Hobbes was also a character in the show. It was also the name of one of the women killed during the Salem Witch Trials in 17th Century, New England.

Eldon Stammets is named for Paul Stammett's, an American mycologist, author and advocate of bio, remediation and medicinal fungi. He was basically a mushroom expert. And interestingly enough, there's a character name Paul Stammats on the Star Trek Discovery Show. Oh, cool. And what's interesting is that he has created a way to, instead of going through wormholes, he uses fungus to travel. So they've got basically instead of setting up, you know, rocket fuel or something like that, they use basically, They're powered by mushrooms.

It's fungal in nature because there's theories that fungi can speak to each other. Like fungi in one place can communicate with fungus elsewhere and stuff like that. Kind of like the Borg on the Star Trek note. So, yeah, Freddy. Freddy's a pretty hot female in this one, but completely different character in the movie. What are your thoughts about that? That was my question to you. I know you've seen the movies and you've probably read the books.

Yes. Is she the Philip Seymour Hoffman character? Yeah, she's definitely the Philip Seymour Hoffman character. Gotcha. In the movies, Freddie Lowndes is the character's name. And in the book, it's definitely a male. You know, kind of like one of those dirt, dirt gathering tabloid journalists, kind of like what she is. Oh, she definitely is that.

Yeah, it's a little bit different dynamic, though. I kind of like the dynamic in the show because you've sort of got them. I don't want to say that Dr. Lecter got rapy with her in that one scene. But, you know, let's just say that he definitely, I got some creepy feelings there when he kind of, he said, you will hand over the recording to me right now. Like, he just totally took control. Well, I mean, with that character he had to, I mean, she is. I think with the other portrayals I've seen, I think she's a little bit more scandalous

because she's willing to risk people's lives or their careers just to get a little piece of a story. Yes, definitely, definitely. Yeah, and the character in the book was even worse. Okay. Yeah, like even dirtier. Like, at least, you know, and I guess we're getting a little bit ahead with some other episodes. At least she gets to where she kind of has.

a a what's the word for it a sense of a decency I guess but in the yeah in the books the character has no decency whatsoever just like completely cares about absolutely nothing but getting the story and you know just like you're very much manipulated by lector just kind of in a different way yeah and I don't think she was prepared for that because she seems like the type that she's always manipulating somebody else and then for sure met her match with this one yeah well there were there were a lot of a lot of scenes where i think people met their match with with dr lector i think that uh this particular i'm really this this lector character is really growing on me i love hopkins um you know of course

when i read the books i had even a a different idea And then, of course, in what was it, Manhunter, it was even a different lector character that I thought was really good. But I think this, so far, I mean, we're only a couple episodes in, but I don't know, man, this may be my favorite lector character so far just because he's so much in control. Yeah, it's like, as cool as a cucumber. I don't think we've even seen I mean we're only a few episodes in but I don't think he's even

broke that cool yet Right Not even Not even when he's by himself He's like the same So Definitely when he's with somebody else It's not an act

That's just him Yes Yeah definitely Yeah it's like he's the ultimate Sociopath right Like he has absolutely no, kind of like, see, I'm reading a book about Elon Musk right now, and it's like, it's like the man has no feelings at all, like on the surface.

Like he, he'll, well, let me put it to you this way. He'll, um, he expects his people to work like 80 hours a week. He expects them to put in everything he's putting in. Um, but, you know, I mean, he's got big ambitions, right? He wants to get humankind off the planet earth onto Mars so that we've actually got a chance if like an asteroid hits or we have a nuclear war or something like that. He's very passionate about getting us into electric vehicles and stuff like that. But as far as being a human being, he comes across as an absolute piece of shit. Doesn't care a thing about anybody, maybe even not even himself. And this lector kind of strikes me the same way just a complete sociopath, you know?

Yeah. Very well as I was going to say. How are you liking the scenes? Because clearly Will Graham, he's not able to deal with what he's had to do in the first episode with... Oh, yeah, for sure. Killing somebody. He's never had to do that in his career. That's why he's not a full FBI agent because he can't.

can't do it. And then, you know, this situation in the first episode that he had to do it. And he is, he is going through it with his nightmares and waking up. And he's just completely soaked in sweat and gets to lay towels down on his bed. Right. It's kind of crazy. And, uh, and Dr. Lecter is taking, taking full advantage of that, you know? And he's like, um, I love the way that lector poses his questions to him because, of course, you know, Lecter's getting the chance to psychoanalyze him, and he's like, how does it feel to be a killer? How do you like that power? You've got to really enjoy it.

There's got to be a passion there, right, Will? I also think he really, he kind of likes Will. Yeah, oh, for sure. He likes the way his mind works and how complex it is, and him not kind of being resistant to his, you know, psychoanalyst type stuff. so I think he likes it but at the same time I think he feels like it's a challenge to try to get into

his mind yeah and he's willing to take that challenge on for sure and I think I think there's some grooming going on too I definitely see again we're just a couple episodes in here Brian but and I've never seen the series before

but I've got a feeling that you know he's got he's got big plans to groom you know, Will to you know, kind of be the same way he is, right? Kind of almost like, there's, there's almost like a cult a cult leader type feeling

to it that I get, which is very interesting. He sees possible potential in somebody else. Sure. For sure. And I love the part at the, at the early part of the show when, you know, Will has made his, made his big collar where he did have to kill the guy

and he goes in and everybody's applauding. And you see how uncomfortable that makes him. Yeah, definitely. He just walked in and everybody just stands up, claps their hands, and he's just like, stop, stop it right now. Yeah, he was pretty serious about that. It made him very uncomfortable. And then I even, I think he even said later that it was very inappropriate for them to do that.

But then, of course, he was told, yeah, but I mean, you can't blame them for feeling that way. because you just brought down a huge bad guy. Yeah. You know, so you're kind of like a hero right now in the bureau. So you're just going to kind of have to live with it. But he's always going to have that discomfort, I guess. Yeah. Doesn't want to be the center of attention like that.

Yeah. What did you think of this episode's, well, can't really call him a killer because he wasn't killing his victims. He was just. Oh, yeah. That was so weird. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy that.

And I have to keep thinking this was crazy that this show was on network TV, and some of the imagery is kind of shocking to me that it would be on network. What was this, NBC or ABC or something like that? Yeah, it was definitely one of the three major networks. Somebody's yelling at us right now, so

we'll hear soon enough, I'm sure. Just the image of these people being buried alive and being kept alive. Yes. And they're just, he's using them to grow fungus. Yeah, crazy, man. Like he was, um, he had that mindset that like fungus was, I guess, more intelligent than we are. And again, like we were, I was referring to earlier with the Star Trek, the way that it works, how fungus can communicate.

And I've heard that before and there have been a couple of movies, um, dealing with that this year. Um, what was the one last year that, um, that, um, um, was about the fungus and the one part of the jungle that was taken over. Oh, Gaia? Yeah, yeah, Gaia dealt with that and I think Annihilation to an extent dealt with that as well.

And there was one other movie that I think had that. Horrible one. The Ben Wheatley one that was... Oh, that's right in the earth. Boring. Yeah, that one was boring. Yeah, I'm a Waitley fan and I didn't even care

for that one too much um but yeah it was um it was kind of funny how um yeah i thought i thought one line that caught my attention that will said was that the the guy that that he caught in the the first episode it was like what did he say bad accounting and dumb luck is what led to it like that's basically how you do end up catching most of these bad guys is they make one little fuck up yeah because he's showing the projection of like a piece of evidence piece of paper and he was like where are the what are the clues and then like a whole bunch of cadets like raise their hand and he was like there is no clue yeah there is no clue don't look that's right that's right so they thought they thought they were on to something but he corrected

them pretty quickly um i do another oh go ahead now i was just going to say i do i do like the way that um you know he basically lector is there just to kind of rubber stamp him so he can get through and uh and you know even though he had a he had a kill i guess it was protocol for the bureau to have him do a psych evaluation so it's just kind of funny the way that that fishburn's character had him actually you know go through lector to psychoanalyze him and i noticed lector asked him a couple of times that that age old psychologist question and how does that make you feel you know and so he was really you could tell he was getting into his mind when he was going there and i was going to say uh going back to the the killer um this show is doing a really good job

of really showing us how on the outside these guys are normal because this this episode this first episode the guy was a family man you know sure yeah running a family business and Yeah. This one, it's your local neighborhood pharmacist. Right. And he's just straight abducting people from the parking lot of the store. He's got a trunk full of soil that he buries them in. And it's crazy.

So what was the deal about? So he was looking for people that had diabetes or he was basically like force feeding them insulin or something like that? because that helped feed the fungus better? I think so. I don't know science, but I think that's what he was doing. And, you know, like you said earlier, how his feelings towards fungus. And, you know, he felt like people,

planting people on the ground is the best way to get to his goal. And it was just crazy how they thought some of these people were dead. And then you get that scene where that one person kind of wakes up. right or to the to the extent makes up because they're basically saying these people are brain dead oh yeah that was that was pretty gruesome dude because all the skin was gone and you can see like the

the basically just the muscles and muscle tissue and the teeth that was about it kind of reminded me a seven yeah I could see that I could definitely see that yeah it was it was definitely pretty gruesome Um, so what do you, what do you think about, um, so now that we're getting into Freddie Lowns, and I'm assuming she's going to probably be a recurring character here, um, when she was told,

uh, in no uncertain terms that, you know, hey, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're contaminating a crime scene and you're going to these places that you're not supposed to be at and you're kind of fucking things up. Uh, you're not allowed to write another word about Will Graham. Do you think she's going to stick to that or do you think she's going to going to kind of find a way to work around that. Oh, she's going to work around it, I think. No doubt. She's found the jackpot

in Wilbur. Sure. Oh, yeah. But she needs to tighten up her skills a little bit more because in this episode, she got an FBI agent killed. Yeah, that's right. That's right. They knew she was

there in the previous killers crime scene, the cabin. because they found her hair. That's right. Yeah, they did find the hair. And, oh, dude, Brian, that was so crazy, man, the way he said, he got mad at her. And he said, you used me.

And she said, well, yeah, I had to get my story. And she said, but don't worry, I've got another job for you. I know where you can make twice as much money working as a, you know, as a private investigator. I've got just the right connection. And then he's like, oh, okay, bitch. So you're not, I'm not the first person you got fired. And she said, well, no, but I've got a plan. And then the next thing you know, boom, it's shot right through the head.

Yeah, I mean, we know what the end game of her character is. Sure, right? But I think as far as the show, I think she's going to be a recurring character for a little bit. Yeah, I don't expect it to necessarily go the way of the books in the movie, to be honest with you. I see a different outcome. but we'll see if I'm proven right or wrong, right? Yeah. The one other thing I do want to say about this episode before we move on is I loved.

There was a quote that I really, really got a lot out of, and it's getting get me thinking that there's going to be a lot of verbiage in the screenwriting here, having to do with, you know, cooking and food and, you know, because as you know, my wife is quite a cook and, you know, she works at a real high-end kitchenware store, and we've eaten at several, you know, really nice restaurants. We're huge fans of certain chefs, celebrity chefs and stuff like that, so cooking is kind of near and dear to my wife's heart. I do notice a line that Lecter said, he said, he said, I've noticed that you get a little sprig of zest every time you kill, don't you?

And then Will was like, no, no, I don't. No, I don't. He's like denying it. So I want to know where that's going to go, man. I love the food talk, and I want to know where that relationship is going to go with Will and with Lecter. Is the daughter from the previous killer, in this episode, I'm trying to remember, is she still in a coma? This episode, too, she was in a coma, but if we're going to get into episode three here in just a little bit, we'll go a little bit.

bit further on that on that okay so just jump right into it all right season three or episode three all right so season one episode three and um let's see this episode was called uh bear with me here potage i'll go with that all right cool potage um all right determined to give abigail closure there you go um will and hannibal take Abigail back to, spoiler alert again, if you're wondering if she comes out of the coma, back to the scene of her father's crimes, but things take a turn for the worse when the copycat killer strikes again. Now, this was really interesting, Brian, the director of this episode, David Slade. Does that name Ring a Bell? Oh, yeah. Looking at it right here,

hard candy in 30 days a night, great movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're, obviously they're going to bring out some big guns for this series, no doubt. Okay, so here we go. Putage, or an English potted dish, is a category of thick soups, stews,

or porridge. Some will contain meat and vegetables boiled with water until they form a thick broth. Not sure how that's going to tie into the episode, Brian, but how do you see that particular word tying into this

episode? Looking at the definition, it is kind of strange. Not connecting the dots on that one. Maybe we will as we talk about it. Yeah, we'll probably, I see some of these titles as we go on through the series. Maybe it'll come back, we'll come back and something will hit us. But jumping right into this one, them taking her back to where the crime happened of what her father's done oh yeah that's crazy and the realization that he was using

because he when he taught her when he hunts he does do not waste the animal because then that's murder he wastes the animal so he just that's right you got the flashback yeah then she came to the realization if he's using all the animal then he must be using all of the person he's killing. Makes sense. He's making pillows and lamps out of people and

then she comes to the realization that she's eating a person many times. Sure, sure. And that flashback scene with the deer hunting where he says by eating this deer, you're honoring

the deer. So I wonder if Hannibal thinks by eating these people he's honoring them somehow. Do you get that impression? or is it more of a control manipulation thing? I think that can't really answer that until we get more into Hannibal

because we're getting little bits of Hannibal right now. We've got more Will Graham and other characters, but I think as we'll go, we'll be able to better answer that question. But yeah, this was just a crazy realization that, you know,

just finding out that you've been eating people and you might have stuff in your home that's made of somebody, you know, from the bones or the skin or, you know. Later on in the movie, kind of jump in the show, jumping ahead, she rips open a pillow and it's filled with human hair. Oh, yeah, that's kind of a trip, isn't it? Yeah, so her father definitely didn't waste anything. Right. Yeah. Let, let nothing go to waste, right?

Might even be making a potage of the human, you know, the human, like, melting down the bones and stuff like that and making the thick cores, like a bone broth or something like that. And then what else happened in this episode? Well, there was the copycat killing, right? The copycat killing. Then we got the brother of one of the victims of her father's creeping around the house. Cusing her. You know, it's all in the news. So everybody just thinks, you know, the whole family is a bunch of killers.

Sure. Yeah. So that's going to make things interesting for her, I guess, huh? It is kind of, it was kind of interesting how, well, I guess we're, already starting to get our answer to the question I was asking you a few minutes ago whether Freddie was going to continue to be a busy body regarding Will or whether she really was going to stay away. And I think it's evident already that she's snooping around already, huh? Yeah, because nobody can help this young girl except her. She's, she's her best

option. And what is the way she can help her to tell her story? Yeah, of course. And I'm sure there's a huge best-selling book on the horizon, right? She's got to be thinking about that. I'm sure she's thinking about, you know, bigger things than just the tabloid newspaper. Although that's, you know, that's her urgent need, right?

Is to get the story right now and make the money on that and get her fame so she can do bigger and better things, but I'm sure she's got a long game too. Will's still still trying to

process what happened he's still having these nightmares of oh yeah sure and i like the the imagery the the weird kind of deer creatures or something that keeps popping up in his dreams and right pretty pretty cool yeah like at one point there was someone walking down the hallway with high heels and you can see that like well you couldn't see that what was really going on but you can see the the deer creature whatever it is walking and you can hear it plop clotting along through the hallway and then the next thing you see is the high heels, right?

Yeah. So it's kind of like that was he could hear that and his mind was picking up on that through his dream. I thought that was a pretty cool way of doing it. And I also notice that we're getting maybe to start of a little romantic link between him and the other

psychologist, psychiatrist. Yeah. The one that works for the FBI. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I can definitely see that. So maybe at some point she's going to be his savior against Lecter. You know what I'm saying? Because he's sort of being pulled in both ways. I mean, Lecter, make no mistake about it. He's he's just fucking soaking up everything, man. He's loving it. He's just he's just absolutely soaking up everything people are telling him. The way that he's able to manipulate people, you know, everything that, like when they bring Abigail back to the cabin and lecters involved, you can tell that he's, he's just loving it. He's just, of course, you know, he does literally eat people, but he's kind of like, it's almost like he's eating, eating away at the people that he's manipulating to. I kind of like the way that they do that. And I want to jump to We're kind of

People we're going to be like all over the place when we review these episodes Because it's just what we do This I'm going back to the scene where the brother of the one of the victims He gets hitting the head with a rock Because someone's trying to get him to get away from the house And that comes to play later Because Hannibal sees the rock covers it up sure but then he's able to come back later and get the blood off of that to tie the kid to one of the murders

and i just like how he's just like he's got playing he's planning stuff away absolutely yeah oh yeah he's he's obviously a genius i mean he's he's always three steps ahead of everybody else and i think i love the way that it's very obvious that you know lector's getting everybody in a position where he has something on them. So he's going to be able to use people his ends as we go through the series for sure. So again,

like I said, man, he's a brilliant, you know, a brilliant doctor. I guess he is a doctor, right? He's a PhD in the book. So he's a brilliant doctor in the books. He's very refined.

But he marches to the beat of his own drummer. He does things his way he's very sociopathic and does not think that absolutely anything at all that he's doing is wrong but this particular lector character i don't know man so far i'm really impressed i think that the actor has caught the the spirit of hannibal lector um not to say any take anything against sir anthony hopkins i mean he is sir anthony hopkins for a reason um but i don't know man this This lector to me is a little bit more like the lector in the books. I will say that for sure.

Yeah. And we get the brother of the victim comes back again. And he's trying to convince Abigail that he didn't murder one of the new victims that they find. Right. Which was done by the copycat because they found that's where Hannibal planted his DNA. Yes. And during the conversation, a struggle happens, and she ends up stabbing because for some reason she's holding this big knife. And she kills him, and Hannibal helps cover it up.

So now he's kind of, she's kind of indebted to him to hold his secret. Oh, yes. He's got, he's definitely got complete control at this point. And he's working on getting complete control over Will. And Lawrence Fishburn, what is his character's name? I really should know. Having read all the books and seen all the movies several times. I'm looking up the name, but with this new relationship with Abigail.

Is this a potential pupil? I think that anybody is a potential people. I think that Will means the most to Lecter at this time. Jack Crawford. Okay, I think that Crawford is just absolutely being used by Will. And whether he's ever going to figure that out at some point, or I'm sorry, not being used by Will, completely being used by Lecter. And whether he's ever going to figure that out and pull himself out of it at some point remains to be seen.

we're going to find that out soon enough but I think Lecter just thinks of people as not human beings but just chess pieces like qualms that he can use to you know further his own desires whatever those may be yeah I think

I think you're right on that and also I think he sees a potential like he did and well because she's already she's already got the teachings of you know honoring the kill or

on all that, you know, don't waste anything or it's murder. She already has that implanted in her head and she's just now killed somebody. So, I think he sees something in her. I think there's very little that gets past

Hand of Elector, Brian. Yeah. All right. Well, that wraps up this episode then unless there were any last thoughts that you had for either episode. I just can't wait to to the other ones all right okay cool so next week we're going to bring uh bring you guys what uh i guess episodes four and five and there's 13 so once we finish the first season i'm sure

we'll go into seasons two and three and hopefully by then they'll announce a a new a new series or movie or something that we can yeah because you know just getting to that real quick it was just strange that they canceled it because this was a very popular show yes but things I heard was it was very expensive to make yeah makes sense so the the creator he has said they're they're trying to revive it for maybe like how they did Dexter brought it back for that one last season okay and that wasn't too bad I actually kind of enjoyed that when it was a couple episodes before it hooked me but I did enjoy new blood as it turns out So we can hope, right?

Yeah. But in the meantime, we got plenty more episodes to cover. So until next week, this is Lance and Brian signing out. Oh, Appadish, bitch. You know, I'm going to be. I'm going to be.