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Reciprocity in Hannibal

“I sent someone to kill you. You sent someone to kill me. Even Steven.”

It begins when Hannibal sends Will to Tobias. When Tobias shows up in Hannibal’s office declaring he’s killed two FBI agents, Hannibal infers that Will is dead and kills Tobias in retribution. His relief when he sees Will later is palpable. Teary eyed, he says, “I was worried you had died.” This is the moment that Hannibal realizes he actually prefers a world with Will Graham in it, and that Will truly has the potential to be Hannibal’s equal. This motivates the Quid Pro Quo he strives for with Will.

Hannibal manipulates Will into jail and ultimately frees him. Later, Will manipulates Hannibal into jail and ultimately frees him.

Will sends someone to kill Hannibal. Hannibal sends someone to kill Will. Arguably it’s because Will enjoys killing murderers, so it can be viewed as a present. Will gives Hannibal a present in return: the meat (which they eat together) and the display/imago (which they pretend to investigate for the FBI).

Hannibal manipulates the events that lead to the death of Will’s child with Margot. He makes it up to Will by giving him Abigail back later. (He makes it up to Margot later by providing her with Mason’s sperm.)

Will saves Hannibal from Mason Verger. Later, Hannibal saves Will from Mason Verger.

Will betrays Hannibal by staging an FBI sting operation instead of running away with him. Hannibal betrays Will by gutting him and running away with Bedelia instead (incidentally, this is why Will is so vitriolic towards her: he’s jealous that she did what he didn’t).

In his hurt, Hannibal also kills Abigail and asks for Will’s forgiveness, knowing that he’s tipping the balance of the scales too far.

Will’s body heals. He fixes the motor of his sailboat and sails it across the Atlantic to Italy to find Hannibal because he had “wanted to run away with him” and he’s “curious about their meeting.”

Hannibal sends Will a valentine of his broken heart – the inverted Three of Swords card (in which three swords peirce a heart), which means forgiveness. He is both offering Will his forgiveness for Will’s betrayal and asking again for forgiveness for his killing Abigail. Will tells a hidden Hannibal that he forgives him.

When Will finds Hannibal in the Uffizi museum, they are mostly equals (although Will still owes Hannibal an imprisonment and release at this point). But both are forgiven. Will says he and Hannibal have begun to blur. They are conjoined. He’s curious if either can survive their separation. He defines his past as “before Hannibal” and his future as “after Hannibal.”

Leaving the Uffizi, Will tries to kill Hannibal but doesn’t succeed. (Chiyoh says Will wants to kill Hannibal because if he doesn’t, he’s afraid he’ll become him.) Hannibal says Will’s forgiveness comes with a knife. So Hannibal amends his own forgiveness into trying to kill Will (by eating his brain) but doesn’t succeed.

After saving Will from Mason Verger, Hannibal turns himself in to the FBI because of Will’s manipulation (by rejecting Hannibal, he ensures Hannibal will stay near). Three years later, Hannibal sends Dolarhyde to kill Will’s wife and adopted son. Dolarhyde fails, but Will still loses them because he realizes he can never go back to that life now that he’s been inside Dolarhyde’s head and fantasized about killing his wife. Will manipulates the circumstances for Hannibal’s release, finally evening the score for his own jail time and release.

At this point in time, Hannibal owes Will a family.

Dolarhyde shoots Hannibal and stabs Will. They kill Dolarhyde together. Hannibal says, “this is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For us,” thus giving Will back a family (his very own “murder husband”!). “It’s beautiful,” Will replies.

They are now, finally, 100% “even Steven” in their reciprocity. Will then maneuvers them both off the cliff together.