The Wrath of the Lamb Part VIII — The Fight
The blocking of the events in the house is very important. The big window calls back to the pane of glass that separated and reflected Will and Hannibal in the prison cell. When Hannibal appears with a bottle of wine, Will sees his reflection first, then turns around to face him. They are both on the same side of the glass, now.
Then Dolarhyde announces his appearance by shattering the glass. Hannibal and Will have come together on the same side, and Dolarhyde forces himself through to join them, in doing so removing the barrier forever. After stabbing Will, Dolarhyde picks him up and throws him back out through the window, away from Hannibal. Hannibal follows through the window, however, and the two of them bring down the Dragon. The glass has been shattered, and they end on the same side.
But let’s backtrack a little to Hannibal’s conversation with Dolarhyde:
Hello, Francis.
Hello, Dr. Lecter.
I’m so happy you chose life, Francis. Suicide is the enemy. You were seized by a fantasy world with the brilliance and freshness and immediacy of childhood. It took you a step beyond alone.
I’m gonna film your death, Dr. Lecter, as dying, you meld with the strength of the Dragon.
It’s a glorious and rather discomfiting idea.
Watching the film will be wonderful, but not as wonderful as the act itself.
Every line here has to hold meaning. Hannibal is ostensibly talking to Dolarhyde, but it’s Will he’s communicating with, and he has precious little time.
He says that suicide is the enemy, despite having told Will a moment earlier that “no greater love hath man than to lay his life down for a friend.” He could be saying that, while he’s offered to risk his life for Will, it’s not his intention just to throw it away. He’s telling Will he believes in him and trusts that his risk isn’t worthless. A few pointed looks in Will’s direction certainly back this theory up.
The assertion that Dolarhyde lives in a fantasy world is even more telling. The entire time Hannibal has known Will, he’s asserted that the murderer inside is his true self. In this analysis of Dolarhyde, he is setting Will apart and above him, corroborating Will’s realization in the motel room. Dolarhyde’s sense of self is fantasy, while Will’s is real. Will is the one who deserves to be Bluebeard’s last wife.
After running out of things to say, Hannibal looks straight at Will. For once, he’s the wounded bird pleading for help. Will’s face has been passive through all this — the last time he was faced with a helpless bird, in the form of Bedelia, he decided to crush it.
This time, however, he helps it. What sparks this decision? Has he been absorbing what Hannibal’s been telling him? Has he been weighing the lump of his feelings? If we consider the implications of the “save yourself, kill them all” conversation, then this was Will’s plan all along. He does have a gun on him.
Maybe we can’t point to surety and plans with Will. Even our big line of evidence — “I don’t know if I can save myself. Maybe that’s just fine” — is riddled with words of doubt. But we can point to Will’s trajectory in this episode, and to past moments of decision. When Will had a gun to Hannibal’s head, he decided not to shoot him. When Hannibal was trussed up by Mason Verger (the first time), Will decided not to cut his throat. When Will called Hannibal, he decided to warn him.
Will might not make choices, but he has something of a track record when it comes to decisions, and he must know that about himself. He tends to wait until the last moment, then choose Hannibal. (Had the Mizumono dinner with Jack started off as planned, things might have turned out very differently).
And here Will makes the same decision again. He bides his time, weighs his feelings, and at the critical moment he saves Hannibal… or at least he turns the tables enough for him and Hannibal to save themselves.
Importantly, the gun never actually makes an appearance. Will reaches for it, but he’s stabbed before he can get to it. Instead, he and Hannibal kill Dolarhyde with their hands. It’s intimate. Beyond that, the fight speaks for itself and needs basically no analysis. Hannibal and Will finally kill together, and they have just the best time doing it.
