When writing a season finale, writers generally choose one of two options: either make it a definitive end to this leg of the story, or close with a cliffhanger that will leave fans desperately yearning for when the show returns the following year with the solution. The merits of the open-ending remains a point of contention amongst television critics and audience members: Are they an example of lazy writing, or a clever use of the medium to maximise the impact of specific story beats? For a long time during the run of Hannibal's second season, it seemed as if the producers were aiming for the former - from the cold open we were lead to believe we were approaching the prologue of Red Dragon, wherein Hannibal is apprehended by Will Graham & Jack Crawford and subsequently confined to the Baltimore State Home for the Criminally Insane. However, Bryan Fuller and company have other plans for their version of this story. The finale they gave us, entitled Mizumono, was one right out of a Grand Guignol fever dream - bloody, violent, and uncompromising, with a thoroughly ambiguous ending. For an episode packed to the brim with last-minute gut punches, surprises, and twists, it was relatively lacking in any sense of closure. That fact has become hit or miss with many fans, some praising the cliffhanger, and others condemning the lack of resolution. So while hungering for the third season, we have put together a list of some questions that will continue to bother us until the inevitable return of Hannibal next year. Have any of your own? What did you think of Friday's blood-soaked finale? Let us know in the comments section below!
Self-evidently a man who writes for the Internet, Robert also writes films, plays, teleplays, and short stories when he's not working on a movie set somewhere. He lives somewhere behind the Hollywood sign.
