10 Amazing TV Episodes (That Doomed Great Shows)

Mizumono is the second series finale and up until this point, Hannibal had presented viewers with almost entirely original plot lines. Hannibal (the movie) would be squeezed into the first half of season three and the Red Dragon story arc would be equally squeezed into the second half of season three. While most of that worked, it was really not the fault of Fuller, who by this point had only just found out that his baby had been cancelled by the network due to a unimaginable fall in ratings.

Mizumono picks up on the fight teased in the first episode of the season, with Crawford and Hannibal beating ten barrels of crap out of each in Lecter's kitchen. With everyone's cards now clearly on the table, the episode had to successfully do three things; clear Will of any suspicion, get Lecter out in the open, and clear the deck so Fuller could cram in two books worth of plot into the, now final, season three.

It succeeds on the whole and by the end of this high octane, crimson-splashed episode, Lecter is on a plane bound for Florence with Gillian Anderson, Will is back in the good books of the FBI and the overarching thread of The Chesapeake Ripper is neatly tied up. It's brilliant TV and the blame for pacing issues of the subsequent final season cannot be blamed on Fuller - the decision to cancel Hannibal and force his hand was not of his making.