The television series "Hannibal" has finally bid its goodbye with the episode "The Wrath of the Lamb," and much like its previous episodes for the past few seasons, it was filled with jaw-dropping surprises and twists.
The biggest bombshell was Will Graham's (played by Hugh Dancy) acceptance of the murder he committed with Hannibal Lecter (played by Mads Mikkelsen). The two killed Francis Dolarhyde, also known as the Red Dragon, and Hannibal says aftewards, "This is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us."
And Will replies, "It's beautiful."
Dancy talked to Entertainment Weekly about this development, sharing how he came to terms with Will's transition towards evil and what he thinks of the "fun, crazy ending."
"I talked to showrunner Bryan Fuller a lot about that, that the motivation for going off the cliff at the end had to be Will's realization not only that this thing had happened, but that he loved it, as opposed to just, 'Oh my God, what have I done? Oh, it's so terrible!'" Dancy said. "It's not that. It's, 'This is beautiful.'"
When he first found out a month ago that that is where Will was heading, Dancy said that he understands why it had to be that way, but he had "an ongoing conversation" with Fuller how his character is going to get to that point.
"By the very end, he and Will have killed someone in a kind of ritualistic, cold-blooded fashion. And they're both there, literally - I remember very clearly - dripping in blood, and that's kind of what Hannibal wanted to put into effect between them at the end of season two," shared Dancy. "That's kind of what he imagined - they go off to Europe like slaughtering people or something. And Will is acknowledging to Hannibal that it was as extraordinary an experience as it was for Hannibal."
Given the chance, Dancy would love to work with the whole team behind "Hannibal" again. As difficult as it is to imagine, they all had lots of good laughs and fun memories on the set, and would love to experience it again. At the same time, they all believe in Fuller's vision for the characters and the storyline.
"Because what Fuller described sounded like so much fun. Whether it will happen is a different question," the actor said.
As for the season finale, Dancy believes that both Will and Hannibal got their own twisted sense of victory.
" I think what happens is, right up until that last moment, essentially, Hannibal is victorious. He has engineered exactly what he wanted. He's out of prison, he has Will with him, they've gone to this brutal, dark place. And Will manages to claw back a victory. So yeah. I mean, optimistic in a very, very narrow sense, because they just both killed someone and then jumped off a cliff. But even so," he laughingly said.
