"Hannibal" is coming to a close as the upcoming 13th episode will conclude the cancelled NBC series. According to the official synopsis posted on Spoilers Guide, the episode may not see Will (Hugh Dancy) finally triumph over Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) but may be able to kill Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage).
According to the synopsis, Will will come up with a devious but dangerous plot to use Hannibal Lecter as bait. This plan will lure Dolarhyde — now known as the Red Dragon — whom Will intends to kill. In doing so, he may be able to rescue Reba (Rutina Wesley) who was previously kidnapped by the Dragon after his complete transformation.
However, Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) will protest against this plan because it not only endanges Will but also those around him. This could include Reba as well as she is still in the hands of Dolarhyde.
The synopsis also states that in this end-game with Hannibal, Will Graham will come face-to-face with his darkest fears.
More importantly, however, this episode will officially end the Red Dragon storyline based on the original books by Thomas Harris and will end the series as well. The series has remained very faithful to its source material, albeit with a few changes such as the near-fatal end of Frederick Chilton (Raul Esparza) in the penultimate episode.
"Hannibal" was cancelled allegedly due to either low viewer ratings or to copyright concerns regarding the character Clarice Starling, previously played by Jodie Foster and later, by Julianne Moore.
The show was then shopped to Netflix which could not renew the series due to streaming rights reserved to Amazon. Amazon did not renew the series for a fourth season as the company reporrtedly wanted to immediately debut the fourth season while showrunner Bryan Fuller wanted more time to develop the script.
"Hannibal" season 3 episode 13, "The Wrath of the Lamb," airs on Aug. 29 on NBC.
