Hannibal’s second episode seeks to achieve two things: continue the Garret Jacob Hobbs investigation while introducing a new serial killer for Will to catch. That monster of the week format will start to grate and frankly bog down the narrative thrust pretty soon, but here it succeeds quite well, disappointing ending aside, thanks to writer Jim Danger Gray, a longtime TV professional who has worked tons with Bryan Fuller, and director Michael Rymer, also a sure TV hand best known for his time on Battlestar Galactica.

But first to the naming conventions. There are four naming patterns used throughout the show, and the first season uses French terms for different stages of an extremely elegant meal, the standard 7 courses, plus drinks, pauses, etc. This episode “Amuse-Bouche” is named after the small savory snack served at the chef’s discretion. And the episode is certainly a taste of what’s to come, as the show settles into its first-season format; Will is in therapy, hunting demons while the biggest one of all works to bring out the monster in Will.

We follow the investigation of Hobbs’ cabin as Jack Crawford and Will Graham wander in a display of numerous antlers which Will jokes could be a “permanent installation in your evil minds museum”. There are still seven bodies out there, and Jack speculates Abigail may be of help, especially as she was a participant with her father. Will doesn’t buy it. But someone was at the cabin first. That someone is The Daily Tattler‘s own Freddie Lounds, perhaps the largest gender swapped character, played wonderfully by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Red Dragon, here by Lara Jane Chorostecki. We meet her (nude for some reason) as she writes up what she found at the nest of the Minnesota Shrike.

Back at FBI class, Will is applauded, inappropriately in his mind. Jack offers Will the chance to go back into field, but first he needs to complete a psychiatric evaluation and wouldntcha know it Hannibal Lecter is the best option to give him one. The FBI is troubled by the time Will spends in Abigail’s hospital room, but Will maintains, “therapy doesn’t work on me.” We’ll see!

Per Hannibal Will needs a way out of dark places, but before that Hannibal rubber stamps Will’s return to the field, helping build goodwill with Good Will. The time we spend with Lecter in this episode is far less wink-wink than in the pilot; here he seems like he’s purely trying to help Will and the true nature of Hannibal is left to be discovered. (The major exception of course is Hannibal telling Jack, “I’d love to have you both for dinner.”) And just like that, Will’s back. An interesting blocking choice in this first, pivotal session is how far above Will is placed relative to Hannibal, as he peruses Lecter’s library. Hannibal is below, looking up at Will. They’ll be on even ground soon enough.

Meanwhile in the forest of a state park in Maryland, some kids find mushrooms with hands sticking out of the ground. (The creepiness of Brian Reitzell’s music shines here.) Beverly Katz comes to inform Will of what they found while he practices at the firing range. He’s much friendlier with Beverly this time as the main cast starts to settle into its rhythm. We’re soon out in Maryland while the crime scene teams speculates. But they’re not alone; Freddie Lounds is also at the scene, manipulating a local police officer who tells her Will is a consultant with the FBI. The pendulum swings, and Will is in profile mode until he’s interrupted by two things: a vision of Garret Jacob Hobbs and OH HOLY SHIT the bodies aren’t all dead.

Back with Hannibal, Will tells him about the vision of Hobbs, wondering if it was too soon to come back. Hannibal diagnoses merely stress, and this time they’re on the same physical level. They have to figure out what it is this mushroom farmer is looking for, and Hannibal speculates he’s looking for a connection. Lounds is recording all of this, right outside of the office, since she scheduled an appointment with Hannibal at a very specific time. She gives Hannibal a fake name, posing as a patient, but he immediately sees through her, has her delete the conversations and tell her she has been “rude”, something Hannibal has not historically taken too kindly to. “What’s to be done about that?” Cut to him eating something with Jack Crawford which is unfortunately not Freddie (but probably is human). Why is Crawford being so delicate with Will, Hannibal wonders.

In the lab they realize the bodies were being kept alive intentionally with death only coming by diabetic ketoacidosis. They’re all diabetic and who would know about that better than a pharmacist. He’ll want to grow more shrooms so the hunt is on, and it’s a short one.

Gretchen Speck picks up her insulin, and obviously this pharmacist is our guy. After the commercial break, the SWAT team moves in on the pharmacy, but Eldon Stammets has just left. His car is still there, and Gretchen is covered in dirt in the trunk but still alive. Stammets’ browser history shows he’s been reading Freddie Lounds who has been reporting on Will’s “demented mind” being used to catch another. Hannibal is reading too…

The FBI busts in on Lounds who clearly has had something to do with Special Agent Zeller. Crawford tells her to stop writing about Graham in exchange for not being indicted and Zeller in a private moment with her complains, “You used me.”

Will is back in the hospital with Abigail, witnessing another distressing vision of the feathered stag as he sleeps. Alanna Bloom enters, reads to Abigail from Flannery O’Connor. Will claims he feels good and seems surprised by that.

The local police officer confronts Lounds, saying he’s being blamed and suspended. Lounds tells him he’ll be fired, but she offers him work, private security. This isn’t her first rodeo; she’s gotten many cops fired. But before he can inevitably accept, Stammets shockingly charges in, shooting him in the head, and demanding info about Will Graham. A bravura sequence from Michael Rymer.

Back from the break, Lounds shows uncharacteristically empathy; she’s worried for Will Graham. Stammets talked about people having the same properties as these mushrooms he grows, with thoughts evolving from brain to brain. He thinks Will will understand, since he too is looking for connections. Lounds pointed Stammets to Abigail, and he wants to bury her to help Will connect with her. So for the second straight week, Will has to be Abigail Hobbs’ savior. The chase is on, and it’s over surprisingly quickly as Stammets admits, yeah, that’s basically what he was doing. The climax is abrupt, and frankly it doesn’t work very well, especially after last week’s spectacular showdown. Fortunately the real ending is still to come.

In the episode’s final therapy session, Hannibal and Will assume the position. Two chairs across from each other, standard talk therapy format. Just like Will is fully in the field, he’s fully in Lecter’s web now. Hannibal tells him it’s not Hobbs’ ghost that’s haunting Will, what’s scaring Will is his thought of killing someone who’s so bad that killing him feels good. Will admits he thought about actually killing Stammets instead of just winging him (maybe the firing range work didn’t pay off after all). He admits he even liked killing Hobbs, and Hannibal sympathizes. “Killing must feel good to God, too. He does it all the time. And are we not created in his image?”

In a lot of ways this is the second half of a two-part premiere. In “Aperitif” Will and Hannibal barely did more than meet and break bread (well, people sausage); here they’re entwined, first as mandated by the FBI, eventually because they actually work pretty well together. Hannibal helps him catch Stammets by identifying what he’s looking for, and he helps him by working through the complicated feelings of taking a life for the first time. The direction he’s pointing Will in is the direction the rest of the show will take, which is what a good pilot should do. The show is called Hannibal after all, so it was a little confusing that the first episode focused so heavily on Will, with Hannibal as little more than a wild card, tipping off local law enforcement and dropping cryptic IYKYK lines. This second episode presents us with the complicated and far scarier Lecter who can manipulate minds, even minds that “therapy doesn’t work on.” Due to the nature of the show’s production, a full season order based off of the first episode’s script instead of a traditional completed pilot episode first, they were afforded the luxury of going a bit slower with the storytelling. That served to benefit this episode.

Stumbles are coming. Episodes air out of order, one doesn’t air at all in the United States. But after two episodes the show appears confident and unlike anything that’s ever aired on network TV.