Will knew. He knew it all. And he fooled you.
On Will Graham’s active role in the scheme from season one.
I don’t believe Will was truly mourning Abigail’s death. There, I said it. I think he believed that was the source of his grief, sure. But in reality, he barely knew her. Their dynamic was fraught with discomfort; she was wary of him, and he was largely awkward around her. They didn’t see eye to eye, and more than anything, he projected onto her relentlessly.
From the very beginning, I think Will clung to the idea of Abigail because of Hannibal. “Feeling paternal?”, and Will responded, “Aren’t you?”, only to dramatically nod in agreement when Hannibal said yes. Both of them felt a pull toward each other. Hannibal more consciously so, but both used Abigail as a tether, a justification, a way to hold onto one another. The fandom often frames this dynamic as Hannibal using Abigail to baby trap Will, but the truth is, Will was just as complicit. They were both using her as a baby trap.
The evidence is there: Will lets Hannibal into his home, allows him to care for his dogs, despite barely knowing him and, more importantly, despite his instinctive wariness of him. Logically, it makes no sense for Will to be so trusting of Hannibal that early on. He even calls Hannibal out for subtly trying to isolate him from Jack, only to dismiss far worse and more overtly suspicious behavior later. The argument that Will’s illness clouded his judgment is flimsy at best: he was still solving complex cases, demonstrating sharp deductive reasoning throughout season one. His blind spot for Hannibal wasn’t due to sickness; it was due to something else.
Will was feeding into several illusions during that period. The illusion that he could maintain a normal relationship with someone like Alana. The illusion that he could bond with someone genuinely good and benevolent—someone who would accept him for who he was. The illusion that Abigail could be redeemed through guilt and coercion, and that if she could be saved, perhaps he could be too.
So, he ignored everything that contradicted these fantasies.
When Hannibal “killed” Abigail, he severed the one excuse Will thought had for maintaining their bond. And, crucially, he did so after Will felt betrayed by him, not by being a killer, but by lying to him personally. That was the real betrayal. It wasn’t about murder, or even morality; it was personal. And while Hannibal understood the depth of their connection beyond Abigail, Will needed the illusion of her to justify it to himself. That’s why, when Will mourned her, he wasn’t mourning Abigail, he was mourning what she represented.
Hannibal, on the other hand, had no such illusions. He might have used Abigail as a means to draw Will closer, but he never saw her as the glue holding them together. He believed in their bond beyond her, which is why he was visibly hurt, even teary-eyed, when Will turned on him both before and after prison.
Will Graham might play the victim well, and Hugh Dancy may have an achingly beautiful face, but let’s be honest: Will is worse than Hannibal. Hannibal is, at the very least, honest about who he is. Will is a hypocrite, a killer masquerading as a reluctant bystander. A borderline, sociopath draped in the skin of an awkward, introverted, misunderstood man. And yet, he fooled most of you, just as he fooled the other characters. Just as he intended.
