6A — Tuesday, September 8, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘Hannibal’ stuns

By CHLOE GILKE

Managing Arts Editor

Writing a series finale might be 

the hardest job in the world. Those 
unlucky 
writ-

ers must follow 
a stringent set of 
guidelines if their 
ending is to join 
the likes of “Six 
Feet Under” in 
the Great Finale 
Hall 
of 
Fame 

and avoid being 
tossed into the Garbage Can of Gar-
bage Finales with “How I Met Your 
Mother” and “Dexter.” First, series 
finales have to wrap up lingering 
plot threads from previous episodes; 
series finales are also season finales, 
after all. However, the writer can’t 
be satisfied with just crafting a pat 
chapter ending. Viewers expect 
that the show end up going some-
where, which means that the writer 
had better start tying things up in 
a beautiful bow or blowing shit up. 
But most importantly, the writer has 
to craft ten perfect minutes to end 
the show. Those last few scenes are 
what people remember about the 
finale; everything else is incidental.

The series finale of “Hanni-

bal” was, admittedly, not perfect. 
Because of the season’s split struc-
ture, mid-season time jump and 
the introduction of new characters, 
“Hannibal” relied more heavily 
on exposition and table-setting to 
advance the story to its endpoint. 
With better plotting (or a higher 
episode count), Francis Dolarhyde’s 
(Richard Armitage, “Strike Back”) 
fake-out death could have occurred 
in a different episode, so Will (Hugh 
Dancy, “Martha Marcy May Mar-
lene”) and Jack’s (Laurence Fish-
burne, “The Matrix”) scheming 
could have been more developed. 
The final appearances of beloved 
supporting characters could be 
more organically mixed into the 
drama, and Alana Bloom (Caroline 
Dhavernas, “Wonderfalls”) could 
have a better reason to visit Hanni-

bal than, well, convenience. But I’ll 
cut the finale a bit of slack — series 
creator Bryan Fuller imagined seven 
seasons to tell his story, and “The 
Wrath of the Lamb” is only the final 
installment because of a cruel strike 
from the TV Gods. Some things 
don’t end the way they should.

Francis Dolarhyde (alias “The 

Red Dragon”) served as an effec-
tive villain for the second half of 
the season, but his stories were 
regretfully isolated. As the clock 
counted down to “Hannibal” ’s final 
episode, I was acutely aware of how 
little Dolarhyde interacted with the 
show’s main characters apart from 
close calls and near-threats. The 
character existed in his own world, 
drawn to art, films and literature 
because of the distance and they 
afforded him. From the beginning, 
Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen, 
“The Hunt”) made such an effec-
tive villain because of his proximity 
to investigator Will. The infamous 
Chesapeake Ripper was right there 
the whole time. Dolarhyde’s silence, 
while a cool change of pace from 
Hannibal’s omnipresence, was not 
the best choice for a final battle.

But when it comes down to it, The 

Red Dragon didn’t really matter. He 
was a catalyst, the bait that would 
draw Hannibal and Will together 
again. Dolarhyde’s crimes ripped 
Will from his “maddeningly polite” 
life with his wife, stepson and dozen 
adopted dogs. The mirrors that Dol-
arhyde placed on his victim’s naked 
bodies forced Will to confront the 
fact that he’d never be able to escape 
this life. His empathy would always 
extend to The Ripper and The Drag-
on and sick fuckers of the world, and 
he was cursed to see himself in the 
atrocities they created.

From the beginning of the sea-

son, “Hannibal” has made it clear 
that Will would never be able to 
escape Hannibal’s influence. Will 
could bide his time, but Hannibal 
would always be waiting, knife in 
hand, ready to enjoy his long-await-
ed meal of the only man who ever 
challenged him. The finale received 

a jolt of energy as soon as Hannibal 
brought Will to the cliffside house 
where he brought Miriam Lass and 
Abigail Hobbs so long ago. Hannibal 
lamented the erosion of the cliff and 
the passage of time; the cliff would 
continue edging back and engulf-
ing land, and someday it’d overtake 
them all. With one gorgeous meta-
phor, “Hannibal” predicted the 
ending that would come just a few 
minutes later.

After Dolarhyde was vanquished 

and lay a bloody husk on the 
ground, a wounded Will reached 
to embrace Hannibal. He clutched 
him like a savior, as Hannibal reas-
suringly said that “this is all (he) 
ever wanted … for both of us.” So 
Will gave in, and the two of them 
fell gracefully off the cliff. The 
two were shot like a Renaissance 
painting, all Caravaggian lights 
and shadows and Biblical-pained 
expressions. “Hannibal” is con-
sistently praised for its gorgeous 
cinematography, but director of 
photography James Hawkinson 
(“Community”) deserves one final 
shout-out for framing such iconic 
final images. Just like Hannibal 
remarked, his and Will’s ending 
was truly beautiful.

When considered as a whole, 

“The Wrath of the Lamb” may not 
be “Hannibal” ’s finest episode. 
The season had to work overtime to 
finish up the arcs of two major vil-
lains — since he was only featured 
in a few episodes, The Red Dragon 
wasn’t as formidable as he could 
have been. But I truly think that 
ten years from now (or whenever 
that inevitable “Hannibal” reboot 
ends up happening), nobody will 
remember season three as the 
season when Reba tried to grab 
a key from Dolarhyde’s neck and 
Alana wore pantsuits. The job of a 
finale is to provide a poetic end to a 
show, a dreamy final note to close a 
years-long symphony. Ultimately, 
the last chapter of “Hannibal” was 
all about that jump off the cliff. It 
wasn’t perfect, but it was all I ever 
wanted.

B+

Hannibal

Series Finale

NBC

‘Girl’ breaks norms

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

Don’t be fooled by the con-

ventionally beautiful, glamorous 
woman on the cover. Constance 
Kopp was an intimidating person, 
made 
much 

more so by the 
fact 
that 
she 

never let general 
rules of woman-
ly etiquette stop 
her from slam-
ming rude men 
against walls.

“Girl 
Waits 

with Gun” by 
Amy 
Stewart, 

the best-selling author of “The 
Drunken Botanist,” is based on the 
true story of one of America’s first 
female sheriffs in 1914. In delving 
into the lives of Constance and her 
younger sisters, Norma and Fleu-
rette, Amy Stewart tells a tale as 
captivating as it is genuinely funny 
in its portrayal of three bewildered 
sisters who find themselves in a 
war with one of the most powerful 
men in their hometown.

The story begins when an auto-

mobile collides with the carriage 
that the three sisters are riding 
in. As the dust settles around 
the crash and a crowd gathers to 
watch the spectacle, Constance 
insists to Henry Kaufman — the 
cocky driver and a rich silk fac-
tory owner — and his grinning 
posse that they pay for the dam-
ages. Kaufman and his henchmen 
laugh it off and drive away, but 
Constance refuses to let it go. Thus 
begins the battle for justice.

The sisters, who are accus-

tomed to a quiet life on a farm 
away from gossipy townsfolk, 
are unprepared for Kaufman’s 
vile scare tactics, as he begins to 
terrorize them in an attempt to 
have them drop the charges. Con-
stance finds herself working with 
the town sheriff to help some of 
Kaufman’s other victims, solving 
a mysterious crime in the process. 
 

Set in the early 20th century 

the novel captures the strug-
gles that women — particularly 
unmarried women — had to face, 
especially concerning the ancient 
conundrum of not “having a man 
around the place.” Francis Kopp, 
their brother, is constantly try-
ing to force them into moving in 
with his family, unaware of the 
fact that every time he interferes 
he complicates life for everyone.

The personalities of the three 

sisters complement and coun-
teract each other so perfectly, it 
feels slightly self-indulgent — but 
their back-and-forth sibling ban-
ter is so recognizable and natural 
that it doesn’t matter. Stewart 
has an ear for dialogue, and Con-
stance’s role as the narrator is so 
unobtrusive that her pragmatic 
personality shines through the 
lines.

The most intriguing relation-

ship is between Constance and 
the sheriff, who can never be sure 
how Constance will surprise 
him next — especially after she 
turns out to be a sharpshooter 
and unafraid to manhandle men. 
Stewart captures the hesitancy 
shown on both sides as the origi-
nal protector/protected relation-
ship between the two evolves 
into a partnership.

I could almost feel Stewart’s 

knowing smile behind my shoul-
der as I kept turning the pages, 
expecting that in a story of three 
young women — one of whom is 
still in her teens and professed 
to be a great beauty — there’d be 
some romance, somewhere.

But there isn’t, and it’s great — 

not because of the lack of roman-
tic storylines, or in spite of it. 
There’s no romance, period. The 
book is awesome, period. Holly-
wood could learn a thing or two.

One of the funniest and most 

well-written scenes is toward the 
end, when Constance answers an 
advertisement in the paper for 
female detectives in a shop; she 
can’t think of any job for which 

she is more suited, and is con-
fident in her ability to win over 
her interviewer as she makes her 
way to the back of the store. The 
manager is polite to Constance, 
but asks her to please step aside 
as she is expecting a prospective 
employee. The manager looks 
around for a petite, girlish fig-
ure as Constance stands in front 
of her, nonplussed. When Con-
stance informs the woman that 
she is the one that came for the 
job, the woman laughs. She needs 
someone unobtrusive, she tells 
Constance; someone of whom 
potential thieves wouldn’t be 
suspicious.

Though Constance knows that 

she is tall, strong and the oldest of 
a quirky family that mainly keeps 
to themselves, she never fails to 
underestimate how intimidated 
others are by her. She makes the 
court howl with laughter at her 
impatient, staccato answers to 
reporters’ stupid questions, as she 
is baffled by the people question-
ing her intellect because of her 
gender. Constance is unfailingly 
funny when she doesn’t mean to 
be, and is constantly confused 
when people find her so.

Stewart’s understanding of 

the zeitgeist of the early 20th 
century and her ability to convey 
the humor even in grim situa-
tions is seen in how Constance 
poses a literally physical threat 
to Kaufman, and no one quite 
knows how to deal with it, mak-
ing for several funny encounters 
and several sulky men. At one 
point, Constance has Kaufman 
pinned to the wall, and one of 
the men watching shouts, “Take 
your hands off of her!” Every-
one laughs at how ridiculous 
it sounds. Except Kaufman, of 
course, who tries very hard to 
look nonchalant rather than 
scared shitless (and fails).

“Girl Waits with Gun” left me 

wanting a sequel badly — but, like 
its heroine, it stands quite sturdi-
ly on its own two feet.

Girl Waits 
with Gun

Amy Stewart

Houghton Mif-
flin Harcourt

Sept. 1, 2015

BOOK REVIEW
TV REVIEW

