~Will Graham~

Background

Will Graham is the main protagonist of NBC's Hannibal. He is a criminal profiler and hunter of serial killers, who has a unique ability he uses to identify and understand the killers he tracks. Will lives in a farm house in Wolf Trap, Virginia, where he shares his residence with his family of dogs (all of whom he adopted as strays). Originally teaching forensic classes for the FBI, he was brought back into the field by Jack Crawford and worked alongside Hannibal Lecter to track down serial killers. Will has a unique psychological ability that he refers to as "interpreting the evidence". In reality, he is able to assume the state of mind a murderer has after visiting the crime scene and recreates the thinking (as well as the actions) with himself as the killer in order to understand more about them. Hannibal Lecter describes his ability as "pure empathy". Despite suffering from Anti-NMDA encephalitis, Will eventually realized that Hannibal is the Chesapeake Ripper. Will had spent some time in the Baltimore State Hospital For The Criminally Insane after being framed as the "Copycat Killer", a serial killer responsible for the deaths of four individuals resembling the work of other killers. In reality, these acts were committed by the Chesapeake Ripper who later laid claim to these murders which set Will free. With Frederick Chilton currently considered the Chesapeake Ripper by the FBI, Will remains unswayed from his certainty that the killer is, in fact, Hannibal Lecter. He's currently playing his own game with Hannibal, resuming his "therapy" and seemingly befriending the man he's been at odds with since his own manipulation. However, Will quickly becomes lost in the game, and more and more, he sides with Hannibal. Will kills Randall Tier, sent to him by Hannibal, with his bare hands, inspired by his and Hannibal's conversation about guns lacking intimacy.

Background

However, Will lies to Hannibal by faking the death of Freddie Lounds in an effort to further gain his friendship and trust. Will even stores and brings parts of Randall Tier to Hannibal and consumes them with him, claiming that it was actually parts of Freddie Lounds. Hannibal only realized the ruse because his heightened sense of smell helped him realize that Freddie Lounds was not, in fact, dead. Will chooses to warn Hannibal about the danger in the end, but it is too late, and Hannibal's response to Will's betrayal left Will himself, Abigail Hobbs, Alana Bloom, and Jack Crawford barely clinging to life in the Season 2 finale, "Mizumono." Will is a former homicide detective who lost his job due to not being able to use his gun when necessary. Therefore, he teaches at the FBI college. He has no recollection of his mother, who left his life when he was very young.

Personality

Will is a deeply complex man. He describes himself as being on the autism spectrum, due to his social difficulties and lack of eye contact - however, it is contrasted by his sociopathic tendencies and his enjoyment of killing, which makes his statement to Jack questionable. Will has trouble making friends and can be perceived as awkward or even cold by others. He is courageous and highly intelligent, and develops a knack for manipulation, even being able to trick Hannibal on several occasions. Will has an incredible gift for empathy, described by Hannibal as "pure empathy", easily being able to sense and interpret the feelings and motives of other people, specifically killers. However, this has a downside; whilst it makes him a brilliant profiler and invaluable asset to the FBI, it also feeds his darkness, which begins to resurface more and more often with Hannibal's help. Will regularly adopts and cares for stray dogs. He is protective of his friends, in particular Abigail Hobbs, whom he comes to view as a surrogate daughter. Will constantly struggles to hold back his dark side. He derived a sense of pleasure in killing Garret Jacob Hobbs and often dreams or fantasizes about committing murders, though he tries not to act on them. Will finds himself tempted to run away with Hannibal, as he feels Hannibal is the only person who has ever truly understood and accepted Will unconditionally. In the end, Will's darkness gains its full potential - he indirectly assists in mutilating Dr. Chilton and organizes the death of numerous FBI agents to set up Hannibal's escape from prison. He then describes his killing of Francis Dolarhyde with Hannibal as "beautiful". Will appears to lack remorse for the killing of those who died because of him, such as Hobbs, Randall Tier, Francis Dolarhyde, Mason Verger, Chiyoh's prisoner, FBI agents, etc. In the post-credits of Season 3, it is implied that Will and Hannibal pay a visit to Hannibal's friend Bedelia, mutilating and consuming her

Season 1

In the first episode, Will shot and killed Garrett Jacob Hobbs, aka the "Minnesota Shrike". Hobbs had his daughter in his arms and started to slit her throat when Will shot him. Abigail fell to the floor, blood rushing from her neck. Will did his best to apply pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. This was after Hobbs had already killed his wife, discarding her body on the front porch. After some time, the EMTs arrived and Abigail received the medical attention she required. She survived the ordeal, witnessing Will kill her father. Hobbs' death still haunts Will in his hallucinations and dreams. Graham reportedly is no longer a field agent where he worked homicide, due to the complexities of his condition, and has settled into life as an educator - but he is soon called into the field once more. Will says that his "horse is hitched to a post that is closer to Asperger's [Syndrome] and Autistics…" This is evident when he and Jack Crawford meet and he avoids looking him in the eye. Indefinitely, he seems to take in any stray dog that he finds. One night, as he's driving home, he finds a stray and manages to lure it to him with food. He takes him home and introduces the dog to the rest of his "family". He introduces the dog as Winston. Will never knew his mother and his father worked on shipyards (possibly fixing boat motors, as Will has been seen doing this too. However, it could have been working on diesel engines. Will commented to Crawford that's what he would go do if he were to quit.) He moved around a lot during his childhood and was "always the stranger" at his new schools. His family was poor. Will has a love interest, Alana Bloom. However, Alana told him they could not be together because he was too unstable despite having feelings for him. Will confirmed her suspicions after telling her he felt unstable. This happened the day following the day the two kissed in Will's home.

Season 1-cont-

He begins teaching at the FBI Academy (Quantico, Virginia) because he doesn't like to socialize with other people. He says that when he's teaching, he's "talking at them", not necessarily "socializing" with them. After he shot Hobbs, he walked into class to a standing ovation. He told everyone to sit down that their applause was misguided. This is the attitude of Will when it comes to people. He wants no special attention and just wants to be left alone. When speaking to people, he avoids eye contact. He can empathize with psychopaths and other people of the sort. He sees crime scenes and plays them out in his mind with vividly gruesome detail. Will closes his eyes and a pendulum of light flashes in front of him, sending him into the mind of the killer. When he opens his eyes, he is alone at the scene of the crime. The scene changes retracting back to before the killing happened. Will then assumes the role of the killer. He moves to the victim and carries out the crime just as the killer would have. He can see the killer's "design" just as the killer designed it. This allows him to know every detail about the crime and access information that would have otherwise not been known. He has admitted to Crawford that it was becoming harder and harder for him to look. The crimes were getting into his head and leaving him confused and disorientated. During one such experience, he lost track of what was going on and thought he was murdering a victim. He threw the door open, drenched in terror, only to see the BAU team standing outside the door. They all looked as confused as Will when they saw the terror on his face. Will was relieved to know he was working but worried his ability was starting to take its toll on him. Will had advanced encephalitis, which is why he often suffered from hallucinations, the loss of time, and disorientation. He has since received treatments of antibiotic and viral medication therapy to reduce the swelling on his brain.

Season 1

Dr. Lecter had previously diagnosed the condition but kept the information from Will. He allowed Will to believe his hallucinations and breakdowns were due to a mental condition and not from an illness. He did this to observe Will and see how he would handle the stress of these symptoms. You could also say he allowed the illness to progress so that it would make framing Will easier. Will currently resides at the Baltimore State Hospital For The Criminally Insane. He is charged with the murder of Abigail Hobbs, as well as being the Copy Cat killer. Those victims included Cassie Boyle, Georgia Madchen, Dr. Donald Sutcliffe, and Marissa Schurr. After previously escaping custody by dislocating his finger and sliding the cuffs off his wrists, he attacked his guards and managed to escape. He made his way to Dr. Lecter's office where he asked him to take him to the Hobbs' residence in Minnesota. Once they made their way there, theories started to form in Will's head after an intense conversation with Dr. Lecter, Will told him, "The scales have fallen away from my eyes. I can see you now." This confirmed for him that Dr. Lecter was responsible for the crimes Will was charged with. Will had been seeing him for some time for psychiatric care, only to realize Dr. Lecter was manipulating him, using him as study material and personal entertainment. While at the Hobbs' residence, he explained this to Dr. Lecter, comparing it to a wind-up toy while holding a gun on Lecter at the time. He was all set to shoot Dr. Lecter in the head before Crawford intervened, shooting Will in the arm and knocking him backward. While Will was against the counter, where he landed, he saw Dr. Lecter clearly for the person he was, sealing the idea that he set Will up for the crimes he had committed. While Will has not yet shared this information with anyone else, he remains vigilant that Dr. Lecter is, in fact, the killer.

Season 1-finish-

The charges against Will are very damning, giving the length of detail Dr. Lecter had to go through to frame him, including somehow feeding Will Abigail Hobbs' ear.

Season 2

After failing to shoot Hannibal Lecter, Will is sent to Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for serial murder. After several corpses are found in a dam, Beverly Katz finds Will and let him profiling the images of several missing persons. With the help of Alana Bloom, Will tries to recover his lost memories through hypnosis. He's not immediately successful but experiences a flashback of Hannibal forcing Abigail's ear down his throat afterward. Bedelia Du Maurier visits Will in prison, telling him that she believes him. In exchange for Will's help on the case, Beverly Katz promises to look for evidence of Will's innocence. Beverly starts to suspect Hannibal and breaks into his home against Wil's advice. Hannibal catches her and kills her. The next day, Freddie Lounds finds Beverly's crime scene and alarms Jack. Jack takes Will to the crime scene and lets him examine Beverly's body, sectioned vertically and displayed in tableau. The Trial Of Will Graham The prosecution describes Will as an intelligent psychopath. To ease his guilt, Jack Crawford risks his job by confessing that he may have pushed Will too far. Will's lawyer receives a parcel with an ear in it, which was cut off within the last 49 hours. This causes many people to doubt Will's guilt, especially after Katz, Price, and Feller confirm that the ear was cut off with the same knife that was used for Abigail's ear. The FBI finds Andrew Sykes's corpse in his own apartment after Sykes signed the knife out of the courthouse evidence room. His corpse misses an ear, his face was cut into a Glasgow smile and set on fire. All of those things that Will supposedly did to his victims. Hannibal discusses the file with Will and agrees that Sykes was killed in a too different way to be killed by the same killer. Nonetheless, he wants Will to lie about it to prove Will's innocence. Later, it turns out that Matthew Brown was responsible for Sykes' murder.

Season 2-cont-

The prosecution and the judge agree about the dissimilarities and deem Sykes' murder inadmissible. On the next day, the judge is found murdered in the courtroom, his brain and heart on a weighing scale. This is followed by a mistrial.

Season 2- cont-

Attempted Murder of Hannibal Lecter While committed to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally insane, Will befriends an orderly, Matthew Brown, who happens to be an admirer of his. Brown confesses the murder of Andrew Sykes. Will asks Matthew Brown to kill Hannibal Lecter. Abel Gideon overhears them talking and tips Alana Bloom off. Brown follows Hannibal to an indoor swimming pool, subdues him, and attempts to hang Hannibal while telling him that Will asked him to kill Hannibal. Before he is successful though, Jack and Alana track down Hannibal and shoots Brown in the left side of his chest. Failing to do so before the man kicks the bucket out from under Hannibal's feet, Jack rushes over to Hannibal lifting him up, saving him. Afterward, Jack confronts Will about Hannibal's almost-murder but Will denies it and tries to convince Jack that Hannibal's the Chesapeake Ripper by claiming that Hannibal is going give a dinner party, shortly after the next Chesapeake murder. After Miriam Lass is found alive, she's got no clear memory of the Chesapeake Ripper but is positive that it's not Hannibal. The evidence gathered from the most recent Ripper killings serves to prove that Will's supposedly victims were actually the Rippers. Will is released from the BSHCI.

Season 2 - cont-

He visits Miriam Lass and they talk about their experience with the flashes of light which induce blackouts. Will breaks into Hannibal's house and threatens him with a gun. He says that killing Hannibal would feel right but doesn't kill him. He starts to work with the FBI again and wants to continue his therapy with Hannibal. They work on a case together, about a man (Peter Bernadone) who seemingly killed a woman and stuffed her inside a dead horse's uterus. Will empathizes with Peter and observing that he's innocent, he accuses Peter's social worker, Clerk Ingram. Ingram is questioned by Alana Bloom but Jack lets him go, seeing he can't prove Ingram's guilt. Ingram returns to the horse stables and kills a horse with a hammer. When Will and Hannibal arrive at the stables, they find Peter sewing up the dead horse's torso. Will guesses that Ingram is in that horse and after Peter tells them he trapped Ingram in the horse's torso alive, Will and Hannibal go back into the stable, where Ingram had already made his way out of the horse. Will threatens him with a gun and is stopped by Hannibal who tells him that killing Ingram won't feel like killing him [Hannibal]. He also tells Will that he's fascinated with Will's unpredictability. Margot Verger comes to Will's house and they share some personal problems and talk about Hannibal's therapy. Randall Tier, who is responsible for some murders is warned by Hannibal that the FBI is investigating him and is asked by him to kill Will. Will survives the attack and kills Randell Tier himself. He takes the corpse to Hannibal's house and tells him that they are even. He then combines Tier with a saber-tooth display, turning him into an animal. Hannibal and Will are asked to analyze Tier's body by Jack. Margot Verger visits Will again and they have sex. After Freddie Lounds finds some remains of Randall Tier in Will's shed, they fake her murder. Jack investigates her murder and questions Will about her in the presence of Hannibal.

Season 2 - finish-

Jack proceeds to go solo and goes to Hannibal's house by himself. Will calls Hannibal to warn him. He then drives to Hannibal's house and finds Alana, who was pushed out of the window by Abigail, lying on the front stairs. Will goes inside to find Jack but meets Abigail instead, who he believed was dead. She says that she didn't know what to do, so she just did what he [Hannibal] told her. Will turns around to find Hannibal standing behind him. Hannibal confesses that they couldn't leave without him [Will]. He touches Will's face with his hand and, after stabbing him with a karambit, he embraces Will and explains that he wanted to surprise Will with Abigail. Hannibal cries and tells Will, that he let him [Will] know and see him [Hannibal]. He forgives Will and cuts Abigail's throat, leaving them both bleeding on the floor.

Season 3

Will Graham survives the attack at Hannibal Lecter's hands because Hannibal wanted him to live and thus deliberately inflicted a non-fatal wound, though it takes Will several months to recover. Abigail died from her wounds, although Will continues to imagine her still being alive. When he goes to look for Hannibal in Europe, he imagines doing so with Abigail before finally coming to terms with the fact she is dead. Jack Crawford joins Will on the hunt for Hannibal after the passing of his wife Bella. Will and Hannibal are captured by a vengeful Mason Verger, who has them transported back to his estate in Baltimore where he plans to have Will's face cut off and surgically attached to his own, where Verger then plans to eat Hannibal piece by piece. Alana has also been working with Verger to assure Hannibal is punished, however, she betrays him and releases Hannibal, who takes out Verger's men and rescues Will. Alana and Verger's sister Margot (whom Alana is in a relationship with) murder Verger after getting hold of his sperm to create an heir. Hannibal takes Will back to his home, but Will tells him that he doesn't want to see Hannibal again. Hannibal leaves and Crawford and the FBI show up afterward. Will states Hannibal is gone, however, Hannibal appears and surrenders himself to the police. Hannibal is imprisoned, but in doing so Will knows where exactly he is if he needs him. In the subsequent three years, Will settles down and marries a woman named Molly and becomes a father figure to her son Wally. With that Will lives a seemingly normal life away from the darkness of tracing serial killers, at least for the time being, even though he is shown to be unhappy, avoiding physical contact with his wife, not joining her and Wally on their fishing trip when it's one of his fondest activities, and not returning her 'I love you'.

Season 3 - cont-

Three years after Hannibal's imprisonment and the bloodbath at Mason's manor, Crawford contacts Will again to help try and catch another serial killer dubbed the "Tooth Fairy" who kills entire families. Will visits Hannibal in prison under the pretense of trying to gain back his gift of getting into the minds of serial killers. Bedelia calls WIll out on visiting Hannibal because he missed him. Things take a dark turn when Hannibal gives Will's address to the Tooth Fairy - Francis Dolarhyde, who tries to kill Molly and Walter. The pair escape, although Molly is injured and hospitalized. During this time, Will sets up Frederick Chilton, conducting an insulting profile of the Tooth Fairy which is broadcast on the news by Freddie Lounds. Will asks Chilton if he wants to be in the picture which would appear on the front page of Tattlecrime, and touches Chilton on the shoulder to mark him as a "pet", as Dolarhyde attacks pets before going for their owners. This ends with Dolarhyde kidnapping and burning Chilton. Dolarhyde seemingly commits suicide and is burned in a fire, but this ends up being a ruse. He confronts Will at his hotel, but Will offers to get him Hannibal to "change" aka kill. Will lies to the FBI and Jack, making a deal where they will transfer Hannibal and lure out Dolarhyde and hiding the fact of Dolarhyde's survival. With Will's help, Dolarhyde successfully attacks the prison transport and kills the guards, keeping Will and Hannibal alive. Hannibal takes Will to a seaside house where he kept Miriam Lass and Abigail and the pair await the arrival of Dolarhyde. Dolarhyde attacks them and shoots Hannibal and stabs Will in the face. The fight ends up outside, where Will and Hannibal team up and savagely attack Dolarhyde, which results in his defeat and death. After the fight, the pair embrace, with Hannibal telling Will that this is all he ever wanted for him.

Season 3 - finished-

Will says it is beautiful. The pair continue to embrace, which is followed by Will pulling him and Hannibal over the cliff and into the tides below. The scene post-credits shows Bedelia with her leg amputated and served on the table in Hannibal's style, with three places at the table, hinting that Hannibal and Will survived and are now hunting together.