"Coquilles" is the fifth episode of Season 1, and overall the fifth produced hour of Hannibal. It originally aired on April 25, 2013.
Plot[]
Will Graham and the BAU team track a serial killer whose bloody ritual includes cutting the victims' back flesh and stretching it to look like angel wings. Returning to the field weighs heavily on Will's psyche and Hannibal tries to drive a wedge between Will and Jack. Meanwhile, Jack Crawford's wife Bella pulls away from him and begins seeing Hannibal as her therapist, in an effort to come to terms with the fact she is dying. Beverly tries to connect with Will on a more personal level.
In a dream, Will walks down a Northern Virginia back road, being followed by the Black Stag. He snaps out of the dream to find out he has been sleepwalking down the same road, and is stopped by police officers. Will decides to attend another session with Hannibal, who believes it is due to post-traumatic stress from the BAU cases he has been investigating, and questions Crawford's intentions.
Will is soon called by Crawford to a motel room, where a room registered to John Smith is a murder crime scene. A man and a woman are tied up by fishing wire in a prayer position at the foot of the bed, with the flesh of their backs hung out to resemble wings. The murderer slept in the bed afterwards, and vomited on the nightstand before leaving the room. Will asks for the bed to be covered in a plastic sheet, before he lies down and enter the murderer's mind.
Analysis[]
Episode Title[]
Coquilles
The french word for shells.
According to Bryan Fuller, the title refers to the killer's tendency of opening up his victim's back, thus opening their shells.
