Entrée (Hannibal)

In April 2013, it was announced that the sixth episode of the series would be titled "Entrée", and was directed by Michael Rymer and written by Kai Yu Wu and series creator Bryan Fuller from a story by Wu. This was Fuller's 4th writing credit, Wu's first writing credit and Rymer's second directing credit.[1]

Bryan Fuller stated that Reggie Lass from one of his series, Dead Like Me (played by Britt McKillip) was reinterpreted as Miriam Lass (played by Anna Chlumsky) for this series.[2]

Lara Jean Chorostecki previewed her character's actions in the episodes, "We don't really know yet what went on with her and Lecter after he threatens her in the office. [...] Freddie certainly gets very close to the action."[3]

Miriam's discovery of the Wound Man sketch on Lecter's office was an adaptation of the novel Red Dragon, although in the novel, is Will Graham who makes the connection.[4] On the decision to switch characters, Fuller said, "We could no longer have Will Graham pick up a drawing of a wounded man, and go 'A-ha!' because it felt like that was a dynamic that was about these characters not knowing each other or having any sort of history with each other. Now that we've done that, we had to do something differently to see how Will Graham catches Hannibal Lecter or discovers his crimes. So it felt like as we were dealing with Jack Crawford struggling with the impending loss of his wife, to reflect on previous losses that give us a little bit of context with Jack Crawford and also Hannibal's history as the Chesapeake Ripper."[5]

In November 2012, it was announced that Eddie Izzard would guest star as Dr. Abel Gideon, "an inmate at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Izzard's character is claiming to be 'the infamous Chesapeake Ripper.'"[6] A few days later, Raúl Esparza joined the series to play Frederick Chilton in a recurring role.[7] Later, Anna Chlumsky was announced to guest star as Miriam Lass, "a young FBI trainee under the tutelage of agent Jack Crawford."[8]

The episode was watched by 2.61 million viewers, earning a 1.1/3 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale. This means that 1.1 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 3 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it.[9] This is a 8% increase from the previous episode, which was watched by 2.40 million viewers with a 1.0/3 in the 18-49 demographics.[10] With these ratings, Hannibal ranked third on its timeslot and thirteenth for the night in the 18-49 demographics, behind Wife Swap, Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Glee, Elementary, Person of Interest, Scandal, American Idol, Grey's Anatomy, Two and a Half Men, and The Big Bang Theory.

With DVR factored in, the episode was watched with a 2.0 in the 18-49 demographics.[11]

"Entrée" received extremely positive response from critics. Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an "amazing" 9 out of 10 and wrote, "There was a lot to enjoy here for fans of Thomas Harris' Lecter series. The manner in which Miriam meets Hannibal and discovers who he really is was very much a parallel to how Will meets him in Red Dragon. Obviously, the events of this series won't allow for that specific encounter to take place, so it was fun to have it given to Miriam instead – even though it was sad to see it end with her death, instead of Hannibal's capture."[12]

Molly Eichel of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" and wrote, "'Entrée', in the old-school, European sense, is the perfect name for this episode. While it's come to mean the principal component of a meal colloquially, an entrée is literally meant to be the entrance into the main course. That's what this episode is, an explicit entrance to a plot element — Hannibal equals killer — that will likely fuel the rest of the series. Hannibal has reveled in relative subtlety until now, but just in case the audience had any doubt that Hannibal Lecter was a bad dude with a mean manipulative streak, 'Entrée' should clear all that ambiguity up."[13]

Laura Akers of Den of Geek wrote, "I'll honestly be disappointed if this means that we now have an unobstructed view of the machinations of Dr. Lecter. The hints, suspicious dinners, and barely - the reactions have not, unlike the elk scenes, worn out their welcome. Rarely has not knowing been this much fun. Which is why I'm still praying that, any evidence to the contrary, this is still Christmas Eve. I'm not quite ready to open my presents yet."[14] Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush wrote, "All in all, a thoroughly satisfying episode that fans of the series are sure to geek out over, while offering up a succulent 'Entrée' for newcomers to enjoy."[15]