[Graham is consulting with Lecter on a series of murders that Lecter is in fact committing]
Hannibal Lecter:
Special Agent Graham? What an unexpected pleasure.
Will Graham:
I'm sorry to bother you again, Dr. Lecter. I know it's very late.
Hannibal Lecter:
There's no bother. We're both night owls, I think. Come in, please. [Will comes in] Let me take your coat. [Hannibal closes the door behind Graham; cut to Graham sitting in Lecter's office] So, what's on your mind?
Will Graham:
We've been on the wrong track, this whole time, doctor, you and I. Our whole profile's wrong. [sighs] Well we've been looking for someone with a crazy grudge, and some kind of anatomical knowledge - decertified doctors; med-school dropouts; laid-off mortuary workers-
Hannibal Lecter:
From the precision of the cuts, yes, and, uh, his choice of souvenirs.
Will Graham:
See that's where we're off target. He's not collecting body parts.
Hannibal Lecter:
Then why keep them?
Will Graham:
He's not keeping them. He's eating them. Listen, we were at Molly's parents for New Year's, and Molly's dad was showing my son Josh how to carve a roasted chicken. He said, "The tenderest part of the chicken is the oysters, here on the outer side of the back." I--I had never heard that expression before, "oysters"? And suddenly, I had a flash of the third victim, Darcy Taylor. She was missing flesh from her back. And then it hit me - liver, kidney, tongue, thymus - every single victim lost some body part used in cooking.
Hannibal Lecter:
[studies Graham for a moment] Have you shared this with the Bureau?
Will Graham:
No, I didn't. I needed to see you first but I'm right. I know I'm right. I'm... I'm starting to be able to think like this one.
Hannibal Lecter:
That's fascinating. You know I'd always suspected as much, you are an eideteker.
Will Graham:
I'm not psychic.
Hannibal Lecter:
No, no, no, this is different; more akin to artistic imagination. You're able to assume the emotional point-of-view of other people, even those that scare or sicken you. It's a troubling gift, I should think. How I'd love to get you on my couch.
Will Graham:
Something still doesn't make sense to me: you're the best forensic psychiatrist I know. And somehow, in all our time together, this possibility never occurred to you.
Hannibal Lecter:
I am only human, Will. Perhaps I made a mistake.
Will Graham:
You don't strike me as a man who makes very many mistakes.
Hannibal Lecter:
Now I'm starting to think that I might no longer enjoy your full confidence.
Will Graham:
No, no, I--I didn't say that. I didn't. I don't, I don't know what I'm saying, I... I'm very, very tired. [thinks for a minute, and then shakes his head in frustration] I... I almost had it.
Hannibal Lecter:
[smiles] It'll come to you.
