Fireflies release a defensive chemical called lucibufagin, which is produced and released to make them unpalatable to predators. The chemical structure of lucibufagins is similar to bufadienolides, which are knowns cardiotoxins. As the name suggests, they affect the heart, and can cause cardiac arrest and death.
In “Secondo”, Will displays the corpse of the prisoner as a firefly. A defense, a warning, strung up in Hannibal’s childhood home. Where Hannibal happened. Where his heart felt its first loss. As if, in response to seeing Hannibal’s broken heart in Florence, Will is retroactively warning Hannibal not to kill him, not to eat him. More than just that, he wouldn’t taste good. The meal would not be satisfying, it wouldn’t be worth it. Hannibal killing him, consuming him, would cause the metaphorical valentine to be real. It wouldn’t be a figurative heart anymore; it would be Hannibal’s.
This didn’t stop Will from drawing a knife on Hannibal, like a firefly flying into the nest of a spider. To take down the predator before he could become prey. Hannibal retaliated and attempted to eat Will. Out of love, out of forgiveness. But they are blurred together, conjoined. They cannot survive separation. Will once said “The light from friendship won’t reach us for a million years, that’s how far away from friendship we are.” And now, he is displaying the light that finally did reach them, but it is so much more than friendship now. It was also a light display he left on in Hannibal’s house. A light he looked back on at a distance. A display to make himself feel safe.
Hannibal would never see the firefly display, he didn’t need to. It was Will’s way of accepting that they are irreversibly connected. His death would mean Hannibal’s, and Hannibal’s death would mean his own. One heart beating for two, now arrested and still.
