Hannibal season 3, episode 10 finally revealed the truth behind the death of Bedelia’s patient and the Dragon came out to play.

Bryan Fuller’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel, The Red Dragon, especially the Francis Dolarhyde arc, has been pretty spot on. Francis’ employment, his interactions with Reba, even his transformation into the Dragon breathe life into the words from Harris’ pages. Finally in “And the Woman Clothed in the Sun,” we get a taste of Fuller’s interpretation as the narrative takes a step back from The Red Dragon and reenters Hannibal.

Dolarhyde opens the episode seated across from Hannibal in session as he explains, in so many words, what a spectacle his “becoming” is. He wants to be recognized for his greatness and he only wants one man to share in the glory– Hannibal Lecter. After all, who better to understand the feeling of taking on another persona than the man who lives behind a veil of lies?

Hannibal empathizes with that desire as the one person he took behind the veil renters focus. Bedelia, along with many others, has taken the Hannibal payday resulting from her false narrative of captivity. Lecturing on Dante’s vision of hell, she compares entering Hannibal’s custody to being swallowed whole by the monster. One member of the audience is less than convinced that the woman before him lost her self inside the belly of the beast.

Will Graham calls her bluff, but Bedelia reminds him that while she may have exaggerated certain details of her story, she walked away unscarred. He cannot say the same. Her armor, for better or worse, was to create a version of herself that kept Hannibal at bay. Will walked into battle with no shield to protect him. He was always exposed making it easy for Hannibal attack without Will ever realizing it was happening. For anymore information Will must make an appointment.

Dolarhyde feels a great need to let Reba into his life, to test if she is worthy of the Dragon. A rather large gesture takes them to the zoo where a tiger is currently under sedation to have a tooth repaired. Reba, already comfortable enough around Francis to call him D, takes her into the zoo’s OR where she has free reign to touch the tiger. In the most human moment we’ve seen from Dolarhyde, he guides her through the colors he sees and even jokes that she can be sure the tiger is asleep by tickling it. As Reba feels her way through the orange and black stripes, the swelling piano melody mixes with the Dragon theme of the series as Dolarhyde begins to watch her approach the danger that rests inside the tiger’s mouth. As she backs away he begins to calm down and stalks her like prey over the body. If she is calm in front of this beast, perhaps she is worthy to confront another.

Related: Meet the “Woman Clothed with the Sun”

Back at Dolarhyde’s home, Reba continues to be impressed with the man that others at Gateway refer to as “mysterious.” She begins to explore his face, and then his body, offering him a kiss and an apology. In one swift movement, Dolarhyde literally sweeps her off her feet and the Dragon takes her to bed. As she lies asleep next to him, he takes her hand and in the simplest gesture, one he has yearned for since he was a child, he brushes it over his scarred face then falls back to sleep.

When he awakes, however, Reba is gone and he panics that the Dragon, the voice that drowns everything in the attic has taken her. He runs upstairs to find that his attic is undisturbed and that Reba is safe from his greater self. Sitting patiently downstairs, Reba thanks Francis for the night, but is ready to go home. A request he grants her.

In session with Bedelia and Will we get two stories, that of her relationship in comparison to Will’s with Hannibal Lecter and the answer to what actually happened to her patient, Neil Frank. What started out as curiosity in a patient, Bedelia grew into a study of another mind. A study that tossed away all professional objectivity. Though Bedelia was physically intimate with her patient, Will and Hannibal shared a passion of much deeper, more intense intimacy. In a sense, Will is visiting an old flame while she stays far away receiving only birthday and Christian holiday cards each with a recipe attached.

The attention Will gets from Hannibal is far more detrimental to his ability to think rationally than he believes. Seeking out a portal back into the mind of a killer through rekindling his relationship with Lecter, Will makes the mistake of letting Hannibal take the upper hand. In this case, by receiving Will Graham’s address through a misdirected phone conversation. Wonder who he is going to give that to? The threat of seeing Will in the home of another Dragon slaying seems to give it away.

Bedelia tries to make Will see that sometimes saving a victim who seems vulnerable is not always the best solution. Sometimes you have to crush it.

Neal Frank, Bedelia’s patient was referred by Hannibal to Bedelia after his paranoia under the previous doctor’s care became unbearable. But that paranoia seeped into his sessions with Bedelia and a nervous attack did actually force him to swallow his tongue. Sure, Lecter is not entirely innocent in Frank’s care, subjecting him to photo therapy, but Bedelia’s hands are only covered in blood in the literal sense. She tried to save him.

Both Will and Hannibal uncover that the symbol found in the tree last week mean “Red Dragon” promoting Hannibal to explain Blake’s painting to Will. Still desperate to find another connection between the families, Will decides to visit the painting in Brooklyn. However, the Dragon has the same idea.

As Dolarhyde examines the painting, he touches and licks the original, until he finally starts to consume the painting in its entirety, finally becoming one with the Dragon. As Dolarhyde goes to exit, Will Graham arrives catching sight of him in the elevator before the doors close. Tossing him to the ground Dolarhyde makes his escape before Will can catch him at the exit.

Hannibal season 3, episode 11, “…And the Beast From the Sea” airs Saturday, August 15 at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC.