The ensemble of this week’s Hannibal season 3, episode 9 is tilting in favor of the ladies. Get to know the latest addition, Dolarhyde’s “Woman Clothed with the Sun.”

Bedelia Du Maurier and Freddie Lounds, two of Hannibal‘s most interesting female characters, are returning this Saturday. Bedelia and Lounds will focus on Will’s return to Hannibal’s side, three years after blocking all access to Hannibal’s residence in his mind palace. As Freddie Lounds attempts to bring out the worst in Will Graham, Bedelia and Alana Bloom will try their best to keep his guard up in the doctor’s presence.

Will Graham is not the only person who needs to keep his guard up in the presence of powerful female leads this Saturday. Francis Dolarhyde finds himself enthralled with a woman who challenges his Becoming.

While Will Graham is just beginning his journey into the dark psyche of Dolarhyde’s mind, viewers already know the full extent of what the transformation looks like. We saw the muscle, the glimpses of the mutilated families, saw the affects of the internal dialogue that taunts Francis into his worst self. But most threatening of all, we saw what the transformed man looks like under the full moon, drenched in blood, basking in the afterglow of his sacrifice to something greater than himself.

Rebecca “Reba” McClane, portrayed on Hannibal by Rutina Wesley, makes her debut this week as Francis Dolarhyde’s blind co-worker at Gateway Film Processing. As their paths cross, Dolarhyde takes away more than a friendly face from their encounter. For the first time in his life, he felt at ease in the company of another person. Conscious of his appearance, speech, and the lingering gaze of others, Reba’s company provides the opportunity for him to lift his eyes from the ground. For the first time, someone could not look back.

“He was free to look at her. His gaze could move over her as freely as the air. She had no way to parry his eyes,” writes Thomas Harris of their first interaction. Dolarhyde can take his time examining a person whose eyes will not drift to his scarred lip or muscular fit frame. Harris attributes the same comfort to McClane adding that she too felt at ease knowing that someone was comfortable in her presence, expressing no noticeable concern or sympathy over her blindness.

What evolves between them, however, challenges Dolarhyde’s commitment to his Becoming. At the same time, he is grateful for the power and confidence his transformation awakened within his sheltered personality. The two personas, The Dragon and Francis, will forever be at odds. So who will win out in the company of Reba?

On the one side is the image that guides his transformation, “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun,” in which the complete and total consumption of a woman facing the dragon in fear is the desired result. But Dolarhyde cannot allow himself to take her fully into his confidence. Not right away. anyway. Once Reba crosses that line, Dolarhyde loses much more than he gains. Gone are the opportunities to look at her, to take in her presence, to be completely exposed and fearless in her company.

But instead of keeping a safe distance from Reba, Dolarhyde will test his limits by inviting her closer to him so that he may observe her every emotion. This week you will meet Reba and experience the first of Dolarhyde’s acts of kindness that test your resolve to judge him as the enemy. The man facing the dragon is not the dragon at all. He is the human struggling to connect with the rest of his world, and by doing so creates an entirely new vision for his future.

Reba is not a part of the Dragon’s design. For now…

Watch Hannibal season 3, episode 9, “…and the Woman Clothed with the Sun,” Saturday, August 1 at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC.