The episode received positive comments from critics, who praised Rohl's performance in the show as well as Lecter's character development.
Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) harbors suspicions that Abigail was somehow complicit in her father's killing spree, despite objections from Dr. Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and Graham.
Lecter and Graham take Abigail to her home, where she and her neighbor Marissa Schurr are confronted by the brother of the impaled girl, Nicholas Boyle (Mark Rendall).
In her house, Abigail finds the hair of one of the murdered girls inside a pillow and inadvertently kills Boyle in a way that, according to Lecter, cannot be seen as self-defense.
And while we still haven't actually seen Hannibal kill onscreen, his sudden attack on Alana gave us our first look at what a scary, physical threat he can be, behind that calm, soft spoken demeanor.
The irony inherent in 'Potage' is that those who think they are the ones capable of real harm, who have caught it from others, are damaged by circumstance, but it's the sanest-seeming among them, Hannibal Lecter, who is the one harboring the true demons.
"[6] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "'Potage' did a strong job of continuing to explore the themes of the series (what it means to kill someone, the emotional toll it takes, etc.
"[7] Laura Akers of Den of Geek wrote, "But the question that Hannibal has been asking approaches the problem from a slightly different angle: 'Is Abigail Hobbs capable of doing this terrible thing?'