The episode revolves around a new threat, Francis Dolarhyde, who seems fascinated by The Great Red Dragon paintings, motivating him to become a serial killer.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.96 million household viewers and gained a 0.3/1 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
In a cafeteria, a man named Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage) sees a TIME magazine with a retrospective of The Great Red Dragon paintings.
Graham is now married to a woman named Molly (Nina Arianda) and lives with her and her son, Walter (Gabriel Browning Rodriguez).
In March 2015, Bryan Fuller announced that the eighth episode of the season would be titled "The Great Red Dragon" and that it would be directed by Neil Marshall.
[1] NBC would confirm the title in July 2015, with co-producer Nick Antosca, executive producer Steve Lightfoot and series creator Bryan Fuller writing the episode and Marshall directing.
[6] In January 2015, Richard Armitage was announced to play Dolarhyde, "a serial killer with a set of chompers that would make the Big Bad Wolf a little envious — and a penchant for targeting entire households for slaughter.
That's partly due to the work of Neil Marshall, director of The Descent, who makes his debut directing with 'The Great Red Dragon', and it's a welcome one.
The visual flourishes were particularly nice, such as the blood-moon that marked the Leeds' passing, and the film monster that Dolarhyde became at the sound of the scratching record.
"[14] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "And after the show gave us an inversion of Will and Hannibal's first 'Red Dragon' encounter at the end of season 1, we got the proper arrangement of it here, with the promise of all kinds of new mind games between these two.
"[15] Mark Rozeman of Paste gave the episode a 9.4 out of 10 and wrote, "'The Great Red Dragon' provides an excellent intro to the season's final big arc.
"[19] Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine wrote, "Hannibal uses his own gifts for actively controlling perspectival rifts to imagine the cell as a great Florence flat with a wide, walk-in fireplace.
"[20] Greg Cwik of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Hannibal has retained a lot of the plot points and dialogue from Harris's novels, with nods to the books and subsequent adaptations strewn about like Easter eggs for perceptive fans.
"[21] Kayti Burt of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "The Italian arc often bordered on the avant garde — or as close to it as network TV is likely to ever get — and it was beautiful and strange and wondrous.
"[23] Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy wrote, "There's been a hallucinatory quality to much of Hannibal's third season so far, its first seven episodes designed to disorient and blur the line between reality and nightmare.
"[24] Adam Lehrer of Forbes wrote, "Bryan Fuller has done an excellent job at taking the arguably tired world of Hannibal Lecter and making it feel entirely fresh.
Just when he thought he was out, Jack Crawford pulls him back in to investigate the Tooth Fairy, a name our new killer despises, as 'The Great Red Dragon' is more to his demented liking.