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Nicholas Boyle is more important for you gutting him. He changed you, Abigail. That's more important than the life he clamoured after.
— Hannibal to Abigail

Abigail Hobbs is the daughter of the serial killer Garret Jacob Hobbs and a patient of Dr. Alana Bloom. She is a skilled hunter and has a knack for manipulation, much like Hannibal.

Season 1

Abigail lives with her parents, Garret Jacob and Louise Hobbs, the former of whom is a serial killer known as the Minnesota Shrike. Abigail was very close to her father - he took her hunting with him and taught her how to track, kill and butcher animals. Unfortunately, Garret grew to be obsessed with Abigail, eventually murdering girls who resembled her in age and appearance out of a desire to keep her with him forever.

When Hannibal Lecter calls Hobbs to inform him that the FBI know he is the killer, Hobbs panics and murders Abigail's mother. He also attempts to kill Abigail, slashing her throat with a knife. However, Abigail is saved by Will Graham, who fatally shoots her father, and with Hannibal's help, stops her bleeding until an ambulance arrives.

After being wounded by her father, she spent a few days in a coma. Upon awakening, Abigail is clearly traumatized by what has happened and is sent to Port Haven Psychiatric facility in Baltimore, Maryland. Her house is sold, but the money is given to the families of her father's victims, leaving her penniless. Alana Bloom is assigned to be her psychiatrist, but she has a closer relationship to Will and Hannibal, viewing them as surrogate paternal figures.

Jack Crawford suspects that Abigail knew her father was the Minnesota Shrike and was an accomplice in his crimes. Abigail adamantly denies this. Abigail is repeatedly approached by Freddie Lounds, who wants to write a book detailing Abigail's side of the story and claiming she cares about Abigail and wants to help her. Abigail demonstrates an aptitude for the psychological and expresses a desire to work for the FBI.

Unfortunately, she falls prey to Hannibal's manipulations, which take advantage of her mental instability and submissiveness. During a trip back to Minnesota, her friend Marissa Schurr is murdered by a "copycat," and Hannibal manipulates Abigail into believing Nicholas Boyle killed her. Abigail fatally stabs Nick in self-defense, and with Hannibal's help, hides the body, though it serves to further destabilize her.

It is later revealed that, despite her previous denials, Abigail was, in fact, an accomplice to her father. She would engage in conversations with the victims and gain information on them, as seen in a flashback with Abigail and her father aboard a train. She told Lecter that she did it because she knew that it was the victims or her. Hannibal comforts her, saying she isn't a monster, but a survivor, simply doing what she had to.

In order to tell her own story and fight the perception of her being an accomplice to her father's murders, and to earn some money, she agrees to write a book with Freddie. When Freddie says she wants to call the book "The Last Victim," Abigail resists, citing Marissa as the last victim, and blaming her father, even though the copycat killed Marissa as well as Cassie Boyle. Freddie asks if she blames her father for the death of Nicholas Boyle, but Abigail responds that she blames Nick himself for his death, deserving it for killing Marissa. Freddie states she doesn't think Nick killed Marissa; having interviewed many killers as well as him she thinks he was innocent, but that Will Graham and Jack Crawford are to blame for his death as a result of accusing him. Abigail keeps silent, allowing Freddie to focus on Will, who in her opinion gave off a killer's "very specific brand of hostility." Regardless, whoever killed Nicholas Boyle killed an innocent man. The words bite at Abigail like knives.    

Will takes Abigail back to the cabin where her father killed all of his victims. It's there that Will finds out Abigail was the bait with which her father lured in all the girls he murdered. This shocking revelation taints the image Will has of Abigail and sends him into a psychotic episode. Will struggles with reality and hallucinations until he wakes up on an airplane, back in Virginia. Abigail is not with him.

Meanwhile, Abigail wanders into her old home, having left Will at the cabin because he was acting unstable. Hannibal is waiting for her in the kitchen. Once he heard of Will's intentions, he immediately came to her aid. Hannibal tells Abigail that Jack knows about her involvement in her father's murders. Abigail realizes Hannibal was the one who called the day her father died. Lecter admits to being the copycat and tells Abigail he's killed far more people than her father ever did. Terrified, Abigail asks if Hannibal plans on killing her too. He caresses her face and apologizes for not being able to protect her "in this life."

Abigail disappears; her blood is later found on the kitchen floor, suggesting Hannibal murdered her. After Abigail's presumed death, Hannibal cooks and has a meal with his psychiatrist Bedelia.  As she eats the meal, she inquires as to what the meat is. Hannibal replies that it is veal - Abigail was young, it was assumed that Bedelia and Hannibal ate Abigail. Hannibal also manages to somehow feed Abigail's ear to Will, and frames him for her murder.

Season 2

In the season finale Mizumono, it is revealed Abigail is still alive—missing an ear—and has presumably been kept captive in Hannibal's house. She pushes Alana out of a second-story window (possibly due to the brainwashing of Hannibal), telling Will that she "didn't know what else to do." Hannibal implies that he had intended for Abigail to come with them when he and Will ran away, until he discovered Will's betrayal. As a result, after stabbing Will, Hannibal slices Abigail's neck in front of him and leaves her to bleed out. After Hannibal escapes, a dying Will desperately tries to save Abigail before succumbing to his own wounds.

It is possible that Beverly Katz found Abigail alive and being kept in Hannibal's basement in Takiawase. Just before being attacked and killed by Hannibal, Beverly sees something that shocks her. This remains unconfirmed, but is one of the most likely explanations.

Season 3

Abigail is revealed to have died of her injuries in Primavera. In spite of her death, Will occasionally hallucinates that she is alive during his search for Hannibal in Italy. There is also a flashback, showing how Hannibal kept Abigail captive and brainwashed her.

In the series finale, it is revealed that Hannibal kept Abigail in a cliffside house where he also held Miriam Lass.

Personality

Abigail had a soft and a naive personality that inspired protective feelings in most people she met. Although she was disgusted by her father's actions, her fear of him compelled her to help him capture his victims in order to save her own life. Abigail's strongest trait was probably her own sense of self-preservation. She was prone to manipulative behavior, a trait she feared may have been inherited from her psychopathic father. Fredericka Lounds observed that Abigail was highly intelligent but unaware of her own manipulative tendencies. Perhaps due to her naivety, Abigail was highly suggestible, coerced by her father into helping him, easily hypnotised by Hannibal and ultimately brainwashed by him.

Episode appearances

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Victims

Attempted

Quotes

  • "He was feeding them to us, wasn't he?"
  • "He didn't seem delusional, he was a perfectionist." (about her father)
  • "The support groups are sucking the life out of me." (to Dr. Bloom)
  • Abigail: "Does that make me a sociopath?"
    Lecter: "It makes you a survivor."
  • "Abigail is lost too. Then perhaps it's our responsibility, yours and mine, to help her find her way." (Lecter to Will)
  • "Nature versus nurture."
  • "I survived."
  • "You're not your father's daughter, not anymore." (Lecter to Abigail)
  • "Okay. Let's tell my story." (to Freddie)
  • "I know what people think I did. They're wrong. Why can't I tell everybody that they're wrong?" (to Will and Lecter)
  • "Perhaps she's stronger than you think." (Lecter to Will)
  • "Abigail is no more a killer than you are for shooting her father, or I am for the death of Tobias Budge." (Lecter to Will)
  • "I helped him. I knew what my father was. I knew what he did." (to Lecter)
  • "I'm a monster." (to Lecter)
  • "I blame Nick Boyle for Nick Boyle's death." (to Freddie)
  • "I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't feel ugly when I killed Nick Boyle. I felt good. That's why it was so easy to lie about it." (to Will)
  • "This wasn't supposed to be my life." (to Will)
  • "Abigail is one of those very smart girls who hasn't quite figured out that very smart girls grow up and know all the moves that they're making when they're trying to hide something." (Freddie to Jack)

Relationships

Trivia

  • The name Abigail means "father's joy."
  • Abigail Hobbs is also the name of the first girl to confess to witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials in the 1600's.
  • In the novel Red Dragon, the daughter of Garret Jacob Hobbs is never named, and it is only mentioned that after surviving the attack, she received treatment before getting on with her life.
  • In the Season 1 episode Trou Normand, Abigail is seen putting a piece of meat Hannibal served her in her mouth and momentarily freezing, likely recognizing it as human.

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Supporting Characters

Freddie LoundsJimmy PriceAbigail HobbsBella CrawfordFrederick ChiltonBedelia Du Maurier

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