| “ | Poor Margot. You just... can't... win. You're going to have problems with your lady parts, Margot. I'm afraid that the only person you're going to be celebrating Mother's Day with... is me. | „ |
| ~ Mason as he forcibly performs a hysterectomy on Margot |
Mason R. Verger is the main antagonist of season 2 of the TV series Hannibal and a supporting antagonist in season 3. Like the literary and film versions of the character, he is a wealthy sexual sadist and the archnemesis of Hannibal Lecter. Showrunner Bryan Ferry called Mason "the Joker to Hannibal's Batman".
In season 2, he is portrayed by Michael Pitt. In season 3, he is portrayed by Joe Anderson.
Early life[]
In keeping with the mainstream depiction of the character, this version of Mason Verger is a sexual sadist who derives pleasure from psychologically and sexually abusing those weaker than him, especially children; among other perversions, he enjoys making children cry and collecting their tears with sterile swatches, later using them to flavor his martinis. He once got in trouble with the law for "being rough" with the children at a Christian summer camp, but bribed the judge in the case to sentence him to therapy in lieu of prison. He then got the therapist involved in "something unethical" so he would pronounce him cured.
Mason is the son and heir of Molson Verger, a wealthy businessman who founded a very successful meat packing company. He and Molson disinherited Mason's twin sister Margot when she came out as a lesbian, and Molson left his fortune to any child Mason might have before he died. This was not the only cruelty Mason subjected Margot to; he has sexually abused her since they were teenagers, and threatens to cut her off financially unless she gives him what she wants.
In the series[]
Season 2[]
Mason sexually assaults Margot with a candy bar, in a twisted practice he calls "taking the chocolate". Margot tries unsuccessfully to kill him, prompting Mason to send her to therapy with Hannibal Lecter, who tells her that it would be cathartic to kill her brother. Mason later meets with Lecter, who takes an immediate dislike to him, considering "discourteous". Mason then enters therapy with Lecter to find out what Margot is saying about him.
Meanwhile, Mason tells Margot that he wants a "Verger baby", the implication being he wants to father his own sister's child. Desperate, Margot has sex with another of Lecter's patients, FBI profiler Will Graham, and gets pregnant with his child. Furious, Mason causes Margot to get into a car accident, and has her womb surgically removed. An enraged Graham confronts Mason, punches him in the face, and tells him at gunpoint that Lecter is manipulating both of them.
As Graham intended, Mason becomes suspicious of Lecter and has him and Graham kidnapped, threatening to feed them to his prize pigs. Lecter escapes, however, and kidnaps Mason, bringing him to Graham's house and feeding him hallucinogenic drugs. He tells Mason to peel off pieces of his face and feed them to Graham's dogs, and then to eat his own nose; Mason, in a state of drug-induced euphoria, does as he is told, horrifically disfiguring himself. Lecter, with Graham's approval, breaks Mason's neck with his bare hands, rendering him quadriplegic.
Mason later tells FBI agent-in-Charge Jack Crawford that he sustained his injuries after falling into a pig pen. Crawford then leaves Mason with his vengeful sister, who promises to "take care of you just as you took care of me".
Season 3[]
Months later, after Lecter is exposed as a serial killer and flees the country, Mason puts a large bounty on his head, and hires Lecter's former lover Dr. Alana Bloom to help catch him. When corrupt Italian detective Rinaldo Pazzi discovers that Lecter is living in Florence under an assumed name, he contacts Mason, who bribes him to capture Lecter and bring him to the U.S. Lecter kills Pazzi, however, and manages to escape.
Eventually, however, Verger's men find Lecter and Graham in Florence and bring them to Muskrat Farm, Mason's estate. There, he and his caretaker (and fellow sexual deviant) Cordell Doemling plan to slowly torture Lecter to death and prepare gourmet cuisine from his flesh. Mason has equally twisted plans for Graham, as well; Doemling will surgically remove Graham's face and graft it onto Mason's.
Lecter escapes his bonds, however, killing Doemling and saving Graham in the process. He then shows Margot and Bloom, who have become lovers, how to "milk" the sedated Mason's prostate to get the sperm needed to impregnate Bloom so they can have a child and inherit the Verger fortune. When Mason wakes up, he threatens to kill them all, but Margot shoves his pet Moray eel down his throat; it then bites his tongue off, and he drowns in his own blood.
External links[]
- Mason Verger at the Villains Wiki
- Mason Verger at the Hannibal Wiki