Bedelia Du Maurier

Character overview

Season 1

Du Maurier is introduced as Hannibal Lecter's (Mads Mikkelsen) psychiatrist and colleague. During their session, she tells him that she believes he is not being completely honest with her and that she has conversations with a version of him; she believes that he wears a "person-suit" or a "human-veil". It is revealed that her decision to retire came as a result of a violent incident involving a patient who was referred to her by Lecter and that this patient died during that attack. She warns Lecter that he must maintain professional boundaries in his relationship with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and that he might not be able to help him. During a dinner at Du Maurier's house, she warns Lecter to be careful as "they (the FBI) are starting to see your pattern" – suggesting she may be well aware of Lecter's nature.

Season 2

Du Maurier terminates her psychiatrist–patient relationship with Lecter after coming to the conclusion that he is dangerous. She visits Graham in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and tells him that she believes that Lecter framed him for murder. Lecter later goes to her house, seemingly to kill her, only to find that she has moved with no forwarding address. Some time later, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) manages to locate her. Having been granted immunity from prosecution, she admits to having killed Lecter's patient while under Lecter's influence. She warns Graham that Lecter is manipulating him as well. Du Maurier also warns Crawford that if he thinks that he is about to catch Lecter, it is only because Lecter wants him to think that. In a post-credits scene in the season finale, she is seen on a plane with Lecter, whose crimes have been discovered, bound for France.

Season 3

Eight months after fleeing the United States, Du Maurier and Lecter settle in Florence, Italy, where they pose as a married couple under the assumed names Lydia and Roman Fell. By now, she has become complicit in his crimes, standing by as he murders two people who get close to discovering his identity. Lecter even notes that, "technically", she kills one of his victims by removing the ice pick that Lecter had jammed into the side of the man's head. When Crawford and Graham close in on Lecter, Du Maurier informs Lecter that she won't flee Italy with him. To create an alibi for herself, she injects herself with psychotropic drugs to make it appear as if Lecter had been drugging her into submission the whole time. Crawford and Graham question Du Maurier while she is under the influence. The Italian police – bought off by Lecter's surviving victim Mason Verger (Joe Anderson) – interrogate Du Maurier and she informs the lead detective on the case of Lecter's whereabouts to secure her freedom.

Three years later, Du Maurier makes her living from giving lectures on Lecter, presenting a story in which he drugged her into believing she was Lydia Fell. Graham, who is investigating The Tooth Fairy murders, makes an appointment with Du Maurier to discuss Lecter. During the appointment, a flashback reveals how she killed Lecter's patient. Du Maurier had a session with Neal Frank (Zachary Quinto), who accused Lecter of performing cruel experiments on him and accused her of being in league with Lecter. When Frank had a seizure and began choking on his own tongue, she deliberately shoved her entire forearm down his throat, suffocating him to death. Du Maurier justified what she did to Neal Frank by explaining to Will that when she witnesses that someone or something is vulnerable and in urgent need, rather than an act of compassion, her first thought is of an act of violence, arising out of a primal rejection of weakness which she considers to be both natural and instinctual. After The Tooth Fairy burns and disfigures Frederick Chilton (Raúl Esparza), Du Maurier suggests that Graham deliberately put Chilton in danger because he disliked him.

In the series finale, "The Wrath of the Lamb", Graham consults with Du Maurier on a plan to bait The Tooth Fairy, Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage), by allowing Lecter to escape police custody. Du Maurier is horrified, believing that Lecter will kill her and everyone else if freed. She is last seen in a post-credits scene, sitting alone at a beautifully set dinner table and obviously under heavy sedation caused, most likely, by the same psychotropic drugs that she used upon herself in Italy. Du Maurier remains seated, the very picture of elegance, with her hair perfectly coiffed and wearing a luxurious gown, all while the entrée, her impeccably prepared leg, is plated in front of her as the table’s centerpiece; in a similar manner to Lecter's victim Abel Gideon (Eddie Izzard). As the scene ends, Du Maurier takes the table's carving fork and hides it in her lap. As the camera zooms out, it is revealed that not only is the table set for three but it is also located in the same room of her home where she once conducted therapy sessions with Hannibal and where she killed her patient, Neal Frank.