#i'm not particularly sold on the idea that will's final evolution is a particularly justice-oriented killer

[menciemeer]

It's interesting to me that (unless I really missed something) after the point where Hannibal sends Dolarhyde after Will's family, Will stops framing his work on the Red Dragon case as something altruistic.

Prior to that, Will talks about saving people. He even, immediately before the attack on his family, tries to convince Hannibal to help him via an appeal to his better nature (!!!)

WILL GRAHAM Do you know who they [the family that Dolarhyde is going to target] are? HANNIBAL Yes. WILL GRAHAM You're willing to let them die. HANNIBAL They're not my family, Will. And I'm not letting them die. You are.

(Which, just, listen. Hannibal is maybe the single least likely person, ever, to be swayed by the argument "maybe it would be better if fewer people died." Honestly.)

I just think it's interesting that after the attack on Will's family, that whole motivation (or pretense-at-motivation) is quietly dropped. It's not about saving the next family and it's not even really about the fear that Dolarhyde will try to finish the job. ("I can't go home until the Red Dragon is out of the way" reads more psychological to me than a statement of actual physical danger, although the viewer does also have more direct insight into Dolarhyde than Will does, and we know that he doesn't really seem interested in trying again...)

Will starts drifting further into Dolarhyde's mindset right at the end of the season, and by the time the final fight at the cliff house happens, it doesn't really feel about anything other than self-actualization. Will enacts his own becoming upon Dolarhyde. It's not about who Dolarhyde is or what he might do in the future so much as it is about Will, and what Will wants.

Anyway. The whole point of this is that it's a fun alternative (and, yes, compatible) motivation for Hannibal to direct Dolarhyde at Will's family in the first place. Will came back to the FBI and he came back to Hannibal, but he wrapped himself in a shroud of morality that doesn't align with Hannibal's view of Will's underlying self. Beyond the jealousy angle, Hannibal is making Dolarhyde bad in a way that is immensely personal to Will, so that Will can't deny that how good it would feel to hurt him.