Mason Verger

Mason Verger is a fictional character and antagonist in Thomas Harris' 1999 novel Hannibal, as well as its 2001 film adaptation and the second season of the TV series Hannibal. In the film, he is portrayed by Gary Oldman, while in the TV series he is portrayed by Michael Pitt.

Character overview
Mason Verger is a wealthy, sadistic pedophile who is horribly disfigured during a therapy session with the fruity Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He plans gruesome revenge against Lecter, which sets the novel's plot in motion. The novel and TV series also portray his dysfunctional relationship with his twin sister Margot, whom he subjects to years of emotional and sexual abuse.

Backstory
Mason is the son of one of Baltimore, Maryland's most wealthy, politically connected families; his father, Molson, founded a meat packing company that grew into a financial empire by the time of Mason's birth. As a teenager, Mason raped his twin sister, Margot, who went into therapy with Hannibal Lecter to deal with the trauma. Lecter suggested that it would be cathartic for her to kill her brother. As an adult, Mason indulges in a wide array of paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxiation, zoosadism, and child molestation. At one point he befriends Idi Amin, with whom he claims to have re-enacted the crucifixion of Jesus by nailing a migrant worker to a cross. Publicly, he claims to be a born-again Christian, and operates a Christian camp for underprivileged children, whom he molests.

In 1980, he is found guilty of several counts of child molestation, but thanks to his family's political connections he is sentenced to community service and court-mandated therapy in lieu of prison time. Lecter serves as his court-appointed psychiatrist. During one of their sessions, Lecter gives Mason PCP and tells him to peel off his own face with a knife. In a state of drug-induced euphoria, Mason complies, and afterwards feeds the pieces to his dogs, except for his nose, which he himself eats. Lecter then breaks Mason's neck with the noose he uses to perform autoerotic asphyxiation. Mason survives, but is left disfigured - losing his lips, nose, cheeks, eyelids and left eye - and paralyzed from the neck down. Lecter is arrested soon afterward for committing a series of murders, and Mason attempts to use his family's influence to ensure that Lecter receives the death penalty. When Lecter is instead found not guilty by reason of insanity and institutionalized, Mason is enraged, and begins plotting a gruesome revenge - he plans to feed Lecter alive to a pack of wild boars bred for this purpose.

After his disfigurement, Mason becomes a recluse, rarely leaving his darkened bedroom. (He nevertheless indulges in whatever paraphilias his disability allows, such as getting sexual gratification from emotionally abusing children.) His only sources of human contact are his physician, Cordell Doemling, and Margot, who works for him as a bodyguard. Margot despises her brother, but stays in his employ to persuade him to donate sperm to her domestic partner, Judy. He delights in stringing her along, knowing that she cannot leave if she ever wants to see her share of the Verger family fortune; their father had disinherited her when she came out as a lesbian, and willed his estate to any future heir Mason might have.

Main plot
In Hannibal, set 10 years after Lecter's escape in The Silence of the Lambs, Mason pays Lecter's former guard, Barney Matthews, for information leading to his capture. When Detective Rinaldo Pazzi spots Lecter in Florence, Italy, he contacts Mason in hopes of collecting the reward money. He bribes Justice Department official Paul Krendler to discredit Lecter's foil Clarice Starling in order to coax Lecter out of hiding. He hires a gang of Sardinian gangsters to kidnap Lecter, and instructs Pazzi to lead Lecter to them. Lecter learns of Mason's plot, however, and escapes his would-be captors by killing Pazzi and fleeing to the United States. Mason's men eventually capture Lecter and Starling, and Mason prepares to enjoy his long-awaited revenge. Lecter escapes his bonds, however, and persuades Margot to kill her brother, promising to take the blame. Margot kills Mason by stuffing his pet Moray eel down his throat. At the same time, she sodomizes him with a cattle prod, causing him to ejaculate in his death throes, providing her with the sperm she needs to conceive a child.

Film
Mason is the main antagonist of the 2001 film Hannibal, in which he is portrayed by an uncredited Gary Oldman. The film's characterization of Mason Verger follows that in the novel except for two key aspects: the film omits the character of Margot Verger, and changes the nature of his death scene. In the film, Mason dies at the hands of his physician, Cordell Doemling (Željko Ivanek), who pushes him out of his wheelchair into a pig pen, where he is devoured by a pack of wild boars.

TV series
Mason Verger appears as a supporting antagonist in the second season of the NBC television series Hannibal, which is set prior to Lecter's capture and imprisonment. He is portrayed by Michael Pitt. Series creator Bryan Fuller called this version of the character "The Joker to Hannibal's Batman".

In the TV series, he sexually assaults his sister Margot (Katherine Isabelle), and sends her to therapy with Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) in order to keep her quiet. Mason meets with Lecter to discuss Margot's treatment, and agrees to enter therapy with him in order to find out what his sister is saying about him. Lecter takes an instant dislike to Mason, considering him "discourteous".

Mason attempts to gain complete control over his sister's life, and tells her that he wants an heir, the implication being that he wants to father his own sister's child. He threatens to cut her off financially if she disobeys him. Desperate, Margot has sex with another of Lecter's patients, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), and becomes pregnant with his child. In response, Mason causes Margot to get into a car accident, and has her womb surgically removed so that only he can father an heir and inherit their father's money.

Mason eventually grows suspicious of Lecter and has him kidnapped, intending to feed him to his prize pigs. Lecter escapes, however, and takes Mason to Graham's house. Lecter gives Mason a hallucinogenic drug cocktail and tells him to cut off his own face and feed the pieces to Graham's dogs. Mason does so, and also obeys Lecter's command to cut off his own nose and eat it. Lecter then breaks Mason's neck with his bare hands. Mason is confined to a respirator and wears a surgical mask to hide his disfigurement. Knowing that no one will believe what really happened, he tells FBI Agent-in-Charge Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) that he suffered his injuries after accidentally falling into a feeding lot. He then says that he is grateful to Lecter, and hopes to "repay him someday". He is last seen with a vengeful Margot, who promises to "take care of you like you took care of me."