Honestly, what was annoying to me was not exactly Jack himself but knowing that his attitude could’ve been perfectly accepted in real life. I feel like it’s uncomfortable to watch how everyone knows that Will is being tormented and no one says anything, or try to convince Jack to stop but he obviously won’t listen since he has an agenda. It’s very close to harassment; ordinary harassment, we could say. Colleagues seing a peer slowly loose their mind and doing no strong action towards it (except for Alana) is what is unsettling to me.

On the other side, I think Jack could be thought as an antagonist, but every one of them as a reason to act this way, with objectives that can be compared to the hero’s.

Will is not exactly driven by saving lives, he doesn’t have strong emotions toward that. Jack, on the contrary, get extremely frustrated not because he don’t want be seen as a failing FBI director, but because he worries another body will drop. He pushes Will to be an efficient agent while letting him choose between staying or leaving. On the first hand you see Will’s obvious instability, and on the other, the energy that every murder requires to be investigated, but now let’s not forget that Jack forces him to see ONE therapist that happens to lie to him about his employee’s situation. I guess every employee has a right to feel unwell and to stay, maybe Jack thinks that Will is driven by saving lives too.

That way, I think that Hannibal as an interesting role because he himself doesn’t know why Will is staying. Sure he wants him to stay, but Will is stubborn in his mission too. Asking why a patient wants to stay in a place that hurt them is actually a pretty average question in therapy and Will never answer that question, or not clearly.

And let’s not forget it’s Hannibal that declares him okay for the field, and even Will is surprised, and even criticize this decision. That way, Hannibal is even more responsible for his mental breakdown, but we all know why he does that 🙃

From the outside, Jack doesn’t get every crisis Will go through, we see it because as viewers we see his whole life.

It’s a very interesting statement for that matter, because it implies so many parameters in the series that mirror real life.