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I'm sort of stuck between hating/sympathizing with Crawford.

 

On one hand, the guy is absolutely going through an awful time due to his wife's death, and finding Katz, especially like THAT, must have hideous.

 

On the other, the man is frighteningly inept at his job. That he will end up sending Clarice to Hannibal, even after everything that happened with Miriam Lass and Will Graham, after all this is over just emphasizes it.

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One of the many things I love about this show is the way it echoes events that happen in movies, so that when the show (hopefully) eventually gets to those stories, there's going to be so much more pathos and subtext underlying everything. Like the example you just gave, what will Jack's state of mind have to be for him to send Clarice to Hannibal in light of what he's seen him do to Lass and Katz and Will and who knows who else by the time they finally catch him? For that matter, to even send Will back to see him in Red Dragon?

Or how about this: Last night, we saw Will use Freddie to compel a killer to murder Hannibal...which is the same thing Hannibal will eventually do to Will when he betrays him to the Tooth Fairy. Last week, Katz got the lights turned out on her and was stalked in the dark by Hannibal...which is exactly what will happen to Clarice when she meets Buffalo Bill.

And on and on. Future events are going to have so much added meaning. Assuming we ever get to that future.

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Although it should be noted that the ratings have either held steady or grown for 3 weeks in a row now, and last night's episode had the biggest audience since the 2nd or 3rd episode of last season. So, there's some hope that this thing is finding an audience.

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I think Jack's attitude is that if he has to sacrifice his own people to catch a killer, he will. Except a lot of the time he doesn't even catch the killer so he's sacrificing them for nothing, essentially. The whole Miriam thing...it's, like, why did you even get her involved? She was just a trainee and too reckless to truly know what she was doing.

 

I don't want to say Jack is stupid, because he's clearly not. But he's so embarrassingly out of his league with Hannibal it's not even funny.

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He's not stupid. And I don't think it's fair to call him inept either. MOST of the time, he gets his man/woman. In the world of the show, he's the best there is at what he does. Just in the 18 episodes worth of his life that we've been privy, we've seen his methods result in the capture or killing of numerous psychopaths. He's so good, the Chesapeake Ripper stands out as a haunting blemish on his record.

But you correctly identified his major flaw, which is that he's so driven to succeed that he'll exploit anyone to get the desired result. And it definitely makes him an ambiguous character where you're not sure whether you're supposed to feel for him or hate him. Yet it's hard to argue with his methods, because he's had so much success. He's saved a lot of lives by putting other people in harm's way.

It just so happens that he's met his match in Hannibal, and suddenly, his methods are getting people killed and driven insane and, as of yet, he doesn't have much to show for it.

And that's why I think it's smart that they're building this season toward Jack figuring Hannibal out. He BADLY needs to get this win for himself. It's the Golden Rule of the Golden Age of TV: You can be as shitty as you wanna be, as long as you're good at what you do.

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This entire season has felt like being caught in a vise. And they keep turning the screw. The preview from next week looks very interesting with the dinner party angle.

I think everyone knew that Beverly had cashed in her chips, but Jack's reaction was good. Couldn't help but think of that horrible J-Lo & Vincent D'Onofrio serial killer pic, The Cell (2000), when Beverly was displayed.

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I did love them giving more context to Hannibal's actions in Red Dragon. In the book and movies, him sending the killer after Will comes off as an act of pure spite. And maybe even an uncharacteristic one because he did seem to respect Will, despite everything. This episode established that Hannibal's actions are more rooted in "turnaround is fair play." Fuller isn't just referencing the future books, he's explaining them.

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Yeah, they've made the most out of his increased screen time. That actor has tremendous control over his face. If this show was more popular there would be a tumblr dedicated to turning his many sneers and smirks into memes.

I kinda knew nothing was going to come of Jack's analaysis of the food since they used it in the preview, but I thought it was an important development that he finally gave the possibility of Hannibal being the Ripper some sincere consideration. I'm really wondering what the catch is with Miriam, because certainly she's not just going to blab "IT WAS HANNIBAL LECTER" immediately.

For a while, I was thinking they were building up Dr. Bloom to be Will's wife instead of the random woman from the book, but, man, I don't see how Will could go for Hannibal's sloppy seconds.

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I think he's drugged and brainwashed Miriam to be one of his followers. He has had five years to pull it off. Even if she was a mental wreck, he wouldn't want to take the risk that the memory might emerge and she'd blab. Unless he knows she's on his side. Basically, a bit like Joe on The Following.

 

Only mild criticism I have of the shows is that the murders are just a little too unbelievable now.  Yeah, I get Hannibal is highly skilled but he doesn't have superpowers. Which he would have had to have to pull off the stunt at the hospital (disarm and kill that guy in an elaborate manner, kidnap Gideon and get back into bed all without being seen?) The deal with the tree also seemed like an insane amount of effort to go to.

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Okay, so you guys figured out that every episode title is the name of course in a formal Japanese gourmet dinner, right?  Just like Season 1 show titles were the various courses of a French gourmet meal.

 

Tie ins to Hannibal Rising, maybe? 

 

- Lecter flees to Paris following the murder of his family & begins to study medicine.

- Quasi-weird relationship with his Japanese aunt, Lady Murosaki.

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Okay, so you guys figured out that every episode title is the name of course in a formal Japanese gourmet dinner, right?  Just like Season 1 show titles were the various courses of a French gourmet meal.

 

Tie ins to Hannibal Rising, maybe? 

 

- Lecter flees to Paris following the murder of his family & begins to study medicine.

- Quasi-weird relationship with his Japanese aunt, Lady Murosaki.

 

Didn't he mention said aunt very briefly on the show? I swore he did. 

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I remember Fuller mentioning one of his first ideas was to turn Hannibal Rising into a TV show.

 

Then it was pointed out to him by several people how crap Hannibal Rising is, and he'd be better just diving into the main story.

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On another note: One thing I like is how Hannibal has given patsy characters like Freddie Lounds and Dr Chilton (both presented in the books as so irritating they practically ask for their fates) real depth and importance. 

 

Freddie's interesting because in many ways she's the total opposite of Hannibal: he's a monster wearing a people suit; she's a person wearing a monster suit. You get enough glimpses of her humanity (trying to save Chilton's life after the attack, telling Jack not to look at Beverly's corpse) to realize that there is something resembling a decent person underneath all the ruthlessness and ambition.

 

Chilton, meanwhile, is becoming genuinely sympathetic. Unlike Jack or Alana he can just tell instinctively there is something deeply wrong with Hannibal. And he's doing what anyone else would do: talking with Will, quietly telling Jack and desperately trying not to let Hannibal know that he's on to him. He might be an arrogant jerk. but he's handled this better than anyone in the FBI has.

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I remember Fuller mentioning one of his first ideas was to turn Hannibal Rising into a TV show.

 

Then it was pointed out to him by several people how crap Hannibal Rising is, and he'd be better just diving into the main story.

 

Yeah, lip service to Lecter's past is good enough.  HR does not need to be rehashed in painful detail on the television series.. 

 

Even Thomas Harris admits that he is not fond of how HR turned out and that he threw the novel together because he wanted to be the one to give Lecter a backstory and not some other writer or screenwriter.

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I think Miriam is Hannibal's last resort. I'm guessing he brainwashed her (he's had years with her, after all) and she's now wholly on his side. He could have led Crawford to her at any time but he waited till now because Crawford is finally catching on that something's up with Hannibal. Miriam's going to absolve Hannibal completely, then pin the blame on Chilton or someone else. Which also conveniently gets rid of Chilton too. 

 

Abigail being alive is certainly possible (the lack of a body is weird) but yeah, Hannibal keeping all these young women locked away in various basements is messed up even by his standards. I don't think they'd go there with him.

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