I'm only a casual fan of the show and I'm a bit flabbergasted at how hard this hit me, honestly. On a funny (or not) note, I finally get, on a visceral rather than on an intellectual level, why the folks at the Kitten Board was so upset at Tara's death over 10 years ago!

Isn't this separate, though, sj? He's already diverged from canon in quite a few places.

I guess it's a matter of how separate. I expect that if the show continues, the events may play out differently but the major players will be the same. I could be wrong.

But the personal sense of loss and grief and guttedness is completely understandable, and I'm staying out of the fandom swamps for now because the few times I've peeked in I've seen some people wanting Fuller's head on a pike and other people dismissing everyone who's upset as a whiny victim-card-playing crybaby, and the reasonable people throwing up their hands and leaving for who knows where.

Seconding all of this.

I don't like that people are experiencing the kind of grief that Vonnie K is, but I do think that Hettienne Park is exactly right when she says that if her character was going to be kept safe she'd just be a background lab tech, not someone we'd get to know and actually care about. On a show like this one the better roles (I almost said meatier) are likely to involve some peril to the characters.

I do think this is one more example of why we need more diversity in casting on all kinds of shows. If everyone has more characters to identify with, it won't feel like such a betrayal when one is sacrificed to the story. Or at least not that kind of betrayal - it's still supposed to hurt to lose characters we like.

I was very happy to see Beverly tonight. I had hoped that would be the case since we've been spending so much time in Will's head this season.

I was very happy to see Beverly tonight. I had hoped that would be the case since we've been spending so much time in Will's head this season.

Me, too. We still get snatches of Abigail, so I hope this isn't actually Beverly's last appearance.

The crime scene was really disturbing for me. Reminded me of part of The Cell, which I love, but which really gives me nightmares.

I'm also glossing over how Hannibal could have pulled that off without anyone noticing -- the entry to the observatory is right out in the open, for one. And even in the dead of a night, a man carrying giant slabs of lucite inside can't have been an in-and-out process.

The metaphor of it is so perfect, it's hard to mind, though.

The timeline isn't exactly realistic either, (How long would it take to freeze a body solid enough for slicing?) but I'm not dwelling on the logistics.

Dwelling on the logistics with this show is a recipe for heartbreak. None of it really works, realistically.

So I look at it as a sort of surrealistic nightmare fairy tale? Or something.

a recipe for heartbreak

Recipe?

Heh. Pun totally not intended, but I like it!

The body not only had to be frozen, but also preserved somehow so that nothing was dripping. Hannibal would have to have one hell of a saw and many blades, plus an untraceable source for giant sheets of plexiglass.

All I know is that the show lost me when it went directly from "find the kidney, find the murderer" to Hannibal mincing meat.

Much extra salty handwavium must be applied, it's true.

I ignore the giant plot holes, because I love watching Mads Mikkelson and Hugh Dancy (and everybody else, really) too much to give it up.