Clancy Nacht's Blog, page 17

Hannibal Feels: Roti Recap

I look back on last Sunday’s Game of Thrones when I was so horrified by the Red Wedding and think, “I’m adorable.” Okay, I didn’t really freak out at the Red Wedding. Even when I read it at the time I’d been so sick of Catelyn I was kind of glad she was gone. And the Robb situation was different and… well, read the books. Then you can be the asshole grinning while everyone else is screaming and crying.

This week’s killer of the week was a killer of the week from weeks back. Dr. Gideon has made a break for it after being “psychically driven” to believing himself to be the Chesapeake Ripper (whom we all know to be Hannibal.) We begin with Dr. Chilton having a wonderful sheep South Indian Curry for him. He remarks, “It feels like a last supper.”

Chilton and discuss the best ways to break into a subject’s skull (uh, figuratively. I feel like I should mention figuratively here) and how he managed to drive Dr. Gideon into a wall. Seeing how Chilton had behaves for Dr. Bloom, it’s interesting to see him accept Hannibal as his better. It will be even more interesting to see in the future how that relationship pans out. Will Dr. Chilton have the guts to face Dr. Lecter? (u c wat i did thar?)

It would be cheap to say that we get to experience Will’s wet dream, but, he does dream of a lot of water. It’s frozen water at first and I worried he was going to take the Black at The Wall, but instead it gets all global warming and melts. This is how our polar ice caps are being murdered. But that’s another subject. Anyway. Tsunami engulfs the person totem (which isn’t how he got to Hannibal’s office a couple of episodes ago as far as I know.) He wakes up sweaty at 8:19. Look. I know he’s crazy but what time did he go to bed?

So Dr. Gideon has to go to court over the murder of the nurse. He confronts Chilton and tells him that he’s suing him. It’s maybe kinda lucky for Chilton’s reputation that Gideon never makes it to court and instead murders his guards after giving excellent advice about how it’s easier to murder your spouse rather than divorcing them. They don’t’ seem receptive so they have to die and their organs removed and dangled from tree branches like very gooey ornaments.

Will gets Gideon-brained and reenacts the attacks, though I’m not really sure why since, uh, who did it isn’t really in doubt. Maybe they think Will has GPS. There are footprints, so, I dunno. Anyway, spectacular violence ensues including a novel use for handcuffs.

In the briefing room, Will gets a little horny. Or a lot horny as there are stag horns like, everywhere while Jack goes over Gideon’s actual crimes. Will stands in the corner feeling sweat shamed by a Jack he’s hallucinating. The real Jack just gives him mournful looks.

Naturally, Will has to have a chat with Hannibal about this. In the background… a fire is burning and I’m thinking, “Maybe now’s the time to put the fire out, Hanni?” Because Will flat out says, “I feel crazy.” Feeling crazy isn’t apparently the degree to which Hannibal wants to take this. He’s making mental notes. “Encephalitis + driving him crazy = making crazy.” I’m not a scientist but this doesn’t seem super surprising.

Will feels some kinship with Gideon because he does understand what it feels like to not feel like himself (and the psychic driving.) Apparently Gideon also scrambled the brains of his guards. Not lobotomized, just stirred. It’s foreshadowing. Gideon feels his brains are scrambled so he’s going to go after all psychiatrists who tried to scramble his brains. Will worries for Dr. Bloom but I guess no one much cares for any of the other doctors.

Freddie receives a call from a psychiatrist who studied Gideon who supposedly wants to collaborate on a writing project. This does not trip off her bullshit meter. But really, what she stumbles into is a much better story. It was Gideon on the phone and he has given the psychiatrist (who I don’t think really scrambled his brain, just wrote about him…) a Colombian necktie. This is basically cutting into someone’s throat and pulling their tongue out through that flap. This is to imitating the Chesapeake Ripper’s murder where he pulled out a man’s tongue and used it as a bookmark in his Bible. Still not the same, dear. But look, your own MO! Necktie and he exsanguinated the doctor (which is how he died) and put all of the blood in a cooler with a note to donate to the Red Cross!

Dr. Gideon, btw, was a transplant doctor. So he’s good at harvesting and I guess after the guards he started to see all of this organ removal without new homes a waste. His real crime, killing his wife and everyone at their house, was more of a crime of passion so he’s having to find his murdering voice on the go. I think he’s really starting to find himself.

A link to TattleCrime tells the FBI unit that Gideon has Freddie Lounds. He takes her to the Observatory where Jack Crawford found Miriam Lass’s arm because he hopes that this is where the Chesapeake Ripper will return to. Instead of a note or a text, the Ripper sends a dead-psychiatrist-o-gram that follows Gideon’s new murder style with the added twist of a severed arm as a clue to Jack that Gideon can be rounded up at the Observatory.

It’s a little fuzzy why Hannibal knows he’s there or when this body is found, exactly. And also why and how Gideon managed to nab Chilton (was he such a dick no one wanted to protect him like they do Dr. Bloom?) But while Gideon is waiting for Hannibal to show up, he passes the time by giving Chilton an epidural and playing Operation with his organs as a gift basket for Hannibal. Freddie is left in charge of the ventilator and Chilton survives. But I guess he’ll be less some less necessary organs which will be less tasty for future Hannibal. Sads.

Jack has Will wait outside when he charges in to find Dr. Chilton’s extreme weight loss surgery. Will writes off his fever to a depressed immune system and Jack tells him to walk it off, basically. So Will goes for a walk and winds up in the backseat of Dr. Gideon’s car.

Only, Will thinks it’s Garret Jacob Hobbs and worries that the man driving the car is a dead person, so naturally he has him drive to Hannibal’s place, which is actually where he wants to be, not that he knows that. Hannibal coolly takes in the situation. He doesn’t really know why Will shows up with Gideon. For all he knows, Will is there with faux Chesapeake Ripper to bust the real one. But no. Will is there to ask if Gideon (whom he sees as Hobbs) is real.

This is really, really heartbreaking from a Will perspective because Hannibal tells him no one is there. Will knows there is someone there but he trusts Hannibal, and yet…. He begs Hannibal not to lie to him, but Hannibal does. Will’s brain boils over and he has a seizure which even Gideon is more concerned about than Hannibal. “I said it was a mild seizure.” This, kids, is why psychopaths don’t make great friends.

Will’s seizure. No, wait…

Oh, honey.

Hodor, Hodor! No, not a green dream, this one is a seizure.

Hannibal doesn’t admit to being the Ripper to Gideon, but, I don’t think he does much for the reputation of psychiatrists in Gideon’s mind. Then Hannibal tells Gideon where to find Alana Bloom.

After Gideon leaves, Hannibal assesses the damage that the seizure did to Will. It was not a stroke. Will insists that he saw Garret Jacob Hobbs. Hannibal reminds Will that he killed the man and then gives him a subtle push that he may yet find a way to kill him again. He tells Will to go to a hospital but then feeds him the knowledge that Gideon mutilated Dr. Chilton and that Hannibal is worried about Alana. Will gets up to go with him as Hannibal puts on his coat. In order to sit Will back down, Hannibal sets down his keys on the table, sits Will down, and then leaves the room. And the car keys on the table. Will takes the bait and Hannibal returns to the room for some stone cold chillin’ and waiting for Will to finish his dirty work.

Gideon seems to have harbored a bit of a crush on Alana and in fairness, she never appeared to lie to him. She told him the truth about how Chilton manipulated him in a roundabout way, so he stands outside of her window like he’s not sure if he wants to go there or not. Will joins him, but to Will, Gideon is still Hobbs. Gideon is dealing with maybe the guilt of killing his wife. He’s not sure he’s the relationship type and he assesses that Will maybe isn’t either. Which, in fairness, if Will didn’t have a bloated brain, maybe he would be. Will asks Gideon who he is and Gideon rather philosophically says, “I’m you.” Except Will is in no state for philosophy and apparently figures it’s him, shadow him, maybe the dark side of him that maybe wants to kill Alana rather than love her, and decides to kill. it. ded. all Fight Club style.

It’s worth noting here that Will said that he believed the Chesapeake Ripper would be the one to kill Gideon. This could be something interesting for his brain to swim around in later.

Speaking of brain swimming, hopefully this hospital has the technology to fix the encephalitis, though they can’t seem to identify the source of the infection. They seem to have been able to put Chilton’s guts back in. So, we’ll see.

Hannibal recommends that Jack take away Will’s gun but Jack thinks, “Eh, he’s okay. He shot the right guy.”

In a way, Hannibal did also give Will an opportunity to be Alana’s White Knight. She sits by his bedside. That doesn’t make him any more hinged than before but it’s kinda sweet.

Hannibal sees his psychiatrist to talk about his feels regarding Will. She wonders if he’s not more fascinated by Will’s madness than the man himself, but he disagrees. “I see myself in Will.” I see that too, mostly in fanfics, but… oh, right you meant figuratively.

So basically, Hannibal still sees Will as friend material and DuMaurier tells him to hold back and watch. Obviously she isn’t totally in the loop on the situation and I kind of doubt she’d say, “By all means, keep his diagnosis from him!” but the advice appears to validate what Hannibal wants to hear. And again, psychopaths make bad friends. Probably psychiatrists, too.

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap, hugh dancy

Fun with Fannibals

Yesterday after I posted my Hannibal Feels, I had the bestest time with other Fannibals (fans of the NBC show “Hannibal”) in the comments! I didn’t quite realize that there was such a big fandom. I haven’t really been part of one since Harry Potter. Even the RuPaul’s Drag Race fandom isn’t as big, apparently.

I was feeling pretty high on life right up until I saw my linkies I was posting on Facebook had a response from a friend of, “I find this show repulsive.”

Repulsive?

Gurl.

Then I had to laugh, ’cause repulsive is sort of the point of a show centered around a cannibal. It’s not the same as when I watch one of their dippy family-friendly sitcoms and am repulsed by the sexism, genderism, homophobia, etc.

Just a couple of hours earlier davecrewe called something I said about feeding dogs undead skin to distract them more disturbing than the show on aquitainequeen‘s journal and I responded, “I probably shouldn’t take that as a compliment,” but was told, “That was meant as a compliment.”

Of course it was. Which is why from now on I’m only talking to Fannibals. Or something.

 

Filed under: about clancy Tagged: alaska thunderfuck, fandom, fannibals, hannibal, rant

Hannibal Feels: Buffet Froid Recap

So many feels to start with this. Ellen Muth? Georgia Madchen? Like as in girl? Like a Lass? As a zombie? It didn’t look like anyone blamed a toilet seat for her condition but I had to imagine a world where “Dead Like Me” was just all in a zombie girl’s head. I kind of pictured that if Miriam Lass was intended to be Reggie that maybe George got to see her in the end. BUT MAYBE NOT.

Last week I was a little meh and the thing is, with a show like this, even the meh episodes are a lifetime better than 99% of shows on television. Like a friend asked me about what I thought of “Elementary” and I had to admit to her that 1. I haven’t been watching it since “Hannibal” aired, 2. I always thought the premise suffered by being haphazardly stapled to Sherlock Holmes but was otherwise decently well-acted and scripted, but nevertheless 3. every time someone said Sherlock’s name I wondered where Benedict Cumberbatch was and when we’d get more episodes of that much better adapted to the core material BBC version.

But on with the show and by show I mean recap.

Girl lives alone with a canary out in the country. It makes mes ad what kind of culture I live in where a dude living alone wouldn’t seem like an open invitation to violence, but a woman? Oh yeah, she’s going to die horribly! Like Will has basically the same setup and he’s batshitloco, yet I’m more afraid for the woman. But whatever. I guess zombiegirl came in through the roof, which lonelygirl fixes with a plastic bag for the night. When she gets back to bed, she has company. Under the bed. Who gives her a Glasgow smile from which she drowns on her own blood.

Will has a session with Hannibal. He looks a little ill and I wonder if he’s starting to think that if Will is so whiny about Abigail killing a man in self defense, maybe he’s not going to be the fun life partner he was hoping for. He looks a little tired and bored with Will not getting that everyone else in the world is prey and he should have some fun with it or just move on with it because he’s not going to be able to put the air back in the balloon anyway. This is kind of how my cats look at me. “Geez, it was just a squirrel. Why the sads?”

Basically Will feels like he’s fading. Like he’s a zombie (he doesn’t put it that way but later in the episode when he hears about zombiegirl’s symptoms he’s like, “so that’s how it works”) As a fun little test, Hannibal asks Will to draw a clock with hands pointing to the time it is now to help ground him to a certain time. Except that isn’t why Hannibal wants it and you see Will draw it out and it looks all, you know, clock-y, until Hannibal looks at it and it’s all Dali clock-y on one side. He doesn’t mention this to Will.

Will loses time while gutting a fish and comes to in lonelygirl’s room making what appears to be a real fucking mess out of the crime scene. Jack is not pleased and walks out for a talk. He has Had it, Officially, with Will being crazycakes. Only not so officially that he tells Will to take a vacation. The tissue the team finds left behind is dead.

Back at Hannibal’s office, Will explains that the grandiosity of the violence he felt in the not-real world of his reconstruction felt more real to him than his regular life. Further, he explains that the kind of crazy he knows he is isn’t the kind of crazy he’s experiencing and that he should see a doctor. Like, one that could see if there’s a tumor. Hannibal happens to have a referral for him. But! There is a but! If there’s nothing physically wrong, Will has to admit he’s crazycakes and this is life now.

Apparently this is what Hannibal wants for him because he takes him to an old colleague.

DR. SUTCLIFFE NAMED AFTER PETER WILLIAM SUTCLIFFE, BRITISH SERIAL KILLER CALLED "THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sut… #FEEDYOURFEAR—
Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) May 31, 2013

Hannibal knows that it’s autoimmune encephalitis, like swollen brain. He smelled it. Dr. Sutcliffe asks what that smells like. He doesn’t realize that when it comes to meat, Dr. Lecter is an expert. Then Hannibal shares the clock illustration and that about confirms it. Which, fair enough, but why, Dr. Sutcliffe reasonably wonders, not mention this to Will. Good question! Well, ‘cause Hannibal’s never seen anyone walking around all empathetic and encephalitic before and Will’s a close friend so he can keep an eye on it and observe until it gets too out of hand.

To be fair, this is the sort of thing that research doctors are paid to do. But, I’m thinking that maybe Hannibal needs to visit Dr. Gillian Anderson so she can tell him that the fly of his person suit is down. Even when you’re new to having friends, experimenting on them isn’t on the menu. Uh. Menu. They’re not on the menu either. Just, you know, having BFFy secrets like knowing who a young lady killed = good, keeping secrets from your BFF like that their insanity is caused by brain swellings = bad. It’s okay. We’ve all gotta start somewhere.

Oh, I should probably mention not killing doctors who help you fool your BFF but actually, that was a good call. I mean, what did Dr. Sutcliffe get out of it other than really great ham? Well and I guess that good Mengele feeling you get from experimenting on live people who don’t consent? Or maybe that he was getting uneasy about the deception and really, that ham was only so good.

Also, kids, let this be a lesson about second opinions. Especially if your doctor is later given a Glasgow smile that may or may not have happened because of a zombiegirl.

So maybe Hannibal’s feeling the heat from Will and realizing that he can’t shut it down. And if Will is struggling so hard with a self defense killing, he’s probably not going to be cool that Hannibal’s killing people for food. Either way, he’s broaching the subject with Jack that maybe Will doesn’t have the stability for field work.

Speaking of. Will goes to lonelygirl’s house to revisit the scene of the crime for his own purposes. He notes the time and place and marries himself to it and then gets a glimpse of zombiegirl. Of course, it’s hard for him to know what’s what because, crazy. He gets a zombie arm sleeve for his trouble and then loses time when he is outside. He thinks maybe zombiegirl having the same time and space issues he is and announces the time, place, and that she is alive.

Will brings Beverly Katz with him to go over the crime scene and explains what he experienced. He has no idea what he did with the body sleeve but she knows there was bloodless dead skin around the scene so now she’s just putting the facts together as to what is going on. He adds that she isn’t able to see faces and that maybe the Glasgow smile was an attempt to pull off the “mask” that zombiegirl perceives instead of a face. That’s going to work out really well for Hannibal later when he frames her for Dr. Sutcliffe’s murder by handing her the scissors. ETA, scissors? that’s some determined Glasgowing.

Apparently Will’s empathy is in overdrive because he straight up asks Hannibal if he’s working on a paper about him. His only request is that the paper be published posthumously. “Yours or mine?” “Whichever comes first.” Oh, Will. That doesn’t even make sense. What difference would it make if Hannibal was dead?

Hannibal introduces Cotard syndrome which Will learns more about when he meets zombiegirl’s mother later. Hm, the symptoms do sound like someone he knows… The worst part, though, is when the mother says that while there were several diagnoses for her daughter, no one could do much but “manage expectations.”

While Will is sleeping, zombiegirl watches. From behind the fishing lure. That we saw Hannibal fiddle with in Ceuf. Is that where/how the infection happened? Yeah I’m kinda stuck on that scene.

Jack worries now that he’s breaking his pony and it’s his lack of leadership that leads to this. But again falls short of firing Will, rationalizing to himself that he’s, uh, the stable rock which Will could trust as a foundation. Yeah. Can’t see how that could go wrong.

Will demands more tests, though not a second opinion because he goes back to Dr. Sutcliffe. While he’s in the MRI, he loses time, which is actually a blessing ‘cause that whole process is freaky. He comes out alone. No Dr. Sutcliffe. Like, at all because he’s dead in his office.

Beverly has to comfort Will that he didn’t do it. There’s more dead person on the blade. Will feels bad that he attracted zombiegirl and maybe she thought he was the doctor. Only no! It was Hannibal with a killy Dexter suit (they should share their suits, only he’s in Miami and dresses kind of like a dork.)

Zombiegirl winds up under Will’s bed (seriously, waterbeds from now on) and the dogs aren’t upset until midnight exactly. That’s when Will wakes up and notices anyway. He jumps down and explains to her that she’s alive, you know, other than her skin and he gets some help and they put her in a big chamber like a burn victim. Hannibal prepares a report for Jack and hopes that zombiegirl doesn’t come to. ‘Cause then he’ll have to murderate her and she won’t taste very good. But I’m sure he’ll figure something out. Not that he has much to worry about. She can’t see faces.

Next week, Dr. Gideon returns! Well, escapes which is a return for us. Hannibal sics her on Dr. Bloom. He really needs to work on this friend thing.

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: feels, hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap, hugh dancy

Hannibal Feels: Buffet Froid ep 10 Recap

So many feels to start with this. Ellen Muth? Georgia Madchen? Like as in girl? Like a Lass? As a zombie? It didn’t look like anyone blamed a toilet seat for her condition but I had to imagine a world where “Dead Like Me” was just all in a zombie girl’s head. I kind of pictured that if Miriam Lass was intended to be Reggie that maybe George got to see her in the end. BUT MAYBE NOT.

Last week I was a little meh and the thing is, with a show like this, even the meh episodes are a lifetime better than 99% of shows on television. Like a friend asked me about what I thought of “Elementary” and I had to admit to her that 1. I haven’t been watching it since “Hannibal” aired, 2. I always thought the premise suffered by being haphazardly stapled to Sherlock Holmes but was otherwise decently well-acted and scripted, but nevertheless 3. every time someone said Sherlock’s name I wondered where Benedict Cumberbatch was and when we’d get more episodes of that much better adapted to the core material BBC version.

But on with the show and by show I mean recap.

Girl lives alone with a canary out in the country. It makes mes ad what kind of culture I live in where a dude living alone wouldn’t seem like an open invitation to violence, but a woman? Oh yeah, she’s going to die horribly! Like Will has basically the same setup and he’s batshitloco, yet I’m more afraid for the woman. But whatever. I guess zombiegirl came in through the roof, which lonelygirl fixes with a plastic bag for the night. When she gets back to bed, she has company. Under the bed. Who gives her a Glasgow smile from which she drowns on her own blood.

Will has a session with Hannibal. He looks a little ill and I wonder if he’s starting to think that if Will is so whiny about Abigail killing a man in self defense, maybe he’s not going to be the fun life partner he was hoping for. He looks a little tired and bored with Will not getting that everyone else in the world is prey and he should have some fun with it or just move on with it because he’s not going to be able to put the air back in the balloon anyway. This is kind of how my cats look at me. “Geez, it was just a squirrel. Why the sads?”

Basically Will feels like he’s fading. Like he’s a zombie (he doesn’t put it that way but later in the episode when he hears about zombiegirl’s symptoms he’s like, “so that’s how it works”) As a fun little test, Hannibal asks Will to draw a clock with hands pointing to the time it is now to help ground him to a certain time. Except that isn’t why Hannibal wants it and you see Will draw it out and it looks all, you know, clock-y, until Hannibal looks at it and it’s all Dali clock-y on one side. He doesn’t mention this to Will.

Will loses time while gutting a fish and comes to in lonelygirl’s room making what appears to be a real fucking mess out of the crime scene. Jack is not pleased and walks out for a talk. He has Had it, Officially, with Will being crazycakes. Only not so officially that he tells Will to take a vacation. The tissue the team finds left behind is dead.

Back at Hannibal’s office, Will explains that the grandiosity of the violence he felt in the not-real world of his reconstruction felt more real to him than his regular life. Further, he explains that the kind of crazy he knows he is isn’t the kind of crazy he’s experiencing and that he should see a doctor. Like, one that could see if there’s a tumor. Hannibal happens to have a referral for him. But! There is a but! If there’s nothing physically wrong, Will has to admit he’s crazycakes and this is life now.

Apparently this is what Hannibal wants for him because he takes him to an old colleague.

DR. SUTCLIFFE NAMED AFTER PETER WILLIAM SUTCLIFFE, BRITISH SERIAL KILLER CALLED "THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sut… #FEEDYOURFEAR—
Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) May 31, 2013

Hannibal knows that it’s autoimmune encephalitis, like swollen brain. He smelled it. Dr. Sutcliffe asks what that smells like. He doesn’t realize that when it comes to meat, Dr. Lecter is an expert. Then Hannibal shares the clock illustration and that about confirms it. Which, fair enough, but why, Dr. Sutcliffe reasonably wonders, not mention this to Will. Good question! Well, ‘cause Hannibal’s never seen anyone walking around all empathetic and encephalitic before and Will’s a close friend so he can keep an eye on it and observe until it gets too out of hand.

To be fair, this is the sort of thing that research doctors are paid to do. But, I’m thinking that maybe Hannibal needs to visit Dr. Gillian Anderson so she can tell him that the fly of his person suit is down. Even when you’re new to having friends, experimenting on them isn’t on the menu. Uh. Menu. They’re not on the menu either. Just, you know, having BFFy secrets like knowing who a young lady killed = good, keeping secrets from your BFF like that their insanity is caused by brain swellings = bad. It’s okay. We’ve all gotta start somewhere.

Oh, I should probably mention not killing doctors who help you fool your BFF but actually, that was a good call. I mean, what did Dr. Sutcliffe get out of it other than really great ham? Well and I guess that good Mengele feeling you get from experimenting on live people who don’t consent? Or maybe that he was getting uneasy about the deception and really, that ham was only so good.

Also, kids, let this be a lesson about second opinions. Especially if your doctor is later given a Glasgow smile that may or may not have happened because of a zombiegirl.

So maybe Hannibal’s feeling the heat from Will and realizing that he can’t shut it down. And if Will is struggling so hard with a self defense killing, he’s probably not going to be cool that Hannibal’s killing people for food. Either way, he’s broaching the subject with Jack that maybe Will doesn’t have the stability for field work.

Speaking of. Will goes to lonelygirl’s house to revisit the scene of the crime for his own purposes. He notes the time and place and marries himself to it and then gets a glimpse of zombiegirl. Of course, it’s hard for him to know what’s what because, crazy. He gets a zombie arm sleeve for his trouble and then loses time when he is outside. He thinks maybe zombiegirl having the same time and space issues he is and announces the time, place, and that she is alive.

Will brings Beverly Katz with him to go over the crime scene and explains what he experienced. He has no idea what he did with the body sleeve but she knows there was bloodless dead skin around the scene so now she’s just putting the facts together as to what is going on. He adds that she isn’t able to see faces and that maybe the Glasgow smile was an attempt to pull off the “mask” that zombiegirl perceives instead of a face. That’s going to work out really well for Hannibal later when he frames her for Dr. Sutcliffe’s murder by handing her the scissors. ETA, scissors? that’s some determined Glasgowing.

Apparently Will’s empathy is in overdrive because he straight up asks Hannibal if he’s working on a paper about him. His only request is that the paper be published posthumously. “Yours or mine?” “Whichever comes first.” Oh, Will. That doesn’t even make sense. What difference would it make if Hannibal was dead?

Hannibal introduces Cotard syndrome which Will learns more about when he meets zombiegirl’s mother later. Hm, the symptoms do sound like someone he knows… The worst part, though, is when the mother says that while there were several diagnoses for her daughter, no one could do much but “manage expectations.”

While Will is sleeping, zombiegirl watches. From behind the fishing lure. That we saw Hannibal fiddle with in Ceuf. Is that where/how the infection happened? Yeah I’m kinda stuck on that scene.

Jack worries now that he’s breaking his pony and it’s his lack of leadership that leads to this. But again falls short of firing Will, rationalizing to himself that he’s, uh, the stable rock which Will could trust as a foundation. Yeah. Can’t see how that could go wrong.

Will demands more tests, though not a second opinion because he goes back to Dr. Sutcliffe. While he’s in the MRI, he loses time, which is actually a blessing ‘cause that whole process is freaky. He comes out alone. No Dr. Sutcliffe. Like, at all because he’s dead in his office.

Beverly has to comfort Will that he didn’t do it. There’s more dead person on the blade. Will feels bad that he attracted zombiegirl and maybe she thought he was the doctor. Only no! It was Hannibal with a killy Dexter suit (they should share their suits, only he’s in Miami and dresses kind of like a dork.)

Zombiegirl winds up under Will’s bed (seriously, waterbeds from now on) and the dogs aren’t upset until midnight exactly. That’s when Will wakes up and notices anyway. He jumps down and explains to her that she’s alive, you know, other than her skin and he gets some help and they put her in a big chamber like a burn victim. Hannibal prepares a report for Jack and hopes that zombiegirl doesn’t come to. ‘Cause then he’ll have to murderate her and she won’t taste very good. But I’m sure he’ll figure something out. Not that he has much to worry about. She can’t see faces.

Next week, Dr. Gideon returns! Well, escapes which is a return for us. Hannibal sics her on Dr. Bloom. He really needs to work on this friend thing.

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: feels, hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap, hugh dancy

Hannibal Feels: Trou Normand Recap

Because I’m not a professional blogger and have a day job, it takes me a little while to do these and information trickles in while I’m, uh, oh let’s go for the bad pun and say digesting. Despite having two weeks of being masters of the TT on Twitter, the ratings haven’t exactly jumped. But they’re steady and not dropping crazily which for NBC seems like a win. Who knows? I think having shows on the bubble is about all that keeps them in the news for anything other than who in the world Matt Lauer hates, but whatevs. Sounds like there are other networks hungry for a rabid fanbase. So to speak.

Honestly, with the really awesome promo NBC was running during The Voice that said, “Hey, so like Elementary and Scandal are over for now so come see our show no one’s watching!” I was shocked the numbers didn’t pick up. I mean, it’s one thing for me to tweet that to my friends. It’s not compelling advertising. There’s a real difference between saying, “Hey, if you’re hungry I have leftovers in the fridge,” and “I had this awesome meal last night. Sorry you couldn’t be there but I saved some for you in the fridge.” I know, I’m a marketing genius. Someone should hire me.

ANYWAY.

Trou Normand. A palate cleanser. And so we start on a beach with a giant totem pole of body parts crowned with what I worried was Neil Gaiman’s head. He retweeted me once, so I consider me and Neil like bffs now, so I was a little worried. But on closer inspection, it was some other dude entirely. Whew.

As someone who once took a class with Fetish Diva Midori, I consider myself a Shibari expert and I was pleased to see the nice ropework with hemp on the bodies. Nice, tidy, comfortable knot work. Good job. I know most people saw the “jigsaw puzzle” and were all OMG BODYPARTS, THE HUMANITY but it really is the little things in life that bring one joy.

In all there were 17 people identified in the mess. The life work of one serial killer who kinda gets sidelined in the rest of the story. Spoiler alert: It was Bishop! Yeah! From Aliens! Only older! And in a leather chair I guess he couldn’t get out of. In his empty house. Later. I kinda thought it would be him since he’s a pretty major get as a guest star but I was admittedly a little disappointed in the dialog-exposition that was kinda clunky for all of the brilliant direction and artistry going on in the show. But then, to get all of it in with the character development, it would be a two hour show.

As it turns out, Bishop killed his only son, who wasn’t Neil Gaiman so it was tragic for him, but we still get good books. Done and done.

Apparently seeing a 17 body sculpture is upsetting to Will Graham ‘cause after going into killy space where he murders not-Neil-Gaiman, a magic blood drop apparently transports him to Hannibal’s office. Usually this is the magic of television, but this time, he totally spaced on leaving the crime scene and getting there. I’ve had this happen before, too. It was finals week in college and I had a cold, took what I thought was Day Quil but it was NyQuil. Woke up under my desk at the newspaper office. Quite disturbing to miss time but it’s been happening a lot to Will.

Hannibal says, “Gurl. Your job is kind of distressing. Maybe you should quit.”

Will says, “I should totes quit, except then people will die. I’ll talk to Jack.”

Jack says, “You k?”

Will says, “It’s fine! ” I think this is the first time he’s smiled so you know it’s bad.

Abigail’s back! She’s having a very unhealthy group session with all of the girls her dad killed and then baby Joss Whedon whom she killed personally. Apparently victims of her father sued for wrongful death and will get all proceeds from sales of murder houses. Abigail talks to Freddy Lounds about writing a book so she can clear things up.

When Freddy Lounds is the only one telling you something’s a good idea, it’s probably not a good idea. Hannibal and Will are Very Concerned about the affect that a book will have on her, each for their own reasons. After all, Hannibal helped Abigail get rid of the body of not-Joss-Whedon and why she thinks empathy boy wouldn’t at some point figure out she’s also a killer is kind of a mystery.

Sort of like the mystery of Alana Bloom’s Really Awesome Timing last week which some people thought meant Will was having waking wet dreams about kissing her. But she brings it up in person on neutral ground and they’d have to go a really long way to make all of Alana Bloom a really sexy hallucination, so probably she just has good “Will’s hearing things”-dar as she walks in on him giving a lecture to an empty classroom. In fairness, his lecture hall is really dark.

Dr. Alana Bloom diagnoses Will Graham as “unstable.” Wow. She really is a good doctor.

Will and Hannibal chat with Abigail about her decision to go booky with her story. She tells Will ala Lil’ Poundcake, “YOU’RE NOT MY FATHER AND YOU NEVER WILL BE.” Hannibal comes in with, “You can’t talk to your mother like that.” But she’s a stubborn teenager and knows where the bodies are buried and, I guess, is the one who digs the body of not-Joss-Whedon up. Supposedly this is so she can control what is said and when.

Jack calls Abigail in to identify the body and works as sort of a truthiness meter, gauging her reaction. He lacks the empathy-beam which is good for him because that probably means he won’t go crazy like Will does, but bad because he can’t really tell truth or lie unless she breaks down and confesses, which she doesn’t. Jack gets nothing he can use, just his general feeling that she’s more involved than she’s letting on.

Which…he’s right! Will sees for himself when he goes to check out the body. So that’s how it works. Kind of like the Pushing Daisies thing, I guess. Will gets near the body and it tells him the story of how it got that way. And oh noes, daddy’s little girl stabbed him and now Will knows and he can’t unknow it.

He does the only thing he can do. He talks to Hannibal about it. Hannibal agrees that he knew it and that he helped dispose of the body. Hannibal explains that Jack would’ve convicted Abigail for her father’s crimes and then cleverly includes Will in the whole scheme by saying, “We are her fathers now, we have to protect her.” Which gave me an odd mental picture of that old sitcom “My Two Dads” only with a lot more murdering. And aww, bebe Giovanni Ribisi.

Hannibal basically puts his and Abigail’s lives in Will’s hands. It’s a good gamble because Will has too much affection for Hannibal and Abigail to stone cold bust them. This is very good for Hannibal because now he has his hands a little dirty in front of Will and he isn’t being turned away. This is like getting to first base. In fact, we get a close up of Hannibal’s hand on Will’s shoulder. It’s a meaningful over-the-blouse touch. He’ll be out of his panties and wondering how that happened in no time!

And as it turns out, Jack is more right than wrong when it comes to Abigail. At the start it was assumed that Garret Jacob Hobbs had an accomplice–someone who lured the girls to divulge their secrets about when they’d be alone. Will seems to have conveniently forgotten this to indulge his daddy fantasies about Abigail, who never seems to have taken to him. Maybe because he’s not an actual murderer. She explains to Hannibal that it was her or the girls and he accepts that and says she’s a victim. Yeah. Maybe. Or maybe he’s got designs on a little murder family. My Two Serial Killer Dads.

All-in-all, this was an important and interesting episode, but the previous two were better and I wish one of those had been what aired during the, “nothing else is on, why not watch our show” uh sweeps. Or whatever NBC thinks of it as.

Next week’s episode looks pretty interesting with a monster under the bed that Will talks to. And he’s finally going to see the doctor. It’s not a tumah, Will!

Also, if you don’t play the Tweet along game with @BryanFuller, you’re missing out on gems like this:

FUN FACT! I sing this at him when he nails a scene, only changing it to "Hugh Dancy Huh."

Hugh allows it.

#HANNIBAL

youtube.com/watch?v=eZTHCI…—
Aaron Abrams (@MrAaronAbrams) May 24, 2013

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap, hugh dancy

Hannibal Feels: Fromage Recap

I knew this would be a good episode not just from the previews but because earlier in the day when I misread a computer notification that read, “Commit Success,” as “Commit Suicide,” I thought, “But Hannibal is on tonight.”

I hope NBC doesn’t rob me of my will to live by cancelling the show. My husband could sue.

If they replace it with The Blacklist I may have to sue. Did you see the clips they put up as an example of how great this show would be? I love James Spader, but damn, what happened? And then the first clip, Assume the Position, is like a drawn out boring version of Se7en’s John Doe turning himself in which, in context probably is pretty interesting but as a clip for a show was a huge yawn.

And then the second clip, A Very Special Profiler, made me think of Craig Ferguson’s “awkward pause” schtick. Like, it’s a show meant to be similar to Silence of the Lambs, but it’s all NBCized, meaning that in spite of all that could be good, it’s devoid of all that makes Hannibal dark and interesting. Look at all of the trouble Hannibal went to for the dark, gothic look, the careful attention to detail. Then look at the set from The Blacklist that appears to have been set up with all the loving care of the DMV. Anyway. It’s targeted for Monday nights which would’ve been a smarter night for Hannibal all along, but whatever. No one’s accused NBC of being good at TV lately. And hell, doofy The Following got picked up, so who knows.

Anyway, where does that leave us? Oh right, with a show I enjoy. Did everyone #EatTheRude?

I did my part with the tweeting and it seems that there was a Trending Topic victory. Hooray. I don’t know if that does anything but I felt good about myself and pried the “I voted” sticker off of the fridge to wear around the house like it was election day.

So. Fromage.

Will has started hearing doggies in distress in his brain. Hallucinations rarely portend good things to come, but it’s worse when it’s a suffering doggy because what if you ignore it and a dog is in pain? So Will has to check the situation out, even if he kind of suspects the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak. And since Alana Bloom doesn’t hear it, it probably is.

We learn that Tobias is a master craftsman and that THOSE AREN’T CATGUTS which is sort of a relief because I like cats. People, not as much. We don’t really get to know what Tobias’s standards are for who would make good strings or not. I dunno if it’s #BowTheRude but Hannibal does imply that he understands the choice because someone fit would make for having better source guts.

The show isn’t called Tobias, so I tried not to get too invested.

Franklin. Oh Franklin. “Psychopaths aren’t crazy, they are fully aware of what they do and the consequences of those actions.” Okay, so I read The Psychopath Test which makes me kind of an expert on the topic and apparently they kind of aren’t really aware of the consequences. Like, per Robert Hare (inventor of the psychopath checklist) they can know a shock is coming and not have a bodily reaction to it, which is sort of the point. But whatever. Hannibal’s got more hands on experience.

So Franklin does this total passive aggressive thing that made me want to snap his neck right that minute. Hannibal, to his credit, waits for later. But Franklin invites conversation to talk about Tobias rather than himself and Hannibal says, “Yeah, okay, it’s your dime.”

Franklin, “Are you bored with me?”

I do not want to even count how many times I’ve fallen into that conversational trap. It’s less of a trap if you say, “Yeah, kinda.” Because then the person gets upset and leaves. But sometimes that person is your mom and after they realize that the silent treatment isn’t actually a punishment, they come back like nothing happened. Hannibal turns it back around in a way I’m going to use for later. “I will analyze your perception of him.” Smooth.

Tobias is apparently saying things like, “I’d love to shove a cello neck down someone’s throat and play their vocal chords like strings. J/K LOL.” And then it happened.

Will goes to check this thing out and Jack points out that Will isn’t having a hard time looking. Well of course he’s not. It’s fucking fascinating. Gross, yeah, but when you realize that the cello was catguts to start with you have to accept that the cello was a pretty morbid instrument anyway. And you all just totally did a ticky box on me in the psychopath checklist, didn’t you? Whatever.

Anyway. Will says it’s an intellectual exercise, then downs some pills. It’s how I deal with work, too, honey. I’m with you.

Will enters the mind of the killer enough to grok that he wanted to play the vocal chords for real and apparently gets the melody stuck in his head. So he’s got another serial killer’s song in his heart. Hobbs shows up in the audience again, a reminder that probably getting into psycho heads isn’t very good for him.

Hannibal needs help dealing with Franklin, so he talks to his psychiatrist. We learn that she had been attacked by an obsessive patient and that attacker wound up dead. And that Hannibal feels protective of her. There is more to this story. I’m sure we’ll hear it. She suggests Hannibal find Franklin a new home.

Hannibal gets to hear about Tobias again, this time through Will who explains the whole vocal chord cello thing. Hannibal gives a history lesson about flutes being made from human bone, which seems kind of creepy, especially when he knew there was olive oil used in the cello. Hannibal seems somewhat offended or aroused that Will is feeling other psychos behind his eyes. Also, Hannibal gets the insight from Will that this murder is a “serenade.” And Franklin fills in who the serenade was for.

This leads Hannibal to Tobias’s string shop. They bond over how much they both enjoy gut. And music. They’re feeling each other out and it seems to be going pretty well. They trade barbs about the dead trombonist and Hannibal invites him over to repair his harpsichord. If you know what I mean.

There are birds or something in Will’s chimney and then Alana Bloom shows up. Weird, huh? She shows up to check up on him and they wind up kissing. She says she’s confused. I am, too. She’s apparently been kind of dodging being alone with him, presumably because of an attraction but now she shows up out of nowhere. He takes it as a sign and she says, “Oh no, I can’t.” And then she goes.

A couple of things. Apparently next ep is about Will totally losing it and blaming someone. Others have noted the connection of Hannibal and the stag and it’s true, there’s a stag in Hannibal’s office. But I’ve noticed the stag coming before Alana’s appearances. Like in the hospital where she shows up to read to Abigail Hobbs. Maybe she’s making the crazy? But, I’m also rereading Red Dragon where I notice that Dr. Bloom is still happening. Just interesting to consider.

Hannibal has Tobias for dinner in the figurative sense. He asks directly about the trombonist and they discuss what Tobias’s rather reckless plans are for killing Franklin and making a mad dash into the future. Hannibal seems pretty amused with the whole thing until Tobias confesses to following Hannibal and seeing him in action. It’s one thing to have a sort of shitty plan to escape law enforcement. It’s another when you have leverage. Tobias wants a friend but again Hannibal isn’t interested in friendship with anyone who wants to be friends with him. Other than Will. He confesses that he invited Tobias over to kill him but didn’t poison dinner. “I wouldn’t do that to the food.”

Artist at work!

At that point, the conversation goes a little cold but they are saved by the bell when Will arrives to say, “I kissed Alana Bloom.”

Okay, so, Will hallucinates things outside, things in his chimney, kisses Alana Bloom and then rushes over to tell Hannibal about it. To which Hannibal says, “Well, come in,” to Will’s back as he’s already through the door and into the dining room. Interesting because I didn’t see Hannibal open the door. What is going on? Does Will have a key or was that just a cut?

It doesn’t even really slow Will down that he walked in on what was obviously a dinner for two. “You have a guest?” sounded more like an accusation than a question. Hannibal offers that dinner was with a colleague and that he had to run off unexpectedly. Apparently from the balcony which was open. In the snow. Without dessert. But whatever, Will hears struggling animals and is being stalked by a phantom stag. I guess vanishing guests is beyond his keen powers of perception.

Hannibal seems a little cold about the situation, but he’s got a lot on his mind. First, he’s got to have massive blue balls about not getting to kill Tobias right then AND he has to now worry that the dude’s gonna narc. He seems secretly pleased that Will came right over after a big event like kissing Dr. Bloom but last week he was teasing about hitting that, so maybe that’s concerning. But it does seem like he’s toying with the idea of being Will’s friend and wrestling with what having a friend might mean when your friend is working toward arresting you but just doesn’t know it yet. So yeah, a lot on his mind.

So then this happens. “You waited a long time to kiss her. Why now?”

“I heard an animal in my chimney.”

Hannibal waits. Because, you know, to some that may be a good reason to kiss someone, but even the psychopaths are kinda, “Gonna need a little more on that.”

Then I fixated on dessert some. The food porn on this show, OMG.

So then will acknowledges that his animals are in his head and that he’s unstable. Hannibal suggests that perhaps Will didn’t kiss Alana because of animals in his chimney but perhaps in the hopes of gaining some balance. That makes more sense which is why he’s paid the big bucks. Of course, that SHE knew he was hearing imaginary suffering animals and kissed him is kind of a big question. But it does explain why she doesn’t so much want to date him.

Hannibal changes the subject to the new killer and tattles on Tobias. Two birds, one stone.

Will goes to Tobias’s shop. After a question, Tobias gives himself away pretty quick. Subtlety isn’t his strong suit. When Will’s on, he’s on. But then he hears a mystery dog being hit by a mystery car. Then non mysteriously almost gets himself run over. This turns out to be good fortune on his part, but bad luck for the officers who had accompanied him to the store. His weird behavior gave Tobias enough time to kill both officers and then hide out in his Jame Gumb like basement. There Will sees that the strings, it’s people!

Tobias tries to kill Will with the strings but Will has already drawn his gun. The ensuing struggle results in Will shooting Tobias in the ear. Tobias manages to flee to Hannibal’s office where Hannibal is letting Franklin down easy. Time for a new doctor, buddy!

Franklin worries it’s because he didn’t turn Tobias in, which Hannibal says isn’t the point, but I assume is why when Tobias shows up bloodied from battle Franklin tries to get control of the situation. He pleads with Tobias to give himself up and that he’ll be there for him. Yay.

Hannibal, knowing that Tobias wants Franklin dead, tells him to leave. But this is Franklin and his self-preservation skills are like zero. So he continues on which just makes Tobias want to kill him more and he’s so totally about to until Hannibal cockblocks by breaking Franklin’s neck.

Okay you can tell Tobias you don’t want to be his friend. You can send police over. But you kill HIS victim? That’s it. Psycho on psycho violence and it is glorious! That beautiful office gets jacked up. There’s bow whipping, there’s ladders used to break arms and in the end, Hannibal’s big stag statue is employed to put an end to Tobias. I haz a sad. But really, this show had only one spot for a refined serial killer in a natty vest and his name is on the show.

I think I found the source of your stag fantasies….

On the bright side, the harpsichord is apparently well tuned. Hannibal plays a song for the dead.

Will looks chastened at how Hannibal got battered and Hannibal looks truly relieved that Will survived Tobias. This looks like a real bonding moment between them, even if it’s based on a lie.

The episode ends with Hannibal talking to his psychiatrist. He is returning to psychiatry. She seems amused that he is returning after only a few days. This kinda confirms her personsuit diagnosis but she’s used to that. They talk about her attack and it is heavily implied that perhaps he killed the person who attacked her. Hopefully there will be more on this later and not only because that means more Gillian Anderson, but also because we can see more of the softer side of the psychopath. There is humanity in there, peeking out. Maybe.

Next week, Trou Normand, which apparently involves Will Graham totally flipping out and a people totem pole.

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap

Hannibal 8: Fromage Feels

I knew this would be a good episode not just from the previews but because earlier in the day when I misread a computer notification that read, “Commit Success,” as “Commit Suicide,” I thought, “But Hannibal is on tonight.”

I hope NBC doesn’t rob me of my will to live by cancelling the show. My husband could sue.

If they replace it with The Blacklist I may have to sue. Did you see the clips they put up as an example of how great this show would be? I love James Spader, but damn, what happened? And then the first clip, Assume the Position, is like a drawn out boring version of Se7en’s John Doe turning himself in which, in context probably is pretty interesting but as a clip for a show was a huge yawn.

And then the second clip, A Very Special Profiler, made me think of Craig Ferguson’s “awkward pause” schtick. Like, it’s a show meant to be similar to Silence of the Lambs, but it’s all NBCized, meaning that in spite of all that could be good, it’s devoid of all that makes Hannibal dark and interesting. Look at all of the trouble Hannibal went to for the dark, gothic look, the careful attention to detail. Then look at the set from The Blacklist that appears to have been set up with all the loving care of the DMV. Anyway. It’s targeted for Monday nights which would’ve been a smarter night for Hannibal all along, but whatever. No one’s accused NBC of being good at TV lately. And hell, doofy The Following got picked up, so who knows.

Anyway, where does that leave us? Oh right, with a show I enjoy. Did everyone #EatTheRude?

I did my part with the tweeting and it seems that there was a Trending Topic victory. Hooray. I don’t know if that does anything but I felt good about myself and pried the “I voted” sticker off of the fridge to wear around the house like it was election day.

So. Fromage.

Will has started hearing doggies in distress in his brain. Hallucinations rarely portend good things to come, but it’s worse when it’s a suffering doggy because what if you ignore it and a dog is in pain? So Will has to check the situation out, even if he kind of suspects the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak. And since Alana Bloom doesn’t hear it, it probably is.

We learn that Tobias is a master craftsman and that THOSE AREN’T CATGUTS which is sort of a relief because I like cats. People, not as much. We don’t really get to know what Tobias’s standards are for who would make good strings or not. I dunno if it’s #BowTheRude but Hannibal does imply that he understands the choice because someone fit would make for having better source guts.

The show isn’t called Tobias, so I tried not to get too invested.

Franklin. Oh Franklin. “Psychopaths aren’t crazy, they are fully aware of what they do and the consequences of those actions.” Okay, so I read The Psychopath Test which makes me kind of an expert on the topic and apparently they kind of aren’t really aware of the consequences. Like, per Robert Hare (inventor of the psychopath checklist) they can know a shock is coming and not have a bodily reaction to it, which is sort of the point. But whatever. Hannibal’s got more hands on experience.

So Franklin does this total passive aggressive thing that made me want to snap his neck right that minute. Hannibal, to his credit, waits for later. But Franklin invites conversation to talk about Tobias rather than himself and Hannibal says, “Yeah, okay, it’s your dime.”

Franklin, “Are you bored with me?”

I do not want to even count how many times I’ve fallen into that conversational trap. It’s less of a trap if you say, “Yeah, kinda.” Because then the person gets upset and leaves. But sometimes that person is your mom and after they realize that the silent treatment isn’t actually a punishment, they come back like nothing happened. Hannibal turns it back around in a way I’m going to use for later. “I will analyze your perception of him.” Smooth.

Tobias is apparently saying things like, “I’d love to shove a cello neck down someone’s throat and play their vocal chords like strings. J/K LOL.” And then it happened.

Will goes to check this thing out and Jack points out that Will isn’t having a hard time looking. Well of course he’s not. It’s fucking fascinating. Gross, yeah, but when you realize that the cello was catguts to start with you have to accept that the cello was a pretty morbid instrument anyway. And you all just totally did a ticky box on me in the psychopath checklist, didn’t you? Whatever.

Anyway. Will says it’s an intellectual exercise, then downs some pills. It’s how I deal with work, too, honey. I’m with you.

Will enters the mind of the killer enough to grok that he wanted to play the vocal chords for real and apparently gets the melody stuck in his head. So he’s got another serial killer’s song in his heart. Hobbs shows up in the audience again, a reminder that probably getting into psycho heads isn’t very good for him.

Hannibal needs help dealing with Franklin, so he talks to his psychiatrist. We learn that she had been attacked by an obsessive patient and that attacker wound up dead. And that Hannibal feels protective of her. There is more to this story. I’m sure we’ll hear it. She suggests Hannibal find Franklin a new home.

Hannibal gets to hear about Tobias again, this time through Will who explains the whole vocal chord cello thing. Hannibal gives a history lesson about flutes being made from human bone, which seems kind of creepy, especially when he knew there was olive oil used in the cello. Hannibal seems somewhat offended or aroused that Will is feeling other psychos behind his eyes. Also, Hannibal gets the insight from Will that this murder is a “serenade.” And Franklin fills in who the serenade was for.

This leads Hannibal to Tobias’s string shop. They bond over how much they both enjoy gut. And music. They’re feeling each other out and it seems to be going pretty well. They trade barbs about the dead trombonist and Hannibal invites him over to repair his harpsichord. If you know what I mean.

There are birds or something in Will’s chimney and then Alana Bloom shows up. Weird, huh? She shows up to check up on him and they wind up kissing. She says she’s confused. I am, too. She’s apparently been kind of dodging being alone with him, presumably because of an attraction but now she shows up out of nowhere. He takes it as a sign and she says, “Oh no, I can’t.” And then she goes.

A couple of things. Apparently next ep is about Will totally losing it and blaming someone. Others have noted the connection of Hannibal and the stag and it’s true, there’s a stag in Hannibal’s office. But I’ve noticed the stag coming before Alana’s appearances. Like in the hospital where she shows up to read to Abigail Hobbs. Maybe she’s making the crazy? But, I’m also rereading Red Dragon where I notice that Dr. Bloom is still happening. Just interesting to consider.

Hannibal has Tobias for dinner in the figurative sense. He asks directly about the trombonist and they discuss what Tobias’s rather reckless plans are for killing Franklin and making a mad dash into the future. Hannibal seems pretty amused with the whole thing until Tobias confesses to following Hannibal and seeing him in action. It’s one thing to have a sort of shitty plan to escape law enforcement. It’s another when you have leverage. Tobias wants a friend but again Hannibal isn’t interested in friendship with anyone who wants to be friends with him. Other than Will. He confesses that he invited Tobias over to kill him but didn’t poison dinner. “I wouldn’t do that to the food.”

Artist at work!

At that point, the conversation goes a little cold but they are saved by the bell when Will arrives to say, “I kissed Alana Bloom.”

Okay, so, Will hallucinates things outside, things in his chimney, kisses Alana Bloom and then rushes over to tell Hannibal about it. To which Hannibal says, “Well, come in,” to Will’s back as he’s already through the door and into the dining room. Interesting because I didn’t see Hannibal open the door. What is going on? Does Will have a key or was that just a cut?

It doesn’t even really slow Will down that he walked in on what was obviously a dinner for two. “You have a guest?” sounded more like an accusation than a question. Hannibal offers that dinner was with a colleague and that he had to run off unexpectedly. Apparently from the balcony which was open. In the snow. Without dessert. But whatever, Will hears struggling animals and is being stalked by a phantom stag. I guess vanishing guests is beyond his keen powers of perception.

Hannibal seems a little cold about the situation, but he’s got a lot on his mind. First, he’s got to have massive blue balls about not getting to kill Tobias right then AND he has to now worry that the dude’s gonna narc. He seems secretly pleased that Will came right over after a big event like kissing Dr. Bloom but last week he was teasing about hitting that, so maybe that’s concerning. But it does seem like he’s toying with the idea of being Will’s friend and wrestling with what having a friend might mean when your friend is working toward arresting you but just doesn’t know it yet. So yeah, a lot on his mind.

So then this happens. “You waited a long time to kiss her. Why now?”

“I heard an animal in my chimney.”

Hannibal waits. Because, you know, to some that may be a good reason to kiss someone, but even the psychopaths are kinda, “Gonna need a little more on that.”

Then I fixated on dessert some. The food porn on this show, OMG.

So then will acknowledges that his animals are in his head and that he’s unstable. Hannibal suggests that perhaps Will didn’t kiss Alana because of animals in his chimney but perhaps in the hopes of gaining some balance. That makes more sense which is why he’s paid the big bucks. Of course, that SHE knew he was hearing imaginary suffering animals and kissed him is kind of a big question. But it does explain why she doesn’t so much want to date him.

Hannibal changes the subject to the new killer and tattles on Tobias. Two birds, one stone.

Will goes to Tobias’s shop. After a question, Tobias gives himself away pretty quick. Subtlety isn’t his strong suit. When Will’s on, he’s on. But then he hears a mystery dog being hit by a mystery car. Then non mysteriously almost gets himself run over. This turns out to be good fortune on his part, but bad luck for the officers who had accompanied him to the store. His weird behavior gave Tobias enough time to kill both officers and then hide out in his Jame Gumb like basement. There Will sees that the strings, it’s people!

Tobias tries to kill Will with the strings but Will has already drawn his gun. The ensuing struggle results in Will shooting Tobias in the ear. Tobias manages to flee to Hannibal’s office where Hannibal is letting Franklin down easy. Time for a new doctor, buddy!

Franklin worries it’s because he didn’t turn Tobias in, which Hannibal says isn’t the point, but I assume is why when Tobias shows up bloodied from battle Franklin tries to get control of the situation. He pleads with Tobias to give himself up and that he’ll be there for him. Yay.

Hannibal, knowing that Tobias wants Franklin dead, tells him to leave. But this is Franklin and his self-preservation skills are like zero. So he continues on which just makes Tobias want to kill him more and he’s so totally about to until Hannibal cockblocks by breaking Franklin’s neck.

Okay you can tell Tobias you don’t want to be his friend. You can send police over. But you kill HIS victim? That’s it. Psycho on psycho violence and it is glorious! That beautiful office gets jacked up. There’s bow whipping, there’s ladders used to break arms and in the end, Hannibal’s big stag statue is employed to put an end to Tobias. I haz a sad. But really, this show had only one spot for a refined serial killer in a natty vest and his name is on the show.

I think I found the source of your stag fantasies….

On the bright side, the harpsichord is apparently well tuned. Hannibal plays a song for the dead.

Will looks chastened at how Hannibal got battered and Hannibal looks truly relieved that Will survived Tobias. This looks like a real bonding moment between them, even if it’s based on a lie.

The episode ends with Hannibal talking to his psychiatrist. He is returning to psychiatry. She seems amused that he is returning after only a few days. This kinda confirms her personsuit diagnosis but she’s used to that. They talk about her attack and it is heavily implied that perhaps he killed the person who attacked her. Hopefully there will be more on this later and not only because that means more Gillian Anderson, but also because we can see more of the softer side of the psychopath. There is humanity in there, peeking out. Maybe.

Next week, Trou Normand, which apparently involves Will Graham totally flipping out and a people totem pole.

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap

Hannibal Feels: Sorbet Recap

I dunno if these are recaps. Or reviews. They’re my my feels so that’s what I’m going to call them. Hannibal Feels.

This is the episode I’ve been waiting for all season. Finally we get to see more of Hannibal in his natural state. Most of what we’ve seen on him has been in the context of others. We’ve gotten some glimpses of Hannibal’s personal life, we’ve seen the patient that we met in the first episode. You know, the larger one with the used tissue you thought wasn’t going to make it out of the office? Yeah, he’s back and is at the opera apparently kind of stalking Hannibal.

Not in an overly aggressive way, but his patient obviously wants to be friends. Good friends. They have the opera in common. And cheese. And apparently stalking. Hannibal gently reminds him that it would be an unbalanced friendship since he’s his therapist and Franklin is far too fucking needy, like omg. Not that Hannibal would say that, but you could see it in his eyes.

So, on this subject, I couldn’t help but notice Franklin’s super hot friend. Granted, part of that was because it was two guys together at the opera, one of whom was eyefucking Hannibal and the other part because I write gay romance and I was thinking, “Wow, that dude is way too hot for Franklin.”

Now, let me first say that in real life, I may subjectively think one partner is more attractive than the other but I don’t make any assumptions. When it’s TV…well there’s usually a reason for casting. I’m just saying this so you don’t cotton on too quickly what a shallow bitch I am. Or at least realize that I would NOT say that out loud in public. ‘Cause I’ve heard, “Wow, your boyfriend is really, really hot. I mean. Wow. I didn’t expect you to have such a hot boyfriend.” “Fuck you too, bitch. Learn to give a good blowie and maybe you could eat a fucking Twinkie once in a while.” Not that I’m bitter.

Anyway.

Preview for “Fromage” appeared to have Franklin’s BFF Tobias trying to strangle Will. And something, maybe a recognition….appeared to pass between Hannibal and Tobias, though… Tobias seemed to be clocking Hannibal really hard. Later Franklin talks about how he’s Tobias’s best friend but Tobias doesn’t return the feeling. Hmm….

So anyway, socialite lady bugs Hannibal to have her for dinner. He throws the best dinner parties. I’m going to be suspicious from now on of anyone who’s that into organ meat. Sorry ‘bout it.

Jack is still haunted by Miriam’s severed arm and what happened to her. He worries about the same thing happening to Will. That doesn’t stop him, but it’s in his dreams anyway.

There is a new murderer in town! Someone is harvesting organs but Will is very certain that it is definitely not the Ripper. He makes the point that the killer of the man in the bathtub tried to rescue the dead man. Also, the killer wasn’t trying to humiliate the victim. The humiliation of the Ripper’s victim is very important to Will but he doesn’t seem to realize that the “pig” reference he made to the random copycat of the Shrike is the same he’s making now. Different context and Will is coming apart at the seams anyway. He’ll look back on that oversight and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

The conclusion Will comes to about the new killer was that he was harvesting organs, which, harvesting for food or reuse is, admittedly, a subtle difference. Hannibal capitalizes on this to divert attention from his own signature by muddying the waters for Will. And since Will is spacing out for hours to have elaborate fantasies about elks and Abigail Hobbs, it’s not too difficult to convince him that he could potentially be confused.

There was an interesting theme of companionship going on in this episode. Franklin wants to be friends with Hannibal. Hannibal goes to his therapist (Gillian Anderson!) who is retired but still sees him. She calls him out for being in a person suit (which is sort of funny given Jame Gumm later but…) and mentions that he must be lonely. Hannibal claims to have friends, says that he is friendly with her. Maybe this is him trying to warm up, or maybe because he’s known her so long and she obviously understands that he is not what he presents, or maybe he wants to know how and where to draw the line on therapist/patient friendships. She doesn’t judge him for his person suit, but she does not consider them friends. After the session ends, she offers wine, he asks for pink.

And it’s pink wine he is drinking in his office when Will comes. He pours Will a glass and they discuss the Ripper. Now, we know that Hannibal wants to have his work distinguished from other serial killers and he knows that Will knows the difference. But, as Hannibal is planning for his dinner party, it doesn’t hurt to have the FBI chasing their tails a little.

The interspersal of Rolodex of businesscards of nasty people and the recipe box made me giggle. Though I did wonder what the IT Consultant said. No. I don’t. IT people aren’t the most socially adept. BUT DON’T EAT OUR BRAINZ, OKAY?

Now, these crime scenes are with Will is talking about. He leaves an insurance guy sitting across from himself in a bus. The other investigators chase their tails on how the Ripper is shipping and selling body parts while Hannibal prepares dinner. And shows Alana Bloom the beer he brewed for her in a wine barrel. Now, she apparently has a really good palette and she’s helping him to prepare dinner. Would she know that’s not rabbit?

They seem to have a somewhat quiet non fight about Will. She wants everyone to back off and leave Will alone. He wonders why she kept him so secret. There is a hint about an earlier affair between Hannibal and…someone. Or something. It reminds me of the previous episode where Freddy Lounds points out that they are all in occupations that attract psychopaths.

Hannibal’s murder spree leaves them all confused. You can’t transplant intestines! And I count at least 4 bodies which is at least one more (I’m no math major) than the Ripper’s usual. So 3 for Hannibal, 2 for the new guy. Will is very clear it’s two killers.

Franklin returns to talk about cheese and lament that Tobias isn’t as good a friend as he could be because he doesn’t eat cheese. So, I had to nip off and find out if Franklin was a canon character in the books because he seems familiar. This is by design:

“So what we did in the arc that we had for Benjamin Raspail and Jame Gumb in the first season, we did a different story about a patient of Hannibal Lecter’s who had ties to a serial killer in a unique way. Instead of Benjamin Raspail, we did Franklin Froideveaux — Benjamin Franklin and then Froideveaux is a street that runs parallel to Raspail in Paris. So we were acknowledging in some way that’s the role that we were filling in this season, with those characters and that story you’re going to see.” – Bryan Fuller.

They get in touch with the dull ache of loneliness and then Will stands Hannibal up for his appointment. It’s probably unprofessional to go running after Will, but he’s motherfucking Hannibal Lecter. Now, it could be that Will has figured Hannibal out and is mounting an approach to arrest him. Or Will is just sitting around in his classroom fantasizing about being Abigail Hobbs’s daddy. Hannibal has a look at the crime scene photos. he seems pleased that Will understands the public shaming aspect of his work. Will seems a little surprised that Hannibal gets the difference and backs away a little. Hannibal gets confirmation that his arm-poke at Jack with Miram’s appendage is tingling because it’s working.

In the meantime Beverly Katz has been detectiving and has found us our EMT professional who is selling organs, using an ambulance to perform the surgeries in. Since Lecter is with them, he is able to patch up the poor donor dude who was being butchered. Will realizes there’s things about his friend he doesn’t know. Like that he can put kidneys back in.

Before Hannibal’s big dinner party, Will brings him a bottle of wine but declines to attend. He claims to have a date with the Ripper but obvs not. Hannibal admits to being an ER surgeon (another psychopath job!) and that he quit because he killed someone. Or at least one too many people. Will can relate to this. The matter appears settled.

And with much applause, dinner is served.

 

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: feels, hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap, hugh dancy

Hannibal Ep 7, Sorbet Feels/Review/Recap

I dunno if these are recaps. Or reviews. They’re my my feels so that’s what I’m going to call them. Hannibal Feels.

This is the episode I’ve been waiting for all season. Finally we get to see more of Hannibal in his natural state. Most of what we’ve seen on him has been in the context of others. We’ve gotten some glimpses of Hannibal’s personal life, we’ve seen the patient that we met in the first episode. You know, the larger one with the used tissue you thought wasn’t going to make it out of the office? Yeah, he’s back and is at the opera apparently kind of stalking Hannibal.

Not in an overly aggressive way, but his patient obviously wants to be friends. Good friends. They have the opera in common. And cheese. And apparently stalking. Hannibal gently reminds him that it would be an unbalanced friendship since he’s his therapist and Franklin is far too fucking needy, like omg. Not that Hannibal would say that, but you could see it in his eyes.

So, on this subject, I couldn’t help but notice Franklin’s super hot friend. Granted, part of that was because it was two guys together at the opera, one of whom was eyefucking Hannibal and the other part because I write gay romance and I was thinking, “Wow, that dude is way too hot for Franklin.”

Now, let me first say that in real life, I may subjectively think one partner is more attractive than the other but I don’t make any assumptions. When it’s TV…well there’s usually a reason for casting. I’m just saying this so you don’t cotton on too quickly what a shallow bitch I am. Or at least realize that I would NOT say that out loud in public. ‘Cause I’ve heard, “Wow, your boyfriend is really, really hot. I mean. Wow. I didn’t expect you to have such a hot boyfriend.” “Fuck you too, bitch. Learn to give a good blowie and maybe you could eat a fucking Twinkie once in a while.” Not that I’m bitter.

Anyway.

Preview for “Fromage” appeared to have Franklin’s BFF Tobias trying to strangle Will. And something, maybe a recognition….appeared to pass between Hannibal and Tobias, though… Tobias seemed to be clocking Hannibal really hard. Later Franklin talks about how he’s Tobias’s best friend but Tobias doesn’t return the feeling. Hmm….

So anyway, socialite lady bugs Hannibal to have her for dinner. He throws the best dinner parties. I’m going to be suspicious from now on of anyone who’s that into organ meat. Sorry ‘bout it.

Jack is still haunted by Miriam’s severed arm and what happened to her. He worries about the same thing happening to Will. That doesn’t stop him, but it’s in his dreams anyway.

There is a new murderer in town! Someone is harvesting organs but Will is very certain that it is definitely not the Ripper. He makes the point that the killer of the man in the bathtub tried to rescue the dead man. Also, the killer wasn’t trying to humiliate the victim. The humiliation of the Ripper’s victim is very important to Will but he doesn’t seem to realize that the “pig” reference he made to the random copycat of the Shrike is the same he’s making now. Different context and Will is coming apart at the seams anyway. He’ll look back on that oversight and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

The conclusion Will comes to about the new killer was that he was harvesting organs, which, harvesting for food or reuse is, admittedly, a subtle difference. Hannibal capitalizes on this to divert attention from his own signature by muddying the waters for Will. And since Will is spacing out for hours to have elaborate fantasies about elks and Abigail Hobbs, it’s not too difficult to convince him that he could potentially be confused.

There was an interesting theme of companionship going on in this episode. Franklin wants to be friends with Hannibal. Hannibal goes to his therapist (Gillian Anderson!) who is retired but still sees him. She calls him out for being in a person suit (which is sort of funny given Jame Gumm later but…) and mentions that he must be lonely. Hannibal claims to have friends, says that he is friendly with her. Maybe this is him trying to warm up, or maybe because he’s known her so long and she obviously understands that he is not what he presents, or maybe he wants to know how and where to draw the line on therapist/patient friendships. She doesn’t judge him for his person suit, but she does not consider them friends. After the session ends, she offers wine, he asks for pink.

And it’s pink wine he is drinking in his office when Will comes. He pours Will a glass and they discuss the Ripper. Now, we know that Hannibal wants to have his work distinguished from other serial killers and he knows that Will knows the difference. But, as Hannibal is planning for his dinner party, it doesn’t hurt to have the FBI chasing their tails a little.

The interspersal of Rolodex of businesscards of nasty people and the recipe box made me giggle. Though I did wonder what the IT Consultant said. No. I don’t. IT people aren’t the most socially adept. BUT DON’T EAT OUR BRAINZ, OKAY?

Now, these crime scenes are with Will is talking about. He leaves an insurance guy sitting across from himself in a bus. The other investigators chase their tails on how the Ripper is shipping and selling body parts while Hannibal prepares dinner. And shows Alana Bloom the beer he brewed for her in a wine barrel. Now, she apparently has a really good palette and she’s helping him to prepare dinner. Would she know that’s not rabbit?

They seem to have a somewhat quiet non fight about Will. She wants everyone to back off and leave Will alone. He wonders why she kept him so secret. There is a hint about an earlier affair between Hannibal and…someone. Or something. It reminds me of the previous episode where Freddy Lounds points out that they are all in occupations that attract psychopaths.

Hannibal’s murder spree leaves them all confused. You can’t transplant intestines! And I count at least 4 bodies which is at least one more (I’m no math major) than the Ripper’s usual. So 3 for Hannibal, 2 for the new guy. Will is very clear it’s two killers.

Franklin returns to talk about cheese and lament that Tobias isn’t as good a friend as he could be because he doesn’t eat cheese. So, I had to nip off and find out if Franklin was a canon character in the books because he seems familiar. This is by design:

“So what we did in the arc that we had for Benjamin Raspail and Jame Gumb in the first season, we did a different story about a patient of Hannibal Lecter’s who had ties to a serial killer in a unique way. Instead of Benjamin Raspail, we did Franklin Froideveaux — Benjamin Franklin and then Froideveaux is a street that runs parallel to Raspail in Paris. So we were acknowledging in some way that’s the role that we were filling in this season, with those characters and that story you’re going to see.” – Bryan Fuller.

They get in touch with the dull ache of loneliness and then Will stands Hannibal up for his appointment. It’s probably unprofessional to go running after Will, but he’s motherfucking Hannibal Lecter. Now, it could be that Will has figured Hannibal out and is mounting an approach to arrest him. Or Will is just sitting around in his classroom fantasizing about being Abigail Hobbs’s daddy. Hannibal has a look at the crime scene photos. he seems pleased that Will understands the public shaming aspect of his work. Will seems a little surprised that Hannibal gets the difference and backs away a little. Hannibal gets confirmation that his arm-poke at Jack with Miram’s appendage is tingling because it’s working.

In the meantime Beverly Katz has been detectiving and has found us our EMT professional who is selling organs, using an ambulance to perform the surgeries in. Since Lecter is with them, he is able to patch up the poor donor dude who was being butchered. Will realizes there’s things about his friend he doesn’t know. Like that he can put kidneys back in.

Before Hannibal’s big dinner party, Will brings him a bottle of wine but declines to attend. He claims to have a date with the Ripper but obvs not. Hannibal admits to being an ER surgeon (another psychopath job!) and that he quit because he killed someone. Or at least one too many people. Will can relate to this. The matter appears settled.

And with much applause, dinner is served.

Next up, Fromage.

Filed under: hannibal, recaps Tagged: feels, hannibal, hannibal feels, hannibal recap, hugh dancy

Season 5 RuPaul’s Drag Race thoughts

So I’ve had a couple of days to digest what I thought was the expected result of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I was #teamalaska since the first episode when she answered the question about how she’d dealt with Sharon Needles winning the crown that she had so longed for.

Well, in fairness, I think Alaska’s aim was only ever to be on the show. Winning the crown probably seemed like a distant reality. But whatever. I’d had a taste of her in season 4 and thought she was probably a nutjob. Jesus God was I right about that. All the best drag queens are.

Actually, back it up. I truly felt for her when she couldn’t sink. After years of trying to be on the show, it seemed tragic that she couldn’t complete the first mini challenge and I fretted that after all of that pining, she’d be out in the first without ever getting to shed the shadow of Sharon Needles.

Pretty compelling and dramatic stuff.

As the weeks went on, I fell more and more deeply in love. Not just with her spirit, but this sincerely punk rock vibe she brought and her genius writing and character ability. Rolaskatox was formed early and my expected favorite, Detox, was part of that. Yet, it was always Alaska’s performances that caught my attention and always Alaska whom I chewed my nails to the nub over.

Because, let’s face it. Those first weeks were seriously rough. She wasn’t in the bottom two but she was definitely in the bottom three. It seemed like just a matter of time before something went wrong for her and it all blew up in her face.

Except, it didn’t.

She ditched Rolaskatox, which I’d suspected that instead of being a meangirl clique, was mostly using Alaska’s originality and writing to see them through. Not that Detox should’ve needed the support but she did seem decidedly distracted through the second half of the season. Maybe it was exhaustion. She mentioned her father being sick and I do think that Ru’s triggering really did throw a lot of queens off. Except for Alaska. Needle’s appearance seemed to focus her.

Anyway.

Along the way, Jinkx also caught my eye. Not just for her performances and her improved fashion, but because Coco seemed to target her. Earlier in the season Coco tried the same sort of shit with Alaska. Lineysha Sparks called Alaska a disaster. But she did not fold, she did not cry. She deflected and called them rude. It was no fun to pick on Alaska Thunderfuck, who may not have been that self-assured, but she wasn’t letting those bitches see her sweat.

Jinkx was a little more vocal in her complaints. It was clear that when Coco came for her that it bothered her. It didn’t thow off her performances, but she was visibly upset. I believe that this is where Jinkx gained the upper hand. Queens that were mean to her represented every bully we’ve ever had and we all wanted to be Jinkx for standing up to them.

Roxxy called it Jinkx playing the victim, but that took two to tango. Jinkx let them see her sweat and the thing is, she did it in front of them and when the rabbit yelped, the foxes didn’t show up to help. I don’t personally believe that Jinkx was “playing” anything. She was genuinely hurt. And while I’m sure that people on the internet rising to her defense was flattering, if she’s half the person I believe her to be, her schadenfreude probably lasted right up until someone said that Roxxy’s mother was right to leave her at the bus stop.

And at a certain point, protecting Jinkx probably feels offensive. She’s a grown ass man. She stood up for herself. She didn’t let anyone put Baby in the corner. That’s why she’s worthy of the crown.

I just happen to feel that there was someone else worthier. Alaska stood up for herself. She accepted her partner’s success and rose above it to make her own. She came out in boy drag. She was hilarious in challenges and in the workrooms. She cried when it was appropriate, but never when it felt manipulative. She was, in general, a warm, awesome human being as well as crazy talented.

And, for me, Alaska is what I want from drag. Sass. Political incorrectness. Wild. Punk rock. Dirty subversive tempered with determination and a singular force of personality. I could argue that much of this is true to Jinkx, but reading other posts from people, I didn’t get the feeling that those are the reasons they voted for her.

The Cult of Nice is probably going to have a lot of the same problems with Jinkx as they do with Sharon Needles. Drag is, by nature, subversive. Edgy. It’s not JUST a guy in a dress but it is, more or less, a guy in a dress. By their very nature, they’re performing a revolutionary act in our culture to even go there in a dress. They’re meant to be provocative. They’re wired for it. If you’re not questioning your preconceived notions, they really are just a dude in a dress.

Speaking of… Roxxy. What the fuck. Not only, in the end, did she miss the point of drag, but her real tragedy wasn’t getting on the wrong side of Jinkx fans. It was not embracing the fact that she can be FUCKING FUNNY. As hilarious as Alaska and Jinkx, no. But Tossya Salad? That was awesome! As Taymar Braxton? Holy crap. Work it girl.

It’s not RuPaul’s Comedy Skit race. Roxxy didn’t have to be the funniest. She just needed to be funny enough. Instead she got all twisted and it affected her ability to be funny. She could be so much more than she is, she doesn’t even begin to comprehend her power. I hope this show taught her a lesson because with her polish and humor, she could rule it.

But, as it is, it’s Monsoon Season. I hope it’s a year that treats her with all of the love and kindness she deserves. And I hope that I get to meet Alaska Thunderfuck for reals at Woodlawn in October. I have a little something for her. I couldn’t afford her a crown but I have something that I think she’ll like better.

Watch RuPaul’s Drag Race season 5 online free!

Or pre-order Season 5 uncensored on DVD

Filed under: recaps Tagged: alaska, dragrace, rupaul