Hannibal balances literary canon with its own quirks, capturing Dr. Lecter with style.“Digestivo” is a perfectly wonderful balance of weird, referential, and arty–jam-packed with plot, references, and bizarreness.

Hannibal has saved all of its action for one or two episodes and “Dolce” is the first that brings the painstaking set-up to a head. After some mildly interesting discussions, Hannibal is captured. Ta-da.

With “Contorno,” Hannibal stops reflecting on its past traumas and gives us a bit of forward momentum. It’s counter-productive to call this episode weird, but I was so enjoying all the psychological interludes that plot business begins to feel strange simply by its lack of Hannibal‘s patented weirdness.

I’m sure you all heard my cries of despair from wherever you were when Hannibal was cancelled earlier this week. What cancellation means for us in the now is that we just must savor the rest of this season all the more and pray to the God of Streaming Service revivals.

This week, Hannibal introduces more bits from the novels with plenty of twists. “Secondo” is less trippy than usual but has plenty of soul(?)-searching, exploring both the nature of stories and Hannibal’s own past traumas.

The first ten minutes of “Primavera” is just a complete replaying of the climax from the season 2 finale. You’d think this would be pointless, but removed from the overblown context of the rest of the season it’s a perfect setting of the stage for Will’s messed up headspace.

Welcome back to HANNIBAL, where we turn gory murder into pure art and never miss the opportunity to make cannibal puns. This season we’re in for Italian meal-related names and Hannibal’s crimes actually out in the open.