Hannibal Season 3 is a prime example of how much better a television or movie series based on books can be if all of the source material is out in advance. Watching this season, as the writers fold in the 31-year old story of Red Dragon and knead it into their current narrative, into our current world…there are only a few more episodes before it is all done, but even after the show ends, there will still be this delicious dish left over for others to savor.

Going to ramble a bit about the show vs the book so spoilers here and there for both of them. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

I just read Red Dragon a few months ago and I thought it had stood up pretty well, but, of course, Will and Hannibal’s relationship is nothing like the show. When Harris wrote the novel, he had no idea what Hannibal would become. Bryan Fuller ans his team managed to craft a prequel to the story over the past two years, lifting elements from other books in the series and they have made the characters and story richer for it. The connection between Hannibal and Will is even stronger, even creepier.

With the addition of Alana Bloom and her relationship with these two men, the story gets an extra layer. Watching her “wag her finger” at Hannibal in last night’s episode made me worried about where her path would ultimately lead. She knows Hannibal will kill her. I feel like she is resigned to that fate, but she will do everything in her power to keep him locked up for as long as she can. I’m concerned she won’t survive this season, that maybe instead of sending the Red Dragon after Will, Hannibal will send him after Alana and her new family. Though I suppose that wouldn’t really count as him killing her, which was his promise. He is very particular about language and meaning, that Hannibal.

The scene between Will and Hannibal was so fantastic. The language was magnificent, as Hannibal proclaimed that he had created a family for Will already and how betrayed he felt, not because Will took the stand against him in court (though his comment about the cologne shows it did bother him a little), but that Will has moved on and created a strong bond with another person, a person who makes him better, not worse. Hannibal doesn’t like it.

And, of course, Jack and Hannibal. Trying to play each other. Was Hannibal really surprised that Jack read his note? He must have known that would happen and as soon as Will revealed that he had read it, Hannibal knew Jack had too, that he had manipulated Will and also Hannibal. Or had Hannibal manipulated Jack? I think they are believe they are playing each other and are aware that the other is playing them.

I love how Hannibal’s cell shifts between reality and the mind palace he has created for himself. That one moment Will is beyond the glass and the next they are in Hannibal’s office. And the flashbacks to Hannibal’s secret life with Abigail…his comment to Will about the “ready made family” with Molly, how her already having a son meant that he didn’t have to worry about passing on the traits he didn’t like about himself…and then telling Will that he gave him a daughter once. But for Hannibal, Abigail was the daughter with the traits he wanted, someone willing to hunt with him and for him. Something a biological child could not guarantee him either.

Then we have Richard Armitage lurking around as The Tooth Fairy The Great Red Dragon, with only moments of actual dialogue but mostly it’s about flexing and twitching and screaming into the sky. Yet he is still amazing and captivating. The way he curls his back and his hands, the agony of transforming. It took me a moment to realize that so much of the book we are IN Dolarhyde’s mind, HE hears the voices but in reality no one else would, so those moments of him freaking out, growling, smacking himself, there is a voice he hears that we do not. We are the sane ones watching him, NOT hearing the voice of the monsters in his head. It makes it even more terrifying because as an audience we can’t even pretend to understand.

JIMMY! BRIAN! FREDDIE! The old gang is coming back together and they are just as amusing as they were before. Especially Jimmy’s line about being overly fond of cats (which later made me think of Beverly and how we all cried for her even though Hannibal had slaughtered so many before her…anyway, we are all overly fond of cats/Katz).

In conclusion: THIS SHOW! and I WANT MY SILENCE OF THE LAMBS FINALE!