[My ComiCon experience..sort of.]

So my dad dropped me off at Old Town and I took the Trolley to the Convention Center. I got to where the book signing for Hannibal was(in front of the Tin Fish). There was already a line but not as bad as I thought(it was at 11 and I got there just after 9 a.m.)

(BTW the trolley was PACKED. I must say for someone who does not like being in a place with a lot of people-with no room to move-I did quite well!)

Whilst I was in line I talked to other fans, and that made the time go a lot faster. There was an area-a sort of holding area-where the stars were and we could see Hugh Dancy, Richard Armitage and Bryan Fuller.

The line moved really slowly for a while, but then right as we were going to get  to the front of the line,they capped it(meaning no more people) but then they decided to come along the line and sign a few peoples' books, and I got mine signed by Hugh Dancy and Bryan Fuller. I think they may have been having to leave to catch flights and the like,which is why they only had an hour for the signing, but I didn't care..I was a little agitated when we were at the front of the line, but then relieved when I realised that they would sign a few peoples' books(because I was like right behind the cap).

Hugh is so good looking in real life-so is Richard Armitage, who was also there but who had to leave(sooner than Bryan and Hugh did.)

So it was a good day.I enjoyed it :)

[Something that would surprise people about me..]

As much as I am a foodie(and I really am!) sometimes I really do get a feen for something kinda base..like a Filet O Fish sandwich.I LOVED Filet O Fish when I was a kid.

The other thing I always want(but have been talked out of it most of the time) is a store bought  birthday cake.I always LOVE the look of the cakes that they have at Costco.

I've always had a pretty refined palate from a young age..when I was 3 or 4 years old I went to preschool. My teacher Mrs. A would give us the choice of peanut butter and jelly or tuna fish for lunch and I always had tuna fish, which I loved(and Mrs. A loved it because she didn't have to eat a whole can of tuna fish  by herself.)

My mom tells the story of when some friends of the family brought over an octopus that they had caught. I actually ate it(and liked it)-and in fact my mom looked over at one point and I had a tentacle hanging out of my mouth!

I am NOT a picky eater(I think we may have established that in one of my earlier blog posts about food).There are hardly any vegetables that I don't like(and I'm always game for trying new ones!)

[S3 Ep 6:Dolce]

Still no new news on Hannibal being picked up by someone else..but I am still hopeful.There is a chance that we will find something out this weekend at ComiCon(also hopeful)

Ratings..are what they are.Not enough to make NBC consider un-cancelling Hannibal,unfortunately. #ouch. LOL I think they're going to seriously regret renewing Aquarius come the fall..Pretty sure they saw what was being said about them after they cancelled Hannibal :P

That being said, on to the review.The usual applies.. this is going to be an all over the place review -just the way I do things/my mind works..I love being a bit stream of consciousness, me. ;)

[Obviously I've seen too many horror movies]

The other day my dad and I went to a play at the Old Globe. I had to use the restroom before we walked back to where my dad's car was. By the time we were walking across the bridge hardly anyone was around. There are a lot of homeless people that sleep in the park at night.That's one variable that was kinda making me uncomfortable(though we did get to out car safe.)

Then we ran into a girl who forgot where she had parked(turned out she was parked in a lot on the other side of the park.)My dad offered to give her a ride to her car. The directions she was giving were a little weird, and it was kinda making me uncomfortable(turns out that she was using the GPS on her phone but I didn't know that.) But we did get her to her car safely, so that's good.

I guess I just need to go out of my comfort zone-and occasionally do things that I wouldn't normally do-though I wouldn't do anything that might put me in any sort of danger.

[Weekend report-with added Monday content!]

Friday: I stopped off at one of my favorite places and realised..I didn't have my credit card. Luckily some nice people picked up  my bill.

Saturday:Went to a Fourth Of July party..took a mango-cheese chipotle(dressing) salad which was a big hit.Also made saltine toffee-saltine crackers topped with caramel and chocolate chips-also a big hit.And very easy, too!

Sunday:My dad and I went to the fair for a couple of hours.We had free tickets and it was the last day of the fair so thought it'd be a good idea to go which we did.I only need a few hours which is exactly how long we spent there.

Monday:I went to UTC(University Town Centre) a local mall. I thought I wasn't going to be able to get home from there because they had the buses in a different area. I figured it out(thankfully) and was able to get home safe.

In the evening we went to Shakespeare's Pub in San Diego, which is one of my favourite, if not my very favourite, English pub in San Diego. I had a curry on  french fries(delicious!) and a pint of Stella Artois. My dad had one of the happy hour deals-a $5 hamburger and a pint of Newcastle Brown.

Then we went to the Old Globe and saw Twelfth Night. Rutina Wesley, who is in this season of Hannibal, was supposed to be playing Viola, but last night there was an understudy.The understudy was really good fortunately so Rutina taking a night off was not such a big deal for me.

[Creative Writing]

Today's prompt is:

He turned the key in the lock and opened the door. To his horror he saw..

Water. Everywhere.There had been a BAD clog in the pipes and it just *happened* to only affect his apartment.Of course.He wasn't completely surprised, since it was an old building.The guy who owned the building kept saying he was going to update the pipes but he never did. Fortunately he had good insurance, so everything in his house was replaceable with insurance money.

[Hurricanes and cruising-and you]

It's only July and there haven't been many tropical storms/hurricanes..yet. But when there *is* one-and if they interfere with cruises-and a cruise line screws up dealing with it, you'll know.

Personally, I would never cruise during hurricane season.I understand why people do so(cheaper) but they do NOT understand that there are risks involved with it-missing the boat, and missing ports among them.And people do not buy insurance.Without insurance, you are shit out of luck-and people STILL don't do it. That makes no sense whatsoever!

When a cruise line "screws up" and doesn't deal with it appropriately,people are almost gleeful.Not defending the cruise line,but there are plenty of fans of other cruise lines that are quick to line up to bash the offending cruise line.Same with the people who write for the main Cruise Critic website..to read some of what they write when things like this happen,there is a bias against certain cruise lines.

The time when Royal Caribbean "screwed up" because of Hurricane Irene is a good example. There were a LOT of people who flew in to San Juan Puerto Rico(where the cruise started). You NEVER do that-at least not if you're a *smart* cruiser. The only reason that you would get to the port the day of is if you were within driving distance-Ft. Lauderdale is a good example of this, as are San Diego and Long Beach.)

People  want to lay complete blame on the cruise line but truth of the matter is, is that cruisers do plenty of things that are *their* fault..not saying that the cruise lines aren't at fault, but when you read the posts on the Cruise Critic forums bashing cruise  lines who "screw up" and read the posts from Cruise Critic writers, their biases certainly shine through. You certainly see it on the HAL(Holland America Line) boards. Cruise Critic brass are biased-especially towards Holland America.They see HAL as especially untouchable..for whatever reason.

Gonna go off topic here but it bears discussing..

Royal Caribbean frequently comes in for a lot of shit and I think their super-sized ships bring out the hate in people.What a bizarre thing to hate over.No-one is forcing you to cruise on them-and you're entitled not to like them but some of the comments are based on..searches for a phrase and settles on "petty bullshit".

Holland America is-in order to keep up with the Joneses like Royal Caribbean- being forced to go to bigger ships..which will probably make Holland America lose some of its appeal for the writers at Cruise Critic.

Holland America is starting to realise who their actual passenger base is. And I KNOW they read the Cruise Critic boards(I mean, they know peoples' real names,so..)

[Meme time!]

Last time you had butterflies in your stomach?The day of the Hannibal premiere.

What was your last alcoholic drink?vodka

What's your favourite number?23

Did you ever go to camp as a kid?Yes.I hated it.

Has a friend ever used you?Short answer:Yes.

What's your favourite lollipop?Green apple or watermelon

What stores' departure from your shopping mall most saddened you?The bookstore.

Do you prefer Wednesdays or Thursdays?Thursdays(for obvious reasons!)

McDonald's or Burger King?McDonald's

Number of pillows?As few as possible. I don't like too many pillows.

Which do you dislike most:Pop up ads or spam email?Pop up ads.

What's the most messed up food combination you've had that was quite good? I don't know that it's so odd, but pickles with grilled cheese sandwiches.

If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

How would you describe your sense of humor?Warped.Sarcastic.

What was the worst job you ever had?Working at a record store.It was my first "real world" job. I hated the work.I hated my boss.

If you could have any kind of dog in the world, what would it be? a French Bulldog.

[S3 Ep 5:Contorno]

God how I loved this episode.

But first, a few things:Ratings:not great. But it kinda doesn't matter at this point :P

Secondly, the cast have been released from their contracts.This doesn't mean the end, should Hannibal be picked up by a streaming service or cable network.It just means that the contract negotiations could get interesting. And finally, Bryan Fuller is commiting to American Gods right now,so he would  be doing that for a while.What that means is that the fourth season of Hannibal, should it get picked up, may not happen for a while.

I have resigned myself to being OK with that-I mean, we had to wait a year plus for S3..I think I could do it, if I had to. The waiting for S3 did get to me-It got to all of us Fannibals in some shape or form!

And good lord.The promo for next week's episode.I immediately was wishing that it was next Thursday already :)

[Restaraunt review:Bagby Beer Company]

So I went to Bagby Beer Company for dinner tonight. It's a new(less than a year old!) restaraunt within walking distance of my house. And yes, they have beer. They have a selection of beer for just about any type of taste(I did not have the beer on this visit but will definitely be going back as I see they have samplers of various types of beer..Gotta love that!

The decor is very simple. There  is a long bar, several communal tables, and a large outdoor area  for when the weather is nice(which it almost always is around here!)

Now!To my dinner! I ordered a turkey burger which was served on a pretzel bun.They served it with a tomato jam, and a horseradish mayo.It was TASTY. They serve it with big, thick cut french fries. I had iced tea.

Pricing?It was a little on the spendy side(almost $20 for dinner) so it will only be an occasional treat, but I do want to go back and try a couple of the beers.

[Creative writing]

Today's prompt is: a evangelist and a memo.

Ok..

He got on the intercom with his secretary: "would you please cancel the rest of my appointments for the day? This is really bad.It is going to take me the whole rest of the day and maybe tomorrow to get this sorted out".

He hadn't been entirely surprised by the content of the memo;however, what had happened finally came to light and in public knowledge so he was going to have to deal with the consequences of it himself.Noone else. He wasn't happy about it, of course. He made a few notes to himself.Just then the phone rangg. He wasn't at all surprised who was on the other end of the line.

"I was just going to call you..so we could do some..strategizing" he said.

[San Diego is the ish]

And of course the day I  sit down to write this I have something interesting to talk about-we got thunder and lightning today-some monsoonal weather which is not unusual for here, especially this time of year.So I'm adding it to my list of things that I love about San Diego(also:It's just about cured me of my fear of thunder, so there is that!)

There is so much to like about living here-one of the things that I love-and you can't really get a feeling for it unless you're flying over it in an airplane-is all of the wilderness areas.When you're flying into San Diego you go over a lot of  forest before you get to where there are houses. And you understand why forest fires are such a big deal when they happen. Brush fires, too.

[Random Hannibal thoughts]

*Am I the only one who  totally pictures the Revenge Squad picking  weapons?:P  Will has a taser,Alana has  throwing stars,Jack has brass knuckes, Chilton has a paintball gun and Mason (via Cordell) a baseball bat.

*Me, I am LOVING this season. I think I've said that more than once, and we are only 4(5 as of this week) episodes in. Don't get the hate some major TV websites have WRT the pacing and plot.It's leaving some "fans" of the show cold and it's just odd.

*Will had a nicer hospital room-like a hotel suite, really! than everyone else-maybe he has the next tier of insurance?(I heard a suggestion that  possibly everyone was at the same hospital-a private hospital-that would explain the look of it, very sparse(from what we could see.)

My theory is that Will has quite a bit of money saved up(and maybe he got some "we're sorry" money from the FBI after the Red Dinner. :P) He bought his house "as is" but was up to the challenge of fixing it up.

That also explains why he's able to buy a sailboat and fix it up.

[Blog housekeeping]

It's possible I will be posting twice a day occasionally;I am going to post a Hannibal post  later on today because I have some things I want to talk about but the review posts aren't really the place for it.

One thing I'd like to do more of are topical/in the news posts(I had every intention of posting about Charleston when it happened but never did.)

More restaraunt reviews(I have a particular restaraunt-which is within walking distance of my house!-in mind and will do that soon.)

[I am all for trying something new]

Some people are all up in arms about the Konigsdam. My feeling about this are as follows:

Nobody is forcing you to go on the Konigsdam. And inasmuch as people are entitled to their opinion, it is whinging, for lack of a better term.

Holland America is trying something new,(and it's about damn time!)... it's upsetting some cruisers. But these are the people who favour the older, more classic ships(the same ships that are being sold to other cruise lines, cruise lines who want to take on all of the issues which come with buying older ships from another cruise line.

Here are some of the complaints about Konigsdam from people on the Holland America boards on Cruise Critic(with my opinions in bold)

*Too big of a ship
It is, in fact much smaller than the Royal Caribbean ships.NEXT.

Too crowded
To see renderings of the ship, it looks like the *opposite* is true.

*Not enough bars
Some posters on the Cruise Critic HAL boards are obsessed,obsessed I tell you, with where their next drink is coming from.

*No glass elevators(a feature on all HAL ships).
Really?*that* is a deal breaker for you?

But for all of that, there are plenty of people that want to be one of the first to cruise on her. There was negativity before the Niew Amsterdam and Eurodam, and they are some of the most beloved ships in the Holland America fleet(and I've been on Eurodam so can speak from personal experience!)

Holland America is going for a newer, cleaner look(and more choice of restaraunts, including a Dutch-themed ship and a seafood restaraunt(which I SO would try if I was cruising on Konigsdam!)

Already, there is word of mouth about Konigsdam;I doubt that Holland America is worried about it not selling out.With everything it has going for it, it is going to be very popular.

[So excited! everyone should be able to get married!]

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the Supreme Court ruling that  same sex marriage is now a right in all 50 states. Yes, it is. And I am so excited. This is a right that people have been fighting for  for a long time now, and now it is The.Law.Of.The.Land. Hells yeah!

People who know me are well aware that I am a supporter of gay rights. I don't like that my gay friends are being discriminated against, but there are still so many places where you have to keep it a secret.  San Diego isn't really like that(though San Diego's politics run towards the more conservative, we have a really great Pride weekend which gets a HUGE turnout every year.I've never gone, but I hear it's fun. I would love to go but I'm not a big fan of crowds(the reason(apart from tickets being so expensive and selling out fast)I don't go to San Diego ComiCon.)

So today, Oceanside(the city I live in) had their Fourth Of July parade(yeah, a week early, I'm sure there's a reason behind it.) and they had someone there with a rainbow flag.She was from the North County LGTBTQ resource center. I started talking to her.. anyhow, I wound up walking with the people from the LGBTQ center-I was honoured to be able to walk with them and show my support(and we had a lot of support from people watching the parade-it was more muted in some places but very much present in others.

Of course, the ruling was a topic of conversation..people could not believe the timing of it.And it really is amazing.

And you know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if  that is the theme of San Diego's Pride parade this  year :)

[S3 Ep. 4:Apertivo]

I loveloveloved this episode, for a very many reasons which will be obvious  as you read through the review.

But one thing I have to mention:
I love that they showed characters  taking some time to recover from their injuries(granted, this episode *did* jump around in time,like in one scene Will is in a hospital bed and the next he's in his garage fixing a boat motor. For people who don't understand that, it's called a plot device. I saw criticism of that from a website that is normally very supportive of Hannibal.They're entitled to their opinion but IMO it seemed like they weren't understanding what was going on.

Not sure if it was the structure of this episode, but I was amazed at how fast it went by-I mean, I'm sitting there watching and half an hour has gone by already!

And how about that promo for next week! Shit is going to get real,that is all I have to say about that(I wish it was Thursday already!)

OK, that said, on to the review. If I miss anything out, I'm sorry, but I've been tweeting whilst I watch the show instead of taking notes.

[TV things]

Seriously.. Aquarius got renewed for a second season?Really?As if I needed any more reasons to avoid watching their shows in the fall. As soon as Hannibal is finished on NBC, I won't watch NBC.Ever. I am going to block it on my TV(I've done that before, when the coverage of ebola started to get to much.But I didn't stick with it for very long :P

Bones is going to time jump when it comes back this fall.6 months..and apparently Bones and Booth are going to be living in another town with their kids when a HUGE case at the Jeffersonian  has them going back to DC. Yawn. I haven't been interested in Bones for quite a while.

I dunno, I could do with being addicted to a few less TV shows, and I have dropped some shows because I didn't like where they were going with plots(NCIS is a good example of this.. I had a friend who I would run into at Barnes &Noble sometimes who also was a NCIS fan, and we would talk NCIS. But then I couldn't get to Barnes &Noble so easily and I quit watching the show, so I didn't feel so bad about it.)

[Mentioning a few things that couldn't go elsewhere]

*I will occasionally miss days-that's what happened yesterday..the day just got away from me :)

*Have I talked about the finale of Orphan Black yet?well,I thought it was awesome(I'll be amazed to see if they really did kill off a certain character)

*Summer is here.It's been feeling like it here for the past couple of days.

*No Hannibal news(if there is,I'll blog about it.)

*I have so much stuff for my Cruise Critic post that I have 2 weeks(and possibly 3 if there is an outbreak of drama) worth of posts.

*TV Line had a Blind Item: "I just got 2015-16 season intel that is going to leave a certain fandom shaken, stirred and pissed off".

I don't know why, but the first show that came to mind was Bones. If it's not Bones,I'm wrong, but I feel like we're going to get some sort of news about Bones when they start production again..I'm betting that they are going to announce a final season,possibly at the start of the season or in the middle of the season.

Problem being that they had a season finale which had to serve as a(possible) series finale because they didn't know if they had been picked up or not, and  everything was left very open-ended.So now they're going to have to write around that and explain what happened(but not have it be handwaving which would be lame.)

[What the fuck,NBC?Not like you have much else!]

And I am not going to apologise for the swearing because honestly?it's how I feel right how.
I was all ready to blog about something else, but then *that* news dropped. Yeah, Hannibal got cancelled. I was upset. I called my mom and she was genuinely upset for me, and she doesn't even like the show! Same with my dad-my Fannibal dad -who will be 75 years young next month!

I was actually on Twitter when the news dropped. I didn't believe it until several people associated with the show confirmed it.

On the plus side though, there is a very strong possibility Hannibal will be picked up by someone-whether it be Netflix or Hulu or whoever(Netflix or one of the pay cable channels like HBO seem to be the favourites right now.) Fannibals will do everything they can-tweet and email people who like the show especially-to try and get them to support Hannibal-it's surprising how many celebrity Fannibals there are-Jordan Gavrais from Orphan Black tweeted that he's a fan recently, and then just today tweeted about the cancellation too.

Can I just say: I have made So.Many.  friends because of this show, and I would hate it if that went away.This fandom feels more like a family than any fandom I have been in. The cast also feels like a family-mind you this is a cast and crew who are on social media interacting with fans. Sure, other show's casts and crews are on social media, but it just doesn't..searches for a word and settles on "ring as true" as  it does with the Hannibal cast and crew.

NBC are really fucking themselves over  by cancelling Hannibal-they really do not realise what they are losing by cancelling Hannibal-Hannibal is a show that is not afraid to take risks, and NBC really were taking a risk in the first place by airing it. NBC could use a lot more risky shows..they play things way too safe.

Now,NBC're  going to coast along on the few "successful" shows they have, and hope that some of their new shows are going to be successful in the fall(not fucking likely.. most of those shows will get one or two episodes before they're cancelled.)

I seriously doubt that NBC are paying attention to what's being posted/tweeted about them,but I hope if they are, they feel really fucking stupid about canceling Hannibal.That won't uncancel Hannibal but it's something.

The ultimate irony would be Hannibal being a HUGE hit with whoever picks it up and NBC  face-fuckingpalming that they cancelled it.

[Cruise Critic is flatlining r/n *clear*!]

*Carnival Corp. is  building several new mega-ships for their Aida line(part of the Carnival umbrella along with several others)

Cue the usual comments about floating condos. *eyeroll*

Holland America is probably going to wind up having to have at least one other ship bigger than the Konigsdam, to keep up with the Joneses(read:inferior cruise lines) since they are selling several of their smaller, older ships(sloppy seconds) to lines like P&O.

*Ship's officers are no longer allowed to go to meet and greets because of people hassling them with petty issues.

Which  ties into something else that was mentioned:

There are some people that expect certain things and to be acknowledged by crew members every time they are onboard a HAL ship.There are certainly people who flaunt their relationships with the crew and have to mention it every chance that they get.

[Mish and indeed mosh]

*I had the best-if not potent-drink-vodka and Cointreau and not much else. I didn't finish it.

*We went to Anthony's for lunch(which I blogged about a while back-the port authority wants to get rid of it and put something more chi chi in there..however I haven't really heard anything else about it so there  must have been a lot of push-back about that..it's s a San Diego institution and it would be sorely missed if were closed and replaced with something else.

*Gonna have a chilled out Father's Day-go to Denny's for breakfast and dad wants coffee when we get home so I will do that.Apart from that,listening to The Dinner Party Show which Bryan Fuller is going to be on(again!)

[S3 Ep 3:Secondo]

The ratings were not great(initially) but went up a little(some websites and a few..fans is the wrong word for them since they only seem to shit-talk the show,want to believe that that is not the case.) Things moved along much more this episode but I loved it,I just loved it anyways(Yes, I know,I have kind of  hard time being objective about the show. I know this! ;) )

Now that I'm rambled a bit,I'll talk about the show(and about the previews for next week a bit at the end.)

[It's been busy!]

Sorry for the lack of blog yesterday but it got late..but it wasn't that I didn't have anything to say-I sure did! time just got away from me, you know?

I am going to make this a blog housekeeping post:I decided that I am going to start going to some of the new restaraunts in town-really wanted to try a place that is within walking distance of my house.I might do a "state of the restaraunts" post about what's new and good(or not) in my neighbourhood. A favourite restaraunt has changed hands(again) and it'll be interesting to see if that affects anything.

Another thing that I am going to do is a sort of meta post about Hannibal.Not sure if I will do it on the same day as one of  my reviews or not..and I might wait until I've seen a few more episodes to do so.

[Creative writing..with a bit of a twist!]

I am going to talk about fanfic. Have I written fanfic?oh yeah,I have.I have written fanfic for shows that nobody else remembers, sprawling things which filled up several notebooks. I also really like to write new characters and incorporate them into the story.

Have I written less than perfect fanfiction?Sure!I've had my fanfic called "shitty" and you know what?It really doesn't bother me at all.

I'm kinda private about my fanfic..I think I would have to do a lot of editing before I would think about putting it on someplace like Archive Of Our Own(I'm kind of a perfectionist that way, I guess..).I really like Archive, and Fanfiction.net less so(there are fics for shows that haven't been on the air  for years...some of them better than others.

Would I write Hannibal fanfiction?I  have..I've got a ton of ideas up here *taps head* for plot ideas..I kinda want to write a kid!Will fic, I have a great idea for a back story fic with Will and his dad..or a post-S3 fic,possibly.We'll have to see how the S3 finale plays out.

 I also like hospital fics, so I think it would be cool to write a fic with what happened with Will when he was in the hospital after he was stabbed..I kinda think it wasn't as easy as the doctors patching him up..there was a reason that it took him 8 months to recover.

[Kinda boring..same old same old TBH]

*Quibbling about dress codes.

*Carnival(which owns HAL) is limiting the amount of soda people can bring on board and the people on the Cruise Critic HAL(Holland America) boards are worried it's coming to HAL.OTOH it's not the problem on HAL that it is on Carnival, so..

*No more 1-day cruises(so no one-day cruises  for the Konigsdam so people can check her out..it's likely they'll have her docked someplace and people in the travel/cruise buisness can do tours of her.

*Several posters were talking about  crew members that they didn't like in code.Fortunately it got shut down pretty quickly.

[Restaraunt review..haven't done one for a while!]

We went to a place called Urban Pi the other day. It's design-your-own pizza(this is your design..could not resist making a Hannibal joke.Not even sorry. ;) ) They have the pizza dough on wooden boards and you just order a pizza and add whatever you want on it.

I had a margherita pizza(red sauce,mozzarella and basil and roma tomatoes.) I could have gotten anything else I wanted on there-I think the next time I go,I'll load it up a lot more. They also have salads, and mac and cheese(which was REALLY good, I tried it!) and dessert.

One of the interesting things is that they have fountain drinks made with cane sugar-the cola is good, albeit not particularly sweet. they also had a ginger soda(which was good but burned my throat) ,root beer, and a blueberry soda(which I tried-I liked it but I suspect it's the sort of thing you'll only like if you like blueberries which I definitely do!)

[S3, Ep 2:Primavera]

This is going to go under a cut because it's a little long and also because there may be some people who haven't seen it(in Europe, mostly.)

The ratings:again, not great.Abysmal, actually. Not going to play fan excuse bingo here.Not at all.

A great subtitle for this episode would be "What we talk about when we talk about God", because there is a lot of talk about God, and believing in God.We've seen that before, in Season One. "Killing must feel good to God too.He does it all the time."

Bryan Fuller's Catholic upbringing shows in this episode..I was raised Catholic myself and certainly  got enough of that dogma myself.

The imagery with the saints, and with the churches is very evocative(the early promos had a very cinematic feel, and it has been the case for the first few episodes of S3.Very much so.Especially WRT to severa; scenes in this episode(more about that in a minute, though!)

Some people have been a bit impatient with wanting to find our what happened to the people who were at the Red Dinner. It's been too slow of a roll-out. But I have to say: I really do get  why they're doing it this way.

Alright, now that I've rambled a bit, my actual thoughts on the episode:

[Some shows(not talking about Hannibal here obviously)do not know/realise..]

When they have jumped the shark. The two recent examples are The Simpsons and Bones.

Supposedly on the upcoming season of The Simpsons Marge and Homer are going to separate.Wait, what?Where the hell did this come from?I mean, they have had plenty of marital issues in the past and something is SO major that it causes them to separate?It just doesn't make any sort of sense.

I've watched The Simpsons for years and years(going back to when they were on the Tracey Ullman Show).I am going to confess something. There were quite a few episodes last season that I didn't watch, or I half-watched them because they just weren't interesting to me.

There are a lot of Simpsons fans who have felt that way for a while-and maybe I  just didn't want to admit that it'd jumped the shark. But now, with  this news, I feel like I don't need to feel bad about it anymore.

The other show that is like that is Bones. It used to be such a good show, but it's descended into melodrama and confusing plots(last year's season finale was a low-Hannibal's aired the same week-and was much more coherent(and watchable-albeit tragic.)

Judging by what I've read, Bones' finale leaves everything up in the air-two characters are(possibly) leaving the country, and another is separated.They filmed it before they knew if they were renewed for another season thus the..final feeling of the episode. It's just not what I want to watch.

Frankly, I am really amazed that Bones got renewed for another year..they have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for a couple of years, and the conspiracy  storyline, and gambling storyline are just more proof of it. Plus,they killed off a very popular character, which did not go over well with fans of the show.

I'll always be a little pressed that Bones got an additional 3 years while House got cancelled/decided to end. I don't know how good a 9th season of House would have been-I have seen a speculative review of a 9th season premiere that read like bad fanfic so maybe it's not such a bad thing?

[Well we're certainly not starving!]

My brother and his wife and my nephew are in town so that means a lot of good meals.Tonight, for instance we had a chicken tortilla casserole(a longtime favourite of the family) and not one but two desserts(a cake and  caramel pecan bars which were SO sweet but so delicious!)

Then tomorrow, my mom, sister-in-law and I are going to go out for breakfast at a new coffee place around the corner. Then in the evening we're going out for Mexican food(at one of my favourite restaraunts, TBH)

Yesterday my dad and I went to Costco and bought a heat and eat pizza and it was good, albeit rich(it was a meat  lovers-with pepperoni, sausage and salami. I should have just had one slice.As plain as it is, if I had to do it over, I would get a cheese pizza(my 14-year old nephew's preferred pizza)

(When I make pizza at home I usually make either cheese pizza or margherita(cheese, red sauce-I use marinara instead of crappy pizza sauce) and basil.)

[6 months with an iphone]

And I am doing pretty well with it.I kinda wonder why I didn't give in to the smart phone thing a lot sooner, to be honest!

My mom and I do Meals On Wheels, and I can't even tell you how many times I have used the GPS and it has saved my life.

I liked the phone I had before, but it was a budget one, and it was fine, but dealing with tech support was a pain in the ass.I am now with  T Mobile and honestly I can't find any fault with their service-though when I'm on the bus and am looking at the reception on my phone I can certainly tell where T Mobile's cell phone towers are!

[creative writing prompt]

Today's prompt is:Write about someone  who does everything by the book

I'm going to draw on personal experience for this one!I worked in the kitchen of a military school.Twice. And you want to talk about "it has to be perfect OR ELSE". Oh man..I mean,I  don't mind cutting vegetables, but when you've got someone watching what you're doing over your shoulder..I can't cut vegetables uniformly.Never have been able to. That was the wrong job to give me!

If you're thinking about opening a restaraunt/working at a restaraunt I'd suggest working in the kitchen of a military school for a while.It's quite the dose of reality.It's hard work-the kitchen I worked in, we were required to wear long pants, and there was not even enough air conditioning.Add into that all of the cooking that was going on..it was HOT.

We did get lunch for free though-and it was really good.

[Not even sure where to start]

Because there is a shit-ton this week-and there probably won't be another one for a bit the ways things are going.So let's get started, shall we?

*Cheerleaders do not try to spin positive posts but will seldom accept anything negative about their beloved cruise line.This is an issue on each cruise line's board.
(Yeah, but it's a lightning rod on the HAL boards)

They'll say "our cabins have always been fine"
(which discounts the experiences of, and is a slap in the face of anyone who has had issues)

There are a couple of posters that will beat you into a pulp and harass you 'till you give up.I thought that type of behavior was not allowed but some posters are golden.
(Yes, yes they are.)

The cheerleaders have gotten threads that disagree with them closed, which just goes to show how much sway certain posters really *do* have.

*Hal "experts" get on my last nerve. Yes, we know, talking about outside websites and the like is a huge no-no but you don't have to mention it multiple times in the same thread.They jump all over new posters especially-and then snipe at the people who say that that is the sort of thing that scares off new posters(well, it's true!)

WRT the outside website thing too: could they have explained why they did what they did better?Yes.Same with the wine policy.But there was plenty of warning, but not enough for some people, and then there were miscommunications about when it was going to start.Thing is,people knew about that and were kinda in denial about it.They feel like they should be able to bring as much booze as they want on a cruise-but the whole reason that that policy was implemented was because people were bringing cases and cases of wine.Whut?I mean, you're only going on a week long cruise and you need  *that* much wine? I think that's called alcoholism, actually. I don't even care if that comes off as shaming, either.

Yes, HAL's wine selection isn't great, but you have to bring like 2 or 3 cases of wine? SMH.Add to that the way that some cruisers brag about how many drinks they order a day.

*HAL is getting more relaxed about formal nights, according to some comments on the HAL boards...the crew wants guests to enjoy themselves..the cheerleaders are more concerned about this than HAL is(of course..)Someone made the comment about how a lot of the people on the HAL boards are old times who cling to old traditions.
(Ain't that the truth..they want to recreate Titanic on every cruise.That and the "tux and gowns only" mentality. How soon before steamer trunks make a comeback with some HAL cruisers?)

*The lady whose kids got hassled on the Panama cruise posted a picture of the people around the pool-one of the people was the one who hassled her kids so she blurred out the faces of everyone in the picture..except she did a shitty job.

Well, at least she did..unlike the person who posted  pictures of people that they thought were not dressed appropriately on formal night without the faces blurred out(and got ripped a new asshole for it.)

Plus, she mentioned the fact her kids got hassled by other posters..constantly.Like I said when that post was live..it's a cry for attention.

*The  latest thing is "would you cancel a cruise if  you didn't like the captain/cruise director?" Really?Seriously, is this freaking high school? I am dealing with that right now so it hits home..but y'all are grown-ass men and women.I don't get it.

[Both a housekeeping and odds and ends post]

First of all some blog housekeeping:

Hannibal posts will be Friday, after the ratings are posted.

Cruise Critic posts may be on a break for a while as things have really calmed down(apart from some minor dress code threads..This week's Cruise Critic post is an omnibus and is more than a little all over the place.
**********************
Now, to the odds and ends:

*Remember how I said that the pet store at the mall closed?well, it didn't. It just reopened with another name.SMH here.Well, it doesn't smell that bad anymore..maybe one of the conditions of their reopening is that they cleaned the place up,IDK.

*Only two more episodes of Orphan Black left. It's one of the things that has been keeping me sane whilst I was waiting for S3 of Hannibal.

*Finally finished Jonathan Strange And Mr. Norrell(side note:there is going to be a mini series of Jonathan Strange starting next Saturday on BBCAmerica. I finished the book just in time then!).It was the kind of book I really didn't want to finish(and unusually for me it took a month-and that's with me taking it everywhere I go,too!

[S3 Ep 1:Antipasto]

It feels strange-but right-to type that!

So this review is going to be a bit free-form, less structured than the ones I was doing before.

Before I start:The ratings were not very good. Hoping that changes.
****

So..Oh my goodness. So much to love about this episode-I was actually OK with the time jumps(though I think I have permanently gone off of snails..) to explain what was going on-though I can't wait for the later episode where we see Bedelia's patient(played by Zachary Quinto) alive.

Will Graham's name was mentioned, more than once. I'm also very curious to get the flashbacks with what happened to the people at the Red Dinner right after Hannibal left(we sort of got that with a scene where Hannibal is at Bedelia's house washing the blood off of him from the Red Dinner, and it seemed like a lot more than it was(though some of the blood was probably Hannibal's own blood.) Obviously Bedelia knows that something happened, and she asks Hannibal about it.

In this episode, it's clear that Bedelia is scared-and wants to leave. I increasingly-watching the episode-thought that she had been subjected to some sort of hypnosis in order for Hannibal to be able to get her to go with him. But she has moments of..searches for a word and settles on "lucidity" where she realises "Oh shit,I gotta get out of here".But Hannibal's not going to let that happen.

We get a Will doppleganger, Anthony Dimmond. From the start, it's obvious that he is doomed(and yes, by the end of the episode, he is dead.. and put on display.)

The first bit of the episode takes place in Paris, and then moves to Florence. This is TV show as travelogue(it  *definitely* made me want to go to Florence!)We get food/cooking porn almost right out of the gate(one of the big reasons that I watch this show,TBH) but several of them were equal parts "that looks so good!" and nausea inducing(see my earlier comment about the snails.)

 Bedelia goes to a store a couple of times in this episode and buys a VERY expensive bottle of wine and truffles(?). Being on the run hasn't changed Hannibal's tastes-and in fact I'd guess that one of the reasons that he picked Florence(apart from that he had probably,at a guess, been there before, and the other being that it being Florence there are so many good ingredients are readily available at hand for him to cook with.

One of the most striking scenes(and there were a few in this episode) was the scene  with Hannibal lecturing on Dante, and a picture of the devil is superimposed over his face. Seriously... It is one of the most nightmare-fuel inducing things I have ever seen on this show and this is Hannibal we're talking about!

 It's eerily similar to a similar scene in  Ridley Scott's Hannibal(I think they may have even used some of the same pictures,too)

Hannibal has always been very cinematic, but that has been taken to a whole new level in S3....especially a scene with Bedelia  in the bath(and I want that bath so bad!I can't even imagine how expensive it might be!)

I couldn't believe how fast it went-I blinked and we were already halfway through it! There was so much going on I'm pretty sure I missed some stuff but yeah.. 10 plus out of 10.(Am I biased?probably.LOL).Can't wait for next week, which is very Will-centric(yay!)

[Premiere Day! at long freaking last!]

Season 3 predictions:

OK, well, I am going to put  most of this under a cut as it's speculation and a zillion other things;I may   do another post on this after I've gotten to watch a couple of episodes;however this is a show that can be hella twisty and hella dark( Mizumono,much?!) so I could be completely wrong about anything that is past the cut.

But I  have to say:This is  a day that I've been looking forwards to for a very long time(a year plus!) and us Fannibals are going to enjoy it together-we've been blowing  up Twitter for the past few days-it's crazy today(and with good reason, of course!)

So now to the rest of the post:

[Countdown to Hannibal, Day 7]

A assortment of random questions :)

1)Most "did they really just do that?" moment?
Jack:What am I about to put in my mouth? Hannibal: Rabbit. Jack: He should have hopped faster. *cut to a terrified man running through the woods* ROFL.


2)How has Hannibal changed your life?
I have met so many great people because of this show,especially on Twitter. Fannibals are amazing people. I love that the Hannibal fandom is so chill.We've been brought together by this amazing TV show.


3)Your dream Hannibal merch?
I think the shirts are good enough but..plates with a Hannibal theme(deer  as an example)maybe?


4)What Hannibal quote(s) do you use in real life?
"Yes,I think is the answer to that" and "You heard me..USED to" get adapted for everyday use.

[Countdown to Hannibal,Day 6]

Something you never noticed 'till recently:

How *angry* the lyrics of Piangero(the song in the opera scene in Sorbet) are:I was curious, so I looked them up: Cleopatra is talking about haunting everyone who has wronged her..from the afterlife. Yikes.

As one comment I read said.... If you didn't know any better you would think this is a love song!

[Countdown to Hannibal, Day 5]

Which ship do you ship the most?

Hannigram.I'm chill about it, though. I've been in other fandoms where shipping ruined  it for me..but I get that not everyone ships Hannigram.

This fandom does have the best shipping names though: Katz and Dogs(Beverly and Will) Hannidelia(Hannibal and Bedelia) Preller(Price and Zeller) and Willana(Will and Alana) among others.

[Countdown to Hannibal, Day 4]

Do you have a favourite RP(role play) blog related to the show?

willgrahamjournals.tumblr.com

It was the first RP blog I discovered, and the one I go back to time and again.I know there are others out there..there are also people who RP as characters on Twitter and that's a lot of fun, too(and, despite what some think, is harmless fun! )

 Fannibals have a lot of fun with RP-ing for sure :)

[Countdown to Hannibal, Day 3]

Most watchable moment:

The first few minutes of the pilot and the opera scene in Sorbet. They're both very visually stunning in their own ways.

In S2,I'd have to say the human mural, by far.

[Countdown to Hannibal, Day 2]

Do your family/friends like the show?

My dad LOVES Hannibal, and at 74, he's well out of the intended demographic!

My mom is most definitely NOT a fan, but the other day we were talking about the Red Velvet cupcakes I'm making for the premiere. My dad said we should put red food dye in the frosting and my mom  thought it was too much!I was kinda like "where did *that* come from?" LOL. She makes appreciative noises when I show her pictures of Mads and Hugh(I may have ruined it for her by saying that they're both young enough to be her sons!)

As far as family goes, I've Fannibalized a bunch of family members, including my brother and his wife..and several online friends who said "no way am I EVER watching Hannibal".. several episodes later: "I can't quit watching..it's SO good!" Me: "Told you so". Heh.

[Countdown to Hannibal, Day 1]

A few words about why you love the show:

Well, this is going to be more like a dissertation than anything else!

Like a lot of people, I was very skeptical when I heard that they were doing a TV series about Hannibal Lecter. I think a LOT of people were. But after I saw the first episode, I was in.

So...what do I love about the show?

The actors/actresses. They are exceedingly well cast(and it doesn't hurt that the two male leads are good looking, either!)

The writing. Bryan Fuller(and all of the people who write for the show for that matter!)take the source material from the Thomas Harris books and they work their magic with it. They play fast and loose with the source material(characters have had their genders changed, Will knows Hannibal a lot more on the show than he did in the books, where they hardly knew each other.

The aesthetic and look of the show-there are scenes that have a dreamlike quality. It's not something every show could do and have it be believable, but Hannibal does it, and quite well, I might add!

Another aspect of the show that I LOVE is its  willingness(heh) to take risks, in terms of content especially. Other shows would shy away from the graphic(and it is graphic, make no mistake about that!) content.

Hannibal might not get the best ratings, and that has won the show some enemies in fans of shows who get slightly(You  heard me, I said *slightly*[/Mrs. Komeda]) better ratings than Hannibal. But the fact that those shows are expensive to make and Hannibal is(comparatively) cheaper to make, along with having a foreign interest in the picture,means that Hannibal has more of a chance. But  ratings come into play, yes they do.

People talk a LOT about the ratings and about lead-ins. I'm hoping that Aquarius is a good lead-in for Hannibal. OTOH, ratings have always been a concern and here we are on the verge(r) of S3 so there is that.

[the drama is..dramatic as freaking ever]

*Dress code thread "why do we have to be stuck in mid-20th century definitions of formality?..people have latched on to that point to resist any change going forwards". In a word: Titanic.

*People think HAL's(Holland America's) food is "just fine".OK, but the way that some people  rave about the Dive In burgers or certain desserts... IMO the people with the least sense of what is "good" food are the ones who like crap like Canaletto. But I am heartened to see that there are plenty of people that don't think that Dive In is the second coming of hamburgers.

And the bread pudding..they move it around, it varies by ship..but part of the things is that on some of the ships they have it behind a counter and they serve you, and on other cruise ships they just have it out for anyone who wants it.

Thing of it is, is the non-self-serve version got people upset..but on the thread about it several people said that people who served themselves were getting HUGE portions, and they were slopping the bread pudding and the sauce all over the place. Another element to it is food handling.. they're *supposed* to have the bread pudding behind a counter for that very reason, but it seems to vary wildly from HAL ship to HAL ship. However, this is the sort of thing,when they are doing a inspection, that(I think) that can get serious points knocked off.

On a related note, apparently tortellini is what passes for a  vegetarian option on formal night on Holland America ships. Don't get me wrong, I love tortellini, but I get what the person who mentioned this was saying.It's  being chintzy on Holland America's part.That's the best you can do?seriously? Of course the cheerleaders think serving tortellini is fine.

*People stanning for HAL whenever anyone dares to *gasp* say something negative about their HAL cruise. Someone said it was as if they had insulted a child.

The cheerleaders won't accept/reject  anything negative.Even when people state what happened clearly they get shot down by the cheerleaders. The cheerleaders have a hard time believing that HAL's product hasn't degraded, and for that reason they are delusional(they can't be objective,IOW).

*Then there's this: a thread about a inferior cruise line's ship(a Princess ship) that had a worse redo than one of HAL's ships.

The thread is literally *nothing* but people smack talking at the inferior cruise lines, calling it "Island Bridge Troll"(it's the Island Princess) and comments like "ugly back end" and "fugly ship". People on the Cruise Critic Holland America boards do NOT need an excuse to bash other cruise lines and other ships.

[one less pet store selling puppy mill puppies can only be a good thing]

I was at the mall and I noticed that the pet store is closed. Well, there were 4 puppies in the store, so I don't know if the people that owned the store up and left all of a sudden and someone is taking care of the puppies that are still there-not sure if they're not sure what to do with the puppies that are still there-I would hope that they would be taken to a shelter or to a foster home.

The problem is that a lot of the puppies are frankenbreeds(I have no problem with mutt dogs but: obviously the pet stores get their animals from puppy mills-the dogs already have that against them) and the  breeds of dogs are being bred without any sort of thought to potential health problems.

Two cities(Oceanside and Carlsbad) in my area have banned pet stores that sell puppies-I forget the particulars but the one at the mall got around that somehow..but it was always being picketed(which I can totally see- the animals were in  small "cages"-there were large breed dogs-like Mastiffs-in tiny cages. Add to that that they were *always* in those cages-unless one of the dogs was lucky enough to have one of the customers play with them(the owners of the show actively discouraged lookie-lous, which is a shame because truly, it was the only way that those puppies would gets any sort of human interaction.

This is not the first pet store in the mall-there used to be one in another part of the mall long upon a time ago- this is so bad but as with the other pet store, you could smell it before you got to it-I mean it smelled BAD, I am always amazed that the stores  either side of it(a Sam Goody store-remember them?-and a shoe store) did not complain about it more. They didn't  have the frankenbreed dogs(that's a newish thing),but they didn't care about the animals(as evidenced by how bad the place smelled all of the time).As usual, lookie lous who  played with the animals were discouraged.I think they didn't want their customers to see  what bad shape the animals were in-laying in their own filth(very common for pet store puppies-pet store owners are many things, but ethical is NOT one of them.) among other things.

[TV things]

Call The Midwife just wrapped up its current season-apparently it's not coming back 'till 2016-I can wait-waiting for S3 of Hannibal has taught me a lot of lessons about patience(that's putting it mildly!)

The other show I am digging is Orphan Black. It has been on.point. this season. It's been keeping me going until Hannibal starts up again.

Speaking of which, Aquarius, which comes on right before Hannibal on Thursdays, starts this week.Imma be watching for sure.

(Can you tell I have Hannibal on the brain?I managed to work it into everything I mentioned! Yep, I am excited about the S3 premiere. Not long to go now!)

[It IS San Diego personified!]

The Port Of San Diego wants to kick Anthony's(a San Diego institution) out of its current location. To hear the people from the Port Authority, Anthony's is dated. OK, more than a little, but it's hardly the biggest offender in the San Diego area. And Anthony's has had several overhauls over the years.

I've seen a lot of comments about how the quality of the food at Anthony's has gone downhill in the past few years.Really? IMO the food at Anthony's is consistently good!(mind you,I always order the same thing..I am a creature of habit for sure!)

Another really good place is Point Loma Seafood-I hadn't been there for while..they completely remodeled the place, it looks completely different inside-but the food is consistently good, just like Anthony's.

Lots of suggestions on Chowhound about what should go there should the Port Authority manage to kick Anthony's out of there..Of course, these are people that think Anthony's is touristy(and it is, don't get me wrong..) but the food is good, and it's consistent, and is one of the more affordable places there(right across the street is a Ruth Chris steakhouse, which is WAY spendy, and there is also a British pub which I have never been to so I have no idea how expensive it is.) I think there may be a couple of walk-up places right past where Anthony's is.. and if you go a little bit further you get to Seaport Village which has something for every budget(though I remember trying to buy my lunch there on a school field trip..$10 barely covered it.And I do mean barely.)

If you go more uptown, it gets more expensive,though there are good deals to be had(I give the  99 cent (yes)Chinese food place a wide berth, though.That's food poisoning waiting to happen :P)

The suggestions for what should go in run to the froofy, or stuff that San Diego has a glut of(seafood restaraunts- including froofy seafood restaraunts not a casual place like Anthony's),brew pubs serving food(especially pizza, those are a dime a dozen here-San Diegans are big on craft beer,we're a hub for craft beer) and Mexican food(ditto.)

All of those things(especially the Mexican food) are subjective.Personally, I've always liked the Mexican food restaraunts in Old Town(though at least one or more has had to move because of high rents.)I also love the mainstays near my parents house-Fidel's and Tony's Jacal.

El Indio is another favourite of mine which gets panned by Chowhound.The food there is really good and it's hard to choose what you want to eat(they have a BIG menu!)

[How can you defend this..(I use the term loosely)person?]

The scandal with Josh Duggar  has me shaking my head. There are so many disturbing aspects to the situation, not least of which is:

a)several of the victims were his sisters

b)His family(especially his dad) just swept it under the carpet, and there has been some collusion with law enforcement, and just before the story broke, the records were ordered to be destroyed.Well isn't that quite the coincidence?

I trust there will be a investigation-on several levels-if I were social services,I would be worried about the other children who are still living at home-to say nothing of Josh Duggar's own children!

TLC, the channel that airs 19 Kids And Counting, the Duggars' show, was slow to act, and in fact,at the time the news broke, was airing a marathon of the show. It took a lot of outrage for TLC to yank the show from their schedule. The outcry was just too much.It's not clear right now whether that is just temporary or if it is going to be permanent. I would say, in terms of CYA, that they would be a lot better off cancelling the show. Initially, TLC did(IMO) a poor job of  dealing with the situation.

At a guess,they were worried about the potential shit storm with all of the Duggars' fans spamming their Facebook with "Why did you cancel the show? He didn't do anything wrong!"(and a bit more about *that* in a minute!)

If you want to see how to handle a potential bad situation look at how the Food Network dealt with the Paula Deen scandal.Didn't take long for them to cancel her show..and it lead to a shit storm on their Facebook, with her angry fans complaining about Paula being fired.It went on for quite a long time.I'll never completely forgive Paula Deen, but I've made my peace with her. It's kinda sad..she's been reduced to selling candy on a faux QVC network. I kinda hope(even given her mis-steps)that she can do something better.

Now!To Josh's defenders.. "It happened years ago" is NOT a defense. But there is certainly a lot of that on the internet WRT this story. Their fans are SO blind to everything related to the Duggars..in their opinion the Duggars can do no wrong. There are several magazines(People among them) who run frequent articles about the Duggars. I wonder if that is going to change.Or are they going to continue to enable the Duggars by writing about them? I will not read People if they continue to write articles about the Duggars. I'm sure it's given a lot of people who have supported them pause.

Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee majorly has their back..says that they(the Duggars) are targets because they are Christians who are pro-life, anti gay(they had a crew member on their show *fired* because they were gay-true!).

The Duggars are sheltered, and they shelter their children(Jim Bob-the dad's-perception of New York comes from movies from the 1980's.Kinda says it all right there, don't you think? The kids are raised with warped ideas about sex, as well. And the religion they belong to basically has a "we don't really do anything about it" policy WRT sexual abuse(which is quite common for this religion-a fundamentalist sect-Quiverfull-that encourages women to have as many children as possible.Contraception is nonexistent.So is sex ed.)

[S1 Ep13:Savoureux]

*Will out in the woods  hunting-the bullroarer gives.me.the.creeps. He shoots at a deer which turns into the wendigo. He follows the wendigo and finds its blood on a tree and on the ground.

*Will wakes up-his dogs are barking-and his feet are muddy.He goes into the kitchen and takes a couple of aspirins..and throws them up..along with an ear.

*He's sitting on the front porch waiting for Hannibal who eventually *does* show up.

*Will has lost time again-he says he let the dogs out(who who who)

*Jack shows up and takes Will to Quantico. Team Sassy Scienece walks by Will and can barely make eye contact with him.

*The scene where Winston is like "Daddy?where are you going?" breaks my heart.

*Hannibal is observing everything like "My work here is done".

*Will gets processed by Bev(we get several similar scenes-one with Miriam and one with Chilton) in S2.)Bev was always the one person that Will could bounce ideas off of..she was on the same..wavelength, for lack of a better word for it- as Will.

*Alana(understandably) reads Jack the riot acts.Jack is in a LOT of denial.I love the scene with Alana losing her shit in the car.It's done without any sort of sound and is very effective.

*Will is in interrogation with Alana who says she will take care of Will's dogs, however long it is(and somewhere in there Alana adopted a dog of her own-Applesauce.)

*Yes, Alana, Hannibal asked Will to draw a clock.(I almost expect him to say "why?" again when Alana asks him to draw a clock.)

*Hannibal and his fake-ass tears. Abigail IS alive..as an aside, I really hope that we see if Bedelia  knew  Abigail was alive the whole time. You framed Will and you want to continue to "help" him? *flips table*.

*Hannibal stuck himself with one of those lures and in all their testing it they don't find his blood? WTF.

*"Will Graham, you're under arrest". Oh. Shit.

*Callback to Gideon escaping from the van with Will's escape. Will is pretty desperate at this point.

*The look on Hannibal's face when Alana says that it might be encephalitis.. if looks could kill...

*Will gets to Hannibal's office.Hannibal knows he's there.

*Alana knows Will's illness is fakeable..and yet all of that under-the-bus throwing in S2....

*Will is starting to put things together(as sick as he is!)

*Will wants to see where Abigail died(except she *didn't*- but Will didn't know that at the time!)

*Bedelia gets a visit from Jack who wants to know what she knows.

*Will recreates the Hobbs  murder.

*Showdown with Will and Hannibal-"Are you a murderer, Dr. Lecter?" "YES, I think is the answer to that."

*Will gets shot(my poor BB Will!) He sees the wendigo and says "See? See?" (a parallel to the first episode.)

*Another parallel with Hannibal and Jack sitting on either side of Will's hospital bed which a callback to the pilot where it is Hannibal and Will sitting on either side of Abigail's hospital bed.

*That's not Abiveal that Hannibal brings to Bedelia..so who was it? :P

*Bedelia side eyes Hannibal and tells him that he basically needs to be careful. Yet people don't see him as a suspect.Not yet.

* Will in the BHSCI."Hello Dr. Lecter". I have 2 words for Hannibal:You douchebag.

Episode insight:
So we come to the end of S1. Everything is a bit.. up in the air.

I daresay that things were even left  open-ended(I mean Will is in the BHSCI, obviously).The end of S2 isn't open ended..more like it's a cliff-hanger(OMG is it ever!)as to who lived and who died.

Hannibal can't help himself;he is seeing all of this shit going on and he is loving it-the man is a life-ruiner!

And Will..JFC..he is sick for the entire episode(admits he didn't take all of his antibiotics- tsk tsk LOL) He's finally in his right mind at the end of the episode and Hannibal comes to visit him at the end of the episode(even though Bedelia tells him it might not be the best idea. Hannibal's like "Eh I'll do it anyways. Shits and giggles and  lulz all that good stuff". :P

Quotes:
According to the evidence, I killed Abigail Hobbs.-Will

I don't feel like I dodged a bullet.I feel wounded.-Alana

Controversial dish, veal.-Bedelia

[Some(light) blog housekeeping]

First of all, starting May 29th and going 'till June 4th, I will be doing a Hannibal post a day,in addition to another(non)Hannibal post.Possibly. I won't spoil it too much but it'll be a lot of fun.You'll just have to wait and see!

Secondly, I have a post about the whole Josh Duggar scandal which I will do tomorrow. I am hoping that TLC will have some good sense and cancel the Duggars' show but so far they haven't.

Thirdly,I have been wanting to write some posts about my hometown, San Diego, and I saw something that would be perfect for a blog post(and that'll be Sunday!)

[I take back what I said about a lack of drama at Cruise Critic]

*Complaining about NCL charging for room service-but there may be practical reasons for it-like some of their passengers are slobs and spill food all over the place.

*Looking into open cabins when you  is a no-no,apparently.

*A thread about what topics are off-topic continued to bug(though I think it either got buried or zapped.) Several people commented that it's the sort of thread that turns off people who are new to the HAL(Holland America) boards at Cruise Critic. Which is something I have been saying for freaking *ages*.

*On a related note this:

"People who love cruising tend to overstate and over-remember how good everything is onboard"

Is one one of the truest things I have ever read. I have seen how  people rave about how great the hamburgers at the Dive In are-a whole cult has grown up around them and quite frankly that has me shaking my head.

There's this:

"whoever goes on a cruise and raves about the food doesn't know good cuisine"

Amen to that. I like the food, but I would not raise a hamburger to sainthood. LOL

[Another new Hannibal promo ,version...I've lost count!]

*Alana and Margot(apparently-and Alana has a cane!)

*Mason(who is standing up(?)-maybe it's some sort of assistive device, or he's gotten surgery so he can stand up *sometimes*?)

*Zeller and Price

*Dolarhyde!

Seriously, can it be June 4th already?(as of today,it's 2 weeks!)

Lots of Florence,Lithuania and Paris. Can.Not.Wait.

[hanging out with the family]

So I'm in Oklahoma City visiting family..my nephew is graduating high school and I kinda had to be here for it, you know? In spite of being sick(flying all day yesterday didn't help). but I tell you what: I could get used to flying to wherever I'm going to with only one stop and not having to change planes(I have to do the same when I go home,too)

Also,I was prechecked for TSA(don't have to take off your shoes) the last time I didn't have to take my laptop out of my bag;this time I did. We should have been in the TSA check line but my dad was not prechecked(how's that for random?) so we had to go through the regular security line.

[S1 Ep12:Releves]

*Will talking to Georgia.

*Sleepy Will waking up in his hospital bed. Hannibal made him chicken soup :)

*Will really ought to have lied to Hannibal when he asked what was going on with Georgia :(

*At least Jack isn't *completely* clued in about what's going on with Will.

*Poor Georgia.. I have a phobia of static shock and this doesn't help.Her hand on the glass..

*It was definitely NOT a short circuit.

*Freddie throws Will under the bus when she's talking to Abigail(funny how that changed in S2)

*Will dreams that Georgia is in his house and is walking weird-like in The Grudge- and goes outside.Will follows her and she says "See? See?" and is gored by the nightmare stag then bursts into flames. Then we see that  Will is actually in his hospital bed and his fever has broken.

*Will-even when he's not in his right mind-is starting to figure it out.

*Jack is concerned and goes to Hannibal..Hannibal is..well, we know how Hannibal is..so he goes to Bedelia who isn't much more forthcoming.

*Great Zeller and Price scenes(this always reminds me of the blooper!)

*Bedelia can only cover for Hannibal so much-she must be questioning at least *some* of what he tells her?She basically tells him not to attract attention to himself.

*Will is thinking clearly..and he knows what he needs to do:Take Abigail to Minnesota.

*Will goes to talk to Hannibal..the "girl, bye!" look on Hannibal's face when he leaves..LOL

*Freddie is at the BHSCI when Jack shows up. Jack finds out Will has taken Abigail to to Minnesota.He asks Hannibal if he knows what's going on..sort of.

*Jack really is wondering about Will at this point-thinks he might  be a bad guy(just wait 'till episode 13..oy vey!

*Will and Abigail on the plane--he takes her back to the cabin and he hallucinates impaling Abigail n the antlers.He knows that Abigail killed Nick Boyle.Abigail leaves. Will loses time and wakes up on a plane at Dulles airport.

*Hannibal  goes to Abigail's. Abigail shows up a short time later and tells Hannibal that Will flipped  out on her. Abigail says that he knows what's going on and that they will probably both be arrested.

*Abigail asks Hannibal if he is going to killl her. Hannibal says "I couldn't protect you in this life". Uh.Oh.

Episode insight:
Everything is coming together in this episode- and it isn't looking good for Will. Will, in his condition, is easily lead.And nobody suspects anything different. By the start of S2 they are so completely sure that Will is a killer..it's only in the middle of S2 that things start to get better for Will.And then it gets worse.

Hannibal is the proverbial fox in the hen house-at one point when Will is starting to  put things together he says that the copycat killer is someone close to the case-in the FBI(Really surprised that they didn't have Will accusing Jack or someone else in the FBI of being the killer outright in a way that they would be shaking her head and making comments about Will being a crazy person.That would have been a bit cliche-and I am glad that they didn't go that far.

Abigail is colluding with Hannibal(I will be curious to see-in flashbacks-what Abigail was doing in the time she was hiding out at Hannibal's.

If I'm wrong I'm wrong about this but:I think even as far back as the later part of S1 Hannibal was brainwashing Abigail,Will ,*and* Miriam at about the same time.

Quotes:
It's not that I think Dr. Lecter is dangerous-I don't. -Jack

I felt terrified.Then I felt powerful.-Will

Whatever you're doing with Will Graham:Stop.-Bedelia

Did you fish or did you hunt, Abigail?-Will

[It's gonna be weird not to write Cruise Critic posts for a while]

Or at least not as many of them-maybe  once every other week..unless there is some sort of major drama  going on on the boards,then maybe every other day(or just update the posts periodically, IDK.)

No more sailaways until October(which is where Cruise Critic HAL boards do the most dissing of other cruise lines..They'll probably find other ways of doing that, though, if I know that place at all. ;) )

There's a thread "What topics are off limits onboard?" One poster said that she is paranoid about people knowing who she is. She has where she lives on her profile..and she's posted pictures of her kids..you know, it would be easy enough for someone to take her pictures and put them in Google images and do a search on them.It's what they do on the TV show Catfish.

She says that her kids are "Off limits"-this is the same person who was on the Panama Canal cruise recently and said that her kids kept getting hassled by elderly passengers(IMO,the wording of her posts made it seem like a cry for help..the wording of how the kids were getting hassled-several times-was..no other word for it.. over the top.

Also, she is more than a little bit of a helicopter mom.

Then, on her review of the Panama Canal cruise she said that her son was bothered by(and refused to get off the ship because of) armed guards at several of the ports. Could she be putting that into her son's head?

[Another Hannibal trailer!]

And I have to say, I was NOT expecting it, *and* I needed it today!

I'm going to give my opinion on a couple of(OK several) scenes.My comments are in bold.

Will walking through a field with a house in the background.
Lecter Castle?

Hannibal and Will in a forest sitting in chairs across from each other
A dream sequence,I'm guessing.

Wine(blood?) being thrown and dripping on Hannibal
Possibly Bedelia's death?However she'll be far from the only victim this season..I can't wait to see if they change Pazzi's death from the movies/boooks. 

A body(I saw a picture of this a few days ago) sans a head and legs
That's  in Europe. Will is on the trail of Hannibal and that body happens to drop. 

*Will waking up in a hospital bed in Hannibal's office
Another dream sequence, though I did see someone say the reason for that could be that(in the past) it has been a place of stability for Will.Which makes sense.

Abigail and Will-
This *has* to be part of the scene Bryan referred to recently which he said will make fans go "Did that really just happen?) I do NOT think she's still alive-I mean,surviving getting your throat slashed(especially given how much blood she lost-both times-seems very unlikely.)

[Anyone on the Autism spectrum should be horrified by this]

I've been observing the coverage of the little girl with autism who was thrown off of a plane. I won't even get into the particulars of the story,because they have been used against this kid and her mother..but as someone on the autism spectrum, the reactions to this horrify me.

United knows they're in the wrong, and how do they react?They spam the comments of every online article they find.There are a zillion different reasons that I think it is spam:It's the same people(especially on United's Facebook) posting the same comments over and over.And it's the sheer amount of comments saying that United is right-everywhere that makes me think this is a calculated move by the airline to try and save face. But what it's doing is making them look like assholes.

Not only that, but the VAST majority of people on the plane say that the girl and her family did nothing wrong(though there is one woman who is speaking out and saying that she agrees with the pilot's decision to throw this little girl off of the plane.She doesn't help her case by making various statements that made her look very ignorant about what autism is. People(and I use that term loosely) like her make me shake me head.) Can't help but wonder if  they got to her. No, really.

United does not car how bad this makes them look. But it's far from the only mis-step they've made. Not even close.Their(terrible) reputation  is well known.Time for an expose of how they do things, especially WRT their Facebook page which is overrun with trolls(other airlines used to have a lot of trouble with trolls on their Facebook pages but there was more uproar than there than elsewhere so you don't see them hardly at all.)

[Oh such a perfect day..I'm glad I spent it with you]

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I made cinnamon rolls with real cream cheese icing, and my dad made bacon and a scramble with spinach,mushrooms and cheese.It was delicious.

Then, we went to downtown San Diego, to the central library. By the time we got there it wasn't quite open yet so we walked around and walked to Petco Park, our baseball stadium. Yep, it's right downtown(and also right by the trolley tracks..they figured that right for sure.) There is a sort of parkway for people to walk and bike on right by the stadium, and on the other side of it is a hill.You can watch the games from there(I've never done it,but I so would if I got the chance!)

The library is REALLY nice, pretty much brand new(has been open for less than a couple of months). They have an amazing selection of periodicals(and back issues of magazines-twice what most libraries do!) It's really nice inside, too, very open and bright with lots of windows and lots of cool artwork

Then, we walked to a restaraunt which was a little further than I thought it was going to be. I got really tired all of a sudden on the way there-I think it may have been a low blood sugar issue as I was fine after I had something to eat. Anyways, we went to a place called Cafe Chloe(which is my 10-year-old niece's name!)We sat at the bar and we all but took up all of the seats.

The food was really good-I had a hamburger with grilled onions and cheese-my niece had the mac and cheese-it looked really good! My brother also had the hamburger, my mom had granola and yogurt, my sister-in-law had the Croque Monsieur , my 14-year old nephew had a chocolate croissant and an order of fries(carbo loading!) my 17-year-old nephew had tomato soup and my dad had charceuterie(a bunch of different types of meat and pickled carrots and mustards).

Everyone LOVED their food.My burger was especially good.

[so oddsy..and endsy]

*This time next week, I will be at my nephew's high school graduation-so proud of him!

*I guess the sailaways are done(for a few months) over at Cruise Critic, The hurricane  season is starting(albeit a little earlier than everyone was guessing). That is why I would never go on a cruise during hurrican season. Is it cheaper?Yes, but you're also at the risk of having your cruise disrupted/cancelled. Not a gamble I am willing to take,to be honest.

*Dig's last episode aired Thursday. I have to say.. it just sorta fizzled out at the end. The logic of some of it(One of the characters being able to see a blood moon during the day? I know you can see the moon sometimes during the day but this is clearly visible.During the middle of the day. in bright sunshine! Maybe it was meant to be supernatural somehow?I don't know. The supernatural/superstitious  bent of this show was low key but maybe there were things that were symbolic that I didn't pick up on. That's why I need to go back and watch some of the episodes again, I think.

Dig was filmed on location in Israel-I've been wrestling with whether or not to reccomend that to my dad-he lived in Israel-the company he worked for did a job for the Israeli Air Force-and I think he would enjoy seeing some of the places that he went to when he was there. That can't have been cheap to film there, but where else *could* they have filmed, you know?

[the tv season is winding down..]

And it's time to find out which shows are going to get another season and which are cancelled.

In the cancelled column(so far)

The Mindy Project

Battle Creek

CSI(though it's getting a 2-hour wrap-up movie/episode(movisode?)

Constantine

The Following

Backstrom(you know your show is bad when you have to beg people to watch it on Twitter, as the writers of the show did to me). The ads for the show did nothing to try and sell the show; it was bad, and the ratings reflected that.

Bones got renewed; I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was an announcement about this being its last season though..it's not holding my interest the way it used to.

[S1 Ep10:Roti]

*Chilton is having dinner at Hannibal's.

*Hannibal:"Deny everything". Sounds about right, LOL

*Will dreaming of a wave(which is a shout-out to the Peter Weir movie The Wave) and the wave washing over him and the totem pole,then his clock and bed start melting.

*Gideon missed his calling as a marriage counselor.

*Blood spreading across the white shirt of one of the guards.

*The scene where Will recreates what happened is mirrored when Will escapes in Ep. 13.This is brutal, but far from the *most* brutal death on the show.

*The trees decorated with organs.. *shudder*

*Chilton doesn't think he's responsible.Alana(quite justifiably) reads him the riot act.

*Will's hallucinations are getting worse-he is sweaty and hallucinates a room full of antlers. Jack is worried, but not worried enough, if you ask me.

*Will is in sessions with Hannibal but Hannibal is just making things worse.

*Gideon is going to go after anyone who he interacted, so Alana is in danger.

*Will doesn't see his fever as a big deal. Yes Will, it *is* a big deal.

*Freddie gets a call from Gideon in her car(I always half expect Gideon to pop up from the back seat).

*Freddie finds Dr. Carruthers..and Gideon.

*Freddie is going to help Gideon(and attempt to piss Hannibal off in the process which it does. Mission accomplished. ;)

*Chilton gets his insides rearranged by Gideon. Freddie is preternatually calm during all of that.

*Will really shouldn't  be out and about but he is.And he just gets sicker and sicker over the course of the episode.

*Will sees the Nightmare Stag.

*Will is in Gideon's car;they go to Hannibal's.

*Will's seizure freaks me out-every. time. And Hannibal doesn't seem a bit concerned, either. "It was a mild seizure". Are you freaking kidding me?

*Hannibal  sics Gideon on Alana.

*Will looks like death warmed over  2 or 3 times after his seizure.

*Hannibal leaves his keys on the table knowing full well that Will will(heh) take them, and he does.

*Alana has no idea how much danger she's in until she hears the gun go off.

* Will has just enough strength to shoot Gideon and collapse in the snow.

*Chilton is alive. Only just.  Hannibal says that Will shouldn't have a gun. Jack disagrees with him. Will has a 105 degree fever.

*I love the quiet moment with Alana sitting by Will's hospital bed and holding his hand. She's there for him, even if he doesn't know it(he looks about unconscious as one person can get.)

*Session with Bedelia..they talk about Will and  Hannibal says that he(Will) represents an opportunity for friendship.Boy did that ever backfire on Will. :P

Episode insight:

Wow, so much to comment on here.. First of all, let's talk about Will. I swear to god, the man just John Waynes  it for most of the episode(well, until he collapses). More than one person tells Will that he looks ill.

On some level, Will must know that something is wrong...his hallucinations have been ramped up from the previous episode-the dream of the wave, and of his clock and bed melting and being engulfed in water are a good example of this. He looks sick,but apparently doesn't own a mirror or look in one enough to see what he looks like. If I looked like Will did and caught sight of myself in a mirror, I would go to the emergency room so fast it's not even funny.

Hannibal continues to be a stand-up guy[/sarcasm]. He's kinda right about  Will not having a gun,though(Will's being able to  take Gideon down -even with a raging fever-is amazing. Any other time someone with a  gun and 105 degree fever would be a liabillity.)

Meanwhile, Hannibal is just being his usual Hannibal self.Inserting himself where he's not(necessarily) wanted.

Hannibal has all sorts of nefarious designs for Will(ha!) It's obvious from the(shady) way he's acting this episodeActually, it's been obvious for several episodes before this one.. Watching  this episode the first time I could not have told you that that "friendship" was going to take the turn that it did.

Quotes:

I see his madness and I want to control it like an oil spill.-Hannibal

[summer(nearly) doldrums]

Probably the last Cruise Critic post for a while.. it's gone a bit quiet there to be honest..

Though on a sailaway thread a week or so ago they were complaining about another(inferior) cruise line's ship being in the way so that they couldn't see what was being loaded on the ship for dry dock. Really? *everything* related to the cruise ships is *that* interesting? Then again, these are people that hold things like hamburgers(see:The Dive In  counter on HAL ships)  in high esteem.

Going through the HAL boards you can find plenty of posters  dissecting all manner of HAL minutiae.

[The day got away from me]

Which is why I didn't update. I have got into the (bad)habit of updating the blog late in the day. I think I'm going to *try*(operative word being *try* , LOL) to start blogging early in the morning.

An update on a few things though:

I am going to try to do a Hannibal post every day for the week leading up to the S3 premiere. Not sure what those are going to consist of(actually, I *do* know:one of them is going to be an "alphabet of Hannibal", but the others will be meta posts, perhaps, and my thoughts about S3(predictions and the like.)

Kinda related: They are going to showing ads for Hannibal during primetime tonight so you can guess where I'm going to be. :)

*And*.. my Art and Making of Hannibal book finally came  yesterday and.. it's amazing. It is worth every damn cent.Seriously.

Secondly, I had talked about doing more creative writing posts, and it looks like that is probably going to happen-It's getting dead at Cruise Critic what with the end of Caribbean cruise season(though we may see some drama with the Alaskan cruise season..we'll see.)

[Gonna do these every so often]

What I'm reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke. I'm not very far into it but am enjoying  it very much.

What I'm listening to: I love this band called St. Motel. They've got kind of a retro, Franz Ferdinand thing going with their sound.

What I'm learning: OK, this is an interesting one. I was in a lot of pain the other day, and couldn't sleep. But I found that if I cleared/opened my mind, I relaxed, and  relieved my pain(well, it was down to a manageable  level anyhow.)

The other thing is: I am rethinking the Panama Canal cruise. I still think it would be a lot of fun and I *would* like to do it at some point, but there was a package deal in the most recent coupon book that my parents got from Costco. 5 days in Puerto Rico, 500-something dollars per person. And nice hotels, too. I don't think airfare is included(didn't look at the small print which you should do, BTW!) but I'm sure you can find good deals from San Diego to San Juan.

Of all the places we've visited, Puerto Rico is one of the places that  made the most impression on me.

[So the royal baby is here..]

And what a baby she is, too! Now, I'm waiting  to see what they named her-Charlotte and Alice seem to be the odds on favourites, closely followed by Victoria and Elizabeth, with Diana in there as one of her  middle names.

I went to bed late Friday night thinking "oh, it'll be a while before the baby is born". Well, I have a TV in my bedroom,and I left it on(on CNN). Well, I woke up about 4:30 a.m. my time Saturday morning, and Kate Middleton had had the baby already!

Then, she leaves the hospital with Unnamed Princess(LOL)later on the same day. I'm thinking she must have had a really easy labour if it went that quickly and they're allowing her to leave the hospital so soon!

Also, can we talk about the fact that the baby is a girl? People were really rooting for her to have a girl-and I agree. Now they have one of each(Kate Middleton's uncles has claimed that they want to have lots of kids-especially if they had a boy. Is that still the case even  though the baby is a girl? The current Queen had four chidren; going back a bit further Queen Victoria had 9 kids..I doubt that's going to be the case with Kate and William; Kate is such a fashion plate(it rhymes!) I can't wait to see the sort of outfits that her daughter wears.

With George being close in age to the new baby, it'll be interesting to see if they're close,or if there is a bit of sibling rivalry because of it.

[S1 Ep10:Buffet Froid]

*Beth Lebeau comes home to a big,empty house.There's a leak in the roof so she has to check it out(is that how Georgia got in the house?)

*Beth goes back to bed(or tries to) and gets pulled under the the bed. This scene legit scares the shit out of me.Every.Time.

*Will in a session with Hannibal who is such a gaslighter.

*Will,that's an odd clock(as an aside:I love Will's "why?" when Hannibal asks him to draw a clock.

*Will's been fishin..turns out it is a hallucination and he thinks that he  contaminated the crime scene.

*Beth's house looks a little like Will's-they both live in larg(ish) homes out in the middle of nowhere.Coincidence?

*Will is pretty broken at this point and it doesn't get much better for him.

*They find tissue from the killer, but can't make sense of it(more about that in a minute!)

*Hannigram scene with Hannibal, Will, and a ladder. :)

*Finally Will is going to see a doctor- Sutcliffe, a neurologist.Problem is, he's a friend of Hannibal's.And yeah, Hannibal does ask Sutcliffe to  lie to Will and say that there is nothing wrong with him.And Sutcliffe totally does.

*Hannibal lies to Jack about what's going on .That should come as no surprise, though.

*Will goes back to Beth Lebeau's and sees someone and pulls off her skin before she escapes. He loses time, and calls Bev because he's not entirely sure what happened.

*Jack *did* push Will over the edge, and Will, in the condition he was in, was ill suited to deal with it.

*Will draws another odd clock.

*Hannibal suggests that maybe the woman has Cotard's syndrome, where people think they are dead.

*They find out that the woman's name is Georgia Madchen.Her mom fills them in-she has been dealing with mental illness long-term.

*"You didn't kill Miriam Lass. The Chesapeake Ripper did", ah yes, but.. :)

*Hannibal has Sutcliffe over for dinner and serves Iberico "ham".

*Hannibal, Will is your friend, but you say only to do things when it's absolutely ncessary?You really  *are* an asshole.

*Will is having another brain scan. Will goes to Sutcliffe's office but there is blood on the door handle.That's not good.

*Dr. Sutcliffe has been turned into Dr. Pez Head.

*"A habit of collecting strays". Will, did you just admit that you're a dog hoarder? LOL.

*Georgia is under Will's bed.

*Georgia is in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Hannibal is hoping that she won't remember anything.Of course.He's more "worried" about Will.

*Flashback to Georgia walking in on Hannibal cutting up Dr. Sutcliffe's face; she can't see his face but he hands the scissors he's using to her so she can finish the job.

Episode insight:

A couple episodes after this one, Hannibal tells Bedelia, I see his(Will's ) madness and I want to control it like a oil spill.

Control.And manipulation.They are a HUGE part of this episode. Then in S2 Bedelia says(about Hannibal's methods) "It's coersion". Gee, you think?

He does so to Dr. Sutcliffe, who is clearly uncomfortable lying to a patient about their illness.

His unwillingness to go along with the plan got Dr. Sutcliffe killed, of course.After the second scan he must have seen that Will was  getting *worse*.

This episode is all about the things we hide and the lies we tell and  how we hurt the ones we love.

Hannibal has been manipulating people his entire life(we don't know his backstory in this version so have to guess)-but he uses manipulation as a coping mechanism and a life skill.

There are a lot of paralells  between Will's grasp(or lack thereof) sanity and Georgia's..except Georgia's is much more long-term. I think on some level she must have picked up on Will's ability to empathise (even with  brain inflammation!) which is why she went to his house.

Speaking of Will.. things just keep going downhill from this episode on and don't get much better until the middle of S2 and then Mizumono happens.

Will tries to explain what is going on to the *one* person who totally should understand and Hannibal just makes it worse

Quotes:

I feel like I'm fading.-Will

What do you smell on me?-Dr. Sutcliffe  Opportunity.-Hannibal

It's 7:16 P.M, I'm in Baltimore, Maryland.My name is Will Graham.-Will

[Hanninews post..if we keep getting these spoilers the way..]

We have,then I may be doing 2 Hannibal posts(1 news/spoiler post, one S1 review post)a week until the premiere.

Here's a few things we learned:

Abigail is in ep. 2-we'll find out what happened to her  and there will be a moment where you think "is that really happening?"

Alana is going to turn to a dangerous and unexpected ally and  is going to have a relationship that raises eyebrows. Now I *really* can't wait for it to be June 4th!

[Not really a comment about Cruise Critic as such..]

But I'll throw it out there just  the same:

Holland America are selling off two of their older ships, ones that, recently have been having problems with engines, air conditioning, plumbing, etc. They're being sold off to P&O. If I had to deal with all the issues that come with taking..for lack of a better word, Holland America's sloppy seconds...I would be..I am so sorry.. P&O'd.

Hopefully P&O are more invested in the upkeep of older ships than Holland America seems to be. Holland America is really struggling to keep up with the Joneses-other cruise lines-in terms of ships with the latest amenities. They're doing that with the Konigsdam which starts sailing next year.It's bigger than any of their previous ships. The announcement that it was going to be  so big really ruffled the feathers of a lot of people at Cruise Critic. A lot of people said that they would not cruise on a ship that big. Hey, nobody's forcing you to go on it, you know.

The newer, cleaner look is a turn-off for a lot of the die-hards that post on Cruise Critic. They like the old-world, wood look that most of the Holland America ships have. The first time I saw pictures of  what the Konigsdam is going to look like, I loved it. I'm *really* glad that Holland America are upping their game and making Konigsdam a game changer.

One does wonder if they did a bit of asking around to see what people wanted from a new Holland America cruise ship, and a lot of people must have said "a cleaner, more modern look". And that is exactly what they're getting with the Konigsdam.