[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:

Going into it, I knew the twist-that Abigail is dead-but they sure did a good job of making us think that she was alive when she showed up in Will's hospital room(as an aside:I couldn't help but wonder if Alana and Jack were sharing a rather normal hospital room whilst Will had what  amounted to a suite at the Ritz(his hospital room in Roti and Releves was the same way)

We got a memory palace scene and then a flash-forwards 8 months to a recovered Will. Abigail is with him, but Will is the only person who can talk to her.

We're introduced to  Inspector Pazzi,a cop in Palermo who has been trying to catch Hannibal-or Il Mostro(loved the doctored picture of Hannibal he showed Will.)  Hannibal/Il Mostro slipped through Pazzi's fingers many years ago and he's been trying to catch him ever since.(finally, someone who knows what happened in Baltimore-it would appear that a crime back in Baltimore involving someone who is in their city is not a big deal to the local PD)However, Hannibal is the one who got away for Pazzi, so he *really* wants to catch Hannibal.

Hannibal has left  Anthony Dimmond's body(folded into a heart) for Will. However,whilst Will is checking it out it turns into a grotesque version of the nightmare  stag from S1 and S2.

Will and Abigail were investigating, and then we saw  what really happened: a flashback with Will in a stretcher.He sees Abigail being zipped into a body bag(when I saw this scene in the first official promo in January I KNEW that's who he was looking at.And I was right!)Then we get  parallels with Abigail's body being prepared for burial, and doctors saving Will's life.It was extremely effective and I was getting a little emotional watching it, to be honest.

At the end of the episode Will is in the catacombs under the church. Hannibal is there(we saw him, hiding, at several points during the episode.Pazzi  was there with him but Will told him to stay back. There was a bit of a chase with Will and Hannibal through the catacombs. and this:

"Hannibal"(NOT Dr. Lecter, which is very significant, no?).."I forgive you". Wait,what? Of course, they put that at the very end of the episode..I hope they expand on this quite a bit more next week(pretty sure I'm not alone in that either!)

Other things I loved this week:

"It's like Lucy and the football.He just keeps pulling you away".(Bryan does love his pop culture references!)

Symbolism(Will is water, Hannibal is fire).Blood filling in for water in the Mizumono scenes.Lots and lots of it(was that a Shining reference?)

The Botticelli death tableaux.