Welp, thus ends the greatest love story television has ever told.
If I had one overarching and coherent complaint with the otherwise superb back-half of season 3, outside of a general lack of plausibility (something the show has often struggled with and succumbed to), it was that in some ways it felt like two divergent stories: the tale of Francis Dolarhyde and Reba, the great red dragon and the woman clothed in sun, on the one hand- and on the other, the continued song of Hannibal and Will Graham that we've all been dancing to as an audience from the first episode of the first season. I never felt like the two truly came together as a coherent whole until that final, indelible, superb scene of Will and Hannibal defeating the Dragon together, one of the best and most memorable of the show. Certainly moreso for the fact that it was accompanied by a burst of romantic, dirge-like music in a finale that was otherwise notably silent. (I am probably the only one in the entire world, but that terrifically placed Siouxsie Sioux song put me in mind of the grim and funereal Swans classic
Song for Dead Time. Not a bad thing at all for a show like this, really.)
So sure, I can summon up complaints - I think Alana and Margot suffered most from what is so obviously in retrospect two seasons compressed into one, given that even when the former got a respectable amount of screen time compared with prior seasons she still felt like something of a victim of afterthought - but overall, this was an incredible and unforgettable season of what is easily one of the greatest television shows ever made. I am overwhelmed by the finale in part just because I was even lucky enough to witness something of this caliber come to life on a channel like NBC. Bonsoir, everyone.