Picking Nits
Crawford's plan to send an inexperienced Clarice to Lecter; Clarice entering Gumm's basement alone; the two guards who had one job; the senator's deal with Lecter; nobody noticing Lecter in the guard's face; the hard-to-follow Gumm identity trail; decoding the self-storage clue; Miggs swallowing his own tongue
In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:47Read transcript
- A self-described hot take that Jack Crawford was a bad boss, sending the inexperienced Clarice into the dungeon unprotected; the response is that it was a win-win and Lecter was hostile to Crawford, countered by asking why not send an experienced woman agent; the film never mentions Will Graham, perhaps because of the character rights.
- After the FBI storms an empty house, Clarice walks into Gumm's basement instead of calling for help; the objection that she would have had to drive to a pay phone without cell phones leads the host to rescind the nit.
- The senator promising Lecter perks such as Hyannis Port or a week on Plum Island in exchange for help finding the senator's abducted child would dominate the news for weeks today, and after careful procedures for Clarice's visits the authorities are loosey-goosey with Lecter once he is moved; the two guards who brought a second meal and left the door open are the definition of having one job.
- Lecter wearing a guard's face and uniform should have been noticed, given the blood and a guard who was a little skinnier, though perhaps the guard was expected to have massive facial injuries.
- The James Gumm identity trail after Lecter throws out one name is hard to follow, and Clarice decoding the 'look within yourself' clue as Yourself self-storage in Baltimore, in the Hester Moffat (as transcribed) storage-unit scene, is called a leap.
- You cannot swallow your own tongue to death; one host researched it and says Miggs would have had to bite it off and choke, with what Lecter told him deferred to unanswerable questions; the hosts note that Lecter, who eats people, was offended by Miggs's crude act, likened to a baseball manager fine with a fastball at a batter's head but not a bat flip.