The former FBI agent even managed to find herself participating in ending Nils Hagen's nefarious activities on Clarice Season 1 Episode 13.

As many times as Clarice has been taken captive, it's a good thing that she's able to use her big brain to think her way out of dangerous situations.

Unfortunately, Clarice had a soft spot for Tyson, so she barely hesitated before buzzing him up. After all, they belonged to the same support group for messed-up people with daddy issues.

She blurted out her revelation about her father's real character, not the idealized version upon which she had built her life. Sadly, Tyson hadn't had a similar epiphany yet.

Clarice also had a blind spot where Tyson was concerned. So by the time she checked her page from ViCAP, her fate had been sealed. She held her own against Hagen's goons, but she was out of her depth.

But Clarice is a scrapper. Just like in the past, when she got captured, she began plotting an escape for herself and the other women held at the animal-testing facility as soon as she discovered the flimsy locks.

Granted, that went nowhere, and the women weren't freed until ViCAP raided the place. But it was the thought that counted.

Clarice had the bad luck to have been brought to the facility at the same time that Hagen arbitrarily decided to make his evil experiment disappear.

Hagen was full of himself and liked to talk about his life and his actions. So Clarice played on his vanity to enlighten Tyson.

Tyson was already involved in sex trafficking and was an accessory to serial rape and murder to please his father. So why she thought that would reach Tyson was hard to say. 

Fortunately, Clarice had help coming that she didn't know about in the form of ViCAP and Ardelia.

As soon as ViCAP stumbled on the possibility of Tyson being complicit in Hagen's experiments, they tried to warn Clarice. Why did she ignore the page since ViCAP wouldn't have contacted her as a former agent unless it was urgent?

Wouldn't cell phones have been handy back then? A pager message just isn't the same as a text.

At least Ardelia recognized that Clarice's special necklace being left behind was a sign that she was in trouble.

It was enjoyable watching Esquivel going into action to save his favorite teammate. That scene of him taking down a fellow Ranger showed how dangerous he could be when he's not keeping himself under control.

It was a totally illegal way to extract intel from a source. That's why Esquivel reported himself later, especially since there was no case to prosecute anymore.

Most importantly, like in the military, he got the target he needed for ViCAP to attack.

And once again, Ruth eventually didn't buckle under political pressure, despite the presence of a sleazy politician in Alastor's pocket listening in on the conversation.

Don't expect Ruth to remain Attorney General long, especially after she appointed a special prosecutor to look into which politicians were obstructing the investigation of Alastor.

But she won't be the only tainted politician going down. And she can just go home to Tennessee and take care of Catherine.

The alarm raised by the raid created an opening for Clarice, who escaped after Hagen coldly executed one of his bodyguards for rushing him.

Clarice, unfortunately, had the bad luck to run into the lab that housed Hagen's "children," a chamber of horrors with shelves lined with defective embryos.

That when was Clarice did her best profiling, piecing together that Tyson's mother was another of Hagen's victims who escaped him. Hagen, in turn, had tracked down his miracle baby, killed Tyson's mother, and swept his heir off his feet.

This drove Tyson to shoot and kill Hagen, then eventually himself. So Clarice cleaned up the Alastor mess largely by herself when she technically wasn't even an active agent.

I thought Krendler was a goner when he got shot. When a show is struggling ratings-wise as Clarice has been, one way to cut costs is to shrink the cast, and Michael Cudlitz was arguably the biggest name in the cast.

Fortunately, Krendler survived because ViCAP just wouldn't be the same without his leadership. We got a glimpse of what having Clarke in charge would look like.

It was appropriate that Clarice's biggest breakthrough came when she was visiting Catherine at the institution.

Catherine's offhand remark about Ruth protecting her sparked a realization in Clarice that her mother sent her away to protect her from her father.

It was sweet that Ardelia fixed and added a bead to Clarice's necklace, giving it a special new meaning instead of the old negative one.

Clarice, at peace, hugged Ardelia goodbye then headed back to West Virginia for a much-needed reunion with her mother.

Now about Clarice's future. It doesn't seem to have one. It would appear a good candidate to move to Paramount+, but apparently, its production company, MGM, wanted too much per episode for that to happen.

So we say farewell to Clarice, an enjoyable updating of "The Silence of the Lambs" that not enough viewers discovered.

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To binge one more time, watch Clarice online.

Are you glad Clarice got some closure?

Are you sorry to see Clarice go?

Would you continue to watch if it were picked up elsewhere?

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The extremely tightly wound Clarice finally blew up on Clarice Season 1 Episode 12.

Not that she wasn't provoked. But lashing out apparently isn't allowed at the Bureau.

Her timing was bad because Krendler and ViCAP needed her profiling expertise in the worst way as they made a final push on the River Murders and Alastor.

Clarice's fragments of memories about a special night with her beloved father were pushing her frustration to a fever pitch.

Clarice is all about making connections, but she couldn't even do that when looking back on her own childhood.

She seemed to expect Dr. Li to do that for her. But that isn't how therapy works. Instead, the therapist can guide the patient who needs to come up with a revelation of her own.

But Clarice didn't have the time to do the work. Not with the Alastor raid looming.

Unfortunately, Clarice is all about being an FBI agent, even though Ruth, Krendler, her first therapist, Dr. Li, and even her best friend Ardelia are skeptical about her state of mind.

The trouble is that Clarice can compartmentalize, only pestered by her visions when she's sleeping. She's entirely functional when she's working.

Except for her bad habit of injecting herself into dangerous situations. Maybe, as her flashback revealed when she was out jogging, that came from that moment when she was "Daddy's little deputy," delivering a payment to criminals for him.

Clarice had been worried all along that she was building her career on a false narrative of following in her father's heroic footsteps, and now that appears to be the case.

Normally, this would be an opportunity for self-reflection. But, even though she had officially resigned, Clarice's being at the heart of the Alastor case won't give her that time.

Only the pressure she was under finally caused her to snap. She could handle the obnoxious agent Eddie putting down female agents. That was nothing she hadn't heard before.

But she came instead to Esquivel's defense because apparently, anyone who wasn't a white male offended Eddie. 

It was a tender moment afterward when Esquivel and Clarice traded thoughts about containing the anger within them.

Unfortunately, since Clarice was at the heart of Ardelia's discrimination suit, she had to be punished, needing to get Dr. Li's approval to continue work.

The good doctor could tell Clarice had reached a tipping point and left it up to Clarice to decide whether she wanted to continue at a job that traumatized her.

She made the right choice turning in her badge and gun until she did the work to get her head straight.

But Clarice's big heart and big brains seemed to have deposited her in trouble once again.

For, while she was doing the right thing for her peace of mind, ViCAP made a major discovery. Tyson wasn't the meek and mild philanthropist that he appeared to be, a person that had been intellectually attractive to Clarice.

So Ty showed up at her door, seemingly to make peace and confess. That can't be good.

The River Murders investigation veered all over the place this episode.

Thanks to informant Julia, ViCAP had the evidence necessary to charge Alastor with fraud. But with four murders linked to Reprisol, they weren't done yet.

However, they were racing against the clock since Ruth was getting pressure from all around to drop any further investigation.

That included Hagen threatening to make Catherine's arrest public. Fortunately, Catherine had developed a backbone while institutionalized and told her mother to do what she had to do.

It was refreshing to see that Catherine had appeared to have turned a corner. Maybe house arrest wasn't the best way for her to heal from her Buffalo Bill trauma.

The raid on Alastor didn't immediately yield the smoking gun that ViCAP and Ruth sought.

So that fugly painting so valued by Hagen ended up front and center. It's a good thing that Tripathi returned on Clarice Season 1 Episode 11 to offer his art expertise. Can you imagine Clarke attempting to make sense of it?

It was sad that the artist of the painting felt so little connection to it. It was just a vanity project for Hagen.

But the biologicals on the painting told a story about a warped Hagen attempting to impregnate desperate women that Tyson had brought into the country for him.

So sadly, the son was willing to do evil things to please the father that he had met later in life.

It was shocking that Hudlin, who had appeared to be the mastermind for most of the investigation, ended up being Hagen's fall guy.

It wasn't until he stopped Hagen's security detail from abducting Julia that Hudlin appeared to be more than a greedy, standard-issue lawyer. He seemed genuinely surprised at what was happening around him.

Then he was shocked by Hagen's praise and lack of concern about the charges against him. It wasn't until it was too late that he realized Hagen was setting him up with his earlier press conference.

Of course, he called Krendler. After all, Hudlin thought they had bonded through Krendler's divorce case.

Only now he was another pawn in Hagen's game.

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To revisit Clarice's breakthrough, watch Clarice online.

Will Clarice end up a captive again?

What intel does the reporter have for her?

Can the case get closed on the season finale?

Comment below.

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The Silence of the Lambs prequel was initially set to move to Paramount+ following its low-rated CBS run, but now the series is in a more precarious position than before.

Deadline is reporting that talks between the streamer and co-producer MGM have fallen through, with neither side able to agree on a deal to keep the show alive.

The news is not that surprising. Clarice was reported to be in contention to move from Paramount+ alongside EVIL and SEAL Team, but when the streamer officially picked up the other two, Clarice was notably absent.

Moving a series from broadcast to streaming is not an easy business because it means that new deals have to be struck, and Deadline says that the license fee for the show was set to increase from the $1.2 million – $1.3 million fee on CBS to $3.8 million per episode if the series moved.

Paramount+ would have been the sole home in the U.S., allowing MGM to handle the international rights to the show.

It's a surprising turn of events, but it highlights just how difficult it is to move a show from one destination to another.

The situation is unfortunate, largely because fans were given a glimmer of hope, as were the 300 staff that worked on the show.

The future is not looking bright for the Rebecca Breeds-led Silence of the Lambs sequel, and there's a good chance the June 24 season finale will now be the series finale.

The cast also includes Michael Cudlitz, Lucca De Oliveira, Kal Penn, Nick Sandow, Devyn A. Tyler, and Marnee Carpenter.

The network has already renewed The Equalizer, FBI, NCIS, Young Sheldon, The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola, NCIS: Los Angeles, FBI: Most Wanted, B Positive, Blue Bloods, Magnum PI, United States of Al, and Bull.

Mom, NCIS: New Orleans, MacGyver, All Rise, and The Unicorn have all been canceled, while the aforementioned EVIL and SEAL Team are headed to Paramount+.

CBS also has a string of new shows on the horizon, including spinoffs of NCIS, CSI, and FBI as the broadcast networks bet big on known IP.

What are your thoughts on the development?

Do you think the show should continue?

Hit the comments below.

Remember you can watch Clarice online right here via TV Fanatic.

Catch the remaining episodes of the series Thursdays at 10/9c.

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Once again, Clarice charged into the monster's den, with backup this time, on Clarice Season 1 Episode 11.

That's only because Krendler forced her to take Tripathi and Esquivel along with her when she went into Alastor Pharmaceuticals to confront Hudlin.

Unfortunately, with Clarice, backup has been the exception rather than the rule.

And ultimately, she did end up tackling the monster on her own. Some things never change.

Poor Clarice needs a sedative so she can get some sleep. Otherwise, she has her father, Buffalo Bill, and the River Murders all swirling around in her nightmares.

I'm surprised that Dr. Li hasn't gone that way yet since Clarice can't seem to shut down her big brain.

So instead, Clarice and Ardelia, with Esquivel gamely attempting to follow along, examined the River Murders clues once again, determining that the person behind them considered himself an artist.

Shouldn't that have been enough to knock Hudlin out of consideration?

Sure, Hudlin is a fixer. As a lawyer, he's used to strutting around and being the focus of attention.

But he hasn't shown subtlety, such as the mastermind behind the River Murders has. As he's proven in his relationship with his "client" Krendler, he's a blunt-force type of guy.

He can hurl a veiled threat. But subtlety, not so much.

It's a pity that ViCAP couldn't have just continued investigating Alastor in secret. But the speed at which Alastor's merger was going through prevented that.

Hasn't Julia come on board in a big way?

At the end of Clarice Season 1 Episode 10, when Esquivel and Clarke were pushing for more from her, she seemed ready to jump off the investigation and go back to her life as it was before Clarice darkened her doorway.

But when merger talks accelerated, she was on the phone to Clarice, trying to bring in the cavalry before all the documentation disappeared.

It appeared that the strong personalities of ViCAP couldn't agree on anything. That was disproven by the resounding "no" over the conference call when Julia suggested that she snoop around.

The reason became obvious when Hudlin snuck up behind Julia, still on the phone with ViCAP, to draft her into the merger meeting.

It was great to have Tripathi back. His sarcasm has been greatly missed.

It must be part of Kal Penn's contract that he can be written out of episodes if he has other projects on which he wants to work. Although how much of that could there have been with Covid affecting TV and film production?

Julia's news forced the investigation into Alastor's connections to the River Murders out into the open. 

First, Clarice wanted to have one more chat with Tyson Conway about his father, Alastor CEO Nils Hagen.

Clarice and Tyson seemed to fit together well, a couple of brainy introverts. But despite their shared daddy issues, Tyson didn't have a lot of insight to offer about his late-arriving dad.

It's a shame but not unexpected that Hagen took a stick to their budding relationship later on.

ViCAP going public with the investigation also meant that Krendler had to let the Attorney General know what they had been up to without her knowledge.

Not surprisingly, she wasn't pleased, especially after Clarice turned Catherine into the local police after she had stalked Buffalo Bill's mother.

Ruth complaining about Clarice going rogue and not following orders was rich. As Krendler pointed out, Ruth knew exactly who Clarice was when she forced her onto Krendler and ViCAP. So why was she acting put out now?

All the two of them could really do was vent because Clarice has been right all along. Her theories, not wandering off alone into danger.

It was amazing how well things went at Alastor, considering the potential for disaster.

When the merger was mentioned, Hudlin puffed up, denied it, and threatened to sue. But the wind went out of his sails when Hagen insisted on talking to Clarice alone.

Hagen was right to be suspicious of Clarice when she threatened two of the three most important things in his life, his son and his business (maybe not in that order).

The third thing would be that muddy, gloomy painting with which he was so enamored. That should have told Clarice all she needed to know about his mind.

Fortunately, they were able to save Julia from herself and get all the documents they needed to go after Alastor.

Now two big questions remain.

One is how ViCAP can keep Julia, their star witness, safe until trial. Second, who will Ruth support in the end: Catherine, her biological daughter, or Clarice, her work daughter?

The other shoe started to drop for Ardelia and the Black Coalition. Herman was nice to Ardelia, killing her with kindness. But Garrett got an undesirable promotion to the sticks. 

So it's either the suing blacks are shipped away to new assignments, or they refused to take opportunities for promotion. Hopefully, their lawyer can come up with an effective way to counter Herman's play.

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To revisit what's going on in Clarice's head, watch Clarice online.

With Ruth and Krendler compromised, how can ViCAP make charges stick against Alastor?

Can they get one of Hagen's people to flip (maybe the fake cop)?

Can the Black Coalition win?

Comment below.

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After months of research, Catherine finally worked up the nerve to leave her home searching for answers on Clarice Season 1 Episode 10.

The problem was that the person upon which she was pinning her hopes, Lila Gumb, didn't have many answers for her.

This episode's topic was parenting — good, bad, and indifferent — and its effects on children.

Come to think of it, there wasn't much good parenting on display here.

Instead, we got peeks at what made Buffalo Bill and his victims, Catherine and Clarice, who they are.

Let's start with Catherine, who was convinced that the woman who birthed Jame Gumb would know why he grew up to be her torturer.

But Lila didn't have the answers that Catherine sought because the boy who would become Buffalo Bill hadn't been her child since he was 2.

That's because some women aren't built to become mothers, and Lila was one of those.

Lila was a pageant queen whose husband convinced her that she could be an actress. When she failed, he dropped her, and she fell into a bottle.

The tipping point for Jame came when single mother Lila split a bottle of cough syrup with him then forgot him on a bus. Not surprisingly, she got sent away for child neglect, and Jame went to live with her parents.

Lila moved away after she got out of jail. So small wonder that she knew little about why Jame turned into a monster.

Of course, lacking a mother's affections had to affect Jame. But he had to be a little broken inside anyway to slice up his grandparents with a boxcutter as a tween.

So Jame continued his childhood in 11 foster homes. But, as Clarice pointed out, being raised in a foster home doesn't automatically turn you into a serial killer.

As Clarice noted, she grew up in foster care, and she turned out just fine. Mostly.

Sure, as Dr. Li said, Clarice keeps charging headlong into dangerous situations without backup. But her beloved sheriff daddy worked alone, so what's the big deal?

Catherine is the way she is largely thanks to a single trauma, her imprisonment by Buffalo Bill. But Bill was just one of a series of pains inflicted on Clarice, starting with her father's killing in the line of duty.

It appeared that Clarice was on the precipice of a breakthrough at the episode's end. Dr. Li certainly has her work cut out for her when it comes to our favorite, screwed-up FBI agent.

Part of Catherine going on her unannounced mission was Clarice's fault.

She should have let Ruth know what Catherine was planning, although Ruth was disingenuous when she said Clarice's job wasn't to be Catherine's friend. No, even worse, her job was to be Catherine's one-woman support group.

It was interesting to watch Ruth and Krendler get into it over whose agent Clarice was.

Krendler was right not to trust Clarice since Ruth foisted her upon him. Also, he was correct that she's a danger, mainly to herself but also to ViCAP.

Ruth wants it both ways. She insists that Clarice be treated as a full-integrated member of ViCAP while still serving as her unofficial spy on the team.

When Mom and Dad argue like this, is it any wonder that Clarice follows her gut and does what she thinks is right and asks forgiveness afterward as needed?

For example, she sought and got Ruth's permission to go after Catherine by herself. After all, how much trouble can an unarmed, mentally fragile waif be?

Granted, Clarice couldn't have known there would be a handgun involved. But a profiler such as herself should have realized that someone on the edge, such as Catherine, could be set off by the slightest thing, such as the smell of Bill's hand cream.

Lila's guilt was evident throughout, especially after she determined who Catherine was. If only she had been a better mother, maybe this creature wouldn't have been set loose on the world to victimize women such as Catherine.

The tension was palpable throughout the confrontation at Lila's house, although Catherine wouldn't intentionally shoot Lila, and Clarice wouldn't shoot Catherine.

Clarice was correct to turn in Catherine to the local police. After a sheltered existence and despite her recent nightmare, Catherine needed to learn what the consequences are.

Even in Clarice's absence, the River Murders investigation continued with the odd combo of Clarke, Esquivel, and Julia.

Clarke was squirmy around Julia, and she was equally uncomfortable after he told the story about his abducted sister's hair color. Esquivel was issuing hard truths about the investigation, which wasn't what Julia needed to hear.

Julia has the most to lose of anyone working this case: her livelihood, benefits, and lover. It wasn't surprising that she needed time to ponder whether she wanted to continue helping ViCAP investigate Alastor.

And how wise was it for Esquivel to call Julia on her house phone, which is likely bugged? Remember that Alastor has already infiltrated the DoJ.

To revisit Clarice and Catherine's thorny relationship, watch Clarice online.

Shouldn't Clarice or Ruth have seen Catherine's breakout coming?

Will Julia bail on Clarice and ViCAP?

What does Clarice remember about her father?

Comment below.

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That was the major lesson that Clarice had to absorb as her difficult education in real-world investigation continued on Clarice Season 1 Episode 9.

Clarice's big heart continues to get her in trouble as she grows as a member of ViCAP.

Thus far, her big heart has gotten her in trouble when she charges in alone to save or avenge those she perceives as victims.

All around her, teammates continually attempt to impart the concept of being a part of a team and that she should seek backup in any dangerous situation.

That's so that she doesn't end up imperiled by a serial killer or a psycho doctor, just to give a couple of examples. 

The empathetic Clarice has now entered another potential minefield: giving the benefit of the doubt to potential assets/suspects.

This was apparent with her delicate handling of Tyson Conway, head of the non-profit Global Health Horizons, who brought over the late Carolina Savage from Yugoslavia.

Clarice views Tyson as a good guy since he's training young people to improve medical treatment in their implied backward home countries.

Rather than press Tyson about Carolina, Clarice just gave him her card and asked him to call if he thought of anything on Clarice Season 1 Episode 8.

Contrast that with veteran Clarke, who leaned hard on an Alastor drug sales rep whose green-card boyfriend is facing a drug charge. He leveraged Naomi for all she was worth.

Newbies Clarice and Esquivel looked absolutely appalled about using such a harsh tactic.

Only it was discovered that Tyson's father owns Alastor and financially backed his son's non-profit. Since bodies were dropping all around Alastor, that couldn't be out of the goodness of his heart.

So Krendler forced Clarice to question Tyson again, as he was one of the few leads they had.

Clarice proceeded to drop the ball after finding out that Tyson only met his father after his mother died when he was 14. Since that echoed Clarice's origin story, of course, she bonded with him and believed him when he said he knew nothing about his father's company.

Maybe Tyson doesn't, or maybe he does. Either way, Clarice made a start toward turning him when she later offered to help him learn more about who his father is.

Besides, Clarke had already found a different way into Alastor after discovering senior accountant Julia Lawson.

The only problem was that Julia disliked Clarice, who she had never met.

Well, join the club. The FBI is full of people resentful of Clarice.

Only Julia had a fairly good reason. The media described Buffalo Bill as a transexual monster, making life difficult for transexuals such as Julia, who got painted with the same brush.

Julia blamed Clarice for not speaking up and explaining that Bill was an aberration. She was right. But the Buffalo Bill case was early in Clarice's career, long before she understood her value enough to speak out.

At least Clarice persuaded Julia to take a closer look at Reprisol. Afterward, Julia opted to risk it all, including her health insurance, to bring the Reprisol financials to ViCAP.

Keeping ViCAP's investigation of Alastor is proving harder than anyone anticipated. The company must have great internal security.

How else can you explain Naomi's overdose or Hudlin's private conversation with Gordon, err Julia?

Krendler may have tipped his hand when he suspiciously quizzed Hudlin about Carolina rather than just acting cowed by him. His taking a drink probably wasn't enough to throw Hudlin off the scent.

Still, it was good to see Krendler willing to risk both his career and his family to get answers about Alastor and Hudlin's roles in the River Murders.

Clarice also got hit on the home front because of the Black Coalition's discrimination suit against the FBI.

Ardelia and the mistreated black agents do deserve justice.

However, their lawyer Castillo is making a mistake putting Clarice as the lead example of discrimination with the Bureau.

Clarice got her position at ViCAP because she saved the Attorney-General's daughter. If that had been Ardelia, she would be on ViCAP instead, and Clarice would be handling cold cases.

At least Clarice was supportive and essentially said, "Bring it on." She wants justice for Ardelia, too, even at her own expense.

Speaking of the Attorney-General's daughter, Catherine was back in the spotlight. She has been underused as Bill's other living victim, but she finally made some strides.

It took Ned, her almost fiance, to get her out of her home. It took Bea, her housekeeper/mother figure, to get her to the coffee shop to see Ned.

It wasn't worth the trip, as Ned was the same self-involved boy who ghosted Catherine when she needed him most. It was great when Catherine showed some fire as she told him off, even if that emotion was short-lived.

Also, it gave her some impetus to return to her ongoing project, tracking down Buffalo Bill's mother. Catherine has to understand how Bill came to be the serial killer that he was.

To follow Clarice's evolution, watch Clarice online.

Will Clarice get more jaded?

Has Ardelia done the right thing by including Clarice in the suit?

Will Catherine follow through on her plan?

Comment below.

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