"Silence of the Lambs" Questions

WillG · 08-16-2004, 07:14 PM

Watched SOTL last night for the first time in a while. There are some things I just did not pick up or did not quite understand. I was hoping people here could clarify.

1. How did Lector "kill" Miggs? I know they said that Lector was whispering to him and he had swallowed his own tongue. How does this happen? I figure perhaps the book explains this more.

2. Did Lector know Buffalo Bill? I know that he is supposed to be very perceptive, but he seems to know more than he should about Bill. Like how he knew it was a coccoon down the victim's throat. Also, what was the connection to Benjamin Raspbell (head in the bottle)?

3. The FBI ran the list of Gender reassignment applicants from Johns Hopkins through their database and came up with Jame Gumb, why did they end up at the wrong house and once Crawford realized it, why did he immediately think that Clarice was in danger?

4. Why did the victim have that dress with the diamond patterns on the back marked off in her closet?

Chad R · 08-16-2004, 07:21 PM

1. Lecter is a genius psychologist, he basically played with Miggs's head, using whatever information he could get, and convinced Miggs to swallow his own tongue. It's a deomnstration of how brilliant, and sick Lecter is.

2. Lecter knew Bill's first victim, who was a patient of his. When he missed several appointments Lecter went looking and found him, and then tucked him away in the storage facility. After that, I believe Bill and Lecter had a correspondence, Bill sort of admiring Lecter.

3. jame Gumb was staying at another house, not his own. The old lady who lived there is seen briefly, decomposing in the bathtub shortly before the lights go out.

4. She was a seamstress, and Gumb was copying that pattern with human skin, which was the connection Clarice makes.

WillG · 08-16-2004, 11:43 PM

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1. Lecter is a genius psychologist, he basically played with Miggs's head, using whatever information he could get, and convinced Miggs to swallow his own tongue. It's a deomnstration of how brilliant, and sick Lecter is.

I figured Lector mind fucked Miggs, but how does one swallow his own tongue? Bit it off and choked himself on it, I suppose.

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2. Lecter knew Bill's first victim, who was a patient of his. When he missed several appointments Lecter went looking and found him, and then tucked him away in the storage facility. After that, I believe Bill and Lecter had a correspondence, Bill sort of admiring Lecter.

Kind of what I presumed as well. I figured though, that since Lector has been incarcerated for so many years, I did not think that Bill would have been at large for so long. Also, wasn't it suggested in Red Dragon that it was indeed Lector who killed Raspbell for being an inept musician in the Philharmonic who offended Lector's tastes. Well, there are a few inconsistancies between the different films anyway.

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3. jame Gumb was staying at another house, not his own. The old lady who lived there is seen briefly, decomposing in the bathtub shortly before the lights go out.

I remember that, but I still want to know why Crawford immediately knew that Clarice was in danger after they realized that Gumb was not in the house that they raided.

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4. She was a seamstress, and Gumb was copying that pattern with human skin, which was the connection Clarice makes.

I'm still a bit lost on this. I don't know why that victim would have a dress with patterns marked on the back. Or, was it something that was just inconsequential and I'm overthinking all this? He saw her marking that dress for whatever reason and then just decided to skin her in that same matter.

Terry St · 08-17-2004, 02:18 AM

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I'm still a bit lost on this. I don't know why that victim would have a dress with patterns marked on the back. Or, was it something that was just inconsequential and I'm overthinking all this? He saw her marking that dress for whatever reason and then just decided to skin her in that same matter.

It's been a while since I watched SOTL, but tell me if this sounds reasonable: Clarice figured out that Gumb had not been killing random strangers, but rather, women he knew or was at least familiar with. The victims had skin missing in surgically precise patterns, but what those patterns were wasn't clear to Clarice. Then she saw the same cuts on the victim's dress as on one of the corpses. This allowed her to connect the dots and realize that Gum was sewing a human dress from his victims. If he was an expert at sewing, then he might have met his victims through a sewing club. Wasn't the old lady whose house Gumb was in connected to that same victim's sewing club? Correct me if I'm wrong.

David Williams · 08-17-2004, 03:30 AM

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I'm still a bit lost on this. I don't know why that victim would have a dress with patterns marked on the back.

The pattern on the dress is what's called a 'dart' . It's a special kind of seam made in the back of women's clothing so that the fabric conforms to the curves of the body.

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Kind of what I presumed as well. I figured though, that since Lector has been incarcerated for so many years, I did not think that Bill would have been at large for so long

Keep in mind that young Jame did not start out fully formed, as the good Dr. Lecter suggests. He worked his way up to the woman suit. The police probably didn't catch on until very late in his serial killer maturation.

As for Benjamin Rasphail, my money is on Dr. Lecter.

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MatthewLouwrens · 08-17-2004, 03:48 AM

According to the book, Chapter 9, Lector claims the head was "Raspail's lover. Raspail, of the gluey flute." He then says that Raspail confessed to the death in therapy, claiming he was strangled for being unfaithful, but Lector thinks it was auto erotic asphyxiation. Lector killed Raspail because he got sick and tired of his whining. He then fed him to the orchestra officials because, "Haven't you ever had people coming over and no time to shop. You have to make do with what's in the fridge."

andrew markworthy · 08-17-2004, 07:10 AM

Only one correction to the answers given to this - wasn't Hannibal a psychiatrist rather than a psychologist? Just protecting the image of my profession...

Michael Reuben · 08-17-2004, 08:57 AM

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Clarice figured out that Gumb had not been killing random strangers, but rather, women he knew or was at least familiar with.

Just the first victim. That's what Clarice figures out from Lecter's hints and why she goes to that victim's home town. It's also why Crawford, when he realizes that "Jame Gumb's" home is empty, grows concerned for Clarice. Since Gumb has obviously not lived there for a while, Crawford surmises that he may still be in the small town where he saw his first victim -- and where Clarice is now continuing to poke around, at Crawford's direction and without backup.

M.

Colin Jacobson · 08-17-2004, 10:20 AM

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I figured Lector mind fucked Miggs, but how does one swallow his own tongue? Bit it off and choked himself on it, I suppose.

No, that's not it, I don't think. I believe that your tongue can get twisted back so badly that you choke on it. You don't literally swallow it as in "it went down the gullet and resides in my belly", but it goes back in your throat and blocks the airway. As a kid, I once went to a pro soccer game at which a player almost died because he swallowed his tongue - I'm sure he didn't bite if off and let it fall...