It solidifies his ‘genius psychopath’ character for me. He’s casually going about this seemingly complicated process, to gain details on a man he wants to organise the murder of, all the while chewing his gum and with an air of entertaining himself on a rainy afternoon. It’s so normal to him that it doesn’t even cause a tremor in his voice. He’s so in control of his environment that he doesn’t even glance at the door to see if the guard is coming (a guard, by the way, who backed out maintaining eye contact, with a hand on his gun, whilst Lector was behind bars) to disturb him.

The whole scene is just… chefs kiss.