To be honest, one of the least convincing parts of this saga was the intertwined needs of Will and Hannibal for each other. I thought it was forced in their final therapy session before Hannibal surrendered (so that Will would always know where to find him?) It would come up in future episodes, especially Will's scenes with Dr. Du Maurier, where they both share and deny an attraction for Hannibal. All of this telegraphed to me that Will and Hannibal would end up in some kind of comforting embrace. (The moment was also in the final Harry Potter, with two similarly linked characters.)
When I saw them going for the book's ending, I wondered if they would include Will's facial disfigurement from the book. So I was anticipating that. Of course, in the book, Hannibal isn't also present.
I do like how they reworked Chilton, pushing Lounds into the background. Very interesting that they used up the Lounds burning from Red Dragon in Season 1 and managed to have it here too without seeming like this wasn't part of the plan all along. That being said, the burning was done so much better in the Michael Mann version.
Speaking of the Mann version, do you remember the way he filmed the tiger? Because he managed to get all of the same beats. So much so that Hannibal's version of the scene was like Gus Van Sant's Psycho, just a copy under different lighting conditions.
The MVP was Mason Verger and it's not even close.