Totally agree. But I don't think I would've remembered it if you hadn't mentioned it. IMO the tear-licking would have had lots more impact if it hadn't been placed so close to the main shock of the scene, the cooked parents. The way it was timed, I'd guess that the typical first-time viewer didn't even have time to *recover* from that, so the tears thing almost approached sensory overload.
Does anyone know if *that* was some kind of tribute or homage? Is it part of Titus Andronicus or one of the other parallels that have been drawn here (which escape me just now)?
I used to say that after every few episodes. Now it's almost a given, as if one of M&T's primary directives is to break the bubble, build a new one, break that a few eps later, and so on.
I think it was probably Mr. Hankey's debut (something we all almost acknowledge as *tame* right now, but which generally had us doing that very same omigod dance at the time) that made it clear that the show was just going to keep pushing new envelopes.