Hanna – A Way to Grieve

By: Kelly Kearney

Sometimes starting a new life means having to say goodbye to your old one. In “A Way to Grieve” we find Hanna struggling to accept her new life at The Meadows, but thanks to Terri and her keen eye for pinpointing a trainee’s weaknesses, Hanna might be ready to say goodbye to her past, and hello to Mia Wolff.

Take this new life and shove it!

When episode 5 begins, we find Hanna (Esmé Creed-Miles) in her newly decorated room at The Meadows. From the look on her face she is not impressed with the fake family photos Leo (Anthony Welsh) and Terri (Cherrelle Skeete) assigned to her. When Hanna tells Terri that she does not need this fake life it is back to the drawing board for The Meadows’ Gaslighting Employee of the Month. Hanna is not ready to accept this new fate being forced on her and neither is her jailed accomplice, Marissa (Mireille Enos). After she was caught trying to break Hanna and Clara (Yasmin Monet Prince) out of the program, John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney) throws her into a cell until she is ready to talk. While interrogating the renegade red head, John tells her he knows everything that she has been up to. He knows Marissa was keeping Hanna hidden in Paris and procuring new identities for both girls. What he is not clear on is her motives and who sent her n this mission. Unlucky for him, Marissa is not talking. By now she is a pro at managing these violent interrogation techniques and no amount of threats or beatings are going to make her talk. The interesting angle to this power play by John is his usual methods of dealing with troublemakers seems to be off the table. Normally, anyone who got in his way would be killed and any trace of them wiped from the annuls of history. For some reason Marissa Wiegler has escaped his deadly wrath, almost as if someone above John is pulling his strings and knows Marissa is valuable to their business.

Going back to Hanna we see Terri recount the details of Hanna’s new identity. From now on she will go by German born and recent American citizen, Mia Wolff. She has a loving mother and father, siblings and a dog named Buttons who quickly becomes Chester when Hanna tells Terri it is a stupid name for a dog. As Hanna sits watching Terri add and delete things from her profile she becomes more and more agitated. Eventually, she goes on the verbal attack. The details of this Mia Wolff are inconsequential because none of it is real, Hannah explains. So, why does it matter what her new favorite fruit is or her father’s occupation?  Hanna already knows what she likes and at the top of that list is preserving the memory of her father, Erik Heller (Joel Kinnaman). He might not have been her biological father, but he was the only father she ever had. He taught her everything she knows. Terri processes Hanna’s anger and then responds with an unfortunate truth that Hanna cannot deny. If Hanna does not agree to stay in the trainee program then she will be hunted her whole life. This is the best chance she has for normalcy and she will not find that on the run in the Romanian forest. The message is really driven home when Leo tells her the one person who might be able to help her, Marissa, is now dead.

Team Building Exercises Utrax Style

At lunch with her fellow trainees Hanna shares her new identity and they all seem ecstatic over this Mia Wolff. Clara shows up at the table and after her betrayal during the escape attempt, Hanna is not too happy to see her. Clara kind of forces her way into the conversation about Mia and glances through her new portfolio. She seems impressed, but Hanna is still insisting that none of this is based in reality. What is real? Erik’s murder and subsequent burial in a shallow grave next to her mother’s. This is almost too much reality for the other girls, who cringe when they hear about the horrors Hanna lived through. If there is one thing The Meadows is good at it is sugar coating the experience and removing the negatives. It keeps the girls’ compliant and reliant on the program for their happiness. Unlike Hanna, whose entire life has been one big horror show. In a huff she takes off from the lunch table and leaves the others triggered into silence. Knowing how much this place changed her friend Clara, now Clemency, makes Hanna wonder if Mia could ever going to be a tempting offer. According to Clara this life they have been given can be a real and wonderful if they want it to be. Hanna just has to realize what is being offered is her best chance at not just survival but for a happiness, too.

After lunch the girls take part in a militaristic style version of capture the flag. The game’s purpose is to strengthen their trust in each other while working together as a team. These tactics will come in handy when they are on missions in the real world. The exercise takes place in the woods, a place that feels like home for Hanna, and each trainee is given a laser gun and corresponding armor to track their performances. If you get shot you are out of the game. The goal is for one team to make it back to home base with the flag. Joanne (Katie Clarkson-Hill), who is running this game, hands Hanna her gun and asks her if she knows how to use it. Hanna practically rolls her eyes because not only does she know how, she is used a real one many times. With her gun in hand and before the game even begins, Hanna runs into the woods and starts tracking her way through the trees and towards the flag. The rest of the girls follow and one by one they take each other out, with Hanna having the majority of the fake kills. During her sprint through the woodsy battlefield Hanna spots Stephen (David Avery) behind the fence. He motions for her to be quiet and shows her a cell phone with herself as the lock screen. Immediately she knows this is Marissa’s contact and she runs off and never mentions seeing him. Finally, after eliminating every girl on both teams, Hanna captures the flag and impresses not only her teammates but the staff as well. Sandy (Áine Rose Daly) tries to offer her the flag as a trophy from their win, but Hanna rudely declines with a, “if you like it so much, you keep it.” Apparently, Mia Wolff is as sore a winner as we can assume she is a loser.

Erasing Erik

Back in her room sulking, Terri watches Hanna and knows she is not ready to join The Meadows. She goes to John to inform him of her worries and a plan she has been working on to help convince the girl that Mia is the right choice. Unlike the other trainees who were raised like little orphan robots owned and conditioned by a super-secret government entity, Hanna had a life. She had a father in Erik. Regardless of their biology, Hanna loved him like a father and the two lived as if they were the only two humans on earth. That is a lot of history to forget, and therein lies the struggle. She is not like the other girls, so Terri cannot use the same tactics to get through to her. She has an idea and John gives her the go ahead.

Later that night Sandy receives a series of emails, each one more distressing than the last. Her sister was in an accident. The doctors tried their best, but she did not survive. Sandy immediately breaks down with Jules (Gianna Kiehl) and the other girls running to comfort her. All of them accept Mia who stands back and watches this unfold like she is a spectator in some insane dream or comedy. For a couple of imaginary friend pen pals, they call family, Sandy and the others really lay the devastation on thick. Almost immediately Sandy notices Mia’s attitude and tells her that this family is “real to me.” For a girl who never had any relationship outside of trainee 249’s voice on the other side of her cell, a fake family feels real. That truth sinks into the parts of Hanna where Erik still resides. His burial helped her say goodbye and maybe a memorial will help Sandy, too. Hanna leads all the girls outside for a proper sendoff all gathering around Sandy. While Hanna watches Sandy grieve something inside of her realizes that maybe she can believe in this fantasy they are offering. She goes back to the dorms and Clara thanks her for helping their friend. Maybe this friendship, and the others, are enough to open her eyes to the possibilities of Mia. The two girls hug and from the control room John gets a snapshot of a girl ready to join his program. He takes it to Marissa as proof her fight to save Hanna is over, but Marissa is not a quitter. Especially now that she is going to be released. “The powers that be” ordered John to release Marissa and as a parting gift he hands her the photo. Unshaken, she accepts it with a smile.

I’ll Be Your family

As John processes Marissa’s release, Hanna is in her bedroom fingering through her profile. She is interrupted by an incoming text from “Dad.” And after some initial pauses, she decides to respond. When she types, “I feel alone,” it is obvious that has been the driving force behind this choice to stay. Like all people, she wants to feel loved and cared for. Terri’s plan is working right up until Marissa is released and she takes off towards the control room. She pistol whips Terri, claiming she is there to protect her girls. Once the control room is her;s she immediately notices Hanna’s texts on the computer. She logs in and identifies herself by voice message and says to be ready because she is coming to get her. When she asks for the room location, Hanna, now Mia, refuses because she has decided to stay! Then she hangs up on Marissa! Always resourceful, Marissa locates Hanna’s room number from the photo John gave her. Gun drawn she stalks her way through the dorms until she breaks into Hanna’s room. She does her best to convince the confused girl to leave. Marissa tells her she is not safe and this world is a lie. If she comes with her, Marissa promises she will take care of her. It is not the first time we have seen Marissa slide into the maternal role, but its definitely the first heart wrenching believable one. “Your father is gone, honey,” she reminds her, but she is there now and offering her a new life. One where she can take her memories of her father with her.

Marissa’s desperate pleas work and Hanna agrees to leave. As they almost make it to freedom passed the gates, Clara/Clemency stops them. She takes Marissa’s stolen gun and refuses to let them leave. Then, Marissa drops the truth bomb. John made her lie when she said Samira was dead. Her mother is alive and Marissa will help Clara find her. Clemency calls her a lair and Hanna shields Marissa from the barrel of the gun. The two girls struggle over the weapon and then it goes off. Hanna accidentally, or possibly on purpose (it is not clear), shoots Marissa in the arm and alerting the guards. Cool as ice, Marissa holds her arm and just glares at Hanna like a disappointed mother thinking, “Seriously?” The episode ends when Clemency tells John that Mia shot Marissa just as he orders the guards to arrest her. To the victor goes the spoils and John certainly has a victorious grin when he turns to Mia and says, “You’re with us now.” Let the trainee brainwashing begin! Welcome to your new life Mia…for however long it lasts.