Hanna – Résistance

By: Kelly Kearney

After last season’s cliffhanger ending, we find Hanna/Mia back at the Meadows and working undercover for Marissa, who is believed to be dead thanks to John Carmichael, who lies to his superiors and tells them he killed the agent. Now, with Marissa hell-bent on taking down Pioneer and her former employer, Utrax, she contacts a CIA agent and the two work undercover to save the targets from Utrax’s, while also flushing out the man who started this whole thing. Strap in, teen-assassin fans, you are in for a fantastic and violent ride.

Mia’s Return

We open on Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles) running through the woods with young man while hiding from helicopters swooping between the trees. We do not know the time period she is in, or who the man is she appears to be protecting, but we can assume it is in the future and we haven’t met him yet. Hanna’s mood seems desperate, as she clutches to embrace and shield him from the in-air attack.

When we are catapulted to the present Hanna is in a car on her way back to The Meadows and her fellow Utrax trainees. There John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney), who is head of the trainee program and is also working undercover for Marissa Weigler (Mireille Enos), congratulates Mia and two other students, Jules (Gianna Kiehl) and Sandy (Áine Rose Daly), for neutralizing the American whistleblower threat. Their mission, while successful, was not without loss as Mina Gardner, and Clemency Jones sacrificed their lives for the cause, or so he wants everyone to believe. Nobody at the school seems thrilled over Mia/Hanna coming back, not after her escape brought drama to the campus. So, John holding this big congratulatory announcement meeting doesn’t sit well with all the trainees. Be that as it may, she is back, begrudgingly so, and now being used as an example of an agent’s unyielding loyalty to the Utrax’s cause, which also gives her cover while they figure out their next move in dismantling this rogue faction of intelligence officers turned assassins. To fit back in to her day-to-day campus life, Hanna is sent to reprocessing and returned to her bleached blonde Mia identity.

Also trying to remain undercover is Marissa, who we catch up with in Vienna, Austria where she ambushes a CIA agent named Ethan (Sam Swainsbury) at lunch. She shows him papers detailing the assignation plots of a rouge CIA agency and his name just happens to be on the list. The news is confusing since he is just a low-level pencil pusher and with no reason be some target. He isn’t sure he can trust Marissa, but when she tells him she knows he has a pregnant girlfriend, he is outmaneuvered and is aware this woman can be dangerous if pushed. She hands him a burner phone and tells him to call her with any information about why his name popped up.

Back at The Meadows, Utrax sends a team in to get control of the Barcelona situation. Their female agent, Stapleton (Chloe Pirrie), questions Carmichael over what went wrong and why he didn’t inform them he sent Mia Wolf on the mission. He gives them some cover story about the lists leaking out of D.C. and into Kelder’s hands, so he wasn’t sure who to trust; anyone could be the mole. After he confirms Mia shot Marissa and he buried her himself, he is warned to never step outside the chain of command again. It’s a warning she has no idea he’s already ignored, so hopefully when they scan the CCTV tapes, they will not uncover any evidence of Utrax-treason.

Later that night, Hanna gets a text on her secret phone to meet outside of the school at midnight, and it’s signed M. She manages to make her way through the highly surveilled courtyard only to be spitted by Terri (Cherrelle Skeete), who actively ignores the teen’s escape. John Carmichael meets up with Hanna in the woods and leads her to a car shrouded in branches and debris. She asks him if Utrax suspects them and when he says no, she responds with a “you lie well.” When the car finally stops it’s parked outside of a trailer out in the middle of nowhere. Marissa greets them, and the three immediately get down to business. She calls her contact Ethan in Vienna and puts his mind at ease by lying about her safe phone calling from an undisclosed location in Bavaria. He admits he did some research on her and discovered the fact she is supposed to be dead. “Yes, and we want to keep it that way” she reminds him. He tells Marissa an Agent Stapleton, the same one who just arrived at The Meadows to keep an eye on Carmichael, posed as an intelligence agent but was actually representing a group called Pioneer. She had him spying on problem kids as young as 13, just in case they posed a threat to the United States years on into the future. Ethan admits he felt uncomfortable with the overreach of protocol and quit and perhaps that is how his name landed on the list. He could be a loose end they are trying to tie up. The only other tidbit he has is this Stapleton answered to someone she referred to as “The Chairman.” John has no intel on who this top guy is and isn’t sure if he can deliver on what Marissa is asking of him. She wants the names of the next five assassination targets and Hanna chosen to go on the missions. With John under heavy scrutiny for sending her to Barcelona, the chances he can get her on the next killing team will be tricky, if at all. Marissa blackmails him with threats to out his involvement in the plot to dismantle the program and if he wants to live, he will “make it happen.”  When John leaves to start the car, Marissa whispers orders for Hanna to find out who The Chairmen is and to keep that information between them. Then Marissa puts on her maternal hat and checks in with Hanna and how she is handling being back in the program. She shrugs it off like she is used to it, but Marissa promises her a better life once they complete this mission. Hanna looks at this caring version of the woman she was trained for years to hate and says, “even if you gave me the kind I wanted, I wouldn’t know what to do with it.”  She’s a fighter, and that’s what she’s been trained for her entire life. Anything outside of that seems like pure fantasy and she isn’t getting her hopes up.

A New Mission

That night John tells the trainees they are about to embark on a mission, and they have to be ready because their targets will be waiting for them. Strike first, or die first, that is the lesson he tries to drill into their heads as we see a montage of training maneuvers in the woods at night. Things get out of hand when Mia/Hanna almost strangles Sandy to death after their previous tensions kick off in full-force and a brutal fight ensues. Later, while running off some of her fight steam, Hanna overhears Stapleton talking about The Chairmen. When she bends down to stay out of sight, she notices a trap door hidden beneath her grassy feet- it must lead to Pioneer’s home base. She doesn’t get a chance to investigate any further because Jules shows up in her feels about the journalist she killed on their last mission in London. No amount of training can prepare you for that death stare. Jules tries to make a connection with Mia, but it goes nowhere. She changes the topic to Sandy claiming the blonde assassin is suspicious of her and mentioned Mia might be the mole. Mia could not care less about what Sandy thinks and says it’s a good thing they will never have to see each other again after this next mission. Jules pleads with her to try and patch things up with her friend, because this whole independent killer thing is the reason why she is running in the woods alone and friendless. With that, Jules leaves and Mia finally has a moment to track the grate under her feet to a steel door in the basement of a neighboring building. After prying the rusted door open, she finds a series of underground tunnels leading to a command station in what looks to be some sort of hanger or massive garage. She slips in undetected, hiding behind shipping containers and parked government issued cars to better eavesdrop. She sees Stapleton’s crew and they’ve set up some kind of control home base hidden on campus. When one of the doors opens, she hears the female leader in a video conference call with The Chairmen (Ray Liotta), who called for an update on the assassination missions set to kick off in the morning. Stapleton, or Breanna as her boss calls her, mentions Carmichael and The Chairmen says he doesn’t trust him, but also makes it clear he trusts no one. When a stray cat’s meow almost calls attention to Hanna’s hiding spot, Stapleton orders her stooge to get rid of it which gives Hanna the perfect opportunity to snap a photo of her call screen before making a run for it.

The Outskirts of Paris

In Paris, we see Marissa is hiding out in a hidden compound when she gets a text from Hanna with a blurry photo attached. Marissa dials up her fake documents guy and says she has a job for him. Meanwhile, back at the Meadows and Carmichael manages to sidestep Stapleton’s insults about this job performance long enough to convince her sending Mia to Paris, just like Marissa wants him to, is the right move. He informs Hanna that night but Sandy, who already has it out for Mia, spots her walking away from their private chat. She doesn’t see John, but it won’t be hard to figure out who the other person behind the brick all is.

After everyone gets the bios of their new identities, they all go into crunch mode to get to know their new selves. It is imperative they come off as believable and meld into society unnoticed. Mia looks over her target, Abbas Naziri (Adam Bessa), and his online activity. He’s some sort of free thinking online activist and also the man we saw Hanna running with in the opening minutes. While she goes through his social media posts, Terri spots Sandy and Stapleton having a private meeting outside the walls of the facility. Alkways looking out for Hanna, she sends Mia a message under the guise of her new identity’s father, informing her of what she saw before deleting the correspondence to hide it from her superiors.

Your Future Begins Tomorrow

It is their last night as trainees and their new life starts tomorrow. There is no telling how long their missions will take, but once they are complete, they will be set free to live out the lives they’ve created. They ae told that is their payment for being in service to the United States. Since it is goodbye to this life, the trainees have a blowout party to remember their time at the school. They drink alongside a bonfire to roast their pasts into charred ashes and in the morning, the embers will bring forth a rebirth. So tonight, they go out in style. They dance the night away, as Sandy records them for Stapleton and Carmichael from behind a tree. John’s little birds are flying the coup, but at least they get a reunion one day, or so they hope. Stapleton smiles in that creepy “oh no they won’t” way because she knows their service will not end in a new life, but an end to all their lives; both past, present, and future. The truth hits John when he steps outside of the base headquarters and runs right into that cat Stapleton ordered dealt with. The poor critter is dangling from a stake she had driven through its chest. If she wasn’t itching for a take down before, she has to meet her end now.

Back at the bonfire party, Sandy shows up with a hot poker and questions why Mia shot at her on their last mission, as well as why she snuck out to meet a mystery person. Mia easily takes the poker from her and says she cannot sleep; she keeps visiting the place she met her bestie Clemency, because she feels guilty for killing her. Big reveal: She tells them Clemency was the traitor and she kept quiet to honor her friend’s name. It is all lies, Clemency is safe and back with the mother they stole her from and as for the shooting, Mia tells Sandy if she wanted to shoot her, she wouldn’t have miss. Carmichael, who was sweating through that recording, is relieved when Stapleton nods and says Mia is cleared for the mission. Sandy was her test and she passed.

Abbas

The next morning, they all take off for their missions and Hanna/Mia manages to track down her target in the right of way. She asks him for directions to student housing and the two walk together while casually chatting about political philosophers along the way. The connection has been made and Abbas seems friendly and interested, even though it is clear he has a girlfriend, Mia shares in his interest. He asks for her number so they can grab a drink and when she types her number into his phone the look on his face says he is smitten. Her run in was a bit convenient and she just happened to be up in his favorite philosophers. Outside of a little suspicion as to how he stumbled onto this perfect girl, Abbass is all in on getting to know Mia.

Later, she attends his talk on resistance in the globalized world but outside one of Stapleton’s agents, Benson (Dempsey Bovell) is watching Mia to make sure she completes her mission. Abbas’ speech about breaking the chains of colonialism and freeing your mind inspires Hanna so much that when she meets up with him after the show the two hit it off romantically. She climbs on to the back of his motorbike and they head to a club as Hanna falls into her memories of another time, she had her arms wrapped around a boy and the wind rushing through her hair. Her snowy escape from her father’s woodsy imprisonment on the back of the snowmobile with the boy doomed by the same death that swirls around her very existence. It makes her weepy knowing this boy was also fated to die, but not on her watch! After dancing around, each other all night she lures him to the roof top for a smoke. When he tries to kiss her, he notices she is acting nervous and that is when they hear a noise. She goes to pull her gun and Abbas tackles her thinking she is trying to kill him. The two roll around on the floor fighting for the weapon until Hanna gets the upper hand and dangles him over the edge of a very a high drop. She pulls off her mic and tosses it down into the pit just as she orders him to be quiet. Back at Stapleton’s lair, her team hears the mic go silent, so she orders the outside agent to run a status check. Hanna knows he is coming so the reveal must be quick. She holds him still as Marissa walks out of the shadows to explain who they are and why they are there to save his life. When the other agent does make it to the roof, he sees a body fall and a group Abbas’ haters set his body on fire. He tells Stapleton that Mia killed the target, and her mission is complete. They’re both ordered out of the area and told to await further instructions.

Can Marissa play multiple Continent chess with Pioneer and this mysterious Chairman long enough to save the targets and dismantle the program? Find out in the next episode of Hanna.