Hanna – Welcome Mia

By: Kelly Kearney

“Welcome Mia” begins right where episode three left off, with Hanna in the custody of John Carmichael and Marissa beaten and unable to help her break free. With no one on her side and quickly running out of options, Hanna is trapped between a lonely life on the run and trying to make The Meadows work. That is until she can convince Clara to leave with her.

Welcome to The Meadows

After the total beatdown she took at the hands of Hanna (Esmé Creed-Miles), Marissa (Mireille Enos) cannot really hide her injuries from anyone, especially John (Dermot Mulroney) who contacts her with an order to meet him at The Meadows. Bruised does not even begin to describe her physical state and she will need a solid cover story if she is going to convince him that she is on his side. John arranges a car to bring her to the top secret location, but first her cover story. Marissa places a tracking device inside one of her lipstick, pairs it to a cell phone and then drives her car headfirst into a tree. The accident will explain her fresh injuries, but who is the tracker for? More on that later…

Over at The Meadows Hanna is locked in a cell while her fellow genetically modified super soldiers are doing what all kids do, breaking the rules. Jules (Gianna Kiehl) tells Sandy (Áine Rose Daly) she wants to throw a party after their 9 PM curfew and she needs her to be a distraction so she can swipe some of the staff’s alcohol. Little do either of them know that Leo (Anthony Welsh) has been setting this up to try and teach them what it means to be a teenager who disobeys rules for a little fun. It is the normalcy he is trying to instill in the trainees and he knows without it they would never pass in the real world.

Disobedience is not just for teenagers, as we see when Marissa manipulates John to gain access to The Meadows and Hanna. He totally buys her accident as the cause of her injuries and winds up welcoming her into the facility’s control room. There John shows Marissa the CCTV footage of Hanna’s break-in and how she made quick work of taking out the guards. It is almost as if he is impressed with her power and skills, but not enough to allow the powerful assassin to go rogue. She is the perfect specimen of brains, power and fight and he needs her back in his program. Marissa plays along and asks if she can see Hanna, claiming she might be the only one who can get through to her. Carmichael agrees and the three of them sit down in an interrogation room. Immediately, Hanna notices her bruises and Marissa does her best to signal she is on her side by claiming an accident is to blame for her battered appearance. She also tells Hanna that she knows she killed Sonia because she was a threat, and this is another tell that Marissa never betrayed her. Hanna now knows Marissa killed Sonia to protect her. The deal is sealed when Marissa says she does not blame Hanna for killing Sonia (Emma D’Arcy) as she would have done the same if she was threatening someone she loved. That is right. Marissa Wiegler just dropped huge clue about her feelings towards Hanna. Not to mention what might be driving her in this mission to help both girls. Whether she loves her out of guilt for ruining her life or she loves her like Dr. Frankenstein loved his monster, it is unclear. What is clear is that this is an entirely different Marissa than we have ever seen before and that realization is not lost on Hanna. In fact, when Hanna pretends to be emotional over John’s invitation to stay at The Meadows Marissa asks her, “Do you trust me?” Then, she comforts her while secretly slipping a note into her hand. The note gives the location and the time for the escape: 10 pm in the courtyard. Hanna pockets the slip of paper and continues to play along as the reluctant but curious new trainee.

Mia Wolff

Part of Marissa’s plan includes a mystery man named Stephen (David Avery). We find Stephen at the scene of Marissa’s accident and low and behold he finds the cell phone paired with the tracker! He has her location but who is he and what is his angle in all of this? For now, he stays a mystery, but it is evident he is a big part of this plan to break Hanna and Clara (Yasmin Monet Prince) out and maybe even reveal the horrors of Utrax to the world. There is just one problem with this plan and that’s Clara, now Clemency. She does not want to leave and she and Hanna are being watched by every guard and camera on campus so they cannot even discuss it. When Hanna asks Clara to show her around The Meadows’ campus, she manages to grab her friend and sneak off to private room and away from the cameras – John’s watchful eye. The minute they are alone the two girls embrace. Hanna immediately apologizes to Clara for ignoring her need to find her mother when they were on the run. If anyone knows what it is like to miss their family it is Hanna. Soon the conversation segues to their escape and Hanna grabs a box cutter and attempts to remove Clara’s implant. The girl dodges the blade and says she does not want it to remove because the staff will know. Hanna is not buying that and accuses Clara of not wanting to leave at all. She likes this new life they gave her and now she is trying to convince Hanna she could like it there, too. Hanna attempts to remind her that all of this is fake and Utrax is just using her, but outside the door they hear the guards and quickly have to shelf their discussion for later. The two manage to convince the guards they took off for a smoke break “like old times” and they buy it. They are just teens being teens. Nothing to see here!

Now that Hanna has agreed to at least give The Meadows a chance John has Terri (Cherrelle Skeete) create for her an identity and profile. With that all in the works, John introduces Hanna to the other trainees as “Mia Wolff” and orders them all to forget the past and welcome her with open arms. He goes on to give the trainees a pep talk. He praises them for their service to their country and explains that once their jobs are complete they will lead a happy lives filled with love and maybe even children of their own. His speech reeks of false promises he has no intention on delivering on. He knows the trainees crave normalcy and his promises that they will one day retire from this life and start a new one is just more manipulation to make them compliant.

The Big Escape

After the introduction to Mia we see Sandy and Jules secure the liquor and the big after hours party is all set. This gives Hanna the perfect opportunity for her and Clara to run. At the same time Marissa tells John her job is now done. He has Hanna where he wants her and unless he plans on telling her who is funding this program, she is not interested in the job he continues to offer her. Even with her soft spoken flirtatious looks John cannot be convinced to reveal his backers. That seems like a good cue for Marissa to leave, so she asks him to get her a car to take her home. Before the ride shows up Marissa asks if she can say one more goodbye to Hanna and John agrees. He escorts her to the afterhours party much to the attendees dismay.

The party was going as expected. The girls cringed their way through sips of straight vodka while giggling about tricking the staff. That is until John and Marissa walk in to say goodbye, closely followed by Leo who tells them all know this party was just another test they all passed. The revelation sucks the fun out of the rebellious night, but the girls still plan on having fun even if it was another lesson to learn. After a proverbial wink and nod Marissa turns to leave just as Hanna makes a convenient comment about the alarms. Marissa counters that by slipping the courtyard (the location for the escape) into her exit speech.

Predictably, Marissa is not inclined to leave just yet and instead backtracks to the control room and cuts the power. Their escape will go easier without the cameras and under the cover of darkness. Finishing up the program for the power outage, Marissa heads outside to meet the driver John sent for. From here on out it is a dramatic race to the end of the episode. As the car makes its way to the front gates, it turns 10 o’clock and the power goes out! Inside Jules notices Clemency and Mia are gone. Outside Marissa grabs the driver from behind, takes his gun and shoots him. She tosses his body out of the car and throws it into reverse and back to The Meadows to pick up the two girls. Only there is just one problem: John knew Marissa was up to something the whole time! Instead of Clara and Hanna jumping into the back seat, he hops in to let Marissa know her escape plans are over. We see that inside Hanna’s plans are also thwarted when Clara and the other trainees turn on her. The group of girls block her from getting to the courtyard and surround her so she cannot run. Clara, now fully accepting her new identity as Clemency, tells Hanna that she can be happy in this new life. Mia can have a family at The Meadows because they are the only people in the world who care about her.