Realizing that Hanna will no longer accept anything but the full truth, Erik takes her back to Romania so she can learn more about her past. Meanwhile, Marissa begins to sense that Sawyer has not been telling her the full truth about Utrax.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of Amazon's Hanna.
"Road" was written by David Farr and directed by Anders Engström
When did Erik learn who Hanna's biological father actually was and where to find him? That seems like a huge question that just looms over this entire episode. The show really doesn't offer up a good explanation. It may have come from some of the files he received when breaking free of Sawyer's prison. But the show mostly centers that intel around the revelation that Utrax started the program again. Now, the subjects are no longer babies. They are teenagers who are subjected to a strict routine every day in a remote facility in the Romanian forest. That location is the home to so many of these special young girls. But again, it remains unclear what the purpose of all of this is. It's mostly about keeping the central three characters in the dark. Marissa and Hanna don't know about the new Utrax program. Marissa believed all of the experiments ended when she left. She was forced to give up her personal life because Erik and Hanna resurfaced. That was a loose end that she needed to deal with in order to keep her life moving on the same trajectory. Now, she is accepting that everyone has been keeping secrets from her. It's enough for her to see the responsibility of caring for Hanna and Erik. It may just be another trick up her sleeve in order to capture them and trade them for information. Of course, she's the only person with the insight into how Erik thinks and can track him down to this hotel. Sure, it's incredibly reckless of him to reach out to his mother and return to the hotel where he spent his last night with Johanna. Those are patterns that could easily be traced by anyone who has an understanding of the past. These moments hold personal significance to him. He can share the story with Hanna about how nervous he and Johanna were during the night after breaking her out of the facility. It ended in disaster for Johanna. And now, Erik hopes to finally be able to give Hanna the normal life that she needs. Of course, it's silly to think that Hanna would be sidelined during the final confrontation of the season. She is the title character after all. She was raised to be a skilled hunter and killer. Erik ultimately needs to be rescued by her. That is a nice change-up to a familiar pattern in this genre. But again, it's silly how all of it revolves around the need for her to be with her biological father - who also just happens to live in the nearby area. That is a little too convenient and mostly makes Hanna commit to her life with Erik. It may be tragic and could come to an end at any moment. But this is the life she has always known. She has love for him even though he is constantly lying to her. She doesn't know about the new program and what Erik intends to do to it. There's no sense of how this entire narrative will be coming together for the finale. Right now, it's just important that everyone converges once more on this hotel. Erik feels like it's him against the world after Marissa has distracted him long enough to be in a trap. He still prevails thanks to Hanna's resourceful thinking and awareness of how Erik acts. It ensures that Sawyer is eliminated as a threat. He is the easy antagonist who could be blamed for every horrible action taken. Erik, Hanna and Marissa are more complicated figures than that. But it also seems a little inevitable that Marissa will continue to stand in the way of Erik and Hanna's success even though she also doesn't know what's fully going on. Plus, there's the idea that the new subjects at the facility can't be controlled as well as the scientists have long believed they could be. That could be exciting. But again, the show just needs to get to the point already.
