Hanna – Friend

• Title: Hanna – Friend
• IMDb: link

The second episode of the series starts not with Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles), and her recent capture, but with the introduction of Sophie (Rhianne Barret) and her family. Following a scene showcasing the family’s normal dysfunction hitting the road on vacation, only then does the story circle back to Hanna interrogated at the CIA black site. As in the movie, Marissa (Mireille Enos) makes use of a stand-in (Michelle Duncan) that allows Hanna to believe she has successfully killed the person responsible for her mother’s death prior to escaping the facility. The chance meeting between Sophie and Hanna not only allows Hanna to escape the desert (and later Morocco) but also get a glimpse at a more “normal” family and her first taste of friendship.

The fish-out-of-water themes are strong here as Hanna gets her first taste of the world. Although still leisurely paced, there’s much more story in the show’s second episode including the pursuit of Hanna by Marissa’s agents who finally catch up with the girl in the final scenes as Sophie sees an entirely new side of her new best friend. In both her escape from the facility and from the train station we’re introduced to the girl who Marissa fears, and who has very strong motivations to want her dead. Small scenes involving Marissa visiting Hanna’s grandmother and Erik (Joel Kinnaman) sneaking across the Polish border are of less interest, but they do set up threads for the show to build on over the rest of the season.