Hanna Season 1: 7 Brilliant Details You Probably Missed
1. The Beatles Outline The Entire Season
In the 2011 film, Erik Heller taught Hanna by reading to her from an encyclopedia. The series replaces this with a quick crash course on popular culture, during which Erik asks Hanna to name three songs by The Beatles. She names "Love Me Do," "Help," and "Let It Be." Looking at each episode as part of traditional eight-sequence story structure, these songs roughly outline Hanna's journey through each act of the narrative.
By this structure, Act One would be the first two episodes. "Love Me Do" is a rather simple song, but so is Hanna's love for Erik at the outset of the story. Their dedication to one another is unquestioned. Neither doubts that the other will "always be true." And, just as the song describes "somebody new" just a little less than halfway through, Hanna meets Sophie in the second episode - halfway through the first act.
The following four episodes would be Act Two, in which Hanna and Erik must seek help. Hanna's encounter with Sophie has "opened up the doors" to a new way of life, and her "independence seems to vanish in the haze." Meanwhile, the doors to a deeper mystery involving Utrax are opened as well. As Erik and Hanna both find themselves "not so self-assured," they must rely on Erik's army buddies. Her self-assurance waning further, Hanna then turns to Sophie. After nearly giving herself up to Wiegler, Hanna finds herself back with Erik, needing him like she "never done before."
Act Three starts with Erik trying to give Hanna a normal life, telling her to "let it be" and turn her back on the Utrax mystery. But the problem won't go away until the "broken-hearted people" are united, and Hanna decides they should help the Utrax trainees escape into normalcy as well. The final shot rests on Hanna and Trainee 249 experiencing a rare moment of calm. And just as Paul McCartney wrote "Let It Be" as tribute to the lessons he continued learning from his deceased mother, Amazon's Hanna leaves its heroine in the position of having to rely on her late father's wisdom to make her way through the world.