The Ending Of Hanna: Season 2 Explained
After eight episodes of double-crosses, high-intensity shootouts, and assassinations, the second season of Amazon Prime's series Hanna came to a very satisfying end. Whereas the first season's plot followed many of the same beats as the excellent 2011 film that inspired the series, the second season took viewers into totally new territory. Not only did we get some unexpected developments, like Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles) and Marissa (Mireille Enos) teaming up, but we also got a closer look inside UTRAX's trainee program. A few intriguing characters, including new UTRAX boss Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney), entered the fray as well.
Throughout season 2, we also began to understand the motives of the shadowy figures behind UTRAX, the secretive Pioneer Group. While some shows might be content to drag out their revelations for as long as possible, the second season finale of Hanna gave viewers just enough information to satisfy, while leaving some questions left unanswered for the recently-announced third season.
Let's break down everything we learned in the finale of Hanna season 2, and speculate on where the series is planning on taking viewers in season 3.
The truth about UTRAX's mission
Some intense action unfolded even before Hanna's season finale began. In the penultimate episode, Sandy (Áine Rose Daly) proves herself to be a loyal assassin when she murders Robert Gelder (Mark Bazeley), a whistleblower in possession of highly-classified information that could bring UTRAX down. However, she's prevented from taking out Gelder's daughter, Kat (Angela Sari), who is rescued by Hanna and Clara (Yasmin Monet Prince) and taken to a villa to hide out.
Sandy also doesn't manage to find the documents Gelder was trying to leak to the press. After she sets Kat up in the safe house, Hanna returns to the hotel and uncovers Gelder's file. When she reunites with Marissa after a deadly shootout in the hotel's lobby, Gelder's file is opened and we finally get more info on the Pioneer Group's motives.
In a flashback, we see that it was Carmichael who inadvertently leaked the information to Gelder after he'd had one too many whiskeys. This is one of the reasons he's been so keen to track down Gelder — the document Gelder had was a copy of a list of UTRAX's assassination targets, all of whom are under the age of 30. Carmichael explains to Gelder, "We're controlling the future... the young are beautiful, but so very dangerous for what they might become."
Although Marissa isn't privy to the particulars of that flashback, she does put together UTRAX's plan, and that it was Carmichael who leaked the document. Next, she goes to work putting her newfound information to good use.
Marissa conscripts Carmichael in a plan to take UTRAX down from the inside
By the villa's pool, Marissa finds a wounded Carmichael. He's been shot in the shoulder by Hanna, who arrived back at the villa after getting Gelder's file and foiled his attempt to capture Kat. With Carmichael injured and compromised, Marissa informs him that she knows everything, and that if the Pioneer Group finds out that he was the leak, he's in deep trouble. She then lays out how she plans to leverage her information in order to blackmail him.
Marissa tells Carmichael that she will corroborate a version of events in which Carmichael heroically kept Gelder's document from reaching the press. With him still in the good graces of the Pioneer Group, he'll help Marissa and Hanna infiltrate UTRAX. And once they're inside, he'll help them take out the members of the Pioneer Group, "one by one."
Of course, Carmichael has no loyalty or moral allegiance to Marissa's mission. However, as she makes clear to him, "If anything goes wrong, I tell your bosses what you did."
Hanna says goodbye to Clara
While Marissa is filling Carmichael in on how she plans to use him to infiltrate UTRAX and destroy the Pioneer Group, she says that he will have to make sure Hanna and Clara are both allowed back to the assassin training camp known as the Meadows without suspicion. What she doesn't know is that as she's factoring Clara into her plot, Hanna is in the process of saying goodbye to the young woman for good.
Earlier in the episode, Clara received an email from her birth mother, with whom she has been trying to reconnect for most of her time in the story. Now that she's found her mother, reuniting with her becomes Clara's top priority. After they drop Kat off at the airport, Hanna says goodbye to Clara and sends her off with a secret Canadian passport. Clara also gets a helping hand from Terri (Cherrelle Skeete) at the Meadows, who intercepts Clara's mother's email, but deletes it without saying anything.
Clara's final scene is her reuniting with and hugging her mother. When Hanna returns to the villa, Marissa asks her about Clara's whereabouts. Hanna responds, "She says she's sorry... she has other plans." Although it's not stated explicitly, this seems to be the conclusion of Clara's storyline.
To quote the final line of the episode, "So, what now?" Based on where the show leaves us, it seems that in season 3, we'll be going deep cover at UTRAX. With Carmichael an unwilling accomplice and Sandy proving her allegiance to UTRAX, we don't expect it to go as smoothly as Marissa would like. But then again, why else would we be watching?