Episode 6, Mother, reunites Hanna and Erik. But first, Erik is held prisoner by Sawyer and tortured, while Hanna has a fight with Sophie, then agrees to leave quietly with Marissa as her daughter/prisoner. There are some good character moments and fun action scenes, plus a major reveal. But the main reasons for this episode are to give Marissa and Hanna a chance to meet face to face at last and to move everyone toward their place for the final two episodes.
Recap
The episode opens on Sawyer visiting Erik in the basement dungeon where he’s keeping Erik nearly naked, on the floor, with an air conditioner blowing on him. The torture is made worse by throwing buckets of cold water on him at frequent intervals.
Sawyer wants to know where Hanna is. So does Erik. “I don’t know where she is because she didn’t tell me. She’s smarter than all of us. Don’t look so surprised. You made her that way.”
Sawyer is really nothing more than a glorified flunky with an out of control ego. Definitely not part of the team that made Hanna. Probably hasn’t even bothered to read the file. He’s gotten lucky so far. Marissa is the smart one, and I don’t think that Hanna actually is smarter than her. That makes me wonder, again, if Marissa is an early prototype for the Utrax project.
Sawyer has Erik doused with another bucket of water and walks away. Hopefully Joel Kinnaman was getting warm water thrown at him.
Hanna wakes up in the forest, still naked under the blankets with Anton. She lays there for a moment and enjoys all of the sensations she’s experiencing. Then she gets dressed and goes for a run, following the scent of a doe. Dan wakes up in the van and sees her run by. It’s still early morning and misty out. When Hanna finds the doe, they look at each other, then Hanna pretends to shoot an arrow at her.
Dan, Anton and Sophie gather round the remains of the fire, where Anton is making tea. Sophie sits close to Anton, then he finds an excuse to get up. When Hanna gets back, Sophie tells her she’s embarrassed about the night before, and wonders if she’s missed her chance with Anton. But then she asks Hanna to sit in the front on the drive home, so she can sit with Anton. Hanna awkwardly agrees.
Sophie, Sophie, Sophie. Why didn’t you think of this yesterday? I don’t think it would have mattered, because Anton only likes Sophie as a friend. She hasn’t really given signals to Anton that she likes him as more than a friend. Now she’s being oblivious and everyone else is confused. I think the bottom line is that she only has a crush on him, based on his looks. But she’s inexperienced enough for it to feel Very Important.
Marissa sits in a cafe and orders coffee. She’s not worried about it making her anxious anymore. That must have been an Olivier thing. She drives through the suburbs on her way to Sophie’s house, looking at the houses and families enigmatically. Is she done with that dream? Is she contemptuous of the normals or jealous of them? Or both? It’s always hard to read Marissa.
On the drive home, Sophie lays her head on Anton’s shoulder and tells him he can be her pillow. He cringes away a bit, but she doesn’t notice. When they drop him off at his house, Sophie gets out to walk him to his door, but Anton discourages her. She insists, then tries to move in for a kiss goodbye. He practically runs away from her, saying he might have left his keys on the front seat.
It’s an excuse to ask Hanna when he’ll see her again. Hanna tells him that her friend Sophie likes him, so she doesn’t want to keep seeing him. He tries to argue that it doesn’t matter what Sophie wants, because he likes Hanna. Hanna twists his arm to get him to leave her alone. Anton struggles away and cries out in pain, which brings Sophie running.
Hanna pretends that Anton’s hand got stuck in the door, but Sophie knows it isn’t true. She asks what’s really going on. Hanna doesn’t answer.
Sawyer stands outside of Erik’s cell and yells at Marissa’s counselor over the phone. She was supposed to be surveilling Marissa, and has lost her. Erik can hear what Sawyer’s yelling. He laughs at Sawyer, guessing what’s going on.
Even under torture and with a bullet still in his gut, Erik is hardcore.
Sawyer takes the bait and goes in to scream at Erik. Erik tells him that he used to work for the same people that Sawyer does.
Erik: “I was like you, so I know what you’re going through. Yeah. They chew you in their mouth. Suck all the goodness out of you. And one day, they spit you out. I know, I know. You think you can delay that day, but you can’t. You can’t. I can already see the fear in your eyes.”
He looks and sounds like a pale, gray ghost, Sawyer’s own Jacob Marley. But Sawyer can’t handle the truth, so he pulls the cord from the air conditioner and uses it to strangle Erik. He asks Erik, again, where Hanna is, a sure sign of his desperation. He’s completely lost control of this operation.
Dan pulls the van back into Sophie’s garage, then tries to leave. Sophie wants him to stay, but he knows that she and Hanna are about to have it out. “Whoever she is, and whatever she’s done, it’s not my fault, okay?” Then he runs from Hurricane Sophanna.
Hanna explains that she saw Anton at the party and didn’t know he was the boy Sophie liked. But it was obvious that he wanted Hanna. And it just happened. Sophie asks if they had sex. Hanna gives a slight nod. Sophie cries, pointing out that Hanna knew that she liked Anton. She tells Hanna to get out. Hanna doesn’t want to go, and says that she didn’t mean to do it. Sophie gets in her face, and asks what she didn’t mean. She didn’t mean to have sex with Sophie’s crush?
Sophie: “No wonder your family don’t want you, because no one wants a f–king liar in their house.”
Hanna: “I don’t know who I am… Sophie, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m not normal.”
Sophie: “What does that even mean?”
Hanna: “I can’t control my body, and it does all these things. And I… I don’t know why, but it’s who I am.”
Sophie: “That’s pretty pathetic, even by your standards.”
Sophie walks out, leaving Hanna to gather whatever she’s going to take with her and go.
When Dan gets home, he takes out Hanna’s Utrax forms, then decides to look online for the area in Romania where she was born.
As she prepares to leave, Hanna can’t find the forms that are the only clues she has to her identity. She tears the van apart looking for them.
Sophie tries to go straight to her room as soon as she gets inside, but Marissa is there waiting for her with her parents. She’s introduced herself to them as Clare, Hanna’s mother from America, who’s looking for her missing daughter.
Hanna is sitting in the door to the van, still reeling from everything that’s gone wrong in the last hour, when Jay walks into the garage. He’s surprised to see her, and tells her that her mother’s there. She’s runs up to the house and listens to the conversation going on inside through the back fence, where she can’t be seen.
Marissa tells the family that Hanna called her a few weeks ago and said she was in trouble. She mentioned that she’d met Sophie, so “Clare” thought Hanna might be with them. Rachel explains that they haven’t seen Hanna lately. She double checks with Sophie, who agrees.
Then Tom asks where Sophie was the night before. She says that she went to the forest to get high with Dan and Anton. Tom is scandalized. Marissa asks if they always go to the forest. Sophie says yes, she loves Mother Nature. But Marissa has found her opening.
She says that this whole thing is her fault, for letting Hanna live in Europe with her father. Hanna’s father isn’t good for her, so “Clare” needs to get her back. She knows Sophie is only trying to protect her friend, but Hanna is a mentally ill young woman. She’s not normal, like Sophie.
Hanna has heard enough. She takes Jay’s phone, then makes a run for it. She tells him not to tell anyone that he saw her.
Sophie doesn’t buy Marissa’s spiel, so Marissa goes all in, pulling out the crocodile tears. She says that she’d do anything for Hanna, just like Rachel would do anything for Sophie. “Nobody loves you like a mother.” She continues, begging Sophie to help her with her little girl, who’s never hurt anyone.
Sophie is still unmoved, since Hanna just hurt her badly. She tells Marissa to f–k off, repeatedly, then turns it on Tom when he starts yelling at her. It turns into a huge family argument. Marissa watches with a calculating stare. Finally, Tom sends his daughter to her room, where she wanted to go anyway.
Question authority, peeps. Sophie might be rude, but she has the right idea. Rachel and Tom have let an absolute stranger into their home and are ready to turn a child over to her, simply on her say so. Not cool, when she has nothing to prove she’s telling the truth.
While Rachel cries over the ugly argument they just had, Tom tells Marissa to leave. Jay wanders back into the house and wonders what’s going on. Marissa tells him that Rachel is crying because she’s said about Hanna and helping find Hanna will help make his Mommy happy. So he should tell them whatever he knows, right now.
She’s so manipulative. Tom tries to get her to stop, but Jay talks anyway.
Once Hanna is far enough away, she texts Sophie to tell her that Marissa is dangerous, and not to give her any information. Sophie asks where Hanna is, and if they can talk. Just then, Tom makes her come back downstairs.
The next text Hanna gets says, “I’m coming to meet you.” “Sophie” wants to meet at the garden center opposite the station, in the cafe at the back. When Hanna gets there, it’s Marissa.
That was obvious, because the meeting is in a cafe, where Marissa always sets her meetings. “Do you understand?”
Marissa tells Hanna that if she doesn’t cooperate, Sophie and her family will be in serious danger. She also tells her that Erik is dead, but that she personally didn’t kill him. Marissa makes sure that Hanna knows that Erik isn’t her birth father, but says she doesn’t know who Hanna’s father is. Hanna is merely part of a project that Marissa and Erik worked on together, years ago.
Marissa promises that if Hanna comes with her, she’ll tell Hanna everything.
Marissa: “You know you can’t stay here. I mean, you’ve seen Sophie, you’ve seen her friends. You’re not like them. You must know that by now. You’re a danger to them. You hurt people, Hanna. That’s why I need to look after you. You’re special. Come and be special with us.”
Wow. That’s all manipulative lies. Hanna only physically hurts people who attack her, generally when she’s taken by surprise, or when someone isn’t backing off when she’s asked them to, like Anton. She kept herself completely under control during a nasty argument with Sophie, and was fine in Dieter’s home with his children.
I don’t think Hanna buys into Marissa’s argument that she is a monster who has to be contained. But she’s running out of options, so Hanna decides to go along with the plan, as long as Sophie and her family will be safe. Marissa explains that they’ll go say goodbye to Sophie, the way normal people would, then she’ll take Hanna to “the people who made you, and then you’ll know everything.”
Rachel comes to Sophie’s room to let her know that “Clare” and Hanna have met up. Sophie and her parents make up after their fight. They convince Sophie that Hanna is fine, now that she’s with her mother.
Olivier calls Marissa to let her know that someone came to the house looking for her. He told the woman that he doesn’t know where Marissa is, since that’s the truth. Marissa brushes him off, hangs up, and calls Sawyer to yell at him for sending someone to her boyfriend’s apartment. And, by the way, she has Hanna.
That shuts up Sawyer’s smug mouth. She demands to be given her operation back and to talk to Sawyer’s superiors. Sawyer just acknowledges her demands. When he gets off the phone, Sawyer can’t resist gloating to Erik. Erik still throws a threat back at him.
Dan calls Sophie to come over to his house so he can show her that he’s found some strange things in his internet search on Hanna. The Romanian town she was born in is blacked out on Google Maps. He shows Sophie the Utrax forms, too. Obviously Hanna’s mother isn’t listed as Clare Simmons. Sophie notices Johanna Petrescu, Erik Heller and M Wiegler listed on the forms. Then she gets called back home to say goodbye to Hanna.
Sophie grabs Hanna and they rush up to her bedroom for a quick private talk. Sophie shows Hanna the forms, tells her she’s still her friend and she’s worried about her, and asks if that really is her mother downstairs in the kitchen. Hanna takes the forms and says Marissa is her mother, but she doesn’t understand why Sophie still cares about her.
Sophie gives Hanna one more chance to speak up, as Marissa is coming to get her. Hanna is protecting Sophie and her family, so she willingly leaves with Marissa, but neither girl tells her what they talked about.
Marissa takes Hanna to an airport hotel to wait for Sawyer and his people. Since Hanna doesn’t have a passport, I doubt they plan to take her on a plane. Marissa tells her to rest on the bed, so Hanna lays down, with her jacket and sneakers on. She’s ready to run if she needs to.
After Marissa washes up, she watches Hanna sleep, and takes a photo of her. Then she tries to take Hanna’s sneakers off, but Hanna wakes up and grabs Marissa’s wrist. They both look at Hanna’s hand holding Marissa’s wrist. Hanna asks, “Is there really no one like me?”
Marissa: “You’re unique. That’s why we want to look after you.”
Hanna: “Unique just means alone.”
Hanna lies back down to go to sleep.
Was Marissa taking the photo out of some maternal instinct, or to facilitate more lies, or so they have one for her file, the next time Hanna escapes? Was she removing Hanna’s shoes to be kind or to make it harder for Hanna to escape? With Marissa, every reason could be true at once.
Sawyer gives his men the go ahead to dispense with Erik. Erik grabs the gun and the guy and breaks bones, then uses him as a shield when the other guard comes in. He shoots the second guard non-fatally so he can question the guard about Sawyer’s plans.
In other words, Erik hung out while he was being tortured, waiting for Sawyer, or really Marissa, to find Hanna. Once he knew they had her, he escaped like it was no big deal, because they’re idiots who underestimated him.
Erik strips the less wounded guy’s suit off, so he can wear it himself. He grabs the guy’s laptop and uses his fingerprint to open a file called Utrax Regenesis. There are photos and files on several numbered young women, all born in 2004, the year after he rescued Hanna. Their fathers are almost all unknown or only a last name is listed, just like Hanna.
Erik knocks on Dieter’s door, asking for help. He must figure Dieter owes him, after helping Sawyer. Erik also has no one else left to turn to.
Dieter gives Erik money and a ride to the airport. He asks if Erik knows where Hanna is, but Erik isn’t sharing anymore sensitive information with Dieter. Erik has a diplomatic passport, which I assume came with the suit, but could have come from Dieter.
Dieter apologizes for telling the authorities where Erik was, and explains that they threatened his kids. Erik tells him that he’s lucky to have everything he has, then gets out of the car.
In the morning, Hanna gets to take a long hot shower. Then Marissa takes her for the breakfast buffet, and is strangely insistent that Hanna eat.
Hanna: “And then what happens?”
Marissa: “And then they come and pick you up. They’ll look after you. Like we said.”
Hanna: “Where are they gonna take me?”
Marissa: “We can discuss all of that when they get here.”
Hanna: “You said that you’ll protect me.”
Marissa: “I will. Now go get something to eat.”
Pretty sure Hanna knows that Marissa isn’t being entirely truthful with her. Possibly there isn’t any truth in what she’s saying. I have the distinct suspicion that Sawyer will shoot Hanna as soon as he gets the chance, even if Hanna cooperates. He’d like her as a hunting trophy, if nothing else.
Hanna’s not very hungry, but attempts to get cereal from the cereal dispensers, and has to be shown by a server how they work.
Don’t feel bad, kid, those dispensers confound us all.
Hanna hears Erik whispering her name from another room, knowing she’ll hear it, but Marissa won’t. She goes back to the table and asks Marissa how her father died. Marissa says he’s not her father and he was shot dead at the airfield. Now Hanna knows how easily Marissa lies, just like Erik said, and what she looks like (and smells like) when she does. And she’s decided to accept Erik as her adopted father.
They get into the elevator to go back to the room. Sawyer and his goons have arrived by helicopter while they were at the buffet, and are entering the lobby. He deploys a man on the roof to shoot Hanna in case she tries to escape their loving care.
Erik gets into the elevator on another floor, pretending to be their husband and father who’s catching up with them. Marissa almost looks happy to see him, in her weird way, while Hanna’s eyes glitter with a hard joy. She knows that she and Erik together will beat whatever Marissa and Sawyer have planned.
Erik pulls Marisa close to him, so she can feel the gun in his pocket. (Lol. No, he’s not happy to see her.) He chats with another family in the elevator, and asks where the car is parked. Hanna answers, telling him it’s outside the lobby.
When the elevator stops again and more people get on, they stand between Marissa and the door, so Erik and Hanna get off just before the door closes. Erik tells Hanna there’s an exit in the basement and they run to the stairwell. Marissa immediately radios Sawyer.
Sawyer’s goons quickly chase Erik and Hanna out of the stairwell and onto the events floor. They run into a seminar on Living with Anxiety. Hanna sits down while Erik starts a fire in the trash can. The seminar leader asks the participants to tell her what makes them anxious in their daily lives. A boy says he’s anxious he’ll get sick. The leader calls on Hanna, who says she’s afraid of being killed.
Sawyer and Marissa go from room to room looking for them, interrupting maids and meetings. Finally Erik’s fire produces enough smoke to set off the alarm. The crowd evacuates the room in a clump of people, allowing Erik and Hanna to blend in, especially since they’ve borrowed a couple of jackets as camouflage.
Down in the lobby, the goons spot them and they have to fight their way through. They make it outside and run to the helicopter, threatening the pilot with guns they’ve grabbed from goons.
The helicopter takes off, with Erik acting as pilot, while Hanna shoots down a couple of henchmen who get too close. Marissa gets close enough to line up a shot. Hanna also lines up her shot at Marissa, but Marissa wavers, so Hanna doesn’t fire either. Sawyer sees it happen, but by the time he gets close enough to shoot, they’re too far away.
Hanna and Erik look at each other a little awkwardly. They’re on the run again and they still have some things to work out. Plus, a helicopter isn’t the most stealth way to escape.
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location that’s probably Romania, Utrax Regenesis Trainees 249 and 244 fight in a small gymnasium, while a doctor looks on from an observation room. 249 beats 244 and gets an intense look on her face.
Commentary
Utrax restarted the program as soon as they were done covering up the evidence of the version Hanna came from. How many versions have there been? And how many are there now? The 7 Utrax Regenesis girls have numbers between 217 and 249. They all have different “placement centers” listed, which could be where they came from or where they’re going.
It’s been a while since Joel Kinnaman took any clothes off, so, to make up for it, we have him in only his underwear for most of this episode. Though, personally, I thought he looked too gray and miserable to enjoy seeing him without clothes. He did look excellent in the other man’s suit, when he wasn’t shambling along in pain.
Sophie has a huge, mercurial personality and a big heart. Playing her is a big job, and Rhianne Barreto makes it look easy. She’s completely natural with all of Sophie’s many nuances and quicksilver emotions, the perfect foil for Hanna’s internal nature and her current state of being lost, not knowing what to expect from herself or the world.
Sophie externalizes and verbalizes everything, allowing Hanna to put words to what she’s going through without having to do it herself and to realize that her emotions are normal for a teenager. Watching the way that the members of Sophie’s family struggle with each other helps Hanna put her relationship with Erik in perspective. And Sophie’s forgiveness of Hanna’s betrayal in this episode showed Hanna that she could also forgive Erik.
Marissa needed to find Hanna to prove she’s better than Sawyer, but she didn’t want Sawyer to have her, and she doesn’t want Hanna dead, given that she didn’t take the shot at Hanna in the helicopter at the end. She has to play her game very carefully. I’m not sure what Marissa wants with Erik in the end. He’s useful, but his betrayal was probably unforgivable. Hanna, on the other hand, could become the child she’ll never have, if Sawyer doesn’t kill either Marissa or Hanna.
Images courtesy of Amazon Prime.
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