Hanna – S1 Ep 7

This post analyzes the Amazon Prime television series Hanna using the 5 Commandments of Storytelling and the Editor’s 6 Core Questions from the book The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

This post contains spoilers from the Amazon Prime television series Hanna, so make sure you watch the show before you read further.

The 5 Commandments for Episode 7

Inciting Incident

Eric tells hanna about mother and experiment

Progressive Complication/ Turning Point

Eric tells Hanna that her real father is alive and that he wants to see her

Crisis

When Eric brings Hanna to her father, does she stay or go?

Climax

Hanna leaves to go find Eric

Resolution

Eric is under attack and Hanna rescues him (very cooly taking out all the agents)

Value Shift

This value shift for the episode as a thriller shifts a couple times.

Hanna is semi-excited to meet her real father, so that starts positive, butte soon realizes she doesn’t belong there. +/- for that part.

Then she realizes that Eric has left her and she ends up rescuing him. I’d give that a -/+.

Conventions and Obligatory Scenes for the Action Genre

Obligatory Scenes

Hero’s All is Lost Moment, when he must change his approach in order to salvage some form of victory – I’d almost say that when Hanna is left with her father by Eric, that could be her all is lost moment, when she realizes she doesn’t belong, that she will never belong

Hero at the Mercy of the Villain – Too early yet.

Hero’s Sacrifice is Rewarded – Too early yet

Conventions

Hero, Villain, Victim clearly defined – Hero – Hanna; Villain – Marissa; Victim – Maybe Hanna too? (To be determined)

The hero’s object of desire – stop the villain and save the victims

The Power divide between the hero and villain is very large – Hanna is alone, with only her father’s training; Marissa has many resources and men and an agency behind her

Speech in praise of the villain – To early yet, though Erik has warned Hanna that Marissa is dangerous.

Summary

The scene where Hanna rescues Eric is awesome, something that as a viewer I have been waiting – for her to kick ass. The anticipation about what Hanna and Eric are going to do with the girls in the training compound is interesting.

This is really working for me. Just enough of action, nothing to crazy, and good tension.

More Story Analysis

If you want to see more applications of the Story Grid methodology, below are links to my analysis of various novels and television shows in blog posts and podcasts:

Story Grid Showrunners Podcast – Parul, Melanie, and I analyze hit TV series using the Story Grid methodology.

My blog posts analyzing other Television series – my person take using the Story grid 5 Commandments to look at my favorite TV series – Jack Ryan, Batgirl, For All Mankind, Hanna, and more.

Novel analysis – I analyze some of my favorite books using the Story Grid 5 Commandments and 6 core questions – First Blood, Old Man’s War, Waylander, and more to come!