Portrayed by: Ella Bright
Show: Off Campus
We haven’t had a character like Hannah Wells since Brooke Davis and Haley James Scott. A character who’s going to be so significant to people in their early 20s, she’ll be a safe place to turn to when things get dark and a little sad. A character whose journey is going to stay with people long after the show is over—a character whose story also thankfully lives on with more books that show us where she goes.
While there’s understandably more in the books, Prime Video’s Off Campus Season 1 does a solid job of exploring Hannah’s arc, showcasing why she’s so important to so many people. Big-hearted, loyal, and the best of the best—can Garrett Graham fight? (I know the answer.)
Hannah Wells Is Everything
There are a lot of words to pick in order to describe Hannah properly, but Allie says it best: “Because you’re not just one thing, babe. You are everything.” (Tears incoming.) There’s something incredibly endearing about how relatable Hannah is as a character, even if our experiences are different. The way that a part of you dies when you experience something deeply traumatic isn’t something to make light of. It’s not something everyone can understand, but through Hannah’s story, maybe people can recognize just how tethered creativity and our experiences are.
The way that robbing someone of their agency and autonomy can not only shatter them, but it can also block out the parts of their brain that create freely. Trauma can be nightmarishly stunting, even if we’ve come out of the waters. It can dim us. Hannah Wells isn’t a victim, but she’s a survivor. And every survivor’s story differs in how they come out of it. Rape, assault, domestic violence, or any kind of physical abuse changes people. The act—and the person—always take something away, horrifically leaving behind trauma and fractured pieces that people need to piece back together.
The assault doesn’t define Hannah, nor does she let it ever rob her of life again, but how she comes out of it is where we see her heart the most. The way she finds her voice through music again is where so much of her journey glimmers and evokes hope in a manner that’s legitimately healing.
The Careful Daughter
Hannah’s capacity to love is genuinely limitless, and we see this best in the conversation she has with her mom in Season 1, Episode 7, “The Faceoff.” She loves so deeply that she harbors and internalizes everything to ensure that no one else has to suffer. But part of growth and recognizing our strength requires looking at the people beside us. It’s understanding that as human beings, we aren’t meant to mourn alone.
We can lean on people, and it’s so important to her journey that her mom reiterates they’re happy and that there’s nothing she could’ve done to prevent what happened to her. There’s something really liberating about hearing those words from someone close to us, and in Hannah’s case, it’s her mom. It’s the one woman who stood beside her through the entire process, patiently holding her steady as she found the pieces of herself again.
The metaphorical use of Hannah’s bike breaking down and that being the reason she calls her mom in the first place is a brilliant beat to evoke something genuinely comforting because bikes are tethered to our childhoods. They’re one of the first things we learn and try to hone as a skill, remembering through that process that we can always get back up when we fall. And to use this as Hannah’s breaking point adds emphasis to the words her mom says aloud when she tenderly asks what she did wrong.
The patience and stillness in her mom’s voice make it easy for us to understand where Hannah gets her gentleness from, while simultaneously allowing Carrie’s reassurance to hit deep. It’s crucial that she confirms to Hannah that there was nothing she could’ve or should’ve done. This is simply (and tragically) the world we live in, where awful things happen to good people because of the choices other people make. Those terrors continue to haunt the people who don’t deserve it, yet there’s healing in the way that Hannah’s mom reiterates to her that there are things she shouldn’t worry about: the grant, their happiness—any of it. They’d do anything for their daughter, no questions asked. No hesitations.
Ella Bright delivers such a heart-crushing performance in this scene, and it’s what continues to add layers to her character with all the words left unsaid. Hannah’s love for her parents, her gratitude for everything they’ve done, the way she misses him—it’s all there in the tears she sheds. And it’s so beautiful to see that she’s a product of their goodness, too. Their loyalty and their goofiness, along with their ability to love their people with everything in them.
The Girl and The Dream
My favorite thing about romance novels, and by extension, their adaptations, is that women can have it all. They can get the guy and the career, without having to choose. There’s still a lot the TV series can change going forward, but Hannah’s music is too big a part of her. It’s her heart and soul. It’s her reprieve, and it’s her drive.
In the books, Hannah’s career as a Grammy award-winning songwriter is so perfect to showcase that she never lets the words stay suspended in her heart. Words aren’t easy, even if you’re good at them, because again, so much of creativity is tethered to the world around us. Yet, the endurance and that choice to continue pushing forward with every blockade that rises is where so much of the strength lies. In a cruel world written by a man, I don’t know that a character like Hannah would’ve had the chance to endure. But that’s the thing about women writing other women in that we know our own endurance intimately, and it’s so deeply easy to love Hannah’s journey because it’s a brilliant display of how hard she’s worked and everything she’s overcome.
Louisa Levy’s understanding of Elle Kennedy’s characters also makes it easy to hope that what we’ll continue to get in the show will give us character moments that are worthy of who Hannah Wells is.
Opening Her Heart to Love
Because of Hannah’s past, her relationship with Garrett needs to be strengthened with respect and his intimate understanding of how necessary agency, autonomy, and control are for her. With Garrett, Hannah’s choices matter, and it results in a compelling journey where she finally finds her voice again when she’s searching for ways to do it for herself and no one else.
Related Content: Hannah and Garrett’s First Time in Off Campus Is a Beautiful Beat of Vulnerability
That’s the thing about creativity and the ties we build to the pain we’ve experienced. Words are an outlet. Words are Hannah’s heart on her sleeve. They’re not just a reminder of where she’s been, but the strength that’s inside of her. The joy, the wit, the abundant love, the giddiness—that’s Hannah Wells. She’s the woman Garrett Graham falls head over heels in love with, wanting to give her the world.
No one can control the things that happen to them, but they can control how they find their way back. Whether that’s extensive therapy work, medication, or free will—it’s what we can do for ourselves. By the time we meet Hannah in Off Campus Season 1, she’s done a good chunk of this work already. She’s pursuing the major she wants and trying her best to chase her dreams. So when love finds her, it’s imperative that it’s with the kind of person who shares the same dreams. Garrett understands hard work, pain, and, simultaneously, the significance of loyalty. He’s got just as big a capacity to love, which is exactly what Hannah deserves in a partner.
Related Content: Relationship Deep Dive: Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham
It’s why they’re so perfect for each other. Their love gleams in the way they center each other, challenge each other, and are each other’s safe space at every point, while always doing their best to ensure that the other person can rise to their highest potential.
The Best Friend
You can’t write about Hannah Wells without writing about Allie Hayes. The friend you meet when you least expect it and the one who carves such a specific place in your heart that no one else can touch. My all-time favorite fictional girl, Leslie Knope, says it best to Ann Perkins, “Oh, Ann. You totally changed me, you know?” Allie and Hannah change each other. They listen, they love, and they take care of each other. They’re each other’s favorite person, and rightfully so.
The fact that Allie always knew that Hannah was “the friend,” but she patiently waited for her to open up when she was ready, is such a comforting detail that I can’t think about it without tearing up. Because more often than not, someone else would’ve gotten angry, especially in the early college years. People often forget that these types of secrets aren’t about them, but rather the other person’s agency, and that’s exactly what makes Allie such a perfect friend. She understood that Hannah needed to open up when she was ready, and it was never an indication of whether she trusted Allie or not. The love Allie has for Hannah is so vast that she respects her in a way that I hope people will take notice of.
Off Campus Season 1 does an astounding job of taking Hannah from a point where the words are suppressed inside of her to a girl who’s open and free. The way the camera pans from Hannah to Allie and Garrett as the editing ensures the lyrics communicate to the characters is a stunning detail that speaks to Hannah’s heart. It’s a beautiful, honest reflection of how empathetic Hannah is, and all the ways she’s given herself to others, and the ways that those who love her have given back.
We don’t see the full extent of the lasagna scene in the show, but there’s another instance to bring out the caretaking side of her. The part of her that wants to take care of people and let them know how loved they are. The way she’s often trying to ensure that Allie’s okay in her breakup, the way she holds Garrett through his breakdown after Thanksgiving, and every decision she’ll make in the future, that’ll also continue to show just how nurturing she is.
The Pop Showcase
The Pop Showcase and every moment of Hannah Wells singing “Girl That I Am” is the kind of perfectly healing moment there are few words for, mostly because of all that comes before, as everything crumbles during the penultimate episode and the finale. When talking to her advisor, Hannah asks, “Doesn’t it hurt? Ripping yourself open over and over again? Letting people see all the weird, jagged pieces of you?” Because it does. Vulnerability hurts more often than not. But healing is part of that journey, and as Daveed adds, “I don’t subscribe to the notion that art has to be painful. In fact, if done right, allowing people into our truth, that can even be healing.”
In this scene, Hannah’s hope is dimming. She doesn’t have the song. She hasn’t spoken to her mom. She hasn’t seen Garrett. He hasn’t ended things out of his own fear. But she’s triggered from the realization that she’ll be seeing her assaulter again, and that brings every bit of suffering she’s endured back to the surface. She fully believes she needs to carry everything on her own so that no one else feels the weight of her burdens. The whirling thoughts in her head are also trying to convince her that she’ll never create again, when thankfully, the music Daveed’s playing pulls her out for a beat. That’s why, when he reminds her that she doesn’t have to close herself off for good and she can cling to the people she loves, it makes it easier to go to Garrett. The person who sees her and smiles. The person for whom she’s strength and hope and joy and all things beautiful personified.
For someone as deeply loving as Hannah Wells, her song is about the people beside her. Her parents. Her best friend. The boy she loves. And it’s about the girl she fought to protect by ensuring that her dreams were actualized. Every whispered harsh opinion she overcame. All the shattered pieces she picked up off the floor to find her voice again. The words she’ll continue to create because she can believe, with utmost certainty, that she’s capable and wonderful and free. And it’s a near-perfect way to end a season that’s all about the process of healing.
The character journey wouldn’t have been as remarkable without Ella Bright’s glowing performance. The masterful work she does throughout Off Campus Season 1 is no small feat, and to think that this is only the beginning of her career is incredible. Hannah Wells is going to stay with people, and so will Bright, her range already so brilliant and nuanced that I can’t wait to see what else she’ll bring to Hannah in future seasons.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Liane Hentscher/Prime
This deep dive will be updated after Off Campus Season 2.