For most of Hijack season 2, Sam (Idris Elba) has been left to carefully balance the pieces of the puzzle. He appeared to be the hijacker, but we soon learned he was a pawn.
Finally, as episode 4 ended, he appeared to get the upper hand. But we soon learn in this week’s episode, “Outage,” that things aren’t always as they appear.
Loss of control
At the end of episode 4, Sam pieced together that Jess (Karima McAdams) was the one who killed Freddie (Albrecht Schuch). She is the one working with the mastermind behind this plot. So, Sam gets with Otto (Christian Nathe) on a plan to turn the tables on her. He heads out into the train to make it happen.
The problem is the passengers have grown restless. They don’t want to be used as pawns. They recognize that Sam is alone and unarmed, so when he goes to make his move, they make their move first. They tackle Sam and restrain him, taking back control of the train and making Otto stop. Then, they think it’s over.
So, Sam has to find a way to spin a tale without giving away Jess. He shares that he’s not in control. He shares there are bombs on the train—which the passengers verify. And he shares they have to follow the plan, or they’ll all die.
Danger in the woods
Marsha (Christine Adams) was worried about the man in the car. He turned out to be someone sent to protect her. But as the last episode ended, he was killed by the real threat—her seemingly friendly neighbors (Jessica Hardwick and Jamie Mitchie). Now with a body, they are left scrambling.
It doesn’t get any easier when they begin to suspect Marsha might have heard the gunshot. They have a job to do and quickly have to make a new plan. After faking an injury, they approach the house, and Marsha invites them in to render aid.
Meanwhile, Daniel (Max Beesley) has turned to an old friend, Zahra (Archie Panjabi) for help. Believing he’s secured Marsha, he turns to getting answers. He requests and is granted an interview with our first season assailant, Stuart Atterton (Neil Maskell), who he believes will have some answers.
Off track
While Sam is trying to convince the passengers he’s their best chance at surviving, the train is stopped. They also aren’t answering. Concerned that something is wrong, Chief Winter (Christiane Paul) stops the plan and the convoy carrying John Bailey Brown (Ian Burfield). That puts everyone in danger.
Quickly, it appears the bomb is going to go off.
In the hurry to find answers, Jess gives her position away. She’s forced to enter the code, but it doesn’t work for the last car on the train. Sam is given his freedom and quickly moves all the passengers forward before the last car blows. As we end, it’s not clear where we go from here.
Thoughts on Hijack season 2 episode 5
Every show needs forward progress to work. We knew it wasn’t going to take eight episodes for the passengers to get wise to the plan and decide to do something to get the upper hand. I liked the way the narrative switched in this week’s episode.
The action on the train was tense, and though this was the shortest episode of the season, it held the intensity the whole way through. Now that we know who Jess is, I will be curious to see what more we can learn about the real people behind this plot and what they really want.
There are a few other threads that are playing out away from the main story, too. Peter Farber (Toby Jones) is still trying to figure out who is behind it all. And a German detective (Dejan Bucin) is hunting the bomb maker. It’s clear that it will all come together at some point, but it’s not yet apparent how it’s all going to factor in as we hit the final three episodes of the season.
New episodes of Hijack stream weekly on Apple TV on Wednesdays. Check back next week as we dive into the episodes each week right here.