Hijack season 1 episode 5 recap & review: Less Than an Hour

Open Go TV / July 20, 2023 / Reviews

The fifth episode of Hijack sees Sam trying to convince the hijackers to land the plane in Hungary. The episode is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Recap

Once Lewis is stable, Stuart asks everyone to return to their seats, except David, who has to stay with Lewis. Before leaving, Sam hears Lewis talking to Stuart about calling his mother and reaches the conclusion that the two of them are brothers.

He also sees the first officer’s name tag and realizes that she is Hungarian. Sam then hatches another plan to stop the hijacking. Meanwhile, the home secretary meets with the foreign secretary at the Collingwood House, where the team is working to end the crisis.

The demands that were handed to the home secretary state that two prisoners named Edgar Janssen and John Bailey-Brown should be released before the plane lands in England. If they fail to do so, all the passengers onboard KA29 will be killed.

The home secretary says that it should not look like they are negotiating with or being blackmailed by the hijackers. He wants evidence that the hijackers will follow through with their threat before taking their demands into consideration.

Sam tells Stuart that Lewis is dying and that David thinks he has less than an hour to live. Stuart goes to confirm this from David, and Sam instructs Deevia to inform David about what he has to say. It all goes according to Sam’s plan, and Stuart is told that his brother needs medical treatment.

After Neela, the security staff at Dubai airport, is killed in her home with her family and Abdullah, her neighbors see the killers leaving her house and get suspicious. At the same time, Kai goes to his father’s house and leaves a voicemail for him.

To save his brother’s life, Stuart wants to land the plane in Hungary, but Jamie is not in favor. Sam tells the first officer to speak to Budapest ATC in Hungarian, a language that the hijackers cannot speak, and send them a message.

The pilot convinces Stuart that controllers at Budapest ATC can only speak basic English and a sudden landing will involve a lot of technicalities, so the first officer needs to contact Budapest ATC. The first officer is told to assure Budapest ATC that there is no security issue onboard and to ask for medical assistance.

Counterterrorism finds out that the hijacking is the work of The Cheapside Firm, an organized crime group working in the international drug trade. It is headed by Edgar Janssen and John Bailey-Brown, who got sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Currently, they are situated just outside London, but the organization has a network running all across Europe. To get some clues, Daniel and two other officers are sent to the house of Stuart and Lewis’ mother, Elaine.

The first officer contacts Budapest ATC and assures them in English that everything is fine on the plane, but while asking for medical assistance, she informs them in Hungarian that the hijacking is still happening.

Elaine refuses to tell Daniel anything, as she fears that the crime group will kill her like how they killed her husband, Peter, when he slipped up. Zahra wants Daniel to take Elaine hostage, but before he can do that, Elaine escapes and throws herself into oncoming traffic.

Budapest ATC allows KA29 to land, and the Hungarian armed units prepare to take the hijackers down as soon as the plane lands. The other hijackers do not agree with Stuart’s decision to land.

When Terry finds out about it, he tells Sam that not sticking to the crime group’s plan will also put Sam’s family in danger, as the hijackers had sent the pictures of Sam’s passport to them. Furthermore, Terry admits that he is the man who was sent to kill Stuart and Lewis’ father.

Lewis wants to protect Stuart from the crime group and does not want the plane to land. To prevent the landing, he kills himself. People onboard lose hope once again, as the landing is canceled. The plane does not contact Budapest ATC again.

In Dubai, the police find Neela, her husband, and Abdullah’s bodies in Leena’s house. It is assumed that Neela’s family was held captive so that she would let the hijackers onto the plane. This serves as evidence that the British home secretary needed to take the hijackers seriously.

In London, the members of the crime group, dressed as cleaning staff, reach Sam’s house, where Kai currently is. Kai sees them enter with their guns and tries to hide.

Review

The show often depicts unrealistic scenarios, and that is expected in a thriller about a plane hijack. However, most of the incidents in this episode are too unbelievable for the audience to accept them.
At this point, the hijackers, who seem to have no control over anything, stop being the people that one should fear. They are fooled too easily and Sam gets to roam around freely, which makes the show lose its thrill.
The scene with the first officer contacting Budapest ATC is compelling. It makes the audience hope with the first officer, but it does not last long. One can see the moment she loses hope.