Hijack Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: Final Call / 3 Degrees

Hijack Season 1 Episode 1, “Final Call,” and Hijack Season 1 Episode 2, “3 Degrees,” do an excellent job at inserting us into this high pressured situation onboard flight KA29. You spend almost the entirety of the premiere on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what’s happening next.

Whether it’s Sam trying to discreetly message the Captain or the hijackers making their threats to get into the cockpit, the series is brimming with suspense.

One unexpected aspect that this two-episode premiere manages to nail is establishing the scope of this hijacking operation.

There are still so many questions we need answers to — what is their objective, for instance — but “Final Call” and “3 Degrees” show us how many different moving parts there are to this organization.

As Sam said, they were prepared enough to bring someone on board who speaks Arabic, and now we know that there’s a group on the ground in Dubai pulling strings and cleaning up messes.

A lot of the time with thrillers, we mainly have more and more questions as the series progresses, and we get very few answers in return. Some shows appear to think that throwing multiple mysteries and questions at us will keep us intrigued, but it always has the opposite effect, and we grow tired of being confused.

So far, Hijack is demonstrating that it will reveal things to us. We won’t be entirely in the dark for too long.

Sam could’ve been a wildcard as far as his true motives go. We could have been forced to share the opinions of some passengers and believe that he’s changed sides. But, throughout these two episodes, we get enough proof to know that Sam is doing his best to play both sides.

He’s trying to do enough that the hijackers believe he’s on their side while also finding opportunities to sneak messages to those on the ground. It’s a fine balance to weave, but, so far, Sam is doing it perfectly.

The fact that he is a professional negotiator makes him a far more intriguing character than if he were law enforcement. It wouldn’t have been surprising if Hijack opted to make him an investigator, but it’s a much more interesting choice to avert that expectation.

Sam being a negotiator also means that what he will do on the plane is different enough from the actions of those on the ground that the storylines can explore different facets of this hijacking and not have things come off as repetitive.

So, hopefully, we won’t be watching Sam learn things on the plane, and then in the same episode watch the police come to the same conclusion.

Stray Thoughts

• The air traffic control guy in Dubai was my favorite character. He deserved better.
• This is making me miss Departure. I’m happy to see Archie Panjabi tackling another plane mystery though.
• I could do without all of Sam’s family drama. It’s too much and not a reprieve from the stress of the hijacking.

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“Final Call” and “3 Degrees” were written by George Kay.

What did you think of the two-episode premiere of Hijack? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of Hijack air Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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