Hijack – Season 1 Episode 2 “3 Degrees” Recap & Review

3 Degrees

Episode 2 of Hijack begins with Sam trying to convince Simon and the others that he only means good. All he wants is to get back home to his family. He also tells them that some people on the plane would want to do something heroic. As he is talking, the two gentlemen from the previous episode go ahead with their plan. They attack Jaden and overpower him. His gun goes off as it falls and the attention of the others is brought to the incident. There is chaos for a bit as they cannot find the missing gun. But Sam finds it and hands it over to Stuart in a bid to win his confidence and trust.

On the ground, Daniel calls Zara, his former girlfriend, who works in counterterrorism. She promises him she will look into the incident. We also meet a new character in the series who may be pivotal going forward. Her name is Alice and she is late for work – presumably as an air traffic controller – since she needs to find childcare for her son Bobby. Terry sounds off a warning on the hijackers’ behalf – any more shenanigans like these and someone will get killed.

We see Sam handing over a secret slip to Stuart with something on it. The paper reads, “The pilot is a problem.” Zara goes through on her promise and asks the British ATC to talk to the Dubai ATC. Only the controller who directly talked to the pilot is restless and scampers for more clarity. He senses something is indeed wrong with Flight 29. Next, he goes to check the security cameras for the time before boarding.

The passengers are noticing Sam’s interactions with the hijackers. One of the passengers is taken to economy class from first class and tells the others that Sam has aligned himself with the hijackers.

Sam convinces Stuart to believe that the pilot, Robin, should be taken away from the cockpit. He puts on an in-flight game and sees an option to “chat with the opponent.” Now, the interesting bit here is that all the passengers can play that game against each other. So basically, you can choose to send a message to someone in the other seat. Sam sends a request to the seat that Robin has been placed in. They start chatting.

The controller in Dubai goes through the footage and notices Neela getting up from her post well before her shift is over.

Marsha is furious after Daniel tells her Sam raised a false alarm. He gets into a conversation with Zara thinking about their relationship and the future of his current relationship with Marsha. Robin writes that if he does not respond to the requests by Iraqi air space in the cockpit, they will call the military. When the hijackers hear the requests, Sam gets up and asks Stuart to let Robin answer. Otherwise, the ground control will think the worse. Stuart listens to him but asks Anna to answer their call. The controller gets suspicious when Anna calls herself the captain.

Sam hurries to get Robin out of his chair but he refuses to. Sam reminds him that Collette’s life is in danger if he doesn’t get up, which prompts Robin to answer the call. The situation is diffused. But what is Sam doing here? Before leaving the cockpit, Robin tampers with the degree of the plane’s trajectory. But no one notices it.

Alice comes to work at the British ATC. When she learns about the “false alarm” from K29, she gets suspicious. She asks Simon, her boss, about it. She feels there is something shady going on here as a passenger was able to call counterterrorism about it before the pilot called it a false alarm. She gets on his case to call the Iraqi ATC, who confirms her suspicion. When the Iraqis share their screen, Alice notices a deviation in the flight’s path. Things start to kick up a notch when Michael, Simon’s boss gets involved. This was a plan between Robin and Sam to alert the authorities. A deviation like this means that the plane is compromised.

The episode ends with heartbreak as we see the Dubai ATC controller go to Neela’s house. He finds Senil and her dead body and English-descent cleaners. One of them kills him with a bullet to his head.

The Episode Review

That was some smart work by Sam and Robin to alert the authorities. I have to confess, I did not see it coming. Moreover, we aren’t well-versed in how Sam thinks. His unique profile makes his ways difficult to predict, which is a good thing for the show. The whole gig still seems unconvincing though. The underlying motive for the hijackers is still unclear, which is frustrating. The more delay there is, there is less chance of the series working satisfyingly.

Alice has come out of nowhere to take on the mantle to nudge the authorities in the right direction. When we thought that the Dubai ATC controller would make a difference, he was killed off.

Hijack hasn’t been able to conjure the tension it promised. Even though there are inklings of the plot being established, the points are yet too distant to make any sense. Unless they are specifically connected and explained to us, we will have to wait for clearer answers.