The Hijacking of Flight 601 – Episode 5 Recap & Review

An Aerospace Odyssey

Episode 5 of The Hijacking of Flight 601 starts with the journalist Flaqo giving us a rundown of what has happened to Flight 601. The people still on board the plane include four crewmembers, five passengers, and a lifeless body.

The plane has flown over the Gulf of Maracaibo, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama and was denied permission to land, so they are now heading south. Inside the plane, everyone, including the hijackers, is freezing out because the hatch that Edie opened is causing the plane to depressurise. 

The Captain forces a landing in Lima, and the police surround the plane, saying they can only help by refuelling but cannot allow them to deplane. Borja and his partner still try their luck using Barbara and Edie as human shields to force the police to hand over a car and allow them to leave. The police chief almost gives in, but another impulsive officer starts shooting, saying that he is doing it for his country and will not allow outlaws to land in Peru.

Edie almost falls off the plane in the shootout, and El Toro is hit and starts to panic. Borja pleads with Edit to help keep him alive, and when Barbara subtly suggests killing him so they can be left with one hijacker to deal with. However, Edie hesitates when Borja thanks them for saving El Toro and apologises for putting them through hell. The Captain takes off, and Borja suggests landing in Antofagasta’s desert. 

Meanwhile, at Aero— offices, the passengers who got off the plane arrive at the airport and are happily reunited with their families. President Chavarriaga instructed Pirateque to tell the government agents on their way that he did not know about President Pastrana’s orders since he was already on the way to deliver the money.

However, the deputy minister of justice is not looking for an explanation but wants Pirateque to confess that he was behind the hijacking and use his false confession to be named the minister of defence. He promises Pirateque that he will exile him to Havana after he takes office and send him to an all-expense paid vacation for life. Pirateque refuses to play ball, and the deputy minister suggests that Manchola take the fall. 

While Esguerra, Chavarriaga, and Pirateque are waiting in the office for the President’s orders, they get an update that the plane took off from Lima and is heading north towards Bogotá. Esguerra hastily calls the President and asks permission to proceed with some plan. When he hands up the phone, Esguerra is ecstatic, saying that he finally got what he wanted and that whatever he does next will get him elected President.

Apparently, a person elected as President in Colombia, not because of results but the bloodbath, will use the plane to advance his bid for the presidency. He says that once elected President, he will give amnesty to the hijackers and seats in the house. However, Pirateque is unwilling to let the army kill everyone still on the plane, so he pretends to go to the restroom but locks the others in Chavarriaga’s office long enough to alert Flight 601 of their plan.

The Captain is heading towards Bogota and not Antofagasta as Borja instructed. Lequerica, knowing the Captain’s plan and what might be waiting for them in Bogota, asks Edie to treat her wound and secretly tells her Captain Wilde’s plan. Edie tries to talk to the Captain, threatening to tell the hijackers what he is up to, but the Captain insists on following his original plan, disregarding Edie’s plea to get home safely to her kids. 

At the airport, the army prepares for the operation, and Esguerra does not care whether anyone deplanes alive. Meanwhile, Marisol asks for advice from Manchola since she is still shaken about what happened on the plane. Manchola asks that she give herself a chance to keep dreaming, see the ocean, find a good job, and fall in love until someday she can relax, sipping on a stiff drink.

Suddenly, William and his brothers come to the room, asking to see their mother, Edie. At the same time, Edie realises that the dot on her wrists symbolising the connection between her and her kids is faded, so she looks around for a pen and adds three dots on her wrist when she sees Flaqo’s recording device on the floor and starts making a voice recording for her sons. 

Everyone on the plane is quietly sobbing, hoping and praying they make it out alive. Borja tries to get Barbara to believe him, saying he is not a bad man, but he did what he had to do. Barbara reminds him that he is a murderer, but the look in his eyes makes her believe that the passenger in the holding is alive.

Barbara shouts at Edie to check the holding, and Borja runs after her to stop them from opening it. He holds a gun to Edie’s head, threatening to shoot if she opens the holding, but Barbara calms him down, and he steps back, allowing them to help the passenger out of holding.

However, things take a drastic turn because El Toro has regained consciousness and realises Borja lied to him. Edie calls the Captain, telling him that the hijackers did not kill anyone and are willing to surrender once they land in Bogota. She wants the army to hold off on their operation, but El Toro has other plans.

With a grenade at hand, he says that he will no longer follow Borja’s orders and will do as he pleases, which begins with him not being willing to go to prison. El Toro chooses to die rather than go to jail, and Borja has to hold him down to stop him from exploding the plane. 

Edie runs to the cockpit and asks the Captain to turn the plane around, but he refuses, insisting on going to Bogota. Left with no choice, Edie takes the gun and threatens the Captain, the only crew member who insists on going to Bogota. The Captain thinks that Edie will not shoot him, but at the end of the episode, she sticks a metal object through his thigh.

The Episode Review

The episode advances the theme of politics at the expense of people’s lives by bringing in Esguerra, a corrupt government official willing to sacrifice the lives of everyone still on board just to put on a show to sway people to vote for him. It gives a humane characteristic to Pirateque, who risks everything to warn the pilot not to fly to Bogota.

Inside the plane, conflicts arise as everyone seeks to advance their means of survival, and now it seems like in the last episode, the Captain will be fighting all the crewmembers and the hijackers. The presence of the grenade escalates the tension, putting the safety of everyone in jeopardy. Will anyone lose their lives in the final leg of flight 601? Will the hijackers manage to avoid arrest? Will the Captain successfully land the plane in the desert?