The Hijacking of Flight 601 – Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Woman Who Knew Too Much

The final episode of The Hijacking of Flight 601 starts with Manchola and the other flight attendants giving William a surprise birthday celebration at the airport, where he and his brothers are camping, waiting for Edie.

Elsewhere, flight 601 makes the final landing at Ezeira Airport in Buenos Aires, but neither the terrorists nor the Captain are aboard. The police take away the passengers still on board, co-pilot Lequerica and flight attendants Edie and Barbara. The crew are taken back to Aerobolivar offices for questioning by Vice Minister Esguerra. 

What happens to the hijackers?

After a struggle for the grenade that lasts for a while between El Toro and Borja, Edie gets through to El Toro by telling about her life struggles, and he lets go of the grenade. Following Edie’s plan, Borja and El Toro jump off the plane at Resistencia airport in Argentina. They walk through the wild from night to day with Captain Wilde as their hostage but part ways when El Toro insists on returning home to Asuncion to see his family and give them the money.

Borja refuses to go to Asunción since he knows that they will get arrested, and true to his intuition, El Toro is arrested one month later in Asunción and expatriated to Colombia, where he serves five years in prison. After his release, the final credits indicate that he is killed when attempting to rob a bank. On the other hand, Borja successfully evades arrest and is last seen in Brazil meeting up with Barbara at a rundown hotel in the middle of nowhere. The final credits indicate that he was never arrested and is believed to be alive. 

What about Captain Richard Wilde and Lequerica?

Following Edie’s plan, Captain Wilde gets off the plane at Resistencia with the hijackers. When Borja and El Toro part ways in the jungle, Borja orders him to walk into the water in a nearby river, threatening to kill him. Captain Wilde begs for his life, and thankfully, the gunshot never comes. Next, he arrives at Eldorado Airport when Edie is almost giving up and wants to tell the truth about what happened on the plane.

When Esguerra shows him the transcripts of the crew’s confession about the events that occurred on the plane, the Captain stamps their confession as the truth and is awarded the medal of the Grand Cross of the Order of Boyacá for his bravery and putting the lives of everyone else above his. The Captain goes ahead to fly commercial planes for seven more years before dying in a plane crash in Florida.

Inside the plane, Lequerica takes over Captain Wilde’s position as the Captain after Edie incapacitates him with a screwdriver. In his testimony, he says that he follows Edie’s plan to fly at 3000 feet to avoid detection, as he used to do when smuggling pigs. However, he refuses to disclose where he dropped off the hijackers and the Captain. When the Captain arrives and says their testimonies are true, Lequerica reunites with his family.

What happens to Edie?

Inside Flight 601, Edie develops an elaborate plan to ensure everyone gets off the plane alive. After incapacitating the Captain, she asks Lequerica to take over and drop off the hijackers with Captain Wilde at Resistencia Airport before final landing at Ezeira Airport Buenos Aires. She avoids landing at Bogota since Esguerra is waiting for the plane with the army. The police at Ezeira Airport leads Edie and the other crewmembers to Eldorado for questioning.

In her confession, she paints Captain Wilde positively, giving him credit for everything she did on the plane to mediate the crisis. She is coerced into revealing where the hijackers got off when Esguerra threatens to call child protective services and take her children away by making up evidence about Edie not being a fit mother.

Left with no choice but to wait for the final verdict, Edie regrets putting her friends Barbara and Lequerica in a tight position, so she volunteers to change her statement and tell the truth. However, Captain Wilde arrives before she can, and he collaborates on their statement. Edie smiles as she reunites with her children, who are waiting in the lobby with Manchola.

The hijacking incident gives Edie a new outlook on life, realising that life is precious and every minute should be spent doing things that make us happy. Therefore, she spends more time with her family and continues to work for Aerobolivar as a flight attendant. She does not receive the salary increase promised and is fired three years later when she is caught smuggling alcohol. 

What happens to Barbara and the passengers?

The hijacking incident helps Barbara realise she is tired of living a life of pretence. Therefore, she bids Edie goodbye, telling her she is leaving town but does not disclose where. She then meets Borja in Brazil as if they had made a secret agreement on the plane to meet again. She sends Edie postcards from Brazil, and the two remain best friends. 

The last passengers on the plane are reunited with their families and friends at El Dorado airport. The first hostage released is the man believed to have been killed. Flaqo shows him reuniting with his family at the airport. The second is the cycling team captain, who hugs his team and passionately kisses his boyfriend.

The old man is happy to be back safely, but unfortunately, his chicks all died in the plane. The rich woman is next, and her husband is waiting with flowers, but she is not having any of the happy reunion bullshit. She gives back the ring and tells him that he should get ready to go back to renting an apartment in the inner city once her lawyers are done with him. 

What Happens To Pirateque And Manchola?

Pirateque is sentenced to seventeen months in prison for his part in the incidents that followed the hijacking. Manchola visits him in prison, and she promises to wait for him so they can spend the rest of their lives together. According to the epilogue, neither of them worked in aviation again. 

Does Esguerra’s Plan Succeed? 

Esguerra’s plan to shoot down the plane does not succeed, but he somehow gets promoted to minister of defence. Possibly, it is because he grilled Barbara, Lequerica, and Edie and got the location where they dropped off the hijackers or the successful arrest of El Toro.

How Does Season 1 Of The Hijacking Of Flight 601 End?

The episode ends with Edie recording a voice message for her friend Barbara, now Maria, after receiving her postcard from Brazil. Maria had asked her about what came to mind when she thought she was going to die on the plane, and she said that she had an answer.

When she thought about saying goodbye to her life and her children, she felt like everything around her was alive, and only she had given up on life. She realised that everything goes by in a blink and we are just passing through, making even the most difficult times in our lives a miracle. She emphasises the importance of living by allowing oneself to put your feet on the ground and your head in the sky. The episode ends with Edie smiling happily as she gazes out a plane’s window into the skies.  

The Episode Review

The final episode leaves a lasting impression, culminating in a thrilling six episodes watching experience of this historical drama that spiked heart rates with each new episode. The episode narrates how the crew attempted a final plan to survive and successfully follow through.

The episode adds a romance angle between Barbara and Borja in a predictable but jaw-dropping twist. The hints of a possible romance were there from the first time they bumped into each other at the airport to the similarities in ideologies and the glances they gave each other on the plane.

Regardless, their meeting was so unexpected, and it surprised us. The episode ties up all the loose endings and avoids cliffhanger endings. Therefore, I do not think this series will have a second season. However, it would be fantastic if Netflix dropped another drama based on a similar story but covering a different dramatic plane hijack based on true stories rather than fiction.