IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack – Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of IC 814 – The Kandahar Hijack starts with Dubai ATC talking directly to the hijacker – Chief, asking him to pay heed to the teachings of the Quran. On behalf of the Sheikh, he allows the women and children to be deplaned. Some of the women refuse to exit the plane without their spouses.

Indrani and Chaaya are shocked to see how the hijackers handled the dead passenger’s body. At the same time, Sanjay tries to talk to Masood but does not find any intel about the hijack from him. At the Intelligence Bureau office, DRS and Mukul have a chat about the Taliban’s involvement in the hijack.

Mukul states that the Taliban and ISI were cut from the same cloth and could not be trusted in this situation. The next morning, Doctor asks Sharan to perform an emergency landing in Kandahar, Afghanistan instead of Kabul. The ministers are alerted as chaos breaks out in Delhi Airport while the hijacked plane safely lands in Kandahar.

Burger tells the passengers that his friends – Chief, Doctor, Shankar and Bhola were going to help them. He states that food will also be arranged for them as many militant cars and tanks circle around the hijacked plane. Kohli, Mukul, Agarwal and Ranjan discuss the press chatter. DRS tells Vijaybhan that he was in touch with the Foreign Affairs Minister of Afghanistan – Muttawakil about the hijacking situation.

Sharan learns that the plane was void of any food while the wife of the deceased passenger tries to look for him. Doctor gets off in Kandahar and talks to Muttawakil while food packets are sent inside the plane.

The Prime Minister talks to the media and addresses the situation for the first time. Vinay shares the cabinets stance and reveals that India will not negotiate with the hijackers. The Kandahar ATC informs the hijackers that India is not willing to negotiate with them which pisses Chief off. The news reports claim that 25 of the 200 passengers were deplaned in Dubai as the passengers return to India.

Meanwhile, the Afghani locals set up camp around the plane. Nandini interviews Sharan’s wife and learns her stance on the situation. The toilets on the plane being to malfunction and the passengers begin to get restless. Burger asks if the door of the plane can be opened to let out the odour. Doctor slaps Indrani when she tries to open the door without his approval.

Sharan is asked to take the plane back to Delhi for it to be crashed there. The plane is being refuelled but Sharan tries to stop the take off. He starts jettisoning the plane and claims that the plane had malfunctioned. The fuel starts bursting out of the tank which infuriates the hijackers. Doctor attacks Sharan and threatens to kill more people on the plane.

Just then, a UN aircraft lands in Afghanistan and Sharan is relieved. The hijackers are not happy with the decision of allowing international reporters in Kandahar amid the hijack. The reporters ask questions to Muttawakil about his surprising preparedness for the situation.

The UN representative asks Muttawakil to make sure there is no bloodshed on Afghanistan grounds. The family members of the passengers throw a fit while Nandini has an argument with Shalini about the kind of news that goes out. In Kathmandu, Ram learns that the red bag in the plane contains 17 kgs of RDX explosives.

At the same time, DRS, Ranjan, Mukul and Abhijeet land in Afghanistan with 20 commandos to negotiate with the hijackers as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

Things are seemingly heating up now and there is frustration from both the hijackers as well as the passengers’ end. One shocking issue from this episode is the preparedness of Afghanistan in terms of making food packets ready for the 150 passengers on the plane.

This makes it clear that the plane was being moved around countries with the tentative destination being stated as Kabul only for it to be changed last minute to Kandahar, a place that was already prepared to feed the passengers.

It was funny to see the officials being scared to be at the forefront of the negotiation with the hijackers given how they were throwing the blame on Sharan while it was their fault. Given the many messages Ram already sent to the IB, this hijack is clearly their fault and this oversight on their part cost the nation a lot as we will see in the final two episodes of the show.