Hijack Episode 3 Review: A Bullet in Disguise

Hijack Episode 3 Review: When the flight on which professional negotiator Sam Nelson is travelling gets highjacked, he has to use his skills to keep the passengers safe while negotiating with the hijackers. Will he be able to handle the pressure and bring the plane to a safe landing? Directed by Jim Field Smith and written by George Kay, Apple TV+ Hijack stars Idris Elba as Sam, Christine Adams as his ex-wife Marsha Nelson, Ben Miles as Captain Robin Allen, and Neil Maskell as Stuart, the negotiator/hijacker.

The third episode is out, and it ups the ante of the whole situation, both in-flight and on the ground. The tension goes to and fro between the terrorists and the passengers. While a new piece of intel from one of the passengers reveals a silver lining, the hijackers discuss their next phase. And things get out of control.

Hijack Episode 3 Recap

One of the passengers, an Egyptian army veteran, believes that the guns are fake. This is unexpected news. But how to ascertain it? A piece of paper is passed around meticulously without raising suspicion in the minds of the hijackers. Naomi will have to signal based on the shape of the bullet. This will tell if the bullets are blanks. It’s very interesting the way the makers execute this whole objective without making things seem improbable.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Heathrow ATC, CTC (Counter Terrorism Command), and JTAC (Joint Terrorism Analysis Center) hold a Zoom meeting to analyze the situation. All things considered, including the contradictory statements made by the pilot and the shift in course, it is possible that flight KA29 has indeed been hijacked. All thanks to Alice Sinclair, who single-handedly raised the alarm about what can otherwise be an international tragedy.

However, background checks on all the passengers come out clean, save for a guy with counts of attempted murder and armed robbery, Jonty Collins. Surprisingly, he is one of the passengers. Daniel requests Zahra to send him the list of names though it’s against the rules. However, she must have known that Daniel might just dig up something else. He doesn’t find anything unusual, but there are 5 passengers on whom there is nothing in any database. It seems that they do not exist.

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Zahra gets the details from Daniel. It is only natural that people intending to hijack a plane will erase their existence, so there is no way for anyone to trace them. These are definitely the 5 hijackers that have taken over flight KA29. But now what? What can the teams do from the ground? It’s nice to show how the organizations didn’t ignore the possibility of a hijack other than the first time, which makes sense. Once things seemed unusual, proper action was taken to send the doubts up the chain. All thanks to Alice and Daniel, both of whom luckily reached out to the same person, Zahra.

What happens towards the end of Hijack Episode 3? I found a bit too much. Yes, Sam finds out that the bullets are fake. But how did he manage to avoid being spotted by the hijackers as he headed toward the end of the plane? However, he and Jonty get into a fight with Terry, the oldest of the hijackers. He knows the gun in Terry’s hand is harmless because the bullets are blank.

Meanwhile, chaos erupts among the passengers when one of them also gets into a fight with another hijacker, and a little girl goes missing. We see Stuart replacing the blank rounds in his gun with real bullets, and the episode ends with the sound of a gunshot. Did Stuart fire his gun? If yes, to whom? Or did Terry fire the gun at Sam? Was it really empty?

Hijack Episode 3 Review

Everything depends on the gunshot now. Hijack Episode 3 ends on the perfect note and keeps the tension alive in us until the arrival of Episode 4. The show is moving ahead pretty well, and considering there are 7 episodes, it has been able to establish its gipping nature very well so far. With 4 episodes still remaining, a lot can happen. We must also remember that Stuart contacted someone on the ground. Who did he reach out to? What is their plan?

It is commendable how the show maintains the tension without overdoing itself. Although I found Idris moving to the end of the plane a little bit too much, I was easily able to make peace with my suspension of disbelief for the sake of everything that was going on. And now, I’m waiting for episode 4 to arrive. And that’s all that a show needs to do, make its viewers wait.

Did you like Apple TV Hijack Episode 3? Do let us know in the comments below.

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