Hijack Episode 4 Review: Idris Elba is pro negotiator Sam Nelson who is onboard a hijacked flight. He has to constantly figure out ways to keep the passengers unhurt while trying to establish contact with ground authorities. How he does it is what we see in this high-octane thriller. Alongside Elba, the Apple TV+ show stars Ben Miles, Neil Maskell and Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Archie Panjabi, and Christine Adams. George Kay is the writer. It has been directed by Jim Field Smith. Episode 4 is titled Not Responding and makes it clear why.
Hijack Episode 4 deals with two separate incidents that are interlinked in the worst of ways. An unresponsive plane is no less than a missile headed for its target, and no country, which has the plane inbound, will wait for more than a stipulated amount of time before taking it down. This is not good news for KA29, which has problems of its own to deal with. How will Sam deal with things this time?
Apple TV’s Hijack Episode 4 Review Contains Major Spoilers
Hijack Episode 4 Recap
The shot fired from Stuart’s gun killed one of the passengers. This action sanctions the hijackers as international criminals. Sam knows that the death of a passenger wouldn’t go down well, but he cannot do whatever he feels like. Moreover, his hands are now tied, thanks to his fight with Terry while Jonty is back in his seat. Meanwhile, the young hijacker (later revealed to be Ryan Cunningham) is wounded after being inadvertently (probably) stabbed with a pair of scissors by one of the passengers. Unless the bleeding is stopped, the kid risks dying.
The British foreign secretary Louise Aitchison has arrived at the CTC and is briefed on the situation. The flight has entered Romanian airspace and isn’t responding. This is because Stuart, the fool that he is, has destroyed the headpiece that pilot Robin used to communicate with the different ATCs. And without any word from the British (the origin of the plane), it is ready to scramble the jets and bring the plane down. A word with Romania’s interior minister Darius Sorescu makes it clear to Louise that it is only a matter of time before it happens unless she gives Sorescu proof that Romania has got nothing to do with it.
Marsha receives an anonymous call about a package that is to be delivered to her place. What she doesn’t know is that it’s a call from the very group that planned the hijack, to confirm Sam Nelson’s address. It may not be his address anymore, but his wife and son still live there, and now the criminals know it. What if they decide to take Kai (Sam’s son) hostage or something else? And how did the ground team find out about Sam? Stuart must have informed them, and they want to find out everything about the guy.
Jets are scrambled by Romania after failure to receive any response from the plane. They are going to shoot it down before it can reach Bucharest, it seems. Ryan is dizzy because he has lost a lot of blood. Sam has befriended him and pretends to call Ryan’s mother on his phone, taking advantage of his emotional outburst.
What Ryan doesn’t know is that his words, and his mother’s contact, are going straight to Marsha’s voicemail. This is how Sam is trying to communicate with the ground. To make sure no one finds out about the call, he even deletes the call history. A great step. But will it work? The passengers can see the jets on either side of the plane, and so can Heathrow ATC as well as CTC.
After a lot of asking, one of the passengers, who is a doctor, comes to Ryan’s aid before it’s too late and manages to resume Ryan’s breathing. Meanwhile, Marsha has forwarded the voicemail to Daniel, who is also at the CTC and tracks down the phone number. This enables him to find out intel about the whole gang of organized crime and their real identities, including Ryan and Stuart, whose real name is Gerald Taylor.
The information is given to Aitchison, who informs Sorescu, confirming that the hijackers are British nationals. The jets, who already had their weapons locked on the plane, and told to disengage and return to base. Sam has again managed to avert another potential disaster. However, things are far from over as Hijack Episode 4 ends with the British home secretary receiving an envelope from an anonymous guy. The word written on it is “Demands”.
Hijack Episode 4 Review
It was just fate that Sam’s voicemail reached Marsha just in time for her to send it to Daniel, who was thankfully at the CTC. If Marsha hadn’t checked her voicemail in time or if Daniel hadn’t been at the CTC, something disastrous would’ve happened. Flight KA29 was 60 seconds away from being blown into pieces when Romania was informed about the British nationals who had hijacked the aircraft.
However, it all goes back to Sam’s presence of mind. He not only managed to send a message to the ground but also save Ryan. Now, he has one of the hijackers, who trusts him, and there is no way for Ryan to ascertain what he believes to be true (him speaking to his mother Elaine).
Hijack Episode 4 maintains the level of danger that the aircraft is in, and not just from the hijackers. Romania chose to wait for some time before taking its steps. Some other countries might not wait for so long. There will be no place to hide if a missile is fired. This itself makes the whole scenario far worse than it is. Also, we must not forget the demands that have reached the British home secretary. This is the next step of the group that hijacked the plane.
Episode 5 will show what their demands are. With every episode, the show is only proving how good it is at keeping the stakes high. Personally speaking, I love how it keeps time as a facet. Less than 4 hours to London. What happens, then?
The new episode is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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