As intense as it is, the ending of Hijack Season 2’s premiere makes one thing immediately clear: this is not a simple repeat of Season 1’s airborne crisis; it is a deliberate, or more of a forced, inversion of it. The episode spends much of its runtime planting familiar thriller elements: a couple of suspicious side characters, a mysterious figure slipping through an underground tunnel as police raid his apartment, a set of unruly kids on a probable school trip and a train staff whose character hints at some sort of connection with our nervous driver.

The atmosphere begs to suggest a larger, coordinated attack already in motion. Regardless, the woven threads feel intentionally scattered, to a point where they are distracting since the real twist arrives before any of them can fully pay off. 

Just as the episode seems ready to follow a conventional cat-and-mouse setup, Sam does the unthinkable. Using keys he should not have, he breaks into the driver’s cabin and absurdly confesses to Otto that he is hijacking the train.

On the surface, of course, this revelation is not meant to be jaw-dropping. The show is cleverly building upon the viewers expectations of a structural shift from Season 1, but successfully or not, we are yet to see. This would not merely be a chase to solve a crisis. Instead, the power of the ending lies in insinuating the chase after the reason that has compelled our negotiator to turn into a “terrorist”. 

The final act pivots the central question away from “Who is behind the attack?” to “Why would Sam risk hundreds of lives?” The answer would begin to surface when Sam reveals his motives, demands, which would clear if this was the ramifications of a deeply personal mission or just the beginning of a greater, ideological play at hands. 

This reframes everything we have seen so far. Sam is not acting as a mastermind reveling in control. He is operating under pressure, a fact reinforced when it is revealed that Otto knew about the hijacking in advance and is himself being coerced.

Officer Winter, now leading the response, is immediately boxed in, caught between an aggressive second-in-command pushing for violent solutions and the sudden arrival of MI5 operative British Intelligence officer Peter Faber by Toby Jones, whose cryptic presence suggests hidden agendas at play. The authorities are not just chasing a criminal; they are reacting to a situation already spiraling beyond standard protocol.

Inter-cut throughout the episode is Sam’s ex-wife Marsha, isolated in a woodland cabin on the anniversary of their son Kai’s death. Mysteriously appears a strange old couple who keep an eye on devastated Marsha. All of it quietly underlines the episode’s ending, or at least the plot through which it is going to play with our curiosity. Sam’s actions are rooted in grief, guilt, and unresolved trauma. 

Quickly summarising the ending, by the time Episode 1 ends, Hijack Season 2 has established its core conflict:

The premiere closes by making one promise clear: this season is not about stopping a hijacking. It is about uncovering who pushed Sam into becoming the hijacker, and what he’s willing to destroy to get answers.

'Hijack' Season 2 Review: Sam Nelson's Risky Leap from a Savior to Forced Vigilante Has a Lot to Answer

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