Summary
The ending of Hijack Season 2 boasts some nice visuals and effective tension, but it’s relatively standard fare with few surprises.
As well as being the ending — obviously — of Hijack Season 2, “Terminal” plays out like a bit of a reassurance that there won’t be a needless third outing. It’s quietly impressive how much it manages to snip off every loose end, providing reasonably satisfying conclusions to every arc and subplot while also delivering effective tension and impressive visuals. But it also creates an overall shrugging feeling, like we’re just going through the motions of tying things up without any real jeopardy or surprises. Episode 8 isn’t significantly better or worse than any other episode this season; it just feels like what it is, which is the perfunctory climax to a show that probably shouldn’t have been renewed in the first place.
But alas, here we are. With the impressive penultimate episode having put all the pieces in place, what we’re left with is the thriller equivalent of tidying up and putting all those pieces back in the box. If you don’t expect anything too out there, you’ll probably have quite a pleasant time and feel reassured in never having to think about Hijack again. Not because it’s bad, of course, just because it was a great idea for a limited series that managed to just about get away with being continued against better judgment.
Marsha Is Saved
We might as well start with the lightest subplot. There aren’t very many Marsha-centric scenes in this finale, but her situation is nonetheless pretty important to what’s going on elsewhere. When we left her, she was being pursued by two Scottish assassins while a police helicopter had been sent to her rough location to try and extract her safely. And that’s where we find her here.
The assassins, though, don’t find her at all, which kind of takes the sting out of the whole matter, tension-wise. There’s a bit of business involving the rescue helicopter potentially running out of fuel, and then another bit when Marsha has to start a giant fire outside her cabin to lure it over, which of course attracts the assassins, but she manages to hold out with a big axe like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
With Marsha rescued, Sam is finally free to do what needs to be done on his end, although, to be fair, he doesn’t find out that she’s free until the end of the episode.
All Hail the King
If you were wondering not just what is really going on here but also, more importantly, why it’s happening, the finale does kindly provide an answer to that question. Stuart Atterton is trying to take control of the Cheapside Firm.
Is that it? Yes, that’s it. The whole thing was a gambit to kill Sam Nelson and John Bailey-Brown, doing away with anyone who might be problematic post-Kingdom and positioning himself at the top of the totem pole. He almost pulls it off, too, but Lang’s failures in Germany mean that he has to take a call on his secret phone within the confines of his cell, which allows the conversation to be recorded by O’Farrell and Zahra.
With Stuart caught dead to rights, he’s apprehended, and O’Farrell gets his smug moment to wind him up, which is pretty richly deserved when you think about it.
Sam Stays the Course
The bulk of the ending of Hijack Season 2 understandably takes place aboard the train. Despite Olivia radioing Sam to play him the message from Marsha, he’s adamant about staying the course, since the alternative — he believes — is allowing Marsha to sacrifice herself. He’s determined to save both her and the passengers, and that means taking the train all the way to the depot so that the exchange can take place.
This is the only way, since, as Beck discovers via “Marko”, the bombs are all in a collapsing circuit, and the only person who can stop them is the one holding the trigger. But Lang isn’t inclined to listen to reason, especially after his identity is discovered. This process is relatively roundabout, but basically, when Winter turns up Jess’s real identity and discovers she’s former Moroccan special forces, Olivia recognises her tattoo as the logo of the Foxhole. This means that the plan was carried out by mercenaries who all met in Berlin. There was an inside man. Winter also tells her that witnesses described a “British officer type”, suggesting that if there is indeed an inside man, it’s probably one of Faber’s.
When Faber discovers Linder’s body, then, the pieces all slot into place, identifying Lang as the true bad guy just as he’s about to board the train with JBB.
All’s Well That Ends Well
After allowing the passengers off the train, Otto recognises that something is amiss between Lang and JBB, and rushes back aboard to tell Sam. Sam, of course, recognises Lang and knows he’s holding the detonator, but he sees that as an opportunity. Sam is ready to die, but Lang isn’t, so he can’t detonate the train while he’s on it. As soon as he brings JBB aboard, Otto gets the training moving.
Sam taunts Lang back and forth so that he blows all of his ammo. During this exchange, we also learn that it was Lang — or at least his agents — who murdered Kai, not John Bailey-Brown. It was the only way to maneuver Sam into position to do their bidding. It’s kind of beside the point at this stage, though. Sam makes Lang an offer, to kill him and JBB as long as he agrees to let Marsha live, but it’s a ruse. Sam uses the brief distraction to wrestle Lang, who’s able to slip out of the train and then get far enough away to detonate it and call Stuart (this is the call, incidentally, that gets Stuart arrested).
But, naturally, Sam and Otto survived the explosion. Sam pursues Lang onto the streets, where he’s held at gunpoint by GSG9. He knows that Stuart won’t ever stop coming after him for his failure, so, like “Jess”, he commits suicide by cop by reaching for his ringing phone. He’s shot to death, tying up the final loose end.
Olivia arrives, since the train happened to blow up only five minutes on foot from the control room, and hands Sam his phone so he can call Marsha. All’s well that ends well. But this, I think, is the last ending we need to see from Hijack.
