Hijack Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Someone Get Me Off This Train

Critic’s Rating: 2 / 5.0

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If I weren’t a completionist, I’d have dropped this season of Hijack already. Also, because I’m reviewing it, I must see it through.

I used to think that if I got through thirteen episodes of Prime Video’s Countdown last year, I could get through anything, but this show is truly testing my patience.

It’s like the most predictable thing ever that makes no effort to be interesting. There is no way a crime drama plays out worse than a soap opera.

Even soaps occasionally feature screaming, yelling, and slapping.

Everything went wrong with Hijack when they decided to make Sam Nelson the bad guy. It’s not easy to flip the script and expect viewers to buy what you’re selling when it’s the complete opposite of everything you’d established before.

The narrative dug itself into a hole it can’t get out of, and now it’s stuck like a threadless tire in a muddy hole — just burning fuel while digging a deeper rut.

Write, Copy, Rinse, Repeat

Every episode is like a copy of the last: boring, uninspired, and talky.

Something Hijack Season 2 Episode 5, “Outage,” should be a turning point as the passengers revolt and demand answers.

However, it plays out like one would expect a revolt by kindergarteners over reduced nap time. First of all, kindergarteners are not a threat to anyone, and they will eventually tire themselves out.

This is the moment when shit becomes real, and everyone’s survival instincts kick in. And since each person has a different idea of what it means to survive, conflict should have developed, changing everything.

I expected the moment the passengers learn of what’s at stake to be quite satisfying. You know that feeling when everyone learns the turn, and you’re like, ‘finally, we’re on the same page!’

However, it doesn’t carry that weight because this season lacks stakes or intrigue.

It’s like the writers were given a million paths to travel and chose the easiest one.

If I were writing this season, I’d make sure the viewers and the passengers remained in the dark about Sam’s true intentions for as long as possible.

This would have made some moments, like when he admits he’s being forced to do this, carry more weight. And while it’s a bombshell for the passengers, for us it’s like our thousandth time watching the same movie.

We’ve known the script by heart by now.

The “Don’t Miss the Next Episode” Bait

Anyway, so that happens. The passengers learn there are bombs wired under the train, and things take a bad turn.

And while I do applaud the show for going there with the explosion, we’ve seen this trick before.

Hijack will have the dullest episode, only to pull a twist or a shocker in the final few minutes, hoping to keep viewers intrigued enough to check out the next episode.

The end-of-episode cliffhanger is a trick as old as time, and while it works for broadcast shows, the same cannot be said of streaming.

On broadcast, episodes rotate focus between characters or storyline, so a cliffhanger is usually meant to hype up the following week’s episode.

Streaming can do that, but episodes don’t carry the same structure, and least of all high-concept dramas like Hijack.

Shows like The Pitt or The Lincoln Lawyer work because they balance broadcast and streaming energy, with the cliffhanger generally acting as a segue to the next storyline or concept.

So, even with that explosion, I’m not sure it means anything in the grand scheme of things. I’m almost confident that they will find a way to walk it back, or everyone will survive.

The Things I Chose to Ignore

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I truly do not care what happens outside the train.

I don’t care about Marsha and her neighbors, nor do I care about the detective investigating stuff we know, or even what Stuart has to say.

Oh yeah, Stuart appears in this episode and adds zero information to the story. And if you forgot, they brought Zahra back in Episode 4, “Switch,” with zero impact.

If Daniel wants to know what John Bailey-Brown is up to, all he has to do is think and ask the right people questions.

I’m 99% sure that this is a breakout disguised as a hijack by a mourning father. The show is trying to beat around the bush with the ever thoughtful Peter Faber, but we know.

It’ll be just as boring as everything else that has transpired when they finally reveal it.

Gut Check

Predictable is the word I’d use for this episode. It plays out just every other episode of Hijack. A little bit of excitement, a lot of talking, some irrational decisions, and numerous sidequests. Top that off with an ambitious cliffhanger, and we have our script.

Stray Observations

• There is something sad about Jess that I hadn’t noticed before. What if she, too, is being blackmailed into doing this? That would not absolve her of murder, however.

• Did Hijack just recycle a scene? I could have sworn we’ve seen some of those scenes between Marsha and her “neighbours” before. The deja vu is crazy!

• I still don’t get how John Bailey-Brown thinks blowing up a train helps him escape, if that’s what he wants to do. I mean, an act like that warrants him being hunted down like a dog and hanged in the center of London at 12 pm.

It’s time to be brutally honest, Hijack fanatics. Are you still pretending this season is even 10% as good as the previous one?

Unburden in the comments section.

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.

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