Sumith Prasad
Apple TV+’s thriller series ‘Hijack’ revolves around the hijacking of Kingdom Airlines’ Flight KA29, which departs from Dubai to London. A group of hijackers, led by Stuart Atterton/Gerald Taylor, takes control of the plane and holds the passengers and crew members of the same hostage. Sam Nelson, one of the passengers and a corporate negotiator, tries to become the intermediary between the hijackers and others. Meanwhile, the British government receives a list of demands from the hijackers, which sheds light on the identities of the people behind the hijacking. The series finale further reveals the motive of the hijackers. If you are trying to connect the dots concerning their identities and motives, let us be your ally! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Who Hijacked Flight KA29? Why?
After Flight KA29 departs from Dubai, a group of hijackers takes control of the plane. Stuart acts as the leader and supreme authority of the hijackers but only until he talks about a man named Edgar to Jamie Constantinou/Bella Cunningham, one of his fellow hijackers. From a dying Lewis, Sam learns that Stuart and his team were ordered to hijack the plane by Edgar Janssen and John Bailey-Brown, the heads of the Cheapside Firm, an influential international drug trade network. Edgar and John were imprisoned for operating an important link in the European drug trade.
After Stuart and his team hijack the plane, one of the members of the Cheapside Firm gives Neil Walsh, the British home secretary, a document that reveals the organized crime group’s demands. The Cheapside Firm wants Edgar and John out of prison to not kill more than two hundred individuals on board Flight KA29. Stuart and his group believe that Edgar and John, their leaders, were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. They take part in the hijacking to demand what they believe is “justice.” However, Edgar and John have been betraying both the British government and the hijackers on board the plane at the same time.
After receiving the demands, Neil approves the release of Edgar and John from prison to make sure that the passengers and crew members of the hijacked plane will not get hurt. He believes that he can use armed forces to track the two high-profile criminals and arrest them once the plane is secured from the hijackers. Edgar and John, however, manage to vanish from the radar of the authorities to gain the freedom they have been aiming for. But freedom is only one of the two things they aimed for by hijacking Flight KA29.
Edgar and John could have orchestrated the kidnapping of a high-profile politician or a member of the British government if all they wanted was freedom. Hijacking a plane is a riskier and harder assignment, which isn’t really necessary to get released from prison. Still, the leaders of the Cheapside Firm ordered the hijacking of Flight KA29 because they had a separate plan in place to earn an enormous amount of money. They didn’t even inform Stuart about the same. To materialize their plan, their allies forced Amanda to board Flight KA29 and hijack the same from Stuart and other hijackers by threatening to kill her daughter Elodie.
After Stuart and his team hijack the plane, one of the members of the Cheapside Firm informs a financial journalist named Felix Staton about the hijacking. He blackmails the journalist to break the story about Kingdom Airlines’ plane. When Felix does the same, the airline company’s stock market value plummets. Edgar and John orchestrated the hijacking of Flight KA29 to take advantage of this stock market fall of Kingdom Airlines. Before the hijacking, Edgar and John placed a bet against the company’s share value, which enables them to earn eighteen million every time the value drop a penny. The two of them planned the hijacking to make enough money to cherish their long-awaited freedom.
Edgar and John or their allies informed Amanda that they would ask her to land the plane once they fulfilled their expectations. However, Edgar decides against doing the same. He wants the plane to crash into London so that the share value of Kingdom Airlines will fall as much as it can, which ensures the maximum amount of money he can earn, without any regard to the lives of Stuart and the other hijackers. But Edgar doesn’t live enough to lay his hands on the money he earned by the hijacking. John kills his partner, using one of his men, seemingly to gain the money they have earned by the hijacking all alone.
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