Le Journal

Sortie festive. Après avoir fêté dignement les 25 ans d’existence du club en 2025, les Montapattes ont organisé, le 12 janvier 2026, la traditionnelle rando Galette, la 1860ème randonnée depuis la création de l’association. Réunis pour l’occasion, 62 randonneurs mais aussi fins gourmets piaffaient sur la place du village… Sous un timide soleil, le groupe, bien […]

The first season of Apple TV’s Hijack struggled in a few places with herky-jerky pacing, feeling like yet another one of those shows that arguably would have made a better feature film. Almost brazenly, creators George Kay and Jim Field Smith heard those criticisms and…added an hour by going from seven episodes in season one to eight this year. Concerns that this season of Hijack would succumb to the sag that stalls so many streaming shows come to the forefront in this second episode, which spins its wheels more often than not and fills out the supporting cast in a way that could ultimately be rewarding but feels slight as a standalone experience. There’s a bit of irony in the fact that this hour centers on a commuter train that can’t move forward and is populated by people unsure of why it’s taking so long to get to their destination. It’s the one that’s been hijacked by Idris Elba’s Sam Nelson, the centerpiece of a plane hijacking two years ago that not only left him with trauma but apparently some untied plot threads. The big reveal this week is Sam’s demand that the German and British governments find one John Bailey-Brown. Sound familiar? Played by Ian Burfield, JBB was one of the key players in Cheapside, the company that was behind the hijacking of Kingdom Air 29 for financial gains. He’s in Berlin. And, apparently, it will take a hijacking for Sam to get his hands on him. Other than the reveal that Bailey-Brown is the focus of Sam’s plan, and a poor guy getting a bomb strapped to him, not much happens in “Control.” The most consequential developments on a season level are probably the fleshing out of key supporting players. There’s Christiane Paul as Police Chief Winter, who gets from a school concert to the control center in an amount of time that would impress Jack Bauer. It’s funny how often Hijack flirts with real-time storytelling but then does things that puncture that structure like having a woman cross Berlin in a matter of minutes. Setting aside those kinds of practical inconsistencies, Winter has a strong presence in the control center to balance Lisa Vicari’s more nervous dispatcher Berger. Of course, the most familiar face in the control center belongs to Toby Jones, playing a mysterious figure who seems to be pulling some strings regarding the entire hostage-saving operation. Winter makes the calls at the mic, but Jones’ character looks like the wizard behind the curtain. We’ll see how that unfolds. We’ll also see how Clare-Hope Ashitey factors in as the woman that Sam was supposed to meet with at the Embassy. When she puts two and two together regarding the stopped train and Sam missing his meeting, she’s the one who reveals his identity to the hard-working folks over at the control center. On the train itself, the essential dynamic between Sam and Otto is refined a bit. Otto is hesitant, nervous about what has to happen next to such a degree that he could become a liability for Sam’s plan. There’s an important distinction between these two made this episode: Sam is doing this for a specific reason while Otto is doing this for money. Will the guilt over the latter derail Sam’s plans? Sam tells him, “You knew what was involved when you took the money.” Did he? And how long can that kind of motive hold? “Control” also offers another glimpse of Marsha’s life off the grid. She calls her partner DI O’Farrel (Max Beesley), a familiar face from season one, and discovers that he didn’t send the flowers that reached her remote cabin. Who did? And is it important that they were addressed to “Marsha Nelson,” drawing a connection to her estranged husband? What if what Sam is doing in Berlin is happening because he knows of a threat to Marsha? It might connect a few dots. As for the slow action of the episode, it centers the train being stopped just before a station by the control center leaving an abandoned one in front of it on the track. Sam sees through the stunt rather quickly, confirming in a security room that…