Hijack has wrapped up Season 2 on Apple TV with Episode 8, “Terminal,” a blockbuster finale that brought the train into the station — though of course with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Looking for a Hijack Season 2 ending explained? Wondering if Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) will be back for Hijack Season 3? You’ve come to the right place.
Spoilers past this point, but leading into this week’s finale everything is in place as Sam guides what remains of the German U-Bahn subway train to Britz-Süd, where the authorities are planning to hand over last season’s villain, John Bailey-Brown (Ian Burfield). With a good chunk of the hostages gone, it’s down to Sam to figure out who is behind the hijack, and why they need Bailey-Brown so badly. We, the viewers, know that rogue MI5 agent Robert Lang (Arsher Ali) is the one who is directly manipulating Sam, but he works for someone else… Stuart Atterton (Neil Maskell), who was the main guy in last season’s plane hijack, and is now the mastermind of everything from prison.
How is Atterton doing this? And why? And who will die in the epic finale of Hijack? Guess what, we’re about to answer all of those questions with our recap below, followed by the ending explained.
Hijack Season 2, Episode 8, “Terminal” Recap:
Things actually kick off with Detective Zoran Beck (Dejan Bućin) interrogating Jozef Kaminski, the mad bomber who built the bombs attached to the train. All Kaminski knows is that the man he knows is evil, and while he seems willing to help defuse the bombs, there’s a big problem we’re about to find out about in a bit.
Meanwhile, the control room contacts Sam to get him a message from his ex-wife, Marsha (Christine Adams). She wants him to know she’s fine, and not to let the real hijackers use her as leverage. Sam doesn’t know she’s being hunted in the woods, but he’s not buying it anyway… He’ll stay the course until he knows she’s safe.
Over to prison, Atterton is using his secret prison phone, thanks to the corrupt guards he’s paid off, to have a little chat with Lang. The latter thinks everything is running smoothly, but Atterton knows it’s not; and all he wants is both Sam and John Bailey-Brown on the train, at the same time. If it wasn’t clear already, it is now (or will be shortly): Atterton is pissed at both Sam and John, and wants revenge for what went down with the plane hijack.
Setting the stakes, we see that the prisoner exchange will happen on live TV, and there are still 100 hostages on the train. Making matters worse, Beck has discovered that the bombs can’t be defused: “The only person who can stop this is the one holding the trigger,” he explains. So basically, it’s all up to Sam now.
While all that is going on, helicopters are searching the woods for Marsha. And also we discover that Jess’s (Karima McAdams) real name is Mona Hakimi, a “combat medic trained by Moroccan special forces.” And while Jess died last episode, a tattoo on Jess/Mona’s wrist gives a clue to what’s going on… As does a picture that shows her merc crew, which includes none other than Lang. Sam’s British Embassy friend Olivia Thatcher (Clare-Hope Ashitey) calls British intelligence officer Peter Faber (Toby Jones) to give him the news — though they haven’t put together that Lang is involved yet. And if that wasn’t enough going on, DI Daniel O’Farrell (Max Beesley) and DCI Zahra Gahfoor (Archie Panjabi) head to the prison to try one more time to figure out what Atterton is up to.
Side-note: this show needs more characters! Just kidding!
Okay, back to it… As the train pulls into Britz-Süd, Sam talks to the passengers and tries to calm them down, cutting the lights for their safety and assuring them they’ll get off alive. What will happen to Sam and train conductor Otto (Christian Näthe)? Turns out, Otto wasn’t forced to do any of this, he was paid, which he confesses to Sam. The latter assures him he saved lives, but to him, it doesn’t feel like it.
While Sam waits for the hand-off and Marsha continues to run through the woods, O’Farrell and Gahfoor get Atterton frisked, and he manages to hide his phone. He’s also got his mother’s wedding ring on his brother’s chain, as a reminder of who died during the plane hijack last season.
Back at the station, Sam sends the passengers out one by one, as Bailey-Brown waits on the platform in sight nearby. And as that happens, Faber discovers the BfV agent Lang killed in last week’s episode, hidden on a train platform. A policemen takes on of the BfV agent’s colleagues for a confab, which is when things really start to fall apart.
Hijack Season 2 Ending Explained:
Otto, watching Lang and Bailey-Brown argue on the platform, realizes that this isn’t about freeing Bailey-Brown, it’s something else… He runs back to tell Sam, who identifies Lang as the guy who he’s been talking to. At the same time, Faber realizes Lang is involved as well, and warns the control room… Who sees Lang at the scene, on TV.
Lang and Bailey-Brown enter the train, and Lang handcuffs Bailey-Brown to one of the subway poles, which is when the doors slam shut and the train pulls out of the station! It’s time for Sam to hijack this hijack, and go back on the attack, and you know that.
Lang pulls out a gun and heads to the conductor booth to kill him, but it’s empty. The pissed off Lang shoots Bailey-Brown in the leg, and heads to the other conductor booth in the back of the train. Otto is there, but not Sam, who is back in the first conductor booth. So Lang threatens to blow up the train, but Sam doesn’t think he has what he takes, and in order to save Marsha’s life, offers him a deal.
What deal is that? Well, before we can get there, Bailey-Brown reveals he has no idea who Kai (Jade Cudjoe), Sam’s son is. See, Sam’s motivating factor all season has been that Bailey-Brown killed Kai. But of course, Bailey-Brown isn’t behind this… It’s Lang, and working over him is Atterton (though Sam doesn’t know that bit yet). The deal, by the way, is Lang kills Sam and Bailey-Brown, and lets Marsha live… But Lang doesn’t agree.
So Otto brings the train to a halt, knocking them all down. While that’s happening, Marsha sets a signal fire, and waits for rescue, which also draws her hunters — Gold (Jamie Michie) and Mansell (Jessica Hardwick) — to her, as well. And layering on even more madness, Lang blows up the train. Finally.
It’s all over, right? Wrong.
In the prison, Atterton gets the call from Lang that it’s all over, and Sam and Bailey-Brown are dead, and he needs an exit strategy… But O’Farrell and Gahfoor are listening, and recording. But oops, both Sam and Otto are still alive, having escaped the train before it blew up. Bailey-Brown, though, is dead. Or at least, we don’t see his body but he likely is an ex-hijacker.
Lang goes on the run through snowy Berlin, with Sam in hot pursuit, and the police closing in, as well. At the same time, the police circle Marsha’s cabin and corner Gold and Mansell, who give themselves up.
Lang, meanwhile, has a million laser sights on him thanks to the German police, when he gets a call. Sam tells him not to answer it. “You know who that is?” Lang asks, and once Sam explains he’s figured it out, Lang adds, “So you know he’s never gonna stop.”
But Sam is the “only one left.” Lang, left with no choice, goes to answer the phone and is shot dead by the police. The phone continues to ring as we see both Sam (in Germany) and Marsha (in the woods) sigh with relief. They’re safe.
Back in prison, Atterton is handcuffed and thrown to the floor. “Sam’s alive,” O’Farrell tells him. “So is Marsha. All you’ve ever achieved is to destroy your own family.”
Quick side-note, or sort of main note: how did Atterton do all this? If you’ll remember, the hijack in Season 1 was actually an elaborate stock market short. So while Atterton was captured, it seems like he has access to the funds he gained in Season 1 — he refers to “Kingdom money” at one point, which is a reference to Kingdom flight 29. So that’s that! The answer is: money.
The rest is post-script, as the passengers head back home, control wraps things up including letting Clara Berger (Lisa Vicari), who was only supposed to be on for another hour or two, go home as well. The trains begin running again, and everything is back to normal in Berlin.
Sam, meanwhile, gets his phone back from Olivia. She tells him that Marsha is safe, and he gives her a call. “Sam?” says Marsha. “I’m here, yes,” answers Sam. “I’m right here.”
And in a parallel of the opening shot of the season (and the opening and closing shots from Season 1), the camera pulls away, going out of focus. It’s time to say bye, Jack, to this hijack!
Who Dies In The Hijack Season 2 Finale?
John Bailey-Brown is one of the big ones… Though we don’t get explicit confirmation, he was shot in the leg and handcuffed to a subway pole when the train blew up. He’s likely not surviving that one. Sam also says that he’s the “only one left,” which strongly implies Bailey-Brown died.
Lang also dies, as mentioned, shot to death on a snowy bridge by the German police while trying to answer a call from Atterton.
…and that’s it! Everyone else survives to hijack another day!
Will Hijack Return For Season 3 On Apple TV? Has Hijack Been Renewed Or Canceled?
At this time, Hijack hasn’t been renewed for Season 3, nor has it been canceled. More on that in a second, but the short version here is that if there is interest from Apple, and there’s a good idea, it could happen. When I talked to showrunner Jim Field Smith for IGN in advance of the Season 2 premiere, here’s what he told me:
“I think there’s life for Sam Nelson. It’s always interesting seeing Idris’s portrayal of that character, and putting that character through the wringer. So you know, whether he’s in a car, on a bus, on a speedboat… If we do bring him back, I’m sure we’ll find some way to put him through hell again.”
Apple doesn’t usually share viewing stats other than “wow this show was big.” That said, Season 1 was the second Apple TV series to hit Nielsen’s independent charts. It hasn’t hit them this time around, but that doesn’t mean Hijack Season 3 has been hijacked by a lack of viewership. Instead, basically we’ll have to wait and see…. The show was surprise picked up for Season 2 about five months after Season 1 wrapped up, so stay tuned later this year to see if Sam will be heading to a speedboat, next.
Hijack Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Hijack technically premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV, though given time zones in the United States new episodes will hit the service at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on Tuesdays. We’ve listed the Wednesday dates below, just for posterity.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Hijack Season 2 with premiere dates.
- Wednesday, January 14, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 1
- Wednesday, January 21, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 2
- Wednesday, January 28, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 3
- Wednesday, February 4, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 4
- Wednesday, February 11, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 5
- Wednesday, February 18, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 6
- Wednesday, February 25, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 7
- Wednesday, March 4, 2026: Hijack, Season 2, Episode 8 *Season Finale*
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