Hijack 2.2: What Is Sam Nelson Really Up To?

Hijack 2.2 on Apple TV+ intensified and deepened a mystery which, at least thus far, is becoming central to this second season:  What is Idris Elba's Sam Nelson really up to?

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

In the previous episode -- 2.1 -- we learn at the end of the hour that Sam has hijacked a train in Berlin, in his quest to punish the person or people ultimately responsible for hijacking the plane in the first season, presumably because they have done something horrendous to Sam since he got back on the ground after stopping the hijacked plane from crashing into a populated area in London and killing lots of people.

The hijacking of the train is confirmed in episode 2.2, which ends with Sam about to do something much worse than the train being hijacked: he's apparently ok with, though not happy about, someone being killed due to his hijacking.  He makes it clear that he doesn't want this to happen, but he's willing to accept it, if that's what it takes for Sam to continue with his new mission.

I have trouble completely believing this.  Maybe it's because I can't quite see Idris Elba playing a character who can accept that his actions were causing the death of an innocent person.  I guess, if we follow the utilitarian principle of the greatest good for the greatest number, that allowing one person to die is the ethical choice if that was the only way of stopping the death of many people, but if that's the case in this narrative, it would be helpful to see some indication that this is what Sam was trying to prevent.

At this point, we're still not clear about Sam's motive.  If it's personal retribution, that would not be a case of the greatest good for the greatest number of people.  Perhaps Sam's motive is both personal and utilitarian.  Or perhaps Sam knows for whatever reason that the individual will not be killed. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

See also Hijack 1: Don't Miss It! ... Hijack 2.1: A Tale of Two Vehicles

About Bob Dylan's Science Fiction Novel

@bobdylan

Bob Dylan on Instagram

Dylan posted the above on Instagram yesterday (my son Simon Vozick-Levinson alerted me to it this morning). On Instagram and Reddit, and probably in other places, people are speculating that if Dylan did write it, he used AI to write it. I’m no expert on AI, but I’ve been listening to Dylan’s lyrics since the 1960s, and the excerpt he posted certainly seems consonant with the style and content of his lyrics. 

 Lyrics often repeat ideas and feelings — indeed, that’s what choruses explicitly do. And the ideas and emotion presented in this excerpt feel like a lyric — a song without music, lamenting, protesting, objecting to the danger, the destruction of our democracy that we see happening all around us, every day. I’m glad to see a man who actually won the Nobel Peace prize come out and assess this, decry this, in his own inimitable way. 

His novel/lyric aim in particular at universities who acquiesce, crumble under the pressure of the Trump administration and his allies. I’m looking at you, Columbia University. 

And, by the way, Dylan’s no stranger to science fiction. His Frankenstein-like song, "My Own Version of You" in his Rough and Rowdy Ways LP in 2020, is a funny, great little piece of science fiction, in one of his best albums. We the people who believe in freedom and democracy need all the help we can get in these desperate days, and it’s welcome indeed to have Dylan stepping up and in any way he can.

See also Dylan's Murder Most Foul: From Then To Now

Hijack 2.1: A Tale of Two Vehicles

So, I reviewed the first season of Hijack in August 2023 after I saw the final episode.  It was a wonderful series.  Idris Elba in the lead role has been one of my all-time favorite actors since he played Stringer Bell in The Wire in the first decade of this century, and he was better than ever in Hijack, with standout acting from Eve Myles and other well-known actors.

The first episode of the second season, just up on Apple TV, has less action than the first episode of the first season, and almost no one other than Elba that I know in the cast.  It takes place -- or starts taking place -- in Germany, and features a train rather than a plane.  As my wife pointed out, that follows the pattern of Departure, with a first season featuring a plane crash and a second season a train derailment.  Come to think of it, Archie Panjabi starred in Departure, and also put in an appearance in the first season of Hijack.

There were two notable aspects of the first episode of the second season of Hijack [spoilers ahead]:

• Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) is on the trail of whoever it was who was ultimately responsible for the hijacked plane and most or all of the other crime in the first season.   Good -- that person or person eminently deserves to be brought to justice.
• The big reveal at the end of the first episode is that Sam is hijacking a train in Berlin in his drive to bring the ultimate instigator of the plane hijack to justice.  I'd say that's a pretty dramatic and cool twist, that I don't recall seeing before.

Idris is equally convincing in high-powered action and more low-key emotional turmoil situations, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out on this train and beyond.

See also Hijack: Don't Miss It!

Bugonia: Not Good Science Fiction, Because It Isn't Really Science Fiction, But--

I just watched Bugonia (a movie) on Peacock.  It's billed as two conspiracy theorists kidnap a CEO because they believe she comes from the Andromeda galaxy, and now I'll warn you about spoilers...

For most of the movie, it surely seems as if the kidnap victim is as human as you and me, and the kidnappers, also human, are out of their minds (actually, one of them, brilliantly played by Jesse Plemons, much more than his sidekick).  This part of the movie is lifted by Plemons' acting, but has little else to commend it.  I don't especially enjoy narratives about psycho conspiracy theorists, and never less so than nowadays, when we have them running our government.

The big twist in the movie, which comes near the end, but I guessed as soon as I read the description, was that the CEO was indeed someone from distant outer space.   And this might have made, could have made, a good story, except that the plot was like a grade B movie made a century ago.   Who knows, it might have been a great silent movie, and I certainly wouldn't have objected to less screaming throughout.

As it is, we're treated to lots of blood and gore, and the ending, in which the interstellar overlords decide to kill the entire human race, was so ridiculous, I can't say it even qualifies in this century as science fiction.  Its morality was high, or attempted to be, and its science close to nil.

But I guess we're in increasing need of morality plays, as we struggle with this increasingly immoral government that we find in our nation these days.  A movie that jokingly or otherwise offers the thesis that conspiracy theorists are sometimes right is certainly not the answer.

Best Cover of One of the Best Love Songs

Well, I thought a good way to conclude the first week of the New Year, 2026, is to share a cover I found on YouTube, late last year.  It's the Missioned Souls' recording of one of the best love songs ever written (and performed), "Take A Chance on Me" by ABBA.

Lots of things to love in this video -- the vocal and harmonies -- which rival ABBA's, the expressions on the faces of the singers, the way the 10-year old drummer pounds the drums ... but listen and see for yourself.

New York Times Article about Neanderthals

Great New York Times article about Neanderthals, which confirms a lot of what about them in my 1999 debut novel The Silk Code.

 

The Copenhagen Test: Don't Try to Pass It, Watch It

Binged The Copenhagen Test -- eight episodes -- on Peacock the past the two nights.  It's billed as a spy thriller, which it certainly is.  But in as much as Alexander Hale (powerfully played by Simu Liu, pretty much first time I've seen him, ok I saw him in Barbie) is a spy who discovers he's been hacked -- everything he sees and hears is streamed by his brain to whomever has the receiver -- I'd say The Copenhagen Test easily qualifies as cyberpunk, a well-known branch of science fiction.  I mean, I guess this kind of neural hack is related to Elon Musk's Neuralink, but that's a very first step, and the hack in The Copenhagen Test is already serious big business for the Orphanage, the US spy agency that monitors the CIA, the FBI, etc.

Now, I'm not going to tell you anything about the plot, because one of the many strengths of The Copenhagen Test are the twists and turns which multiply faster than Frank the Bunny in Donnie Darko.  Indeed, just when you think you've been told the whole story, you're dealt another curve ball, and the only way to really know the story is over is when the eighth episode is completed, and even then, well ,,,

Along the same lines, the morphing of heroes into villains and vice versa is the most I've seen or read in any story.   But it all makes pretty much sense in the end, and my only regret is that The Copenhagen Test didn't have the Beach Boys' "Heroes and Villains" as its theme song.

About the acting:  As I said, Simu Liu was superb.  So was Brian d'Arcy James as Peter Moira, someone pretty high up in the Orphanage, whom my wife immediately recognized from The Family McMullen, which we saw last week.  Sinclair Daniel and Melissa Barrera were both indelible in their parts, and you can't go wrong with Saul Rubinek, especially when there's so much action in his character's restaurant.

And trust me, if you're a fan of spy narratives and cyberpunk, even if you're not, you can't go wrong with The Copenhagen Test.

 

Run Away: Run Towards

I'm a big fan of Harlan Coben's adaptations on the screen -- I've reviewed 10 of his series here since 2017 - and am happy to lead off the New Year (once again) with a review of his latest, Run Away, an 8-part series that went up on Netflix on New Year's Day.  I'd say this eleventh Coben series I'm reviewing is, once again, one of his best, because:

• Lead actor James Nesbitt puts in a standout performance.  I've been enjoying his work since Bloodlands, tied in my opinion with the superb Blue Lights (in which Nesbitt doesn't appear) as a tour de force story taking place in Northern Ireland.   Nesbitt expertly delivers the wide range of human emotion required in Run Away, and is especially effective with his blend of heartbreak and fury.
• Coben's specialty is packing in all sorts of major clues at the beginning, like people being killed for apparently no reason, then coming up with a plausible explanation in the final episode.
• Also lighting up Coben's narratives are at first seemingly incidental characters, whom you find yourself really caring about as you're drawn into their personalities and stories. Elena Ravenscroft (played by Ruth Jones), a private detective (formerly police), is such a memorable character.
• Speaking of police, it was great to see  Alfred Enoch (Raych in Foundation! and Dean Thomas in four Harry Potter movies) as the indefatigable DI Isaac Fagbenle.  His partner, redhead Ruby Todd (played by Amy Gledhill) was very good, too.

Now, as you may have noticed, I'm talking more about characters than story here, because I don't want to give anything away.  But, trust me,  you'll have butterflies in your stomach and tears in your eyes (of joy and sadness) when you see Run Away.