Flying West
Belgium’s first entry for streaming giants Netflix, Into the Night, starts its run-time with a strong and tense first episode. It doesn’t waste any time getting into the heart of the action after a quick introduction to the characters. It manages to keep the audience hooked with enough suspense and intrigue to make this an interesting series to check out. Episode 1 of Into The Night starts as a woman named Sylvie tries to get a flight to Moscow. The check-in woman tells her she’s too late and asks if she is still flying with Mr Mertens. Sylvie then takes out an urn from her bag, revealing that Mr Mertens passed away. The woman manages to get her on a flight and gives her a first class seat. At the same time, a man named Terenzio tries to get any flight due west and gets on one to New York. While in an airport cafe, Terenzio sees on the news people fainting all over the world while Ines, an internet influencer, panics when her friend from New York chokes while talking to her on the phone. As the air hostesses are getting the Moscow plane ready, Terenzio grabs a machine gun from one of the soldiers and storms the plane. He rushes in the cockpit and orders the pilot Mathieu to take off, claiming the sun will kill them all. The pilot tries to stop him but causes Terenzio to accidentally shoot him in the hand. One of the pilots is missing too, so Terenzio asks the passengers if anyone is a pilot. Sylvie comes forward and after threatening her, they take off successfully. Up in the air, Terenzio tries to convince Mathieu and Sylvie that the sunlight is killing people and that he works for NATO. Mathieu reveals that when he shot him, the bullet broke the radio. Terenzio asks how far he could fly if he went west while Sylvie brings a home care worker named Laura from the passengers to tend to his hand. He then makes an announcement to the rest of the passengers that everything is under control. While paranoia settles in within the rest of the passengers, Sylvie and Mathieu plan to land the plane in Iceland. Back in the plane, one of the passengers starts to get violently ill and another one named Ayaz manages to take control of the gun and forces Terenzio to lock himself in the bathroom. He protests though, wanting to save everyone but Ayaz points the gun at Mathieu and demands to know the truth about the sun. He explains that he had to go with what Terenzio was saying as he is unhinged and capable of anything. After taking the gun back, Mathieu returns to the cockpit and starts to descend as they approach Iceland. As they circle the runway, they see multiple planes on fire on the ground which stops them from being able to land. Mathieu decides to let Terenzio out to ask him exactly what is going on. The latter asks for his gun back and reiterates that they need to fly away from the sun. Unfortunately, they only have around 600 miles left and decide to land in Scotland. Ayaz, Laura and Osman look into the sick passenger who mumbles that he has swallowed diamonds while the plane performs an emergency landing on the runway in Scotland. The passengers rush outside one by one and try checking their phones for news. An army vehicle arrives with three soldiers who tell them they don’t have time to explain as they need to go now, which is where the episode ends. Into the Night has quite the interesting premise, combining the claustrophobia of being stuck on a plane with a terrible event occurring outside. It’s a clever plot and one that work quite well at instilling an equal amount of dread and suspense. The characters are diverse and likable enough too which helps to play off that fear of the unknown, which is the strongest point of this drama so far. Whether it continues as strongly as the first episode remains to be seen but in the meantime, with a fast pace and plenty of mystery still to uncover Into the Night is an easy, bingeable series to digest.
