I think that there are two latches on your hood, one on each side.

The plastic pull in the middle is a safety hook that is supposed to hold your hood down if the latches fail or you pull the release while driving. Pushing the hood down slightly may make this hook easier to pull.

Do both sides of the hood rise when you pull the inside release? one side should rise as each click is heard. I had to add a spacer to the cross cable on one of our cars. I read that there is a cable adjustment on the cabin end of the release cable.

There is a hood latch section in Volvospeed's repair section.
--
96 855R, 95 855,854, 90 744 Ti - 340,000 miles driven