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La Femme Nikita: No One Lives Forever

"I don't want to be free if I can't be with you."

Office politics taken to an absurd level. Total paranoia with a twist.

I never believed for a moment that Nikita had actually been released from Section. Just like Nikita, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and of course, it did. Would Nikita kill Operations in cold blood for her freedom? Perhaps. There's no love lost between them, and it's much more likely than it ever was before. What I found interesting were the fabricated reasons she gave everyone for coming back. Was she truly relieved that she had to come back in? Was she sincere about needing to see Michael? Did she really feel like a lifer who was in prison so long that she couldn't function in the real world any more?

"George" said that Operations killed Nikita's father. Madeline said that Operations was Nikita's father. (Shades of Darth Vader. "Nikita, I am your father.") I never for a moment believed that Operations was Nikita's father, though; that was just a smart play of Madeline's, and let's face it, Operations was ready to have Nikita cancelled way too many times in the past. But there may be a grain of truth in there somewhere, because it does sort of explain why she was set up and recruited, and why she has always had such ready access to Operations and Madeline. Was Nikita's father really a Section operative that Operations found to be a threat? Did Operations really kill Nikita's father?


This was a very good, twisty episode, and I liked it. I didn't know what was happening throughout, and I was surprised by the ending. But there wasn't enough Michael/Nikita goodness for me. I didn't want Nikita to move on and date a nice guy named Andy. I wanted Michael to show up in Nikita's closet, or something. At least we had that lovely scene early on where Michael came to Nikita's apartment to say goodbye. At least she appears to be recovering from her robot girl issues.

Bits and pieces:

— Who was the fake George's ally in Section? Nikita believed it was Michael. Was she right?

— Nikita left her apartment forever for the second time this season. Her new, temporary apartment was even more futuristic than her old one.

— This thing about Nikita's lack of world skills kinda frosts me. Doesn't she have computer skills? What about martial arts? She could teach a self-defense class for women, couldn't she? Yeah, I know, she can't exactly put her work at Section on her resume.

— I loved the way Nikita gently touched Michael's image on the monitor when he came to her door.

— Walter intimated that all Michael and Nikita have together is sex. Where has he been?

— Madeline's suit with the fuzzy collar was back. And she has a brand new do: a French twist. A twist. Appropriate on La Femme Nikita.

— Cancelled scenes: Both are about Nikita's new beau, and set in the bookshop. (1) Andy asks shopgirl Nikita for a date. (2) Nikita's boss compliments her on her work ethic and leaves. Nikita hacks into the DMV to see if Andy is who he says he is, then calls him and says she'll go out with him.

Quotes:

Nikita: "As soon as things get good, that's when it's time to duck."

Madeline: "Are you prepared to fight?"
Operations: "To the death."

Michael: "They won't make it easy for us."
Nikita: "What else is new?"

Very good. Three out of four stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

4 comments:

  1. Yet another episode that ignores the fight against terrorism so that we can waste more time on Section’s internal power struggles. In short: boring, slow, and pointless.

    Spoilers follow...

    After the scene where Michael says good-bye to Nikita (lovely song, by the way), I found my attention wandering constantly. The premise already has an inherent flaw, in that it completely lacks suspense (of course Nikita isn’t free from Section, and of course she won’t assassinate Operations because then there would be no villain). Unfortunately, the script is unable to overcome this liability, as it also lacks excitement and interest: the story is thin, there is no action to speak of, and the pacing is glacial. The writer disguises the lack of a clever story by covering up the plot holes with “mysterious” deceptions, so the audience learns nothing by the end except that the entire episode was just another pointless stalemate.

    Continuity Issues:
    Walter and Birkoff would never be so naive as to believe that Section would really start letting operatives go.

    Logic Flaws:
    Why wouldn’t Nikita have been searched upon her return to Section? I guess the writer ignored standard operating procedure because Nikita needed to keep the communication device that George gave her. How convenient.

    Every other plot hole is left as an “open question” so that the writer doesn’t have to come up with anything clever. Also very convenient.

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  2. Michael: "I came to say goodbye."

    Cue music, go making love.

    Just sayin'.

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  3. Awesome goodbye scene with a beautiful song! When Nikita asked where Michael was after she learned she was leaving and was told Senegal, I thought, "Where's that little communication device from 'Mercy' and Hard Landing'. Contact him!

    I loved Nikita's other apartment. I hate her new apartment which looks like a car showroom. And the thermostat doesn't work on a swank place like that?

    Plus, after guarding that head of state in Season One, she could've been set up as a bodyguard of a CEO or something, make a ton of money and use her skills. That would've made more sense than working as a cashier.




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  4. Plot was weak. No connectivity with the previous episodes that were partially saturated with either Michael or Nikita desire to be with each other. Michael just saying goodbye...did not cut it for me. No flashbacks of either of them thinking about each other for six weeks (especially since this was a "sudden" pilot project). No Michael looking secretly on the outside from afar.

    It appears to me that the writers wanted to re-introduce Nikita's unvoiced question of why she was framed and came to section...this however, was a poor attempt of a foundation for the episodes ahead. Got me thinking about what the conversations were in the writer's room "this is the last season and we've got to re-introduce this topic somehow, but don't worry to waste too much of sleep on it we have 14 more episodes in which we can make up for."

    I love a storyline with a twist/mystery...but mysteries should be solved or meaning clearly implied with good reasoning.

    This was indeed a cold chapter,
    one out of four stars for me





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