"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.
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.
ReplyDeleteSpoilers 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.
Michael: "I came to say goodbye."
ReplyDeleteCue music, go making love.
Just sayin'.
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!
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteIt 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
Okay the premise was a bit of a stretch, but I thought this was a fun episode, it was interesting to see Nikita adjusting to a life outside Section. Maybe it would have been nice to address the Michael question a little bit more, but it made sense to me that he wouldn’t want to stand in her way and make it about the two of them, not when George seemed to be offering her a real chance at a safe life outside of Section One. And they did share a lovely goodbye scene. Perhaps they should have had Nikita be more torn though, especially as she was convinced to stay in Section all the way back in season 1’s Escape simply by Michael putting the moves on her…
ReplyDeleteAnd introducing Operations as Nikita’s possible father was a bit eye roll worthy at first, but I thought it was pretty clear by the final scene that that was obviously all just a desperate bluff from Madeline to stop Nikita from shooting him. Operations certainly didn’t play it as if Madeline was spilling any real info, but more that he was curious to see where she was going with this tale she was spinning.
Oh and just to add that I suppose the difference with Escape was that Nikita was more headed into the unknown back in season 1, that’s a pretty different scenario from being part of a pilot programme where Section actually set up a place to live and a job for her, as well as obviously a guarantee that she won’t need to be on the run for the rest of her life if it’s been approved by the higher ups. There were some comments wondering why she’s just working as a cashier, but the impression I got was that working in the book store was intended to be seen as a more desirable and middle class lifestyle for her compared to what it was like before when she was working at some roadside diner and getting leered at and groped.
DeletePeople are wondering why she wouldn’t put her martial arts skills to use and work as a bodyguard or something instead, but I imagine it was thought that that wouldn’t provide enough of a contrast to Section if she was shown to be kicking and punching people on the outside and still surrounded by violence, it was meant to be a whole new life for her. And she does have computer skills, but I’m not sure that that’s really her thing either, she was very bored and frustrated last season when Michael took her off field work and she was stuck behind computer screens all day