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La Femme Nikita: Sleeping With the Enemy

"What did you expect? Horns and cloven hooves?"

More extreme carrying on with Red Cell, as they exchanged key operatives with Section to ensure a truce while fighting off a deadly third party. Second in command for second in command. Madeline for Red Cell superwoman Satin. Dark hair, dark eyes, cold demeanor... Satin even looked like a younger version of Madeline. Maybe Madeline's years of experience gave her the edge.

Satin's attempts to recruit Michael were the most interesting part of this episode, of course. She said, "It's no secret there is tension between you and Section." How did she know? Is there a terrorist newsletter out there with a gossip column? She was hitting on him, too. ("You're much better looking in person.") I almost expected him to try to seduce her, but that probably would have tipped his hand.

I didn't believe Michael would turn. But I did believe Operations would sacrifice Madeline to bring down Red Cell, and he nearly did. Have things changed? Or was this just more important to him than she was? And how did Madeline really feel about it? I personally would love to see Operations and Madeline at each other's throats, for real, but I just don't believe it will ever happen.

Playing the highly flirtatious Jason must be fun for Matthew Ferguson after years of playing the more subdued Birkoff. Jason is different from his twin: a lot more adult and confident, almost annoyingly so. If he's not careful, it will get him killed.


I like Quinn. She's intelligent and beautiful, and has a very smart mouth. At least she survived to the end of her first episode, unlike poor Corman.

Bits and pieces:

— Section and Red Cell's mutual enemy turned out to be a computer hacker who thought he was playing a war game. I wonder if Harlan the innocent hacker is now in Section for good?

— No one noticed Madeline talking to a water glass. Now that was hard to swallow. (Pun intended.)

— The old photo of Michael had a loop of long hair that made it look as if he had a huge nose. Yes, indeedy. Idiotic details, c'est moi.

— In Section, Nikita wore beige. And Jason wore a pale grey shirt.

Quotes:

Walter: "First day on the job, you saved our bacon. Welcome to the big leagues."
Quinn: "Is your bandanna on too tight?"

Walter: "I was just welcoming you to the neighborhood."
Quinn: "Well, neighbor, just keep it zipped and out of my way and everything will be just peachy."

Starnes: "For some, pain is pleasure."
Madeline: "Good. Then you should enjoy yourself."
The Devos worked on him, but there were no cheek lines this time. Why?


Starnes: "Losing your edge?"
Operations: "Perfecting it."

Quinn: "Why don't you go see Bandanna and ask him to issue you a brain?"

Jason: "Hi." (Actually, he pronounced it "haaa.")
Quinn: "Back up. You're messing with my feng shui."

Satin: "You deceived me."
Michael: "I did what I believed in."

This one was terrific. Three out of four stars? Four?

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

8 comments:

  1. A watchable episode compared to the dreck that is most of Season Four, but that isn’t saying much. At least the plot involves Section combatting an unknown enemy and forming an uneasy alliance with Red Cell, instead of the repetitive internal squabbling that has dominated most of the stories this season. Other than that, though, there is very little to recommend this episode: the plotting is shallow and not particularly original or clever, the story lacks both excitement and suspense, plus the casting is weak, and character development is practically nonexistent. The writers don’t even seem to be trying anymore, as the action sequences are either abbreviated or entirely virtual, and our Section regulars are basically treated like cardboard cutouts to be moved around the sets.

    Spoilers follow...

    The actress cast as Satin is merely young and pretty – she does not have the authority or presence to convey Satin’s supposedly formidable intelligence, nor is she sufficiently alluring to be a realistic temptation for Michael. What is delivered on screen looks like a high school crush, which does nothing to reinforce the idea of Satin as a top Red Cell operative. And how idiotic is she to trust that a man she has just met would betray Section for her? A script with minimal action requires sufficient conflict and suspense to engage the audience; unfortunately, there can be no tension from this battle of wits with Red Cell if the main antagonist is mentally deficient.

    Logic Flaws:
    Operations doesn’t want Mr. Jones to find out about Birkoff’s death, but everybody in Section One including newbie Quinn knows about it. Isn’t the cat already out of the bag on this one?

    Operations’ decision to create an alliance is motivated by intel showing Red Cell operatives getting ready to strike — where? Red Cell doesn’t know Section One’s co-ordinates.

    Why would Operations bother withholding the truth from Madeline? Obviously, the communication channel was secure, since Quinn shared information with Madeline that Red Cell wasn’t supposed to know (that the random had been captured). And Madeline has shown repeatedly that she will risk her own safety to ensure the success of an operation, so there was no need for Operations to try to deceive her.

    Continuity Issues:
    At least Walter gets to show he misses Birkoff. The tag team of both Quinn and Jason are not enough to make up for his absence.

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  2. The part of this episode that I didn't think followed suit at all was that Operations WAS apparently willing to sacrifice Madeline. Although we know by now that the romance between Operations and Madeline was a hoax, there certainly has always been a tremendous respect and caring between them. In a few previous episodes Operations disobeyed orders, changed profiles, and outright had temper tantrums when Madeline was in trouble. I can't see him so willingly sacrificing her for this cause. . even the Red Cell cause. Didn't make sense to me at all.

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  3. Satin is terribly annoying,she makes a fool out of herself. They should just have given us more michael and nikita goodness!

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    Replies
    1. I agree that Satin is annoying. But sometimes, the Michael/Nikita romance scenes come across as heavy-handed and shoe-horned into the episodes. As much as I'm rooting for them as a couple, and as individuals, I don't watch the series for the romance. With me, a little bit goes a looong way.

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  4. For me Operations was out of character, we spend 3 season watching him break policy, protocol, rules .... with the single purpose of protecting Madeline, and now we have to believe that he was going to let her die just like that?

    The romance thing was a hoax, but Operations and Madeline were always protective and very fond of each other.


    SPOILER ALERT!


    After Madeline dies at the end of the season, he never recovered from her loss and mourned her through the whole season. He in some ways was never himself again and even said that he could have never killed her just like Nikita couldn't kill Michael.

    Billie! I found your reviews a couple of years ago and I've been follow your blog ever since. You and your friends review many shows I love, even when this one is hands down, my favorite show of all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Back to LFN roots this week. Even the technopop soundtrack!

    Billie your avatar kinda looks like Satin.

    I agree with the character equivalents analysis from the comments above.

    Poor Walter was trying to have a camaraderie moment and Kate was all ''Im an independent women dont move my cheese'' in his face.
    I get it though. Big shoes to fill and in a hostile environment so shes all barky.

    I just prefer Coreys friendliness. Or various other com-tech characters we ve seen around in the past.

    There was an overabundance of 'tough bitch' female characters in the early 00s and shes bringing nothing new to the table, so far. Also that fake British accent...ugh

    Really enjoyed the politics in this one. More spycraft less Washington style backstabbing :)



    PS:

    Btw if you want to check where ''Satin'' has been as shes grown older and better at acting; I propose you check out the 12 Monkeys tv series. She was brilliant as the Brad Pit equivalent from the film!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous, I never would have thought I'd resemble anyone famous, much less "Satin." :) My avatar was created from an old photo of me by a friend of mine named Dimitri.

    ReplyDelete

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