Nikita -- P9

A young man named Lancaster is serving ice cream from his ice cream truck when a man gives him a yellow envelope containing a gun. He then gets a call on his cell phone and goes into a trance. He takes the gun and tries to shoot Senator Charles Avery.

Meanwhile, Nikita is planning her and Michael's next Black Box mission to Lisbon. Birkhoff tells Nikita he wants her and Michael out of his place. Despite declaring war on Division the previous week, Birkhoff says he wants nothing to do with what their doing.

Michael and Nikita have a major disagreement about the Lisbon mission. Michael wants to put it off. He saw the attempted assassination of Avery on the news and is convinced P9 is behind it.

Michael tells Nikita P9 was a sleeper organization started by Joseph Mars and created by Oversight. They were breeding assassins. Michael lead the Division raid that supposedly killed all the members of P9, including Joseph Mars. But now he's convinced P9 is back. So is Amanda, who wants Alex to talk to Percy about P9.

This time Percy wants hot water and tea delivered to him each morning before telling what he knows. He tells Alex the next attempt on the senator's life will also look like a random act of violence. Alex looks for information on where the senator is appearing in public next.

Nikita doesn't believe P9 is back and wants them to go to Lisbon; Michael tells her to go to Lisbon without him. He goes to look around the burned-out remains of where P9 was housed. Nikita joins him there. While there they run into Owen who tells them Percy got him to saved Mars during the raid Michael lead against P9. Mars created the Guardian Regimen that Owen's hooked on and he needs to find Mars to wean himself off the drugs he has to take.

Our next Manchurian Candidate, Alicia, get delivered a package containing a gun and gets a call on her cell that puts her in a trance. Michael, Nikita, Owen and Alex are at the same party as Alicia is. Alex spots Nikita and takes aim, but when Alicia goes into action, Alex knocks the senator out of the way. Meanwhile, Nikita snatches and grabs Alicia and takes her to Birkhoff, which just thrills him beyond belief.

When Owen gets a chance to have a little one-on-one with Nikita he's a bit miffed that she opened a black box for Michael, when she stopped him from opening one when he wanted to. Owen has a little one-on-one of the nasty variety with Birkhoff when Birk wants Alicia gone NOW. After their talk, Birkhoff backs off.

Alicia identifies Joseph Mars as Dr. Francis who runs a rehab clinic. What he's really doing is programming the addicts that come for help to him into becoming assassins he can trigger with one phone call. Michael wants to enter the rehab clinic posing as an addict, and Nikita says he'll never pull it off, so Nikita goes in instead.

While Nikita is inside the clinic, Owen asks Michael why he and Nikita are still living this life, instead of off in a cottage somewhere enjoying each other. When Nikita gets caught by Mars, Michael and Owen prepare to head inside to save her. Michael notices the expensive hardware Owen is packing and asks just who is funding him. If that didn't send up your radar, it should.

While Michael and Owen are rescuing Nikita, Owen runs what he thinks is the Regimen to tell him how to get off the drugs, only he activates all the addicts at the clinic into kill mode. At the same time, Alicia is reactivated. She knocks out Birkhoff and goes off to complete her mission.

Birkhoff had started to bond with Alicia over computer hacking. She's a fan of his secret hacker identity, Shadow Rider. Birkhoff chases after Alicia and alerts Michael and Nikita what's going down. Owen says he'll clean up at the clinic while Michael and Nikita rush to join Birkhoff in the race to stop Alicia from completing her mission and getting killed in the process.

When Nikita learns Birkhoff isn't heading towards the hospital where the senator is, she realizes they've got the wrong target. It's actually a judge who is planning to freeze the prices on Venezuelan oil. Since the men delivering the guns where Venezuelans, Nikita figures the judge is the right target.

Birkhoff tries to get through to Alicia, but she turns on him and tries to shoot him. Luckily, Nikita arrives and knocks her out. Later, Alicia can't remember anything as she gives an interview that Birkhoff is watching, but the incident with Alicia seems to have convinced Birkhoff to admit to himself he is working with Michael and Nikita and no longer suggest Michael and Nikita find elsewhere to live.

Sean bails Alex out of jail, since everyone thinks she was the one trying to harm the senator, since Nikita whisked Alicia away before anyone could notice her. Sean tells Alex that he couldn't kill his partner and because of that he was horribly tortured. He advises Alex that the next time she has a clear shot at Nikita to take it, because Oversight won't treat Nikita kindly.

Owen arrives and says he found the information about the Regimen he needs to get off it. After he leaves he goes to a meeting with Sergei Semak, the man behind the killing of Alex's father. Owen is working with him to find the black boxes and to kill Percy. He lies that Nikita doesn't have a black box, and warns Sergei that if he kills Nikita, Owen will kill him.

Meanwhile, Birkhoff shows Michael and Nikita he's built a new program that will alert them of anything relating to a Division mission occurring in the media. That way they won't have to rely on Michael happening to see something on the new and connecting all the dots.

It was another great episode. With Owen working for Sergei it seems to be about to put him on a collusion course with Alex. I'm also enjoying Birkhoff having an expanded part. Michael and Nikita have really needed him as back-up and they in turned backed Birkhoff up when he needed it. It's the best development of the new season.