Nikita -- What Do You Do With A Problem Like Division?
If you're Ryan, you blow it up
Original Airing: April 26, 2013
I guess I’m incensed that shows like Beauty And The Beast and Heart Of Dixie get renewed for next season, when Nikita which is a far better show than either hasn’t heard if they’ll be renewed. There’s talk Nikita may be renewed for a shortened final season, while those two got full season renewals. Nikita really is on the wrong network. But then look at the way Last Resort was retreated. It seems well written shows are a vanishing breed and treated like crap, these days. No wonder network TV is the pits these days.
Ryan wakes up and is shocked as he views the destruction of Division and worried how they can possibly keep the president from finding out that Division has gone critical mass. Once she finds out she’ll sends in the SEALS to kill the rest of them. But they have a little bit of time since she calls Ryan to tell him Danforth’s autopsy showed no foul play. However, Michael tells Ryan that Amanda killed him.
The big debate between the six remaining alpha members of Division is what to do with Division. Ryan wants to blow the place up and convince the president everyone is dead. Birkhoff and Sonya are all for it. While Michael is opposed to it, saying he and Nikita will be hunted by every law enforcement agency on the planet if the black box gets sold and all its contents made public. Nikita doesn’t get a chance to weigh-in on the debate since she’s trying to find Alex and bring her in. So Michael is out-voted 3-1.
Alex is on the streets hanging around drug pushers. At first, it appears she’s going to go back to drugs, but she’s actually taking out drug houses one-by-one. She goes to the big drug headquarters and releases all the women there, then goes back to take out the drug thugs. That’s where Nikita tracks her down and calls Michael for back-up.
After Michael leaves Division HQ, Ryan gives the agents that remained new identities and money to start over. Then he tells Birkhoff after they blow Division up, he’s going to turn himself in and try to sell to the president that everyone in Division is dead.
Nikita finally comes face-to-face with Alex and tells her that Larissa never existed. Alex has flashbacks of Amanda telling her she has to save Larissa and finally believes Nikita. Then Nikita says she’ll help Alex take out the drug thugs, so Alex can get some kind of redemption for herself after her failure at saving everyone in Division.
It turns out that the girls Alex released return and help her and Nikita take down the drug thugs. This turns out to be a very inspiring moment for Nikita. It makes her see if you fight back you can win.
All through her hunt for Alex, Nikita was flashbacking on her own past when her cover boyfriend, Daniel, was killed. Michael tried to talk some sense into her when she wanted to go out on a suicide mission and tried to make her see he knows exactly how she feels, but all he got for his troubles is Nikita smashing him in the face. It was actually Amanda who got through to her. Nikita uses how Amanda helped her to help Alex. She tells Alex she needs to stop running away from her past and face up to it.
On a really shallow note, can I say how much better Amanda looks with long hair? That Pulp Fiction hairstyle she’s been sporting all season really does nothing for her. But I guess it’s supposed to make her look harder, since the longer look actually makes her look softer.
Needless to say when Alex comes into Ops, Ryan is not thrilled to see her. Birkhoff asks if she told Chris to kill him and Alex says she sent Owen to keep him safe. When Nikita hears about the blow-up Division plan she’s also against it. She tells Ryan how those women helped to take down the drug thugs. That they could have all run away, but they stayed and fought back. She thinks the six of them can do the same thing. That they can take down Amanda.
The P word was mentioned again, this episode. Percy. Every time I hear his name I get a little rush of hope maybe he’s coming back. I still think the people that gave Michael his new hand might have been the group Percy was trying to get a membership into, last season. The question is why would Nikita and Michael cooperate with Percy and work with him, again? Is it possible they did more to Michael than give him a new hand? Nikita left them alone with Michael. Could they have installed a kill chip in Michael?
I guess the big question looming at the end of the season is if Owen can be saved. Nikita managed to save Alex, but Alex may be an essentially good person deep down. The big question is who is the real Owen? Sam or Owen. If Amanda and Sam are to be believed, it was Amanda who made Owen and Sam is who Owen is under the person Amanda created.
If this is true, it actually shows that Amanda’s mind-melding chair can be used for good. I could take an inherently evil person like Sam and tone down some of their more aggressive tendencies and become a decent human being. It shows that a device that has been used primarily for evil could also be used for good. I guess anything can be used for good or evil, it just depends on the person using it.
It also remains to be seen if Amanda made a fatal mistake by showing Nikita who she is and how she was made. For one thing, something has always seemed to hold Nikita back from killing Amanda, but after what she experienced as Teen Amanda, that may no longer be the case. Nikita is now aware that Amanda is so psychologically damaged there’s nothing that can be done to save her and if she allows her to live she’ll continue to hurt more and more people. In short, she’s like a rabid dog that needs to be put down to insure the safety of others.
