Nikita 1x22 Review
May. 28th, 2011 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaPandora
I loved this episode. It was my favourite episode of Nikita yet - it was just incredible and I honestly wasn't expecting that.
* I’ve been worried for awhile with how fast this show has been moving – how soon Michael learned the truth and switched teams, Alex being made this season – it made me really uncertain about where the show was going. For them to maintain the formula of Nikita/Alex vs Division they were going through reveals and changes way too fast. Yet I wasn’t expecting them to throw the formula out the window like they did here and change everything up so much. That’s awesome. I don’t mind the formula of season one but the fact that season two is going to be completely different instead of more of the same leaves me so excited about next season.
* I love the idea of Nikita and Michael spending season two moving around the world and using the black box to correct the wrongs caused by Percy. They're like superheroes now.
Oversight is now targeting Nikita. Does that mean we really will have Nikita vs Alex? I'm actually not worried about the idea in itself. It could be very interesting and I would love the show to explore Alex's dark side a bit. The main negative here is that this might mean less one-on-one Nikita/Alex interactions and that would suck because I love them best.
* “Good luck and good bye.” – Alex. So it’s not Alex and Nikita working together (I was really hoping for that) but I loved Alex saving Nikita by pretending to betray her. Her goodbye was genuinely moving. She thought it was really goodbye. She was basically sacrificing herself to save Nikita, to do the right thing and stop Percy... oh, Alex.
"If I was going out I was going out my way." - Alex. I loved her defiance with Amanda. It's a close race but I think at this point Alex really is my favourite character on this show. She was amazing this episode. Also she has really great hair.
* I do think that when she shot Nikita the second and third time there was a bit of... satisfaction in shooting the person who had killed her father? But only a moment of it before it was once again Nikita.
* I love the way Alex looks back at Nikita as they drag her out of the warehouse.
* "You didn't trust me enough to handle it. So now I can't trust you." At first I wasn't happy with this. I love their relationship so much and I just wanted them together and to love each other and to be partners forever. I wanted them in the end to show that they did trust each other completely. But that's not actually very realistic and I really just needed to think long term instead of right now. What Alex said had nothing to do with love. The love they feel for each other is still there. It clearly hurt Alex to have to say that. It's what makes things so difficult for both of them.
A large part of this season, however, has been about Alex struggling to become Nikita's equal and partner while Nikita has never moved past the protectiveness and responsibility she feels towards Alex. That’s certainly understandable but for their relationship to evolve Nikita has to see Alex as more than the girl she saved. I think time apart is exactly what they need for Alex to grow and make her own decisions without a Nikita safety net and for Nikita to learn to let go and see Alex as an adult partner she is not responsible for.
Alex was actually completely right. For them to be equals they need to be honest with each other and that is something Nikita has consistently failed at. I love that Nikita keeping the truth about the kill chip – something that’s bothered me since – was shown to be a part of a larger pattern and an aspect of her relationship with Alex. It just tied together nicely.
* Just as Percy suddenly became far more interesting to me in the previous episode Amanda has finally become interest as well. She confused me in this episode and I have no idea what is going on with her... and I find it absolutely fascinating. I want to know more. For the first time on this show I feel like Amanda might live up to her spiritual predecessor Madeline as far as being a dynamic and interesting character goes and that makes me so excited. (And how appropriate for it to be in the episode guest staring Alberta Watson.) I’ve been rather sad that I haven’t connected with Amanda much at all this season – see Madeline but also I love Melinda Clarke and on paper she should be amazing and yet in fact I was kind of let down by her. She didn’t have the depth I was expecting, her relationship with Percy was rather eh and I unfortunately didn’t get what I was wanting from her potential relationships with Nikita and Michael (... I don’t know what I wanted except more than we got.) The best part of Amanda's scenes were her interactions with Alex so I guess it’s appropriate that this episode that finally makes her interesting to me is in large part about her relationship with Alex.
- I loved the reveal that Amanda works directly for Oversight. Okay, we don’t actually know much about what’s going on yet but I’m assuming that Oversight stuck her in Division as their mole against Percy. Which is awesome. It could only be more awesome if she was on/part of Oversight itself instead of just working for them. Regardless of where they go with it in details I love this twist.
- The biggest surprise for me wasn’t that Amanda was working around Percy but rather the way she dealt with Alex and her betrayal. She revealed a softness in her that was completely unexpected.
- That Amanda forced Alex to realize/acknowledge that a) she was a strong person who has saved herself, and b) that she wants to live before she saved her and set her free really stuck out to me. She could have just disabled the kill chip and then freed Alex but first she worked to make Alex mentally strong. I find that very intriguing. It was entirely for Alex's benefit and something I'd have expected out of Nikita not Amanda (regardless of her affiliations). (Also when I thought Alex was dead her doing that made me think she was awesomely evil - getting Alex to realise she wants to live and then killing her.)
- I had wondered if Amanda was somehow connected to the Udinov's when she saved Alex and that was why she did it but there wasn't any hint of that in this episode.
- “I’m not going to try to hold on to you like I tried to hold on to Nikita.” !!! What? There is so much unsaid Amanda/Nikita baggage and past and issues in that one sentence that I never really grasped in all their, far too few, scenes together and now I desperately want to know more. Amanda cared for Nikita? She tried to hold on to her? Tell me more!
* “You know I am really sick of people telling me you’re dead.” Aw, Michael. I loved the scene where Birkoff told him Nikita was dead. I have to admit I was wrong about Shane West. I spent too much time in the beginning comparing him to Roy Dupuis which really wasn't fair (and I never did that with Nikita). Now I've really grown to love Shane West's Michael.
- I loved the final Nikita/Michael scene. I am still surprised that TPTB got Nikita and Michael together so quickly instead of dragging them through will-they/won’t-they UST for three or four seasons. Instead their pre-series UST has become RST and they end the first season as a happy and together couple. ... what? That never happens! What kind of craziness is this? ... ‘cause I like it! This is pretty much unprecedented, or at least that's how it feels at the moment, and I have no idea where they are going to go with them now. Would they seriously keep them together for the entire series? I... can’t even fathom it. But I love that idea. More likely I can see the two of them breaking up and then getting back together (the twin to the whole will-they/won’t-they trope) but how refreshing would it be if they didn’t do that?
- This show kept not giving me kisses when I really wanted them! First, I really wanted Alex to kiss Nikita when she drugged her and said goodbye. I mean she was sure that she was going to be killed and she’d never see Nikita again and despite everything Nikita is the most important person in her life. I wanted a goodbye kiss to the forehead to go with the tears. Second, when Nikita jumped into Michael’s car at the end and they hugged each other in relief I was left going ‘wait, no’ because he thought she was dead and we don’t even get a passionate kiss of relief between them? I call foul.
- Birkoff siding with Michael was great though a lot less surprising than Amanda’s switch in allegiance. I was surprised that Michael didn't bring up the deaths of his wife and daughter as the reason for his deception. So is Birkoff going to be Michael and Nikita's new mole or was this a one time situation?
- I love when Birkoff calls Nikita and Michael 'Niki' and 'Mikey'. Did Nikita really call Michael 'babe'? That just amuses me for some reason.
I am really glad this show was renewed. I can't wait till next season.
I loved this episode. It was my favourite episode of Nikita yet - it was just incredible and I honestly wasn't expecting that.
* I’ve been worried for awhile with how fast this show has been moving – how soon Michael learned the truth and switched teams, Alex being made this season – it made me really uncertain about where the show was going. For them to maintain the formula of Nikita/Alex vs Division they were going through reveals and changes way too fast. Yet I wasn’t expecting them to throw the formula out the window like they did here and change everything up so much. That’s awesome. I don’t mind the formula of season one but the fact that season two is going to be completely different instead of more of the same leaves me so excited about next season.
* I love the idea of Nikita and Michael spending season two moving around the world and using the black box to correct the wrongs caused by Percy. They're like superheroes now.
Oversight is now targeting Nikita. Does that mean we really will have Nikita vs Alex? I'm actually not worried about the idea in itself. It could be very interesting and I would love the show to explore Alex's dark side a bit. The main negative here is that this might mean less one-on-one Nikita/Alex interactions and that would suck because I love them best.
* “Good luck and good bye.” – Alex. So it’s not Alex and Nikita working together (I was really hoping for that) but I loved Alex saving Nikita by pretending to betray her. Her goodbye was genuinely moving. She thought it was really goodbye. She was basically sacrificing herself to save Nikita, to do the right thing and stop Percy... oh, Alex.
"If I was going out I was going out my way." - Alex. I loved her defiance with Amanda. It's a close race but I think at this point Alex really is my favourite character on this show. She was amazing this episode. Also she has really great hair.
* I do think that when she shot Nikita the second and third time there was a bit of... satisfaction in shooting the person who had killed her father? But only a moment of it before it was once again Nikita.
* I love the way Alex looks back at Nikita as they drag her out of the warehouse.
* "You didn't trust me enough to handle it. So now I can't trust you." At first I wasn't happy with this. I love their relationship so much and I just wanted them together and to love each other and to be partners forever. I wanted them in the end to show that they did trust each other completely. But that's not actually very realistic and I really just needed to think long term instead of right now. What Alex said had nothing to do with love. The love they feel for each other is still there. It clearly hurt Alex to have to say that. It's what makes things so difficult for both of them.
A large part of this season, however, has been about Alex struggling to become Nikita's equal and partner while Nikita has never moved past the protectiveness and responsibility she feels towards Alex. That’s certainly understandable but for their relationship to evolve Nikita has to see Alex as more than the girl she saved. I think time apart is exactly what they need for Alex to grow and make her own decisions without a Nikita safety net and for Nikita to learn to let go and see Alex as an adult partner she is not responsible for.
Alex was actually completely right. For them to be equals they need to be honest with each other and that is something Nikita has consistently failed at. I love that Nikita keeping the truth about the kill chip – something that’s bothered me since – was shown to be a part of a larger pattern and an aspect of her relationship with Alex. It just tied together nicely.
* Just as Percy suddenly became far more interesting to me in the previous episode Amanda has finally become interest as well. She confused me in this episode and I have no idea what is going on with her... and I find it absolutely fascinating. I want to know more. For the first time on this show I feel like Amanda might live up to her spiritual predecessor Madeline as far as being a dynamic and interesting character goes and that makes me so excited. (And how appropriate for it to be in the episode guest staring Alberta Watson.) I’ve been rather sad that I haven’t connected with Amanda much at all this season – see Madeline but also I love Melinda Clarke and on paper she should be amazing and yet in fact I was kind of let down by her. She didn’t have the depth I was expecting, her relationship with Percy was rather eh and I unfortunately didn’t get what I was wanting from her potential relationships with Nikita and Michael (... I don’t know what I wanted except more than we got.) The best part of Amanda's scenes were her interactions with Alex so I guess it’s appropriate that this episode that finally makes her interesting to me is in large part about her relationship with Alex.
- I loved the reveal that Amanda works directly for Oversight. Okay, we don’t actually know much about what’s going on yet but I’m assuming that Oversight stuck her in Division as their mole against Percy. Which is awesome. It could only be more awesome if she was on/part of Oversight itself instead of just working for them. Regardless of where they go with it in details I love this twist.
- The biggest surprise for me wasn’t that Amanda was working around Percy but rather the way she dealt with Alex and her betrayal. She revealed a softness in her that was completely unexpected.
- That Amanda forced Alex to realize/acknowledge that a) she was a strong person who has saved herself, and b) that she wants to live before she saved her and set her free really stuck out to me. She could have just disabled the kill chip and then freed Alex but first she worked to make Alex mentally strong. I find that very intriguing. It was entirely for Alex's benefit and something I'd have expected out of Nikita not Amanda (regardless of her affiliations). (Also when I thought Alex was dead her doing that made me think she was awesomely evil - getting Alex to realise she wants to live and then killing her.)
- I had wondered if Amanda was somehow connected to the Udinov's when she saved Alex and that was why she did it but there wasn't any hint of that in this episode.
- “I’m not going to try to hold on to you like I tried to hold on to Nikita.” !!! What? There is so much unsaid Amanda/Nikita baggage and past and issues in that one sentence that I never really grasped in all their, far too few, scenes together and now I desperately want to know more. Amanda cared for Nikita? She tried to hold on to her? Tell me more!
* “You know I am really sick of people telling me you’re dead.” Aw, Michael. I loved the scene where Birkoff told him Nikita was dead. I have to admit I was wrong about Shane West. I spent too much time in the beginning comparing him to Roy Dupuis which really wasn't fair (and I never did that with Nikita). Now I've really grown to love Shane West's Michael.
- I loved the final Nikita/Michael scene. I am still surprised that TPTB got Nikita and Michael together so quickly instead of dragging them through will-they/won’t-they UST for three or four seasons. Instead their pre-series UST has become RST and they end the first season as a happy and together couple. ... what? That never happens! What kind of craziness is this? ... ‘cause I like it! This is pretty much unprecedented, or at least that's how it feels at the moment, and I have no idea where they are going to go with them now. Would they seriously keep them together for the entire series? I... can’t even fathom it. But I love that idea. More likely I can see the two of them breaking up and then getting back together (the twin to the whole will-they/won’t-they trope) but how refreshing would it be if they didn’t do that?
- This show kept not giving me kisses when I really wanted them! First, I really wanted Alex to kiss Nikita when she drugged her and said goodbye. I mean she was sure that she was going to be killed and she’d never see Nikita again and despite everything Nikita is the most important person in her life. I wanted a goodbye kiss to the forehead to go with the tears. Second, when Nikita jumped into Michael’s car at the end and they hugged each other in relief I was left going ‘wait, no’ because he thought she was dead and we don’t even get a passionate kiss of relief between them? I call foul.
- Birkoff siding with Michael was great though a lot less surprising than Amanda’s switch in allegiance. I was surprised that Michael didn't bring up the deaths of his wife and daughter as the reason for his deception. So is Birkoff going to be Michael and Nikita's new mole or was this a one time situation?
- I love when Birkoff calls Nikita and Michael 'Niki' and 'Mikey'. Did Nikita really call Michael 'babe'? That just amuses me for some reason.
I am really glad this show was renewed. I can't wait till next season.
