Nikita 1x21 Review

[iaria]

Betrayals

This was an excellent episode. It even managed to make the previous episode retroactively better by having the whole Dana situation be a set up from the beginning. I am very curious about where the hell the show is going to go from here now. I mean if next season (yes, please) keeps the same set up of ‘Nikita vs Division’ well, now she’s just lost both her inside moles. Where can they go from here?

- Percy suddenly became kind of awesome – competent, smart and sneaky. The reveal that he’s been on to Michael and Alex both for several episodes now and has been using them and through them Nikita to enact his Operation Sparrow is excellent. This is a twist I am behind one hundred percent. The weakest part of the series for me has always been Division but this episode really stepped things up and made Percy seem like a very genuine and scary threat in a way he just hasn’t been up until now. It’s exciting. I liked his chess metaphors; I wonder how he’d classify Owen?

- I loved the way he played Alex. That was really well done if helped a lot by Nikita keeping things from her (I love that Nikita’s choice to not tell Alex about the kill switch is coming back to bite her if only because now it gives it some narrative purpose). I also loved that instead of having Michael detained Percy set him up in a far sneakier way – if Michael had tried to shoot Alex it would have affected how she viewed him and how he viewed himself but if he did turn physically against Percy then Percy would get the pleasure of watching him get shocked into unconsciousness.

- The reveal that Nikita killed Alex’s father was something I’ve assumed from the beginning but wasn’t sure if Alex knew or not. I'm glad it was confirmed. I still think it’s possible that she already knew and was acting with Percy. Either way poor Alex. If she didn’t know about Nikita’s role... ouch. Nikita’s lack of confirmation at the end does make me wonder if he might be alive and in hiding.

- I loved how defiant and strong Alex was throughout. She was so great this episode.

- The Nikita/Alex loft scene was... interesting. It felt a bit off not only on Alex’s part, for obvious reasons, but even more so on Nikita’s side. It makes me wonder if Alex managed to warn/tell Nikita what was going on beforehand. (Which is possible – Alex could have texted her without looking at her phone – just stared straight ahead while she did it, I’d buy that.) To start with Nikita didn’t hug Alex despite her worry about Alex and what happened with Jaden. That didn’t seem right. She didn’t even hug her after the “you’re always taking care of me” line. In fact there was no touching between them at all and Nikita kept her distance for the whole conversation. Her leading “And you blame me for that” felt off as well.

- My guess for the next episode is that somehow Alex managed to tip Nikita off and so their talk in the loft was possibly staged and that Nikita’s shooting definitely was. Alex grabbed something at the loft – what was it? Something to help her fake Nikita’s death? Hmm. But then Alex did look sincerely shocked when the gun went off so maybe not? I don’t know.

- “I have someone to live for.” This bothered me because what about Alex? Wasn’t she enough reason to live? She didn’t give Nikita meaning? I don’t by it and I hate that it comes down to romantic relationships meaning more.

- I’m guessing from the pictures Roan took of Nikita and Ryan exchanging the box that Division is setting Nikita up as the ‘terrorist’ who attacked/took out the CIA? So perhaps she'll spend next season on the run from the US government as a terrorist?