Nikita Review: Return From Slippery Slope’s Edge

Division with Ryan at its helm has headed to the edge of the slippery slope of becoming the Old Division again. The original decision to apprehend the Dirty Thirty and shut down Division was easily expanded when the President called upon him to use Division's resources to help out the nation with sticky situations. And, again when Amanda starting causing problems.

In "Inevitability," Nikita and Alex disagreed over Division's mission and future. It was fortunate for both of them, the battle was fought with words and not fists. Ever since Alex returned from her three days with Amanda, she thrived on her independence and used every opportunity to go against Nikita, Ryan and Division. 

The Secrets of Division

The cause of Alex's angry demeanor is unknown and at least this time the conflict was worked out without Division or American lives being lost. Nikita went on the mission to assassinate the president of Chad with Sean and Owen covering her. While they were completing this off-the-book assassination, Alex and Birkhoff investigated Danforth.

The philosophical debate about what missions Division should and shouldn't be doing finally came to a head. It's been an ongoing issue over the last few missions with Ryan edging closer and closer to full-on Percy territory. It's been intriguing to see just how far he would go. Nikita has been by his side to temper some of his actions, but this time she was the one that was all for killing the leader of another country.

President Batouala was a bad guy. I don't think anyone doubted that, but where is the line drawn? One life for 300? Nikita also said she was free to choose this mission, but that really wasn't true. It just turned out in this case that she agreed with it. What would she have done if she didn't? Would she have risked the extermination of everyone at Division by challenging the American President?

Nikita had the right intentions in completing the mission. And, they all had the right motives for keeping the President's contingency plans secret. They were acting in the best interest of all involved in Division with the goal of getting everyone their freedom. The pressure of the President wasn't something that they all needed to contend with on a daily basis.

Alex broke rank by taking her plan of killing Danforth to the rest of Division, while revealing his plan to kill them all. It wasn't her place to do that. She undermined Ryan and Nikita by going around them. Nikita made the best decision that she could given Alex's betrayal. She remained calm and provided a better option: Get the list back, blame it on Zoe and get Division off the hit list. Then, go after Danforth and use him to secure their original plans to close down Division properly.

The situation at Division was closer to history repeating itself than any of them imagined with Danforth using the operatives to achieve his own goals rather than those of the President. His duplicitous behavior was uncovered before any real harm was done and ended up working in Division's favor by giving them the ammunition necessary to blackmail him into giving them their freedom.

Danforth went to the President and sought Division a reprieve. They can now go back to their original plan to bring in the Dirty Thirty and close down Division. Though, they will still have to contend with Amanda. She did something to Alex. And, Owen still wants to get his memories that she erased back. The Dirty Thirty episodes were on the boring side, so I hope that if Nikita goes back to that format the writers find a way to spice it up.

"Inevitability" was a tense hour of television. It all ended up working out, but at any moment so many different things could have gone wrong. Ryan used a Percy method to blackmail Danforth, will that be the end of the Old Division ways? Will they really be able to right the course to get rid of Division? Or, was their play on Danforth just another step towards a dark path? I'm excited to find out!

Odds and Ends

  • The list. Please don't ever have a plot about a stolen list of US operative names being stolen. It's been done and done and done again. It's boring. The writers have to be able to come up with a better reason to go after someone. 
  • Is there anyone Amanda isn't monitoring? It was convenient that she bugged Danforth's car. Like the list, that plot point was unrealistic, especially with no basis provided for why she would be listening in on him. It would have made more sense if she was monitoring Division's actions. Or, if she planted a bug on Alex during captivity.
  • Good for Owen that he expressed his shock at Nikita's Kill Order. Even better that he said he'd back her up on the mission.
  • Sean siding with Nikita over Alex? What?
  • Sean's elbow punch in the ambulance was the best moment of the episode. Kick-ass move!
  • Alex and Birkhoff should work together more often. Love those two together! New romance on the horizon? 
  • Birkhoff: Ever since you've been back, you've been "I am Alex. Hear me roar." | permalink
  • Birkhoff falling. Hilarious!
  • Nikita and Alex in their club clothes and hair was awesome.
  • Is Alex the Old Nikita? Is that a hint that Amanda programmed both of them? Nikita under the old Division? And, Alex more recently?

 

 

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/nikita-review-inevitability/

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