Double feature here! I managed to catch up on Nikita tonight, a friend told me the ending was pretty brutal, so I’ve been keeping it off, but now it’s time. And I won’t be holding back my emotions, so prepare for a pretty emotional second part.
So I have to hand it to the writers, this is some pretty good naming of episodes. Masks is all about some major revelations going on in the episode. Nikita continues to believe that people can be good and people can be saved, but she’s about to get a major dosage of how not true that is. Owen, while on a mission, gets knocked out by Amanda and gets all of his memories triggered back to him. Turns out he’s not nice guy Owen, he’s actually evil guy Sam, and evil guy Sam was a crooked army man (is that the right word?) who ended up funding drugs and running a drug ring which ended badly since his bros turned on him.
Amanda found him, and because of her creepy God complex, decided to see if she could turn Sam into a follower from a leader, switching out his entire psyche. I would say this is crazy, but she’s done some pretty insane things so this is no where close. She also drops the bomb that Larissa was never real, and a created image in Alex’s mind. One that basically ended up leaving Alex with the most intense survivor’s guilt that would make her turn against everything Division stands for.
Her plots come to fruition as Division implodes towards the end of the episode. Alex’s calls for freedom from Division reach far more people than she thought, and not all of them are ok with a peaceful exit. Rachel, specifically, has decided that it’s time to take things into her own hands. Alex, desperate not to let anyone get hurt, goes along with the plan as the coup is turned. Meanwhile, outside of Division, Nikita is tricked by Owen, now Sam, and kidnapped. She’s traded to Amanda, and although Amanda has no money for him, she does have some people who would buy the black box from him. All he has to do is go back to Division and get it from Ryan’s safe. Yeah, the same division that’s going into lockdown.
Well he manages to make it in before lockdown, bad news is that he’s basically in the middle of lockdown now, without an ability to get out. He gets his hands on the Black Box, but raises Michael’s spidey sense. The two get into a major fight, but are broken up by Division agents who take Michael in after Owen lies his way into being on their side. Ultimately, the crazy has just begun.
Broken Home is hands down the most heart wrenching episode of the season so far. At some points, I just wanted to tear my hair out at the frustration I felt towards Alex or sob oceans for Amanda, but the episode left little time to breathe. Nikita is back in Amanda’s grasps, and we get to see just how she works. We know that neither can kill the other, but Amanda reveals to Nikita her past and we learn just why crazy Amanda is called crazy. She drops Nikita into a formulated world, like she did to Alex with Larissa, and reveals her story.
I kind of got the feeling that the twin in the basement was actually Amanda and the princess was her sister Helen, but I wasn’t really sure what was going on. Not until the end. And I have to say, despite butchering her whole family, it’s not crazy to imagine why she did it. Basically torn apart mentally by her father, and constantly lied to by her sister, Amanda was crazy before she ever even left her house. I felt bad for her. I mean, it’s hard for a person not to feel bad for her. I don’t even think this is all Amanda being cunning, I think she needs to share her story to Nikita and I think that this was her opening up. Nikita is the closest thing Amanda will have to a twisted version of a daughter, and she needs to know these things about her.
At Division, the all out mutiny is fated to have massive repercussions. For one, the obvious one. No one leaving with their “real identities” is safe. They will be found and taken out by the government since they are all massive liabilities. Also, it’s bound to end badly, and it totally did.
So I spent most of the episode furious at Alex. Just because I found her to be weak, and even knowing that this was a persona built up by Amanda, and I should be concerned for her, I was just furious. She basically betrayed her friends, and turned into the most whishy washy person ever. Not everyone can be saved, and both Alex and Nikita learn that lesson this episode. But you know who gets applause? Birkhoff. Every time he got a chance to turn things around, he did. He turned on the firewall, turned off the security, physically over powered the two agents, and ultimately ended the coup with just his words. Standing ovation for the Shadow Walker.
I could go on and on describing what happens, but you basically know if you just watch the episode. I’m more concerned about the end. Sean was one of my favorite characters. It didn’t hurt that Dillon Casey was very easy on the eyes. I was infuriated when Sean died. Infuriated. Not only does this set Alex permanently off the rocker, what with her survivor guilt thing, but they just lost a major link in their group. Compounded with the fact that Owen/Sam has the Black Box, and the fact that all of Division is basically gone, and I’m having a hard time holding it together with this show.
I hear news that they will be back for a fourth and shortened final season. Well, seeing as they introduced a new villain and killed off all of Division within a month, I wondering where this is all going to end for our broken heroes. Oh also, Ryan’s got a lot to deal with when he wakes up.
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