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2.2 Spec Ops Nikita: "I'm tired of being careful." Michael: "Get over it." What a wicked web we weave. As Nikita dealt with her new mentor -- an enigmatic man whose loyalties and motives were unknown -- Michael scrambled to cover their tracks. Nikita was very much the recalcitrant child here, and who could blame her? She made the ultimate sacrifice for Michael, and he was actually brushing her off. The initial scene in the white room showed her pacing and fidgeting like an angry adolescent; her training with Jurgen strongly resembled going back to school. And in her scenes with Michael, when they argued about having sex (or not having sex), she practically pouted, and acted like he had taken candy away from her. In one of them, she was even wearing kid clothes: shorts, crew socks, and athletic shoes. Michael, in the meantime, had to be the grown-up, despite what it cost him. Nikita was ready to risk her life for an affair, but Michael was not. Jurgen's tirade about Nikita being Michael's slave was apt. Nikita would certainly kill for Michael's sake, and I bet Jurgen was right that she would go even further -- if it didn't compromise her core principles, that is, and Nikita does have principles. But I think Jurgen was wrong about Michael, at least to some extent. Don't get me wrong. There was certainly a germ of truth in it, and Jurgen may even believe it. I don't doubt for a minute that Michael has manipulated women out the wazoo... in the past. But Michael's actions toward Nikita here didn't appear to be motivated by self-interest. Michael was so distracted with worry about her that Operations noticed he wasn't paying attention during a briefing, something that never happens ("When Nikita was missing, you had a rough time. Now that she's back, you're having another"). And Michael offered to get Nikita out of Section a second time, an action that almost certainly would have resulted in his own death. I think Michael needed to be near Nikita, and he accepted that it meant he couldn't sleep with her without arousing suspicion. He places less value on sex, which is certainly something he can get whenever he wants. Bruce Payne usually plays villains, and it was easy to assume Jurgen was a bad guy. And in fact, by the end of the episode, we still didn't know what was going on with him. I'm guessing that Jurgen's motivation for what he did was a simple one: Nikita is a very attractive woman, she came on to him, and he was interested in her. Most male guest stars don't measure up as competition for Michael, but Jurgen does, mostly because it's clear that he does not fear Section. Whether he'll turn on her -- on them -- in the future, as Michael suspects, remains to be seen. This episode introduced an uncomfortable but necessary plot element: secret conversations in Section. Michael used a device in the white room to blank out surveillance... but there were a lot of other un-blanked-out conversations going on here in different areas of Section that would have gotten Michael, Nikita, and Jurgen cancelled immediately. I think we just have to suspend belief, and trust that surveillance in Section can't be perfect. After all, how could Section possibly have enough people in the background to watch all of their agents twenty-four hours a day, even with electronic shortcuts? And who would watch the watchers? Bits and pieces: -- The nasty holodec training thingy was back, with an added attraction: a treadmill. -- My favorite Michael moment (and there were lots of them here) was him channeling James Bond in the Hong Kong scene. Yeah, he's bad. -- One of the clandestine Michael/Nikita scenes was filmed through cage bars, making them look trapped and imprisoned, which, of course, they were. Section itself was looking a lot starker and more maze-like in season two, with the cages and bars and glass. Even Madeline had a new stark and scary-looking office. -- Michael must be pretty good in bed for Nikita to suggest risking death to do it again. -- So much for the Freedom League. They lasted longer than most: three episodes. -- Michael's "mission hair" made its debut. The only other actor I've ever seen who could get away with that little top-of-the-head ponytail was Adrian Paul in "Highlander." -- Roy Dupuis had another blackened fingernail. Roy, my dear, please be more careful with hammers and power tools. Quotes: Jurgen: "You think you're the first? Manipulating beautiful women is his specialty." Nikita: "He's different." Michael: "Different from what?" Nikita: "Different from you." Nikita was implying that Jurgen was a better man than Michael. Wow, was she pissed. Walter: "I've seen him help people. I've seen him destroy people." Another classic Madeline interrogation: "Mr. Gudren, you've had a rough couple of days. The doctors say you're going to live. That's the bad news. (pause) There is no good news." Jurgen: "In Go, every move is a cover for something else." Nikita: "I'm sure it's the Section's most popular pastime." Terrific episode. Four out of four stars, Billie |
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