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3.15 Before I Sleep Darius: "What do you want out of life?" Sarah: "I'll be happy if I can finish my drink." I can't say enough good things about Juliet Landau, one of my favorite actresses from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She did a fabulous job here playing the outrageous Jan and the terminally ill Sarah, total opposites. Sarah was an easy character to like, and her choice was a brave one; it was surprising and touching when she rose to the occasion. What was even more interesting than Juliet's fine performance as Sarah was how the other characters reacted to her. Nikita predictably went into protecto-mode and was outright angry with Section for exploiting Sarah. But Madeline was a surprise; she was outright kind and understanding with Sarah. And Michael's response to Sarah ("I like her") was also much gentler than we would normally expect from him, as well as more supportive of Nikita. Michael seems to be softer and more human these days. I like it. My favorite Michael moment was his reaction to Sarah when he was assigned to make her more comfortable with men. (Putting Sarah with an intimidating man who looks like Michael? That was definitely Madeline throwing Sarah into the deep end.) I really liked Sarah's involuntary tears, her brutal honesty about herself, and her dead-on pocket analysis of Michael. She nailed a critical characteristic of his -- that he knows he's attractive to women, and isn't very nice to them. What was frustrating was that we didn't get to hear Michael telling Sarah about the woman he loves. Nikita's heart, as always, was in the right place. I really wanted her to be right about Section inducing Sarah's illness, but she was wrong. She was also wrong throughout the episode about what was best for Sarah. She should have let Sarah go out, literally, with a bang. Bits and pieces: -- When we first met Sarah, she was painting china. This week's Most Obvious Symbolism, since Sarah was very fragile. -- The title, "Before I Sleep," makes me think of "if I should die before I wake." -- Birkoff referred to Sarah as a "wet duplicate." -- During the working breakfast, you can see a photo of Valentine operative "Russel Burke" as Madeline and Operations were discussing attrition in Housekeeping. They weren't planning to transfer a Valentine op to do body removal, were they? -- Both European and North American license plates this time. -- During Sarah's trial run mission, there were mannequins hanging in chains from the ceiling. Common LFN dehumanizing theme. -- There was a photograph of a blonde woman in Sarah's apartment. I wonder who it was. Juliet is the daughter of actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain; could it have been Barbara Bain? -- Everyone in Section, including Sarah, wore black or dark colors. Nikita wore white and blue. Quotes: Nikita: "They're going to make an innocent woman spend the last days of her life working for us?" Michael, the master of the understatement: "Yes." Madeline: "I know how difficult it is for you." Sarah: "It won't be, if everyone here is as nice as you." Picture about ten exclamation points here. Nikita almost made a face. Sarah: "You're handsome. You probably get everything you want from women. Which means you're not very nice." Michael: "You're right." I loved everything about this scene. He even smiled at her. Devo: "I didn't expect that last one to lose his hair. It must have been the extra sodium." :) Three out of four stars, Billie |
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