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3.17 All Good Things Nikita: "I don't want special treatment." Michael: "Would you prefer to be dead?" Meet the new boss. Not quite the same as the old boss. Even though Michael in charge was pretty satisfying, he was even colder and less emotional than Operations... with a couple of interesting exceptions. The first was his blatant favoritism of Nikita, promoting her over Wallace, and not incidentally, saving her life. And second, there was the whole strange and ambiguous Bergomi mission. What really happened? It was so hard to tell. Was Michael drunk on power? Did he deliberately risk lives and a disastrous failure in order to court George's favor and make Operations look bad? Or did Michael simply see that the mission was possible after all? Maybe it was all three. Why did Operations and Madeline not want Michael to do it? I got the impression that Operations returned from Center so quickly because he was worried George would promote Michael permanently; Operations may now perceive Michael as a serious threat to his job. What's scary is that Operations and Madeline see Nikita as Michael's weakness, and they are ready to exploit it in any way that they can. This can't be good for our heroes. Nikita was impressive here. Madeline ordered her to sabotage Michael; Nikita refused. Nikita kept giving Michael her honest opinion, even when it didn't please him and wasn't what he wanted to hear. She supported him in every instance... except, of course, when it came to ordering operatives to their deaths. Nikita was still Nikita, after all. And she worried about him, constantly. She gave him exactly what he needed, in spite of himself, every step of the way. Nikita: "Feels strange. We're really together now." Michael: "If we want to be." Such a noncommittal, typical Michael answer. He finally gave her what she wanted -- sex, a relationship -- but he was still so closed off from her. My favorite Michael moment was when he turned command dark so that he could steal a kiss from her. It was uncharacteristically romantic, and yet it was still very Michael, manipulating Nikita's emotions, making certain his promotion had changed nothing between them. I truly believe at this point that he loves her, but manipulating people is second nature to him. As I mentioned in an earlier review, when I first fell in love with this series and was marathoning my way through season two, I kept longing for three specific things to happen. All of them happen in season three. The first was Michael's emotional melt-down in "Gates of Hell." The second was here, with Michael running Section. Stay tuned for number three. Bits and pieces: -- Michael was left in charge because Operations was reassigned to Center. As usual for this series, we didn't learn much about what Center was, except it appeared to be a step up for Operations. -- When the episode opened, Madeline already knew Michael and Nikita were sleeping together. The bed was probably still warm. That was fast. -- The title of this episode was "All Good Things." What usually follows is, "must come to an end." But wasn't this episode more of a beginning? Nikita is not going to break up with Michael because he went a little power mad. Not after all they've been through. -- What was the pendant/dog tag thing that Operations transferred to Michael? -- They do twelve hour shifts in Data Retrieval & Verification? That's not logical. People don't stay alert at a computer screen that long. -- George, unlike Operations, actually appears to care about the suffering of innocent people. "Appears" being the operative word. -- Adrian was mentioned again. She is still blackmail fodder, obviously. -- At the Oversight "special session," there were eight bickering people, including George. Are there seven sections? Where did the meeting take place? An electronic meeting would have been more logical, but not as dramatically interesting. -- In Section, everyone wore black or dark colors. Nikita wore a blue-grey suit and a blue shirt. Okay, okay, Birkoff wore a grey jacket, but my point is still valid. -- In this week's hair report, Madeline's was a little bit longer and softer. Looked good on her. Quotes: Nikita: "I suppose I should do as I'm told, keep my opinions to myself." Michael: "In Section, yes." (In bed, no?) Michael: "Don't fail me, Nikita. You're the only person in the world I trust." That' no small thing for a man like Michael. In fact, it's quite touching. George: "Operations and Madeline are like Siamese twins. They bicker, they squabble, but they never separate." Even when he's sexually harassing her? Michael: "This is Section. Missions are carried out. People die. And sometimes the reasons are not always clear." Madeline: "I never thought he could be so reckless." Operations: "There's another possibility. He's just better than we are." Absolutely. I'm down with that. Four out of four stars, Billie |
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