Nikita: "How long do you think we'll stay here?"
Michael: "Not long enough."
Yes, it was a trick, much like what they did to smoke out Philo. But I sure wanted it to be real. I wanted Michael to decide it was time to go, and take Nikita with him. (But then the show would be over, so I sort of take that back.) At least they got to play house again, like in "Psychic Pilgrim." But this time, it was almost for real.
There were clues throughout that it was a set-up:
(1) Considering what we know about Michael, it was unlikely he would leave Section in a fit of pique because he didn't get the promotion he wanted.
(2) Why would Michael hole up in one place and wait to get caught? Made no sense... unless he wanted to get caught. If Michael really wanted to escape Section, I'm certain he could figure out a way to do it right.
(3) Nikita stayed at the farmhouse instead of trying to find Michael. She would only do that if Michael told her to do it. Right?
Zalman was evil fun; he was certainly a three-dimensional character. He said he was briefed about Michael and Nikita's relationship. By whom, I wonder? He told Michael, "Love? You? I find that very hard to believe." He also called Nikita a second rate blonde whore. Those Red Cell guys. Not too perceptive.
Anyway, forget the plot. The big question is, did Michael and Nikita make love at the farmhouse? Of course they did. When Nikita woke up, she did the patented Scarlett O'Hara yawn, stretch, and smile. And in the end, when they had dinner together, she told him, "You know, it can't be casual between you and me. Can't do that." Can't just have sex on the occasional mission, Michael. Nikita wants more.
This episode worked for me because I loved the idea of Michael and Nikita loyal only to each other, and opposed to Section. In the truck, Michael told Nikita, "I don't need you. I want you." This was my favorite Michael moment, because ploy or no ploy, he clearly meant it. Michael is so taciturn that an "I want you" is like a violent declaration of love. At the very least, it was an emotional move in Nikita's direction. About freaking time.
Bits and pieces, and I have a lot of them:
-- For those of you not up on Gone with the Wind, the morning after Rhett carried Scarlett up the stairs, Scarlett woke up alone. She yawned and stretched and wow, did she smile. She even giggled.
-- Zalman tortured Walter. Shithead.
-- When did Michael have time to buy a farmhouse? Will we ever see it again?
-- Nikita must have thought their escape was real at first, because of the way she left Walter and the conversation in the truck. So when did the important off-camera conversation take place? Did Michael tell her in the car? When they were in bed, perhaps?
-- The farmhouse appeared to have no electricity. Except for the record player.
-- Operations again showed respect toward Walter, which always feels odd to me. And he gave Walter a crystal to "relieve the pain of life," along with a month off.
-- The field router looked too much like a large, cheap television remote.
-- The Devos were back. According to the deleted scene, Michael's torture was faked. (No cuts under his eyes, either.) Why not Walter's? Couldn't Operations have told Walter on the QT to fake it?
-- What happens to the chief strategist job now? Is it still open? Will Michael get it?
-- Roy Dupuis owns an old farmhouse, and cooking is one of his hobbies. They gave Michael a little of Roy here. The music was in French, too.
-- We saw Nikita in bed twice. Interesting sleepwear.
-- Cancelled scene: Birkoff and Walter are watching Michael and the Devos on screen. Instead of torturing him, they're giving him water and spritzing fake sweat on his face.
Quotes:
Walter: "What you lookin' at, sugar?"
Nikita: "Just the best part of my day."
Nikita: "I didn't realize you had such talent in the kitchen, Michael."
Michael: "There's still a lot of things you don't know about me. Maybe it's time you learned."
Gee, what else is he keeping secret? Does he have another wife stashed somewhere?
Zalman: "You can assure Operations I will find Michael and Nikita."
Madeline: "That's not a good sign, using a third party to mediate communications. It's an indication of instability."
Zalman: "Don't tell me about the labor pains, okay? Just show me the baby."
Madeline: "It took me nine hours to figure out. I could have used that time elsewhere."
Operations: "I actually factored in ten hours. As usual, you exceeded my expectations."
He should have told her. What if she had had Michael killed, or tortured for real?
Loved this one. Four out of four stars,
Billie
2 comments:
And the Continuity Nightmare continues... If you get a feeling of deja vu while watching this, it is because writer Hertzog returns with a script that steals gratuitously from several previous episodes. The result is a story that is much less than the sum of its parts due to enormous plot holes and continuity issues. While it is always fun to watch Michael and Nikita “playing house”, the fact that the entire premise of this episode is copied from the memorable and far superior “Slipping Into Darkness” (which was only four episodes ago, by the way!) reduces the final plot twist from “surprising and clever” to “repetitive and eye-rolling”. This unfairly diminishes “Slipping Into Darkness”, and renders moot another (also far better) episode, “Cat and Mouse”. It is bad enough that no one seems to be monitoring continuity in Season Three; it adds insult to injury that a derivative and logic-defying writer such as Hertzog is offered continuing employment.
Spoilers follow...
Recycled Ideas:
– Michael and Nikita “playing house” mimics the premise in “Psychic Pilgrim”.
– The audience is deliberately kept out of the loop as in “Slipping Into Darkness”, where there were also hidden cameras in Section necessitating the charade.
– Also as in “Slipping Into Darkness”, this ruse is instigated in order to flush out a Red Cell operative.
– The fact that the villain is a mole in Section is not enough of a variation, since this already occurred in “Hard Landing”.
– We just saw Walter interrogated for helping Nikita in the previous episode, “Threshold of Pain”.
Hertzog then rearranges these stolen ideas into a “mole” story, undoubtedly because this cliched plot requires less imagination to write than inventing a new terrorist threat. Unfortunately, Hertzog can’t even manage to make this “mole” story plausible .
Logic Flaws and Continuity Issues:
– The audience has seen the way that Section operatives are trained and continuously tested: as depicted, it is almost impossible to infiltrate Section. This is why Red Cell has gone to such clever and extraordinary lengths to fight Section in previous episodes (“War”, “Inside Out”, “Open Heart”, “Cat And Mouse”, “Slipping Into Darkness”). Now all of a sudden, it’s so easy to fool Section that a wimp like Zalman can do it? Not likely.
– It defies all logic that Red Cell would really be so stupid as to fall for the exact same tactic used so recently in “Slipping Into Darkness”.
– It makes no sense that Michael would not be allowed in the storage area of Walter’s workstation, since lower-level operatives like Birkoff and Nikita are allowed in that area all the time.
– The value of the “field router” device also makes no sense. It is described as being “programmed with Section’s codes and frequencies” – so wouldn’t Section just change the codes and frequencies when they discovered it was missing, thus rendering it useless after it has been activated just once?
– Why would Michael and Nikita bother to continue the ruse in the truck? (“Michael, are you running away because you lost a post to Zalman?”)
– Michael tells Nikita that he chose this farmhouse because it is “over 50 km from a population zone”. He later tells Zalman that the farmhouse is “5 km SW of town”. Apparently, Hertzog can’t even remember his own dialogue.
– Most damaging to series continuity is this: if Red Cell had such a highly-placed mole, why the heck would they have bothered to spend two years on an elaborate plan to replace a mere level-2 operative (Nikita’s double in “Cat and Mouse”)? And why would they have needed Michael so badly that one of their top men would risk meeting with him (“Slipping into Darkness”)?
I recommend pretending that this sorry episode is the product of Nikita daydreaming about spending more time with Michael, so the illogical events depicted never happened. She doesn’t seem to have any other hobbies...
"I recommend pretending that this sorry episode is the product of Nikita daydreaming about spending more time with Michael, so the illogical events depicted never happened. She doesn’t seem to have any other hobbies..."
Okay Serena, recommendation taken.
'Yes, it was a trick, much like what they did to smoke out Philo. But I sure wanted it to be real. I wanted Michael to decide it was time to go, and take Nikita with him. (But then the show would be over, so I sort of take that back.) At least they got to play house again, like in "Psychic Pilgrim." But this time, it was almost for real.'
But like Billie, I sure wanted it to be real.
So I enjoyed it for what it was.
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