Madeline: "You have to admit it looks like you're going after Markali for personal reasons."
Gee, Madeline. You think?
You know what I think? I think Operations just used Section to victimize two completely innocent people. Having Markali turn out to be dirty in the end just didn't ring true for me. After all, if Operations could torture a lie out of that poor guy in the teaser, he could certainly construct convincing evidence to make Markali look bad. I wonder what poor Corinne did that was so terrible? Was it that she didn't mourn Operations forever?
Okay, counterpoint. Markali was too good to be true. Intelligent, distinguished, thoughtful, faithful, in other words, nothing like the typical politician. We could, of course, choose to believe that Operations did all of this persecution reluctantly, and Markali really was bad... no. I just don't believe it.
Madeline is no fool. She had to know that Operations was lying; she even questioned him about it. Why did she let it happen? Maybe she was just relieved that Operations hasn't been sexually harassing her lately. I did love seeing Madeline as Corinne's shrink, with glasses, doing very convincing shrink-speak, although I felt terrible for poor Corinne. Speaking from her heart, confiding in a health care professional, the absolute height of vulnerability. If you can't trust your shrink, who can you trust?
This time, it was Nikita's turn to give her all for Section... except that she got a reprieve because Markali was determined to be faithful to his wife. Madeline expressed disappointment that Nikita didn't try hard enough with Markali, but come on, Madeline. A woman who looks like Nikita? Most men would have her on her back in two seconds with the absolute minimum of encouragement from her.
Bits and pieces:
-- The woman who played Corinne deserves a gold acting star. She did a fabulous job with an extremely difficult role.
-- I assume Operations is American. Corinne sounded British. What was Markali? What country were they in? Corinne also mentioned diplomats, so that kind of makes sense. But how close were they to Section, if Nikita could so easily return and report?
-- What about Steven Wolfe? In "Missing," Steven said that his mother died of a broken heart. Wasn't Operations supposedly married to Steven's mother when he "died" in Vietnam? And hey, for that matter, did Operations divorce Corinne, and/or Steven's mother? Is he a bigamist, like Michael?
-- Nikita wore red and grey in Section. Loved her pseudo-intellectual look: glasses, long braid, grey sweater, very little make-up, very Julie Christie in "Dr. Zhivago." Of course, Peta is gorgeous, no matter what she wears.
-- Nikita: "I wonder what kind of woman would be married to Operations." Good question.
-- Michael: "I'm sorry." Corinne: "What are you sorry for? Are you cheating on your wife, too?" Well, technically, since he can never divorce Elena, yeah.
-- Cancelled scene: There is an extended version of the scene where Operations was watching clips of Corinne talking to Madeline. Operations fantasizes that Corinne comes into his office and hugs him, he tells her he is sorry, and she forgives him.
It's hard to rate this one. The story was clever and the acting was great, but it ticked me off. Two and a half stars?
Billie
1 comments:
And here is where the fan’s Continuity Nightmare officially begins. Joel Surnow, co-creator of LFN, made the inexplicable decision NOT to create a series bible that script writers could use for reference. By the third season, much of Surnow’s time was devoted to developing other television shows, and because of his divided attention he allowed (and even perpetrated) some of the worst continuity errors ever filmed. The writer, Lawrence Hertzog, begins his career with LFN with this distasteful episode, and sadly plummets to ever-increasing depths as he continues to contribute scripts that defy all logic, and reveal his fundamental lack of understanding of the characters and concepts of LFN.
I can only imagine the consternation amongst the LFN cast and crew in Toronto, forced to enact the contradictory storylines and character assassinations sent down to them from California. In this episode, it is Glazer who suffers the most from Surnow’s negligence and Hertzog’s inept writing, as Operations’ backstory from Season One is completely negated, and his character is reduced to a vindictive and petty despot.
I would advise fans of LFN to pretend that this horrid episode is merely a bad dream, and proceed as if the events depicted never happened. Better yet, just don’t watch it at all.
Logic Flaws:
Accepting the premise that Markali is actually dirty and has to be killed in a way that discredits him, wouldn’t it be easier for Section to have the “jilted lover” (a Section operative) of the “scandalous affair” (already manufactured by Section) murder him? It seems that the only reason to manipulate his wife into killing Markali is to make her suffer for the rest of her life in a mental institution. Operations is not that unjustifiably evil (see Continuity Issues).
Continuity Issues:
In “Missing”, Operations’ son clearly states that his mother died of a broken heart because of his father’s MIA status. Yet here, Operations’ ex-wife is alive and well decades later, having been married to Markali for 21 years. Since this episode revolves entirely around her character, this continuity gaffe is impossible to ignore. So why was this script ever allowed to be developed? Only Surnow knows.
On to the character assassination of Operations. In this episode, Operations forces a captive to lie to implicate Markali, and then it is implied that he manufactures the final damning evidence against the man (he specifically tells Birkoff to send the decrypted accounts to him first), all to justify his persecution of Markali and Corinne. This makes Operations seem purely vindictive, which is entirely out of character.
What has made Operations so fascinating as a character is that, by the end of many episodes, the viewer would often have to reluctantly agree that his immoral approach was actually effective, that the end really does justify the means when dealing with extreme terrorism. This moral ambiguity is one of the defining features of the Section “universe”, and is a huge component in making the series so engrossing. In Seasons One and Two, Operations’ ruthlessness has been depicted as resulting out of necessity in dedication to a higher purpose (personal sacrifice for the “greater good”). However, Operations is now being portrayed with alarming frequency as a one-dimensional evil power monger. This dilutes what used to be a complex, three-dimensional character, and effectively reduces audience involvement in the story and belief in the world of Section. Sadly, this is only the beginning of the numerous ways that Hertzog massacres the characters and world of Section One.
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