Nikita: Season 2 Review

Note: Spoilers for the entirety of Nikita: Season 2 follow.

Nikita's outstanding second season began with its characters (and viewers) released from the claustrophobic confines of Division and the cozy familiarity of Nikita's New York loft and let loose on the world. Instead of tripping up Division here and there, Nikita was now focused on destroying Percy's black boxes and, later, on taking down Oversight, the shadowy group that created and then lost control of Division. The already great show only got better as it shifted from more self-contained episodes to more of a mythology-based approach. No longer able to take pleasure in merely being a thorn in the side of the organization that turned her from a doomed street thug into a master spy and assassin, Nikita was aiming higher, but struggled mightily to find meaning in her quest. Yes, Amanda and Percy needed to be stopped, but then what? There will always be monsters in the world. She might even be one of them.

Nikita's yearning for rest and normalcy this year reminded me a lot of Buffy Summers, who also wrestled with the curse of her gift. Who else can do what she can do? Who else can protect the innocent? How much sacrifice is enough? Nikita never actually abandoned her mission of course, but every quiet moment found her fighting her demons, doubting her future, questioning her past. This drove her to reckless decisions that jeopardized her safety as well as that of those around her, most notably in her almost suicidal storming of Division in the penultimate episode, "Crossbow." None of this would have been nearly as compelling as it was without the wonderfully nuanced performance of Maggie Q.

Into every generation a badass is born.

Season 2 was full of terrific episodes: "Clawback" reintroduced us to the beautiful mind of Noah Bean's Ryan Fletcher (who will be Nikita's new boss and a series regular next year), the twisty one-two punch of "Sanctuary" and "Clean Sweep" was damn near perfect and shook-up the entire canvas of the series more dramatically than either of Nikita's two season finales. Other standout episodes like "Doublecross" and "Power" demonstrated the dexterity of the writing staff as they managed the movement and motivation of multiple characters whose decisions influenced each other in myriad unforeseen ways.

Nikita's core relationships were tested and ultimately deepened in Season 2. Getting Michael and Nikita (back) together so soon seemed risky but they were never a will-they-or-won't-they kind of couple and their fundamental philosophical differences provided plenty of spark to keep things interesting (you know, that and having to save the world every couple of weeks). Although I'm a Mikita fan all the way, Nikita's rift with Alex was far more upsetting than her troubles with Michael and his baby mama. A key element of Season 1 was Nikita's mentoring of Alex, a complex relationship that was wrenched apart when Alex learned that Nikita had killed her father. They needed time apart to heal before they could work their way back toward each other, but I'm glad it didn't take too long. The relationship between Alex and Nikita isn't like any other on television. Nikita is her sister, her sensei, her AA sponsor. They come from vastly different backgrounds but they've both been betrayed by elders, abused by men, addicted to drugs, broken by consequences, consumed with vengeance, humbled by grace. They fight side by side, put their lives in the other's hands, and, mercifully, they're never going to end up pulling each other's hair out over some dude. As the season progressed Nikita's inner circle grew larger and larger, and it was quite a nice surprise that their were no casualties in the finale.

The Super Friends gather at the Safe House of Justice.

One of the real joys of Season 2 was watching Birkhoff's Han Solo arc take shape. His journey from flip mercenary to sentimental team player started with him really just wanting to stick it to Division, but he quickly bought into Nikita's whole good-guy mentality to the point where he was willing and able to withstand a brutal torture session from Amanda in the outstanding "Fair Trade." In that episode, as well as the equally entertaining "Shadow Walker", we learned that behind that confident hipster facade is the little kid who thinks the only reason the cool kids are nice to him is because he'll do their homework for them. His deep guilt over his first direct kill was also deeply affecting. On this show, even the comic relief guy is full of heartbreak and angst, but by cultivating Team Nikita's familial warmth, the series was actually able to lighten things up more often while still retaining its innate darkness.

Of course, not everything worked perfectly. Michael's discovery that he had a son was a plot devise to separate him from Nikita and once the boy was off with his unintelligible mother (whose status as a Gogol double agent should have meant...something), it was as though he never existed. Alex spent the first half of the season obsessed with Zetrov and her mother (first at avenging her and then rescuing her) and then suddenly Zetrov was in the hands of a trustworthy caretaker and mom was tucked away on an island and not super drug addicted anymore, I guess? Unfortunately, this left Alex with very little in the way of her own storyline, unless you count her cute, tentative flirtation with work-in-progress character, Sean. This show is so good at continuity and payoff however that I have to assume most of what felt to me like dropped threads will be picked up in Season 3.

Both of Nikita's nemeses had big falls in Season 2, one figurative and one shockingly literal. Amanda squandered her leadership of Division in a failed attempt to gain control of Zetrov that was at least a decade in the making. She and Ari went from strutting the halls of power to sitting in a squalid motel room. Percy's season was more of a roller coaster ride: his ingenious plots to extricate himself from prison, take out Oversight and gain enough leverage to get the leader of the free world to kneel before Zod were exhilarating highs, but he lost all his money and lost control of Division for a second time. It was fitting that when the usually circumspect manipulator impulsively tried to throw Nikita down a shaft, he ended up sealing his own fate instead. While it's always satisfying to see the good guys win, I liked that both Amanda and Percy were swinging for the fences when they faltered, tripped up by their own hubris as much as by the resourcefulness of Team Nikita.

Rest in peace, you magnificent bastard!

Is Nikita herself headed for a similar fall in Season 3? Because saving Division from itself is a monstrous task--one bound to test every friendship and possibly rouse the monster within her, the one that we caught a glimpse of in "Wrath". Nikita would have to share Carla's deluded belief in the redemptive power of her own program to think the majority of Division's violent offenders turned super-secret agents can be salvaged, right? And Amanda's out there with an unencrypted black box and the ability to push every last one of Nikita's buttons on top of that. Then again, considering how things turned out for the last person who underestimated her, its probably best to give Nikita the benefit of the doubt.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/25/nikita-season-2-review