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Episode Guide/Season 2 |
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Episode Guide/Season 2 |
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Six months after "Mercy": In Nikita's absence, Michael is not performing up to Section standards, so he is demoted. Meanwhile, the terrorist group, The Freedom League (the same group from episode 1.22) is stepping up attacks on the Section in retaliation for Section One's operation against them at the end of last season (i.e. also episode 1.22). And one of The Freedom League's gambits involves tracking down Nikita (who is still in hiding), causing the Section to discover that Nikita is alive, and setting the stage for her return to the Section (and her reunion with Michael).
Nikita is once again held in "abeyance" while the Section determines whether she has recovered enough from her ordeal to perform up to Section standards. So Operation and Madeline assign a "special operations" operative, by the name of Jürgen (Bruce Payne), the job of seeing if Nikita has recovered, and whether she has been totally honest about her 6 months away from the Section, a situation that causes Michael to become concerned that his and Nikita's story could be blown.
Now back to "conditional status" as an operative, Nikita is still placed under the direct command of Jürgen (Bruce Payne), even though Michael is still in overall charge of individual missions. And this inevitable leads to conflict between the two men over Nikita, conflict that may turn deadly for Jürgen on missions commanded by Michael.
As Nikita gets more involved with Jürgen (Bruce Payne), Michael, and also Madeline! manipulate Nikita to spy on Jürgen. Meanwhile, it's becoming clear to Nikita that Jürgen has some sort of special status within Section One that gives him power over Michael and even Operations. Are the two things related?...
When a Section operative goes nuts and shoots Operations, it means things must change at the Section. Sure enough, Egran Petrozian (Nigel Bennett; previously seen in episode 1.11) is appointed acting director of Section One, and he immediately begins grooming Nikita for Madeline's job of 'second-in-command'. And the resulting fallout is endless: Can Petrozian be trusted? Can Nikita perform in her new role, and what will it cost her to do so? Will Madeline's and Michael's jealously hinder Nikita? Will Operations live to reclaim his job?
During a mission to take down a terrorist go-between Dorian Enquist (Gregory Hlady), Section communications are breached, and Michael is ambushed. This breach immediately causes Michael to go into "mandatory refusal" mode: simply, Michael must assume that the Section has been breached, and he must refuse all contact with other people until his mission is accomplished. The problem? While Michael is in "mandatory refusal", Operations discovers that Enquist has captured Madeline, and he orders that Michael must be stopped from completing his mission, at all costs. So, Nikita must try and stop Michael by friendly means, before Operations and the Section stop him by more ruthless means...
2.7: "Half Life" (a.k.a. "Michael's Past")
Someone is planting bombs in major cities, and Nikita soon begins to suspect that Michael knows something about it. Sure enough, after a mission to neutralize one of the bombs, Nikita follows Michael to a meeting with the man that planted the bomb, Rene Dian (Denis Forest). After a little investigating, Nikita soon discovers the connection: Michael and Dian were student radicals in 1984 who planted bombs, a crime that Michael was convicted for, a conviction that brought him to the Section in the first place. The question is, are Michael's loyalties more with his old colleague or Section One?
Nikita and Michael are sent into a war-torn country in the Balkans to eliminate an arms dealer who is about to close a big deal to bring a huge cache of arms into the already destabilized nation. Along the way, Nikita and Michael come across two children (Kyle Downes, Kevi Katsuras), victims of the war, whose parents have been taken away by one of the armed groups in the country. As usual, Nikita insists on helping the children, but will Michael let Nikita's 'maternal instincts' interfere with the mission? Meanwhile, Birkoff discovers that his lover, Gail (Tara Sloane; last seen in episode 1.16) is stealing funds from terrorist accounts and keeping the money, and Birkoff must grapple with whether to turn her in (and risk her 'cancellation') or keep quiet.
2.9: "Open Heart" (a.k.a. "Behind Bars")
It seems that terrorist group Red Cell is at it again: they've surgically altered someone to create a human bomb. Problem is, the Section doesn't know who the bomb carrier is or what the target is. Nikita is given the mission of contacting the only Red Cell member who may know: drug smuggler Jena Vogler (Gina Torres) who is presently incarcerated. So Nikita is sent behind bars to get closer to Vogler.
Taking loses around the globe, Section is short-handed and Operations is forced to get desperate for mission leaders. So Nikita gets the call to head her first mission (the recovery of stolen nuclear reactor fuel rods), and she assembles a three member team: males Taylor (Peter Mensah) and Mentz (Neno Vojinovic), and rebellious female Viscano (Janet Kidder), who causes Nikita all sorts of problems. But after some digging, Nikita discovers the source of Viscano's resentment of Nikita: it seems that Viscano is in love with Michael. So much for Nikita's first mission command going smoothly...
With its leader behind bars, terrorist group First Flag is being run through the leader's lawyer, Joaquim Armel (Joaquim de Almeida), which means Section One must compromise Armel to avert a terrorist attack. So Nikita and Michael pose as a married couple, and Nikita poses as a psychic, in order to play on Armel's weak spot: Armel's grief over his son's death and Armel's desire to talk to the boy from 'beyond the grave'. Meanwhile, Madeline's mother is near death, and Madeline makes an unusual request of Operations: she asks to see her mother. This puts Operations in a difficult spot: does he follow the rules and deny Madeline's request, or does he bend the rules and grant her request in hopes of improving Madeline's sagging recent job performance?
Nikita befriends a fellow colleague, veteran agent Terry (veteran actress Khandi Alexander), and ends up covering for her when Terry fails to complete an objective on a mission headed by Michael. When pressed for an explanation for her slip up, Terry makes a startling admission: she's pregnant! Fearful that the Section will take away her baby (or worse), Terry decides to try and bolt the Section, which puts Nikita in a bind and tests her loyalty to Michael. Meanwhile, Walter is in a foul and nervous mood, a circumstance brought about by his "3 year review", an evaluation process forced upon aging operatives.
During a mission against Red Cell operative Orlando Perez (Sam Moses), Michael (nee: Michael Samuelle) is captured and subjected to mind-altering interrogation techniques. When eventually freed, Nikita discovers a very different (and much more likable) Michael, but one without any memory of who he is, a situation that imperils Michael's life in the always demanding Section One. Meanwhile, Operations is jealous of the attention Madeline is showing on a handsome "valentine" operative, which put Operations in an even worse mood than usual.
2.14: "Double Date" (a.k.a. "Rouge Lovers")
David (Douglas O'Keeffe) and Lisa (Yvonne Scio) Fanning are back (see "Obsessed", episode 1.15): it turns out that Section didn't eliminate David Fanning after Nikita's and Michael's last mission against him, but instead made him a Section One operative. And despite Nikita's warnings to Operations that Fanning wants revenge, Fanning is sent out on an operation with Michael and Nikita. Sure enough, Fanning takes Nikita hostage, and makes a simple demand: Michael must find and return Fanning's wife Lisa within 48 hours. So with Birkoff's help, Michael tracks down Lisa, and once again plays mindgames with her, while Nikita tries to escape from David Fanning.
With Birkoff unable to do more than superficially decrypt a message that Section One has intercepted, Operations orders the temporary kidnapping of math professor, Greg Hillinger (Kris Lemche), who should be able to decrypt the message. The twist? This math "professor" is a precocious, rambunctious teenage genius who views the whole kidnapping endeavor as a game (and a joke), a viewpoint that could lead to the usual unpleasant Section One outcomes (e.g. permanent captivity, his own death, etc.). Meanwhile, Nikita keeps getting bothered by a neighbor (Dan Redican), and she soon figures out that the man is using her, so Nikita sets about to teach him a lesson he'll never forget.
2.16: "Old Habits" (a.k.a. "Serial Killer")
Nikita gets yet another nightmare assignment: Section is out to stop a new terrorist group, Bright Star, and they have a contact inside the group, a document forger by the name of Gregory Formits (Chris Leavins). Of course, he also happens to be both a genius, and a serial killer with a need to mutilate prostitutes, including his new target, a prostitute named Erica (T.L. Forsberg) whom Nikita has already put under her protection. Will Nikita do right by the Section, or will she end Formits's quest to be the next Jack the Ripper? In the meantime, Walter prepares to marry his girlfriend, Belinda (Jill Dyck).
2.17: "Inside Out" (a.k.a. "Outbreak")
Personal problems plague the Section: while vindictive Operations is countermanding Madeline's orders, Birkoff is dumped by Gail (Tara Sloane; last seen in episode 2.8) for a fellow Section One operative, and a biotech expert, named Janklow (Paul Miller). However, all of this pails in comparison to the real trouble that befalls the Section when operative Mowen (Roman Podhora; last seen in episode 2.6) brings back a sample from a Red Cell lab in Scotland, and promptly keels over from a deadly "genetically modified bacteria". With Section One contaminated by a biological hazard, Birkoff has no choice by to "segment" and quarantine the Section, to prevent the further spread of the plague. But is he too late? Meanwhile, on the outside (and out of danger), Michael and Nikita must track down biological weapons designer Anatol Biseroff (Martin Doyle) who may have the counteragent/cure. But can they get to him in time?
After a mission goes bad, Michael complains about the new mission profiler, Andrea Kosov (Céline Bonnier), and Operations agrees that she could use some field experience. Once on the mission, Andrea reveals herself to be the anti-Nikita: an excellent killer and a by-the-book operative who actually likes life in Section! And this causes Michael to reverse course, and take an interest in the woman, which causes some repressed jealousy from Nikita. Meanwhile, Walter still blames Operations for the death of his wife, Belinda (Jill Dyck), and may get Operations in trouble with a review board as a result. Will Walter risk cancellation to take his revenge on Operations, or can Madeline (and Nikita) convince him to abandon reckless actions?
Section has determined that someone is reading Section One's deployments and is waging terrorist attacks in those areas of the globe where Section's forces are lightest. So Operations sends Michael and Nikita out on a mission to find the culprit, Brutus. And who is "Brutus"? Well, it turns out that "Brutus" is nothing more than a computer with artificial intelligence programming. So Madeline, Birkoff and Walter set out to study it, but are they studying Brutus, or is the computer studying them? Meanwhile, Nikita goes to Albania to make sure a girl injured during a mission is all right.
A particularly shocking episode: while on a mission against terrorist money man Abel Golner (Alan Peterson), Nikita is contacted by Golner's right hand man named Giraldi (Steven Berkoff), who claims to be a Section One operative who's been "out in the cold" for a long time. When Nikita meets up with the man again, he claims to be Charles Sand, a Section One operative thought to be dead for the last nine years. But it turns out that Sand has been trying to get retrieved and brought back into Section the entire time. When Nikita investigates further, she discovers two things: 1) that Operations has intercepted Sand's retrieval communications and trashed them, and 2) that Sand is Madeline's husband! Meanwhile, Carla (Anais Granofsky) has tracked down Nikita, and the two renew their friendship, which includes Nikita meeting Carla's new boyfriend, Steven (Geoff Murrin).
2.21: "Adrian's Garden" (Part 1)
Nikita returns home after a mission, and is immediately kidnapped by Carla (Anais Granofsky) and her "boyfriend", Steven (Geoff Murrin). When Nikita awakes, she is brought before a woman named Adrian (Siân Phillips) who claims to be the creator of Section One (and who shares Madeline's appreciation of horticulture). Adrian declares that Operations and Section One are out of control, and must be destroyed, and she wants Nikita to help her do it. So, returned to Section One, a confused Nikita must discover all she can about Adrian (whom Walter says is the only person that Madeline has ever been afraid of!), whether Adrian is correct about Operation's dangerous manipulation of Section One objectives to his own ends, and whether she should join her cause. Meanwhile, Operations foists a new 'Executive Strategist' (and possible replacemet) on Madeline: Ray Leeds from 'oversight' (Ted Atherton), who may or may not be part of Operation's plans to manipulate Section One to his own ends. Part 1 of 2.
Nikita continues to spy and steal Section documents (while almost getting caught on several occasions) for Adrian (Siân Phillips), but she is unable to locate the most important file, codenamed "Gemstone". So Adrian has Nikita set Michael up so that they can discover the location of "Gemstone" inside Section. When they finally do obtain the file, it seems to confirm all of Adrian's claims about Operation's plans. Meanwhile, Operations (and Michael) are hot on the trail of Adrian's spy inside the Section, and are close to nailing Nikita. Can Nikita and Adrian get "Gemstone" to the right people in time? Will Nikita finally escape Section? Or will Operations track them down, and cancel both Adrian and Nikita?... Carla: Anais Granofsky. Part 2 of 2.
Taken from: http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/TV.html