NIKITA Recap: “Dead Drop” (Episode 21, Season 2)

As the season builds up to what will be an exciting finale, Nikita and the team is attempting to circle around Percy now that he has the ill-gotten plutonium; and the next target seems to be black market triggers. Posing as a buyer, Nikita wows the Asian black marketer and his thugs with her entrance in a sexy bathing suit, stepping out his lavish swimming pool at a fancy home in Germany. Michael is there, of course, posing as her bodyguard; with Ryan and Birkhoff working from home base to fake transfer money to the Asian’s hidden accounts while Alex and Sean are outside to retrieve the triggers.

That plan doesn’t quite work out as well as the team had hoped because Percy has a Division team in place, led by Stephen (returning guest star Brendan Fehr). After a fierce firefight outside between Alex, Sean and the Division team [and a hand-to-hand combat inside the house between Michael, Nikita and the Asian’s thugs], Stephen reaches the van containing the triggers and gets away while most of his team has been taken down by Alex, Sean and eventually Michael; but Sean is wounded in the battle.

Michael and Nikita

Back at their home base, Nikita is treated Sean’s wound and Alex volunteers to take care of him while Michael and Nikita work on a new strategy to stop Percy from creating the nuclear bomb they are certain Percy is creating. It was because of Ryan piecing Intel together that led them to the triggers, but since that, regrettably, failed they need to try something different. Ryan tries to convince Nikita that they can get all the Intel they need from inside the CIA by contacting the new head of the covert agency: Morgan Kendrick (guest star Brian Howe)

But, Nikita isn’t convinced they can trust anyone in the government (after all her entire life has been controlled by people in the government who have treated her extremely poorly), least of all anyone with the CIA – since that didn’t work out so well for she and Ryan in the past – and more so because she remembers meeting Kendrick five years earlier while posing as an escort on Percy’s arm. Based on that past encounter, Nikita is convinced that Kendrick cannot be trusted; and she tells Michael and Ryan – in no uncertain terms – that they are not going to approach him.

Michael, however, doesn’t agree with Nikita so he and Ryan set out to talk with Kendrick at a DC restaurant. Ryan has known Kendrick for years, and knows how much of a clean phobe he is, that while they are watching him at lunch, Ryan knows precisely when Kendrick will leave the table to use the men’s restroom, giving him the opportune chance to speak with him in private while Michael stands guard. As Ryan explains to Kendrick their plan, after surprising the man with his resurrection of sorts (Kendrick delivered the eulogy at Ryan’s funeral), Nikita shows up at the restaurant to lend support (even though she thinks the plan will prove futile).

The Meeting

Sure enough, Nikita seems to be proven correct, as she slipped a listening device onto Kendrick and they hear him make a call to Percy. It would certainly seem that Kendrick is in Percy’s pocket, but when Kendrick calls Ryan to confirm he will help the team with the Intel, Nikita tells Ryan to play along, which he does. Ryan and Kendrick are to meet at a park in DC where Kendrick is supposedly going to provide Ryan with the Intel but it is actually where Nikita plans to take him out.

Of course, that plan doesn’t work out either because Ryan figures out something that Kendrick said to him on the phone: he made a reference to a “Black Sands” operation for which Ryan was instrumental. That operation had to do with a covert agent who had to turn double agent in order to survive the mission and it was because of Ryan that they were able to figure out that the agent was under duress. This leads Ryan to believe that Kendrick is also under duress by Percy and wants out. So, instead of taking Kendrick out for being ‘in bed with Percy’, Nikita and Michael have to make it a rescue mission.

Things turn hairy pretty quickly with Stephen and a small team of Division agents moving in on Kendrick and Michael. Because of Birkhoff, they are able to determine that when Kendrick had heart surgery performed years before, Division planted a kill chip alongside his pacemaker; and in order to save his life, Michael and Nikita rush Kendrick underground so they can perform an extremely risky procedure – via, of all things, laptop computers – to disable the kill chip without killing Kendrick and without Division being able to track him. While Nikita remotely assists Birkhoff with this unorthodox procedure on Kendrick (which actually works), Michael holds off the Division agents, killing two of them and leaving only he and Stephen to fight hand-to-hand once they are both out of bullets. Stephen ends up on the bad end of the fight, with a broken neck after making Michael really angry with an insult directed at Nikita. Never make a man in love angry is the lesson learned here.

Tending to Sean's Injury

But, the downside to all of this is that Percy has Sonya following Kendrick as well as Stephen’s team and she is able to track the computer relay between Nikita and Birkhoff. Before she can disconnect the trace, though, they discover the home base of the team and Percy orders a strike team to take them out. Thankfully, Birkhoff has sensors in place to warn them of the perimeter breach, giving them (Ryan, Birkhoff, Alex and a recovering Sean) just enough time to escape and to place explosives in the safe house to eliminate the Division team and destroy all trace of their being at that house.

They take up residence at the safe house that Nikita acquired for Ryan and now that Kendrick is rid of his unwanted hold by Percy – thanks to the kill chip being deactivated – he gives them a flash drive of all the Intel they will need to take Percy down; but just as Nikita thinks they are one step closer to taking Percy down, it is shown that Percy and Roan are talking about his plans with the triggers and the plutonium. Percy seems delighted in the fact that Nikita thinks he is building a bomb, but that isn’t what he is doing, so he tells Roan. [So what the hell is he doing, right!]

In a nice B-story between Alex and Sean – despite the fact the situation arises from his being shot – the duo has a few touching moments that are witnessed by Birkhoff and Ryan. While taking care of Sean’s injury, Alex (whether she realizes it or not) displays a loving touch in caring for Sean enough to make Birkhoff say that everyone knows what is budding between them two of them even if she doesn’t. Then, after giving Sean perhaps a little too much medication to help him sleep and heal, he tells Alex just how special he thinks she is; and then just before the perimeter breach, the two have a moment of recognition that Alex tries to blow off; but as the four of them race away from the safe house, Sean (finally) soundly kisses her and she responds in kind.

Ryan

And, in the very last scene, Michael reminisces (so to speak) with Nikita about how it was just the two of them working out of a sleazy motel before with Nikita somewhat joking before that it was just her working out of a beautiful loft. And, as they gaze over the rest of them talking in Ryan’s safe house, they are filled – momentarily at least – with a bit of nostalgia and hope for the future with a strong team by their sides.

“Dead Drop” is the 21st episode of the second season of Nikita. The next new episode of Nikita will air on Friday, May 11 at 8 PM on The CW.

How did you feel about this episode? How about that opening scene with Nikita in the pool, greeting the Asian black marketer? How did you feel about Sean getting hurt in the firefight? Were you surprised by the return (and demise) of Stephen, the Division agent? Did you see the turnabout for Kendrick coming before it happened or were you surprised by that twist? Were you happy to see Sean finally kiss Alex? And, how did you like the way the team has come together? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.