NIKITA Recap: “Game Change”

A dark-haired woman wearing a trench coat saunters into a seemingly non-descript neighborhood store called Harbor Meats. The woman, of course, is Nikita (Maggie Q). She asks the man behind the counter for 3 pounds of Haggis, cheap and bloody. Without saying a word he escorts her to a backroom that is revealed to actually be a secret, obviously, illegal gambling room. She is quickly searched and her cell phone deposited into a bowl. She removes the trench coat and walks determinedly to the craps table where a large man is standing. Catching his attention immediately, she strikes up a conversation as she tosses the dice and wins that throw. Telling the man she feels lucky, she lets her bet ride and throws another winning toss. “Somebody up there must like me,” she says. “Somebody in here must like you too, but some of us wonder where’s the boyfriend?” he asks. She claims they are taking a little break and the man finds that hard to believe.

Michael and Nikita

A quick flashback to her and Michael (Shane West) shows them seemingly to disagree over not taking risks with him walking away. And, as Nikita goes to throw the dice again the man grabs her hand – they disagree on whether the dice are really “his” – with the man throwing a winning toss. Suspicion is written all over his face and we see him and one of his cohorts toss Nikita into what looks like a sterile backroom where the money is kept. The man hits her, questioning how she found out about their location and her feeble attempt to take his money. “A little black box told me,” she mutters and then she fights back, getting one of their guns. Disoriented the man yells, “Do you know who that money belongs to?” She counters, “You should know something, too, I really didn’t break up with my boyfriend” just as Michael blows up the wall so she can escape with the money and they race off on his motorcycle.

As we join Nikita and Michael back at whatever seedy motel where they are hiding out, we learn they got just enough money for their next mission with just enough left over to either get more ammo or groceries because they can’t afford both. She jokes they could take all the money and run, but Michael reminds her they can’t go anywhere that Division won’t find them. Taking down Division is the only way they will get free. As they discuss their options on what to do with the box, she tells Michael she’s worried that it will only make things worse. It all goes back to her regret over what she did to Alex and her concerns over their crusade.

Back in the gambling room, we see Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) walk in waving a fake police badge as she knocks out the same two guys that Nikita fought and then she hunts for the phone that Nikita left behind. She reports in that she’s picked up Nikita’s trail and heads back to Division where Amanda (Melinda Clarke) is now in charge with a new set of tech geeks running the computers and a new guy, who obviously doesn’t like Alex, in Michael’s place. Amanda claims she’s trying to bring Division back to basics and clean up Percy’s mistakes. No new recruits are being brought in and no missions are being done for money. They discuss the new direction of Division, working under Oversight, in order to stop Nikita and “save the world”.

Alex is willing to give Amanda the details of what she has learned about Nikita as long as “you honor our deal,” which seems to be tracking down the man responsible for the hit on her father. The man she wants is no ordinary man: he is the head of a corporate empire whose net worth eclipses most small countries. As Amanda reviews just how powerful that company and the man are with Alex, it is explained that the man is one of the hardest targets on this planet.

Before Alex can leave Amanda’s office, the new guy – Pierce (Dillon Casey) – walks in to interrupt. He wants to know “if this is her?” It is revealed that he doesn’t work for Division, but rather for Oversight. He is there to ensure they get the black box back. Tension is felt all around with both Pierce and Alex posturing for control. He doesn’t want Alex to be part of retrieval because she’s a double agent and a traitor. Amanda calmly breaks them apart and claims to Alex that “I keep my promises”.

Back at the motel, Nikita and Michael discuss “Operation Game Change” one of the missions contained on the black box that took place in 2004. The operation involved one billion dollars of Iraq reconstruction funds that were supposedly stolen by terrorists, but it was actually a strike team from Division. “The bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe,” Michael says. But, the Pentagon sent in an investigator, Tony Merrick, who saw through the lie and found evidence of the cover-up, learning that it was an inside job. Percy couldn’t let that truth come to light so he buried it and Merrick, who was set up for beating an Iraqi civilian to death. Merrick is now on year 7 of a 30-year sentence. Enter their new mission: to get Merrick out of Leavenworth, reveal the truth and take their first step in bringing down Division and Oversight.

Meanwhile, Percy (Xander Berkeley) is revealed to be deep underground in some kind of plastic prison (that smacks of Magneto’s prison in the X-Men franchise). Amanda pays him a visit to advise him that Michael and Nikita raided one of his locations used to pay for “his side jobs”. She needs to know where they will hit next since Percy has “every file, every secret” recorded in his memory much like the black boxes. It’s quid pro quo – Amanda wants intel from him and she’ll give him something, albeit begrudgingly, in return. He wants Alex because she is perfectly neutral – she’s an independent contractor, she doesn’t like either Percy or Amanda – so he will speak to her and only her. He is only being kept alive because of the dead-man switch near his heart. Division and Oversight need him to lead them to the three other guardians who are safekeeping his remaining black boxes; otherwise they would end him right then and there.

Michael and Nikita in Uniform

At the military prison, Michael and Nikita sneak in as uniformed officers to meet with Merrick. Nikita stays in the car while Michael goes in for the retrieval. Things don’t go as planned because Merrick admits his guilt and he resists so Michael has no choice but to knock out the guards and drag Merrick out to the awaiting car. The prison break is in motion with Oversight upset by that news and Amanda sending Alex in, after a trace on Nikita’s phone, leads them to two possible locations where she and Michael could be hiding.

Alex calls Nikita while she and Michael are getting intel from Merrick – who only claimed guilt in order to protect his son who was being threatened by none other than Percy. Alex convinces Nikita she’s using drugs again with Nikita, of course, leaving to try to help her; but before she gets very far, they are under attack by Pierce’s team outside the seedy motel but then two drone planes attack all of them, shooting down Pierce’s team and knocking Michael, Nikita and Merrick out. When they wake up, they learn it was Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) who rescued them and they are in his house. He tells them he is out of Division, Percy is “on ice” and Amanda is now in charge. It would seem that Birkhoff has LOTS of money that he had been siphoning from all over the world before Division caught him; money that he would like to keep, a dream that is currently being threatened by Michael and Nikita. He added code to the black box that he helped them unencrypt so he could track them, but he wants it made clear to Division that he is not working with them. Nikita jokes with him, “oh nerd, you’re lonely”.

Pierce reports back in at Division wanting a new strike team launched while Alex attempts to confront him; but Amanda stops them both, telling Pierce he cannot use Division teams behind her back ever again and Alex yelling that he ruined their one chance to get Nikita. Amanda reveals they have one other shot but Alex will have to talk to the one person she likes even less than Pierce: Percy. She pays him a very reluctant visit to get intel on Operation Game Change and he uses her past – specifically her family – against her, to rile her. Percy points Alex in the direction of Merrick’s son, Justin, since that would be their next objective, in exchange for a TV with a live news feed so he can “help with Nikita’s next moves”.

Alex and Justin

Birkhoff has tracked down Merrick’s son and while Nikita is searching for him, she discovers a Division retrieval team is there. Meanwhile, Michael contacts Amanda via video to make a deal – he will give her Merrick’s evidence and she will have the government call off the manhunt for Merrick. As Nikita gets closer to Justin, Alex shows up, convinces him to come with her and he ends up outside the bar facing Pierce. One of the computer newbs at Division nearly tracks them down so Birkhoff shows himself on Michael’s video call, breaking his own cover, while Alex and Pierce drive off with Justin. But, as to be expected, Nikita gets the drop on them, stopping their car and fighting with Alex to free Justin. Nikita wins the fight, breaking Alex’s arm and shooting her in the leg.

Nikita

Elsewhere, one of the members of oversight [Edward Adams] – who freaked out over the whole compromised situation – is killed, but it’s made to look like a suicide while Birkhoff and Michael talk about the feds making a deal with Merrick. Father and son are reunited, as the prison break is explained to have been a ploy to draw out the real perpetrator (the oversight member who was killed) while Alex is shown being treated for her injuries in the Division infirmary. But, it’s Michael and Nikita who have to reconcile all the truths: Alex, Amanda, Percy and especially the six members on oversight, as revealed by the information on the black box. With the death of Oversight member Adams they are one step closer to being free, one step closer to home; but Nikita is worried about being able to live with herself once they get there.

Game Change is the season premiere of the second season of Nikita. The next new episode will air on Friday, September 30 on The CW at 8/7c.

What did you think of the Nikita season premiere? Were you surprised to see Alex working as a contractor for Division? Was it any surprise that Percy is buried deep in the ground in some kind of impenetrable prison? Are you glad to see Amanda as the new head of Division? Do you wonder what the Senator (played by Alberta Watson, who was Amanda [nee: Madeline] in the USA Network TV series La Femme Nikita back in the day) who seems to be in charge of Oversight will do next? Were you pleased to see father and son reunited and Merrick cleared of the crimes for which he was convicted? What do you want to see happen next? Please share your thoughts.