NIKITA Recap: “Fair Trade” (Episode 9)

In what seems like a harmless encounter between Birkhoff and a pretty young girl named Allison at a coffee shop actually turns out to be part of a grander scheme of Nikita’s to get one step closer to Senator Pierce. It would seem that Nikita has stolen $80 million dollars from Oversight that the Senator siphoned from African relief into the committee’s funds. This incident makes it necessary for the remaining members of Oversight to not only move the rest of their funds before Nikita can get her hands on it but also to call a meeting of the entire committee, which is exactly what Nikita wanted.

Meanwhile at Division, Pierce goes to Alex about her impending trip to Russia to get revenge on Semak. There is no way she can get into the country under her real name – Alexandra Udinov – but she can go in the same way she got out – the sex trade. Pierce knew he wouldn’t be able to talk Alex out of going, so he slipped out something from the evidence locker that he read belonged to her late father – his watch. Amanda doesn’t know that Pierce removed it and he asks for one thing in return – that Alex contact him once she hits the ground in Russia so she will have at least one person watching her back.

Amanda and Birkhoff

We quickly learn that the encounter in the coffee shop was Nikita’s plan to track the Senator. Birkhoff slipped a microdot – an ingestible tracker – into the Senator’s coffee, allowing them to watch every move she makes and Nikita wants to be on the move. But, Birkhoff isn’t so sure about that plan – just because the remaining four are meeting doesn’t mean they should move on them. He firmly believes they need a solid plan, but Nikita wants to move fast even though Division knows she is gunning for them. She claims it will only be surveillance, but will it; Birkhoff tells her that she has been on a “bender” since leaving Michael in London; she’s allowed to miss him and she needs to really think things through.

Amanda and Pierce are discussing the meeting plans which she arranged, but because he has inserted himself into the plans – in order to keep his mother safe – he has switched the venue and is taking charge. This, of course, pissing Amanda off; but she accepts the situation for now.

Pierce escorts his mother to the new meeting location – a hotel in DC – where Nikita and Birkhoff are watching from a safe distance. Nikita recognizes Pierce, who she calls “Boy Scout” from the Gaines incident and knows that he will, once again, pose a problem for her mission.

Pierce and Birkhoff

At a strip club, Alex has implanted herself back into her old life and is forced to dance for some of the patrons. But soon enough immigration officers charge in – based on a call they received from an irate wife of one of the customers (which was actually made by Alex as part of her plan) – and she starts a fight with some of the agents to ensure she is hauled off with the other girls, which includes one girl, Oksana (guest star Angela Sarafyan), who seems to see through at least part of Alex’s fake identity. The main immigration officer (guest star Malik Yoba) tells them they will be sent back to Russia – and step one of Alex’s plan is set in motion.

Back at the hotel, as Birkhoff is giving Nikita details on the foreign correspondence luncheon that is being used as a cover for the meeting of the Oversight members as well as the layout of the hotel, she sneaks in as part of the florist team. Once inside, she sneaks downstairs – 200 feet underground to be exact – to where the members are converging. But, of course, Amanda has her tactical team standing by and they discover Birkhoff and Nikita’s communication system. Just after getting the identifications of two other Oversight members, Pierce is alerted to the possible infiltration, aborting the meeting and hustling the members out of the hotel. This, in turn, makes it necessary for Nikita to abort their mission, telling Birkhoff to pick her up at the extraction point as she races to get out from underground. Soon enough, she is running for her life out of the hotel with Pierce in hot pursuit. But, Birkhoff isn’t able to get away fast enough and is caught by Division agents just as Nikita is able to dodge Pierce by making two DC cops see him clearly holding a gun out in public. She then realizes that Birkhoff has been caught.

Birkhoff’s day is just getting worse as he is dragged into a room where he is forced into some kind of torture chair and it is obvious Division has already been beating him. Amanda arrives soon enough and he is put through more torture with Amanda hitting his right hand with a hammer even though he attempts to convince her that Michael and Nikita were forcing him to work for them (that’s a lie, of course).

Nikita

While this is happening, Nikita gets back into their “lair” – determines that Birkhoff isn’t there – and calls Michael, filling him in on the details. Because she is starting to spin out of control, he yells at her, telling her that given the time that has elapsed since Birkhoff was taken in, he is still alive but Amanda will, for sure, be interrogating him. He tells Nikita that there is only one thing they can do and it will be something she won’t like. She will have to use the black box as leverage to save Birkhoff.

Just in the nick of time, Nikita places a call to Amanda about the trade and despite her obvious pleasure in torturing Birkhoff see leaves to take the call and agrees to the trade. Nikita reports all of this back to Michael and they discuss the meeting place, who will do the drop for Division and the best way for Nikita and Birkhoff to get out. Naturally, the discussion includes Pierce who Nikita quickly surmises must be the Senator’s son based on the facts at hand, a quick search on the internet and an exchange between the two after the aborted mission at the hotel (the way the Senator said his name and touched his arm when she recognized Nikita).

Skipping over to Russia, the sex trade girls are back in their homeland, escorted out a back way of the airport. They are taken by the lead immigration officer to two men in a van. It turns out the officer is selling the girls back to the same organization for which they work in America, but Alex won’t stand for that nor will she have her true identity figured out by any of them so she takes all three of the men down in fast succession and then loads the girls into the van.

Pierce and Nikita

Nikita demands that Pierce bring Birkhoff to a pedestrian walkway in Manhattan alone and if she gets even a whiff of Division she will upload the contents of the black box specifically the operations sanctioned by Senator Pierce. The Senator, of course, was listening to the conversation and states how important it is to retrieve the box while her son demands that two teams shadow him. Amanda disagrees, stating the teams will stay at a distance. Amanda then goes to Percy to completely confirm the data on the black box cannot be copied by anyone.

Soon enough, the trade goes down, but with a twist – a taxi driver shows up to transport Birkhoff and Pierce to a parking structure where Nikita is waiting for them. Because of a tap on the taxi cabs transponder, Nikita is able to mask, for just long enough, the com system being used by Pierce. This delay allows for Nikita to free Birkhoff, sending him up to the roof of the parking garage, while she gives up the black box. But, Pierce has his own back-up plan, he shots the black box, which Nikita tossed to the ground and in a short stand-off because Division agents are closing in on their location, Nikita shoots Pierce – who is wearing Kevlar (of course) and she races to the roof where a helicopter is waiting to take her and Birkhoff to safety. They lift-off just as Pierce struggles to reach them in time.

Back in Russia, Alex gives the money Percy handed over to her to the sex trade girls, telling them they can start new lives; but Oksana begs her not to leave them alone. She doesn’t think they can do it on their own, but Alex convinces her they can and she heads toward her “home”.

Meanwhile at their base of operations, Nikita admits she moved too fast on the operation, which landed Birkhoff in so much trouble; and he admits he nearly gave her up to Amanda. And now because of the loss of the black box, Nikita is headed out to find Owen because of his own search for one of the other black boxes. This is the same subject for which Senator Pierce is arguing with her son about – berating him for destroying the box – which he claims he did to save her life. The only option left – now – to get at Nikita is through Alex and the Senator tells her son to activate that plan immediately. This tosses the story back to Alex checking in with Pierce, letting him know she is in Russia and moving forward to her next plan of attack. But, he is well aware of her location because he implanted a tracking device on Alex’s father’s watch, which she is wearing, allowing him to keep tabs on her at all times without her ever knowing.

“Fair Trade” is the ninth episode of the second season of Nikita. The next, new episode – the fall finale – of Nikita will air on The CW on Friday, December 2 at 8/7c.

How did you feel about this episode? Were you surprised by how ruthless Amanda was with her interrogation process or how pleasure she seemed to take from it? Were you impressed by Nikita’s plan to get him free? Were you happy to see Pierce step up, even if for a brief moment, to the plate by blowing away the black box? Are you concerned about Alex with her solo mission to Russia? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.