NIKITA Mid-Season Analysis: 3 WHATs and an OH MAN!

I don’t usually talk to my TV, but at the conclusion of the last four new episodes of Nikita, I have found myself doing exactly that. Specifically, three WHAT?!?’s and an Ooooh MAN! I know February is sweeps month, but Mr. Silverstein and company have really outdone themselves this month.

Can Amanda take control of Division?

In the last scene of “Sanctuary” back in January, cool, calculated, precise, Amanda, who never seemed to have any real ties to anyone but Percy (which ties have clearly suffered since she has been keeping him prisoner in the bottom of a silo most of the season) is in her office with the blinds closed. After a particularly stressful day trying to keep Division under her control, she calmly pours herself a glass of wine, sits down, takes a slow sip, reaches for a small silver box on the table next to her, opens it, pulls out some small pieces of fabric and, totally out of character, drops them MESSILY on the table! And now she reaches in again and takes out a cell phone that the watcher understands she has kept hidden from everyone, presses one button, waits a moment and says “Can you talk?” Episode ends. I involuntarily blurt out “WHAT?!?” And then we have to wait, because we have no Nikita for a couple of weeks.

“Clean Sweep” aired February 3, and ends with Amanda on the secret cell phone again. Dressed in her leopard print skirt and tight white blouse, Amanda seems to have dressed for the person on the other end. She thanks this secret ally for sending their hit squad to save her day and asks how she can ever repay the favor. We see the back of the office chair her cohort is seated in, the conversation continues, the chair swivels around and we see the person on the other end is Ari Tasonov! Again with the astounded and involuntary “WHAT!?!” I sit stunned, my mind full of questions and flashbacks of scenes that might have held clues to this revelation. Then I quickly check the schedule to make sure we will have answers in only one week.

Fortunately the next episode, “Rogue”, did air the following week and we find out much more about these two and what they are up to. We also find out more about Carla, the lady that rescued Nikita from her former self-destructive life. The lady Nikita was trying to protect so many years ago and ended up shooting a police officer and going to prison. The lady Percy has threatened to go after to get even with Nikita. The lady who is top priority, even over Percy and Nikita, on Amanda’s hit list. And, “What!?!”, the lady who CREATED Division?

“Origins” brought even more surprising twists and turns. Truly this show has become a puzzle created for the fans by a puzzle-master. This, the last of the new episodes until March, ends with Carla making a secret phone call to Percy asking for his help to gain control of Division. “Oooh MAN!!”

What reactions will the rest of this season of Nikita elicit? Find out when new episodes return to the CW on March 16.