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| 420 - Face In The Mirror |
| Writer/Director |
Peter Lenkov and Lawrence
Hetzog / René Bonniere |
| Michael's POV Onscreen:
26 minutes |
Bursting into her apartment,
Mick Schtoppel seems mysteriously to have some serious business with Nikita (see Four
Light Years Farther) but stops short when he sees Michael resting on the bed, and
launches into some typical Mick nonsense. Section have discovered that Maurice Grenet has
succeeded The Cardinal as leader of Red Cell, and have identified a window of opportunity
to take him out. Overseeing the mission disguised as a guest at Grenet’s
daughter’s wedding, Michael goes to investigate why Nikita has failed to shoot
Grenet, and finds her apparently seriously wounded. The wound, however, is superficial,
and Michael later follows her from her apartment to observe her meeting Grenet himself.
He’s home when she returns and confirms his suspicions that she shot herself, and is
collaborating with Grenet to escape from Section. Nikita drugs Michael and hands him over
to Red Cell in return for his iris scan. Michael is tortured and escapes, but meanwhile
Nikita has used his corneal access to sink her files, and has undergone cosmetic surgery
to complete her disappearance. Discussing how he might be used to get her back, Madeline
shows Michael a false sim that suggests that Nikita will try to kill him if they make
contact, whereas in reality the probability is that she will persuade him to come away
with her |
| Michael Moments |
Sporting a white tux as the
wedding guest
Preparing a candlelit dinner
Escaping from his torturers |
| Words of Wisdom |
"We have an operative down."
"I let you in close
enough to hurt." |
Performance Rating
 |
Into the closing arc, for
what was thought at the time to be the last storyline of the series. With the final plot
twist already on paper, the writers make the most of playing up the new domesticity that
now exists between Michael and Nikita – he rests up on her bed and can whiz back from
spying on her to rustle up a candlelit dinner before you can say "double agent".
Apart from that, though, there is a tired sense of déja vu. The wedding scene has none of
the tension of T J Scott’s earlier version in Obsessed, while the torture
scenes in René Bonniere’s own War and Not Was were far more dramatic
than this one. Directing his 17th episode, and his 6th of this
season, René Bonniere seems to have lost some of his edge, and there are some
astonishingly glaring editing mistakes (like cutting down the tortured Michael –
twice). Roy himself puts in a listless performance, making
Michael appear to take Nikita’s sabotage, collusion with the enemy and defection
almost with an air of weary resignation. Maybe he did judge that this is how a softened
and totally compromised Michael would react by this stage, or maybe it’s just his
personal contribution to the malaise that seems to pervade this episode. |
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