‘Nikita’ Recap and Review: Consequences

‘Consequences’ is the Nikita episode fans have been waiting for since the start of Season 3 – with the returns of Owen (Devon Sawa, now a series regular) and Amanda (Melinda Clarke), it’s almost like another season premiere.

The former is discovered in a Russian prison, where an agent named Anne is sent to obtain his release in exchange for the location of “the device.” When Owen doesn’t go peacefully, he gets knocked out and winds up in the back of her van. When he comes to, he attacks Anne again and succeeds in driving the van off the road, allowing him to make his escape.

While that’s happening, Nikita, Michael, Alex and Sean are out at dinner, celebrating Michael and Nikita’s engagement. “It’s gotta get easier from here, right?” Alex comments, which is a cue for something to get worse. The dinner is interrupted by an emergency page from Birkhoff, who wants to see Michael and Nikita immediately. As they leave, Sean, whose relationship with Alex seems to be going well if he’s calling her “honey,” reluctantly tells her that “you need to leave Division,” which only makes her walk out, too.

Michael and Nikita meet Sonya and Birkhoff, who break the news of Owen’s escape. According to reports, he’s tried to rob the same bank in Montreal that Nikita first encountered him at during season one. Nikita knows this is a message to her, so she takes Michael – and a Division backup team ordered by Ryan – to meet Owen at an abandoned school in the same city. Not knowing any better, Owen attacks the Division agents, and doesn’t accept Michael and Nikita’s quick explanation of recent events. Michael ends up having to taze Owen to subdue him, while remarking to Nikita, “What? I didn’t shoot him.”

Once Owen is brought to Division, Ryan wants him interrogated in order to find out where he’s been and what he’s been up to, and assigns Alex to do the job. Owen tells Alex about Anne breaking him out of the Russian prison, and that “she wanted an information on an old mission.” That’s Operation Skeleton Key, which has to do with “unbreakable decryption algorithms,” according to Birkhoff. Or, as Michael simplifies it for the audience, the engineer who designed the black boxes of Season 2 lore and the master key that would allow access to any system in the world. Only three people knew where to find said key: Percy, the deceased engineer, and Owen.

Owen becomes the latest person to question Division’s new motives, telling Nikita that “actions have consequences.” She brushes this off and goes with him and Michael to find the key, which is hidden in a cemetery under the headstone of Anthony George. No sooner has Owen found the key than a bunch of thugs emerge and start shooting. Leading them is none other than Owen’s new best friend Anne. He tries to subdue her, but she stabs him repeatedly with a hypodermic needle and steals the key, running to a car being driven by Amanda. Nikita can only stand and watch as the vehicle drives away. “Anne’s just a soldier,” she says. “It’s Amanda’s army.”

This news doesn’t go over well with Ryan, especially when Michael suggests that they might be ex-Gogol, not unlike Amanda’s boyfriend Ari Tasarov. Nikita wonders why Anne didn’t kill Owen when she had the opportunity, leading her to think Amanda wants Owen alive for something. She finds Owen wandering around Division, asking himself the same question. Owen tells her that he can’t remember any of his life before he came to Division. “It’s blank,” he says. “I realized every time I try to remember my life before Division, I get these headaches, worse than anything…Amanda did this to me and I want to know why.”

Amanda and Anne arrive in Luxembourg to meet Amanda’s partner in crime Ari Tasarov (the fantastic and underappreciated Peter Outerbridge). Amanda hands him the key and he tells her “this is going to make us a great deal of money.” When he asks after Nikita, Amanda tells Ari she gave the other woman “a housewarming gift. She should be opening it soon.” By that she means the unconscious thug who survived the cemetery shootout; when the Division medics try to wake him up, they release a biohazard agent that was hidden inside his body, killing them.

Michael, Nikita and Ryan survey the damage – eight people dead and four likely to expire – and get a not-so-friendly video message from Amanda. “This was no accident and you no longer have a safe place,” she says. “Nikita murdered Percy and she forced me out.” Her rant goes on for awhile, including threats to just about everyone, while Birkhoff realizes she must be using the master key. Ari deduces that Amanda went with Anne to the cemetery to make sure her human weapon ended up at Division, and does not approve of her approach, correctly noting that Amanda is letting her anger toward Nikita drive her.

While Nikita tries to placate everyone and search for Amanda, Sean returns to ask Alex why she’s not returning his calls and ask her again why she’s still there. “I can’t tell you what to do, Alex, but I’m not going to stand by and watch this place destroy another person that I love,” he says before he kisses her. “I love you, but if that’s not enough of a reason for you to leave, I’ve got no reason to stay.” After he leaves, she pops a pill and heads for the operations floor, insisting that she ought to be included in the hunt for Amanda, which Ryan names Operation Black Forest.

Nikita, Michael, Alex and Owen arrive in Luxembourg with hopes of capturing Amanda. Their cover is quickly blown thanks to Alex’s altercation with a henchman and the raid becomes a free-for-all. Alex reinjures her arm, but she and Michael recover the key. Owen confronts Amanda in the basement, demanding answers. She reveals that his name used to be Sam just before Ari and Anne interrupt their conversation. Ari angrily realizes that Amanda never wanted the master key in the first place – she was after Owen. Perhaps jealous, he stabs Owen, who lies bleeding and frustrated as Ari, Amanda and Anne flee.

Everyone returns to Division, with Alex trying to call Sean but getting his answering machine, and Owen waking up bandaged on an exam table. For someone recently stabbed in the stomach, he’s surprisingly okay. “After Emily died, I got up every morning thinking that today would be the day that I’d finally put an end to Percy. It’s what drove me,” he tells Nikita. “Now he’s gone and the whole world has changed. I’m not really sure what’s next. I’m not even really sure who I am.” After Nikita points out that he’s the first rogue agent they’ve brought back alive, he offers to stick around.

Birkhoff wonders how Amanda knew how to send her video taunt to Division at the right time. He and Sonya deduce that there must be a mole. Meanwhile, Amanda looks at surveillance photos of Nikita from the last three episodes, and declares “I am not done teaching her.”

“Consequences” is the strongest episode of Nikita‘s third season to date, because it finally brings into play everything that’s been teased so far. The returns of Owen and Amanda live up to the hype, and it’s a very pleasant gift to see Ari again, as Peter Outerbridge’s expanded role was one of the best aspects of season two. The writers wisely continue to use Ari as an equal to Amanda rather than merely having him cameo to keep continuity.

The other major thread is the advancement of Alex and Sean’s relationship, a welcome development given that she hasn’t had anything in that direction since her brief and abruptly truncated involvement with Nathan in season one. With characters returning and subplots emerging, “Consequences” gives the audience their best look at the show’s future course to date. Now depending on how the mole storyline plays out, with surprises like Sarin gas hidden in human bodies, this could be a wild ride of a season.

Nikita now takes some time off and moves forward on the schedule: the show will be back Friday, November 30th at the earlier time of 8 PM ET/PT.

For more from Brittany Frederick, visit Digital Airwaves and follow me on Twitter (@tvbrittanyf).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Digital Airwaves. Appears at Fanbolt with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.

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  1. so glad owen and amanda is back. woohoo!!.. i have forgotten how evil/manipulative amanda can be. she is an awesome bad guy on the show. i so saw sean confession his love for alex a mile away. surprised it took him this long to tell her. as much as i love them together i do not see alex walking away from nikita/division to be with him. and i think her painpill addiction is only going to get worse. wonder who amanda’s inside mole is? im kinda leaning towards ryan. ever since he started leading division i don’t trust him anymore