It was a reboot of a television show which itself was based on a previously-released film. I came to this show more than halfway through its four-year run not expecting all that much but quickly fell for characters of former killers and assassins turned heroes trying to make the world a better place.
Over 73 episodes Nikita‘s (Maggie Q) mission would continue to change as each season reset the stakes turning enemies to allies and former friends into enemies. Set against the evil Division, a shadow agency training assassins for the U.S. Government, the show began with Nikita and her protege Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) attempting to expose and destroy Division, but the show would have many twists and turns before Nikita’s journey from killer to assassin to hero to fugitive and back to hero was finished. Along for the ride are computer nerd Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford), the villainous Amanda (Melinda Clarke), and Michael (Shane West) whose relationship to our heroine is… let’s just say complicated.
After four years Nikita comes to a close with a final episode putting Nikita (Maggie Q) and Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) back into the field as assassins to avenge the death of Ryan (Noah Bean) and take down Amanda (Melinda Clarke) and the remaining members of the shadow organization responsible for his death. Offering us flashbacks to Nikita’s early troubled days in Division, the finale plays on themes of the character returning to the emotionless killer Division recruited but struggled to control.
The penultimate episode of Nikita offers us the calm before the storm, at least until harsh reality cracks the illusion of victory and safety Nikita (Maggie Q) and her team believe they have won. We begin with Nikita, Michael (Shane West), Ryan (Noah Bean), Sonya (Lyndie Greenwood), and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) all living in suburban homes on a Washington military base. In a single montage “Bubble” offers each of their separate testimony over the dark history of Division and the roads that have led them to this point which leads to Nikita becoming the hero of the story Washington desperately needs to present to frame the story and end the national nightmare.
With Nikita (Maggie Q), Michael (Shane West), Ryan (Noah Bean), and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) in Pakistan attermpting to stop WWIII and Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Sam (Devon Sawa) in Switzerland attempting to access the only non-frozen assets of the Udinov fortune, Nikita and her team are offered a deal by Jones (David S. Lee). Although they don’t agree to call-off their operation, The Shop does offer to fake the lives of Nikita and her entire team, allowing them to start new lives elsewhere as long as they all agree to stop interfering in The Shop’s plans.
Hitting the halfway point of the show’s final six-episode Fourth Season, “Step-Up” focuses on Birkhoff‘s (Aaron Stanford) suspicious behavior and the trouble Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) runs into in India after Amanda‘s (Melinda Clarke) manipulations make it appear as if she is privately funding Nikita’s terrorist network. Although Ryan‘s (Noah Bean) suspicions put everyone on edge it turns out Birkhoff isn’t a mole for Amanda but has hidden the likely target of Ronald Peller (Judd Nelson) who he believes has been swapped out with one of Amanda’s doubles. Fearing exposing the fake will endanger the real Peller, Birkhoff didn’t want to put his father in any more danger.
100 days after being framed for the murder of President Spencer (Michelle Nolden) and abandoning her team and going on the run alone, Nikita (Maggie Q) returns to the United States in the first episode of the show’s final season. Her friends haven’t been idle in her absence as Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca)and Sonya (Lyndie Greenwood) have been working in India to shutdown the human trafficking rings feeding The Shop with living guinea pigs for their experiments. Meanwhile Michael (Shane West) has been busy scrounging every piece of information for a lead on his missing fiance as Ryan (Noah Bean) and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) have been trying to discover how the very few pieces of the puzzle the have discovered fit together in Amanda‘s (Melinda Clarke) latest grand scheme.
It was a reboot of a television show which itself was based on a previously-released film. I came to this show more than halfway through its four-year run not expecting all that much but quickly fell for characters of former killers and assassins turned heroes trying to make the world a better place.