airali_glo

Cress

Nikita didn't notice Birkhoff wasn't there until she turned around to the empty computer desk.

I'm glad that Alex let the secret out, but it is kind of disturbing that Nikita had to put a new file on the black box. They are so turning into Percy, threatening the government to get their way.

Fogh

They aren't threatening the goverment, they are using leverage so they don't get killed along with 300 other people inside Division.

And I absolutely loved this episode. Alex and Birkhoff has the kind of banter the rest of the characters don't. It is really ashame they haven't utilized it sooner.

LGfan1

I think Amanda did more to Alex then the show is letting on. I think she was drugged and put in the room with that surgical brain chair. Alex sure stared at it for a long time when they went back for that other lady. Almost as if she was recalling somthing or had some kind of feeling about it. Which goes along with her sudden change in personality and everyones comments about it. Does anyone else have any thoughts about that?

FrellingTralk

I'm thinking that might be the case too, Alex seems so single-minded and angry that it's a bit of a sudden change

Fogh

I don't think Amanda did something to her. I think Amanda used her probe to plant a memory of Larissa to cause split between Nikita and Alex. Amanda seemed curious to why Alex didn't want to go to Paris, she didn't smirk.

I think Amanda knows what buttons to push and she pushed Alex'. What Alex does in the next episodes isn't because Amanda did something but Larissa was the trigger/catalyst and I do think Larissa was Amanda's fabrication.

LGfan1

It will be interesting to find out. I think the probe was used by Amanda, Im just not sure in what way. I only hope it is reversible. I don't like this aggressive Alex.

Fogh

Again I don't think it is reversible because I don't think Amanda did anything but plant the memory. Alex' reaction is based on her personality and her unresolved reactions towards Nikita. She has followed her blindly before but when she wanted to go her own way she did (Semak). I think this is a repeat. Also she believes that Division will corrupt the people in it and they won't ever escape.

LGfan1

When you say plant the memory, do you mean with the probe or by suggestion?

Fogh

I guess if you can remove memories with the probe, maybe you can plant them too with some hypnosis. Either way I don't think Larissa was real.

Cress

They are blackmailing Danforth with the black box in the same way that Percy blackmailed all the members of Oversight so that Division will still have money and still operate.

I know they're doing it to save the Division agents from getting killed, but I think it's also part of their slow corruption. When Nikita looked at the black box and said, "We're free?" questioningly, I felt she was saying they had started down a bad road. It's going to be difficult to stop themselves from doing more things that Percy used to do.

Fogh

I have no doubts that they are in over their heads and getting sucked deeper into it. It isn't them that is corrupt though. It is Division itself. Birkhoff said it best when he said they were forced over the line. It isn't them actively crossing it. They are getting pushed.

airali_glo

Yeah, it's something they often don't realize, if not later, when it's too late. Division has the power to corrupt and Ryan and Nikita maybe are too much "naive" to believe that it won't happen with them. Division has never been good, but when you are just an agent or you're outside of it, it's easy to think that the others are the bad ones, but that won't happen with you. Michael and Nikita thought this in S1, too.

Nikita, Michael, Ryan are too involved with their role that they can't see it. Percy knew that what he was doing wasn't good and honest, because he wasn't like that, he never sais he was. Now they think they are stronger, that they can resist the corruption. But it's a sly thing.

Alex suddently saw it and protested against it, but I'm sure, now, that it was all an Amanda's plan. She knows Alex, she knows the "other Alex" and she knows Nikita too. Amanda knew that Alex, with a little (probably unreal) help - Larissa - which made her sensible to other related things, would have raised against Nikita at some point, uncapable to keep hiding things to the other agents, leading to an uprising.

Probably at some point it would have happened anyway, Amanda just quickened the process. Remember what Nikita said in 3x07: that the people she cares about are Amanda's targets. And Amanda will use different methods for each one of them. Just killing them wouldn't be enough.

Cress

I remember what Birkhoff said an in earlier episode. Nikita was saying that Division was different now without Percy, but Birkoff said Division was always illegal. Both Nikita and Ryan don't seem to realize that the badness is built into Division because they're secret, illegal, and don't follow any laws, like in the CIA or FBI would have to. It's corrupting.

airali_glo

It's corrupting, but they can't realize it. Or better, they know that can happen, but they're like "no, it won't happen to me". I don't think they really want that power and to be corrupted. Percy loved that power, Ryan and Nikita don't. It's a subtle thing, I'm sure they don't realize it completely.

They know that with Division is not all wrong or righ overall. So I want to believe them when they say that they want to do the right thing and they're trying to do it, but it's not so simple as Alex (but also Nikita thought in the previous seasons) makes it.