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This is a long post - please excuse my verbosity

The episode opens with a beautiful scene of Michael and Nikita in bed with each other. He comes on to her (all I can do here is just drool), but she refuses his advances, stating that he would hurt his back again. Then she says that she loves him, and he says that he loves her too, and while it does not sound as real than their non-verbal signs of love in some other episodes, it is still nice to hear.

This is the famous Armel mission. Michael and Nikita must obtain files of Joaquim Armel, the lawyer of Franz Gerrin who continues to lead the First Flag terrorist group from his prison cell, using Armel as a courier for his orders. One weakness Armel has is the grief for his son, Louis, whom he apparently lost in a car accident ten months previously. Michael and Nikita play house, pretending to be a happily married couple, and Nikita has to pretend to be a powerful psychic.

Naturally, Armel goes to Nikita for her services as a psychic. When she refuses, as per the mission script, the pair is kidnapped. They are so convincing as two helpless people when their home is invaded – it is just SO funny how Michael says to those goons: “please, don’t hurt us!” – whereas in reality Michael and Nikita can kick their a$$es in no time at all. Such good acting on the part of them both!

Of course, Nikita has to do the most dangerous part – she has to be alone in the room with Armel and two of his goons, persuade him to turn off the security system etc., and keep him busy, while the other operatives are getting into his safe. Here, too, I must admire her acting skills – the way a tear runs down one of her cheeks as she pretends to make the connection with the spirit of the boy. It’s a classic.

From the way Birkoff gives her the intel, Nikita guesses that Louis is still alive, and when Nikita finds out where Section keeps the “buffered hostiles” (so much like Section to treat a young man as a hostile), she finds the video feed of the boy sitting in his cell, acting very bored. Operations catches her at it, and tells her that he is ready to sacrifice the boy if it becomes necessary.

In the end, predictably, they bring in Armel, he tells Madeline everything, and she orders his cancellation. Nikita persuades Madeline to let Armel see Louis through an observation panel of his cell, and tells Armel that Louis will not be harmed. Her human side really shows here – she does this for her own peace of mind. Operations and Madeline later decide to release the boy with some memory modification, because Madeline does note deem him to be useful to the Section.

Also in this episode Madeline finds out that her mother is dying. She asks Operations to let her see her mother, because she is senile and cannot remember anything. At first he refuses, that is until Birkoff makes a comment to him that she appears to be “out of it” and “almost sad”. Obviously, that comment changes his mind and he brings Madeline’s mother into Section so that Madeline can see her for the last time. That is when we find out that Madeline has been blaming herself for her sister’s accidental death for many years. And just when Madeline thought her mother might have forgiven her, her mother calls her “Sarah” as she is about to leave the room. No wonder this encounter did not help Madeline one bit.

Not a bad episode. It is nice to see Nikita in romantic situations with Michael even though it is an act in this one – unlike in some others! The SOTW could be a little less gullible though.

NIGHTJESSI,

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That was such a surprise especially after Hillinger's recruitment. Then again, maybe this boy didn't have any talents that Section could exploit and that's why he was cut loose.

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ITA here - I can imagine Louis Armel was most probably just an ordinary boy. Lucky duck!

Yeah, ShadesOfGrey,

I am very happy

loan31,

INHO, Madeline was very naughty Maybe part of her was enjoying watching Michael and Nikita making love to each other.

Pattyko,

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She was extremely happy about their night....And they just had to be careful not to let anyone from Section see that they REALLY enjoyed the mission

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And oh, what enjoyment they must have had when Michael helped Nikita to "relax" the previous night!