USA Network Synopsis
When Section discovers a wealthy terrorist plans to fund upcoming civilian attacks,
Michael and Nikita pose as money launderers in order to stop him. However, his assistant,
Giraldi, claims to be a Section operative who has been in the field for nine years
and wants to be brought back in. When Nikita informs Operations, he tells her to
ignore his request, but when Madeline finds out, she insists Nikita bring him in.
Now, Nikita is caught between Madeline and Operations, and a man’s life hangs in
the balance.
My Synopsis
"Madeline gives her smile of death to two people in this episode: a nameless
operative and her husband." Ooh... USA forgot to mention that the operative
was Madeline's husband! Duh! Okay, I didn't really like this episode.
Maddy's husband was such a wimp! (And totally unattractive--and I love
bald men.) I didn't get the impression that she really cared about him at
all (and I think killing him sealed that envelope). Some people have speculated
that she was married to him by order of Section, and that seems completely
plausible. Now why Ops would keep the knowledge that he was alive from her is
somewhat beyond me. He must have done it out of lust, heh heh. Or maybe he
did it so they could be together (and they couldn't be together if he was
still in the picture). According to the timeline that LFN has set for us (as
odd as it is), Charles disappeared about a year after Operations and Madeline
took over Section. So maybe... ahh, who knows? And we probably never will. I
hate that. But I did love Madeline's smiles of death, which are captured for all
of eternity in two of the pictures below. I felt bad for Nikita, actually.
She must really be getting mixed signals about Madeline now. Their exchange
after Madeline kills Charles is both interesting and sad. And Operations'
total dumbass remarks to Madeline at the end were enough to make me want
to slap him. You know she knows, so don't screw up again! Oooh, another thing people are
wondering about: the death/murder of that operative at the beginning. I think
it goes along with "Gambit" and Madeline's definition of it in the episode
(which was cut): 'when you sacrifice a pawn to gain a more strategic position.'
They needed the intel that the SOTW had, and he wasn't going to give it up
because of his brother's murder. So Madeline let him kill the operative so
that Section could get the intel. That's just my two cents on it :)
Other Intel
*Originally, when Madeline confronts Charles, they were going to kiss. (It
makes more sense that they don't, IMHO.)
Favorite Madeline Quote
"Congratulations." (smack!)