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Nikita Season 1 Episode 10

Dark Matter

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AIRED: Dec 02, 2010

9.0

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Episode Summary

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Owen reveals some top-secret information from Division's black boxes to the media, leaking news that the U.S. Government was behind an assassination in Chile. In response, Percy frames Ryan, a C.I.A. agent, for the assassination. Nikita and Owen get captured when they travel to Chile and attempt to rescue Ryan from mercenaries, and Nikita reveals Division's secrets to Ryan in an effort to save all of their lives. Back at Division, Alex spies on Percy and Birkhoff and sees a new side to Percy.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (1)

Analyst in distress.

8.5

By MovieMark, May 06, 2011

Whenever a network tries to intervene with a show, fans tend to lose a few nights sleep, and rightfully so. Fringe was recently relegated to FOX's Friday night death-slot, a night that has seen the demise of countless TV shows, including Firefly (it still stings). Nikita, however, is doing pretty well ratings-wise for The CW, but, of course, they obviously think they can do better. The Powers That Be noted that they wanted a more light-hearted feel to the series, as they reckon a show about two extremely capable, extremely independent women is losing its core female demographic from The Vampire Diaries lead-in. The solution? A new love interest for Nikita... because no woman is complete unless she has the perfect man by her side. Ahem. Enter CIA junior analyst Ryan Fletcher (Noah Bean, who looks like a cross between Tom Cruise and Christopher Reeve).

We can all breathe a sigh of relief, as the show's formula, from the looks of this episode anyways, isn't going to change all that much. In fact, Ryan's introduction into the series is played completely straight; there's no sign of a possible romantic relationship forming, it's strictly business for now. It's too soon to tell how he'll fit into the show in the long run, especially with the likes of Owen still waiting in the wings, kicking ass and taking names, but there already seems to be yet another arc taking shape involving the CIA and Ryan's persistence in exposing Division. This series has planted enough seeds to span several seasons, never mind filling up the back nine order of this season.

The episode works in solidifying just how powerful an organization Division really is. It can be difficult to remember just how much of an influence Division is meant to have on various covert operations when we're dealing with relatively low-key missions on a weekly basis, but webbing the CIA into the story, broadens Nikita's personal vendetta to a nation-wide ordeal, she's not just taking on a black-ops unit, she's taking on almost every single military and covert branch the US has to offer until she can locate and destroy Percy's black-boxes.

Less interesting this week is the unusual amount of screen-time dedicated to Birkhoff. Aside from being teased about the new Mortal Kombat game coming out early next year (I reaaally want to play it!), there's just not enough here to warrant an entire sub-plot. We learn that Percy is the trigger to activate the black boxes, and I'm not quite sure what the significance of that is. Alex catches a glimpse of Percy's murderous capabilities, but we've seen him attempt far worse on the show, as has Alex herself: he tried to kill her when she escaped during a trial a few weeks back. Speaking of Alex, I'm getting tired of the forced animosity with Jaden. Not only does it slow the episode down, but once again nothing really comes of it... for now. We need to get past this teen-friendly, high-school subplot. It's rubbish!

Still, it's a big win for Nikita this week. After weeks and weeks of small victories, she finally manages to destroy one of Percy's black boxes. Only six more to go! With Owen, Alex and Ryan on her side, Nikita is starting to feel like a true ensemble TV series now. It seemed odd that most of the main characters so far work for the bad guys.

Terrific stuff!moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Ashton Holmes	Thom
Tiffany Hines	Jaden
Aaron Stanford	Birkhoff
Lyndsy Fonseca	Alex
Maggie Q	Nikita
Melinda Clarke	Amanda

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Hamish McEwan	John Fiedler	Guest Star
Michael Cram	Cleary	Guest Star
Jee Yun Lee	News Anchor	Guest Star
Devon Sawa	Owen Elliot	Recurring Role
Noah Bean	Ryan Fletcher	Recurring Role
Rob Stewart	Roan	Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

Devon Sawa as Owen and Maggie Q as Nikit...

© 2010 The CW Television Network
Devon Sawa as Owen on Nikita from the ep...

© 2010 The CW Television Network
Maggie Q as Nikita on Nikita from the ep...

© 2010 The CW Television Network
Devon Sawa as Owen and Maggie Q as Nikit...

© 2010 The CW Television Network

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- Nikita uses the 'ping' command on the IP address she's given by Alex. While running this command will show connectivity, it does not show any information about the owner of the server or its location.
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- When Alex first informs Nikita of Division's plan, she gives the IP address 552.2331.452.02. This is an impossible IP address, since each segment's highest value can only be 255.
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QUOTES (0)
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NOTES (3)
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- Although credited, Ashton Holmes (Thom) and Melinda Clarke (Amanda) do not appear in this episode.
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- Featured Music:
  "Exit Music (For A Film)" by Scala & Kolacny Brothers
  "Little Wars" by Arrica Rose & The ...'s
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Canada: Thursday, December 2, 2010 on A
  United Kingdom: December 9, 2010 on LIVING/LIVING HD
  Australia: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 on GO!
  Czech Republic: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 on TV Nova
  Slovakia: Saturday, March 9, 2013 on Dajto
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Birkhoff: (to designation engineer, referring to Percy) I've got a lot on my mind. It's not every day Lord Sauron steps down from Mount Doom and asks you to forge the one ring.
  
  This is a reference to J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series of fantasy novels. Sauron is the primary antagonist and the character on whom the name of the series is based.
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