- Title: Nikita – The Sword’s Edge
- tv.com: link
Nikita (Maggie Q) and her team target Uzbekistan President Markov (Jonathan Goad), a former undercover Division agent who has wormed his way into power over the last few months by killing his way to the top. Unable to tell President Spencer (Michelle Nolden), who is one more Division mistake away from sending in the Special Forces to clean house, that she’s about to sit down with a dirty Division agent who is running his own country, Ryan (Noah Bean) suggests replacing Markov with a double and then arranging a natural and public death far away from U.S. soil. Meanwhile Ryan assigns Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) to begin searching for Amanda’s (Melinda Clarke) mole inside Division.
With the use of some knock-out gas and a well-placed fragment grenade Nikita is able to capture their wayward agent turned world leader, and with Birkhoff’s (Aaron Stanford) latest toy the team prepares to substitute Michael (Shane West) in his place before his guards release their President is missing. Things don’t go quite according to plan when Markov wakes up and cleverly blackmails Division into releasing him by threatening to expose his entire history with Division, which once exposed would give President Spencer the only excuse she needs to burn the entire operation to the ground.
After letting Markov go Division discovers his plan to kill President Spencer during their meeting in the name of Percy and the Division the Spencer allowed to be destroyed. With no other choice, Division puts a modified version of their original plan into action by kidnapping and replacing the assassin inside the White House only minutes before he has a chance to carry out his plan.
Back in Division Alex and Owen (Devon Sawa) barely survive an explosion which they believe was set by Amanda’s mole. However, an investigation leads them to a far more personal motive for the attack as Owen’s fractured past nearly gets him killed twice in the space of a single afternoon. The storyline also leaves a dangling thread by foreshadowing a possible connection between Owen’s butterfly tattoo (marking one of his many Division kills) and its possible link to Alex’s past.
“The Sword’s Edge” works well and finally reveals to the rest of the major Division players just how narrow a line they are walking while working secretly for the United States Government. Despite the anger on discovering how dangerous their situation is the team agrees to rally around Ryan and work on their stealth while seeking out the remainder of Division’s “dirty thirty.” The search for Amanda’s mole is abandoned due to the imminent danger to Spencer, but next week’s mid-season finale may well shed some light on who is betraying Division from within.
