- Nikita tests a virtual reality device and finds herself brainwashed into performing a suicide/assassination.
- "Section needs a volunteer, and Nikita is the one volunteered. She's subjected to a mind-control machine that's come into the organization's possession...and secretly falls under the machine's deadly sway."
This episode opens with Operations briefing the team on a terrorist who was found dead. They searched his contacts and found only one name they did not know. Nikita's mission is to make contact with this man and try to find out who he is. She goes to the restaurant where he tends bar and scans his fingerprint when he brings her drink to her. Birchoff's voice and fingerprint scans confirm that it is him. Nikita asks him if he knows Jason Daro (the dead terrorist) and Birchoff's scan of his response indicates that he is telling the truth; he doesn't know the terrorist. The man then grabs a barstool, throws it through the window, and jumps to his death...smiling the whole time.
Section searches the man's apartment and finds a machine called a phasing shell. Birchoff and Walter have differing opinions on how to test it. Birchoff explains the difference between the phasing shell and virtual reality: in VR, you are passive, just watching...in the phasing shell, you are active and change the outcome. Birchoff says to fully understand the machine, they need a person to use it; Nikita is volunteered.
Nikita steps into the machine and watches as pictures flash by. Birchoff explains that the program is searching for a response to a familiar scene. Nikita sees an old memory from her childhood, a bunch of children picking on her and beating her up. She grabs a stick from one of the boys and scares them all away. During her debrief with Madeline, she says it feels as though a weight has been lifted from her shoulders; one she wasn't even aware of having.
Birchoff and Walter are still testing the shell. Birchoff finds out that the software for the machine was loaded five times, meaning there are four other machines out there still. Madeline says the only act an untrained person can successfully complete is a suicide assassination.
That night at home, Nikita has trouble resting. The images keep coming back to her and her vision blurs. She goes to bed, but begins hallucinating that one of her mother's old (abusive) boyfriends is in the apartment. She defends herself but every time she shoots or throws something, he disappears. Michael comes to the door and asks if she's ok. Nikita tells him she's fine and doesn't let him in.
The next day, Michael finds Madeline studying the machine. He is worried about Nikita and wants to know what Section knows. Madeline explains the designer's personality based on the model. Birchoff has spent time searching the images looking for clues. He finds one with a company logo; Madeline has Michael assemble their team. Nikita goes to Walter and volunteers to help them test the shell again. He warns her that it is dangerous and to stay away from it.
Michael poses as an employee and sneaks into the company. Michael kidnaps the woman in charge, but she yells for the guards and is shot in the crossfire.
Nikita sneaks into the room where the shell is kept and uses the machine. She wants to battle her mother's old boyfriend. When he is beating on her, his face changes. She defeats him and once again experiences the high of winning. Just as she's leaving, Walter comes in and catches her. She tells him she doesn't care that it is dangerous, that the machine is helping her get rid of the things that have been holding her back.
Walter tells Michael about Nikita's using the shell, while Birchoff is searching for the injured woman's background. Madeline goes to see her and tells her she is dying. She refuses to give up the target, but is willing to talk about the shell. She explains what Nikita's been experiencing; that it helps the person fight their demons and let go of the past. The shell puts a new face on the person's terror, the face of the target...making him the new enemy. Madeline talks to the woman about the Chinese Premier and figures out he is the target by listening to the heartrate monitor.
The mission is now to prevent the other conditioned people from killing the Premier. Michael comes to see Nikita again. She closes the door without letting him and he breaks the door down. She has the look of an addict going through withdrawals and he promises to help get through this after the mission.
Once on the mission, Nikita has trouble focusing; she sees flashes of the memories from the shell. The Premier arrives as Birchoff is realizing just how potent the shell is...and that Nikita may be affected. Nikita is rubbing her ear as she's having the flashes and she sees another man doing the same thing. When they remove him from the scene, he has a gun. Michael tells Nikita to help escort the Premier out of the building. Michael shoots another person and Nikita gets the last, saving the Premier. Now Nikita becomes the problem, attempting to shoot the Premier. Michael deflects the gun just in time and she collapses in his arms.
In the final scene, Nikita returns to the room where the shell is kept. She's disheveled and it looks as though she hasn't conquered her addiction. Michael enters the room as Nikita is smashing it. He tells her it is ok and that they will get her through this.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content