Nikita “Canceled” 

Y’all know that one of my major peeves is when a show mwa-ha-ha’s us and then rounds back to tell us what they were all really up to. If this hadn’t been a series finale, and the comeuppance hadn’t been so delicious, I’d have been PISSED. But because both of those things were true, I can deal.

What seemed to transpire is that Nikita went Dirty Harry on the crew at the top of the Shop while her team (sans Alex, who was right there alongside her) scrambled to talk sense into her and reel her back in at the behest of the Senator. Everything came together at the home of Adrian (Vincent Ventresca), the head of the Shop, where Nikita held them hostage while on a direct line video feed to Amanda and then killed them one by one and had a throwdown with Alex until she was taken down by the military and found herself in a Supermax holding cell, again face to face with Amanda, who was almost apoplectic in her glee that Nikita was defeated.

That lasted about a minute and a half, and when Amanda finally wrapped up her list of all of Nikita’s slights against her, Nikita very quietly told her she wasn’t done, freed herself, and spun Amanda around into the shackles. Amanda screamed for Slocum, her Colonel clone who was supervising the Shop op and then the doors opened and he slid to the floor. Nikita brought in Nerd and Alex and they unraveled for her, and us, that the whole thing was a dupe–that Nikita hadn’t lost her way. She had subverted her inner savage in favor of deception and played the greatest con of all in removing and detaining the Shop heads to draw Amanda out while Nerd actually located the clone originals and Michael and Sam freed them. Once all of this was laid out, Nikita called Amanda “Helen” one last time and left her where no one could find her as Amanda screamed her name.

Back at CIA headquarters, the Senator thanks Nikita and the team and commends her on the con. He tells her they’re all pardoned and she turns back to the wall of stars as the Senator tells her Ryan will be remembered and she runs her hand over his name in the book of fallen agents.

Then we pick up with a VO of Nikita talking about their freedom as a final gift from Ryan. First, we see Alex as she heads onstage for a speech and Sam is at her side as a bodyguard. They razz each other a bit and she invites him to dinner. He makes a joke about her needing him to open the wine and she reminds him she doesn’t drink before she heads out on stage.

In a coffee bar, Nerd is giving an interview and telling a reporter that he’s released the Shadownet code as a form of open source anarchy at the behest of the girl waiting for him in London (Sonya, who does not appear in the episode).

Finally, we find Nikita and Michael hand in hand on a beach in Ecuador. They head into a beachside shack and Michael gets their drinks. Nikita sits, taking in the sun, and as she casts her gaze across the room, there’s Ryan, seated on the patio, smiling at her (and I burst into tears). He cocks his head toward the outside and she sees a man forcing a shotgun into a boy’s hands. Michael brings back their drinks–both non-alcoholic–and Nikita smiles knowingly as he sets them down. She takes his hand and we see their wedding bands. She asks him if he thinks everybody will be mad that they they eloped. He smiles and says it’s not like they planned it. She smiles back and says she has an idea for the honeymoon. She looks outside and he follows her gaze to the boy with the gun. She jumps up and he smiles an “oh, well” and rushes outside behind her. She finishes her VO that she was never one to sit on the beach, anyway. And the last shot is of two mint and lime waters waiting on the table with the ocean in view behind them.

Peace, at least.

Now, it was subtle, but I’m taking the unplanned elopement and the non-alcoholic drinks to mean that Nikita is pregnant at the end, because while Alex doesn’t drink, I’m pretty certain we’ve seen Nikita and Michael drink wine more than once. And if it’s a lost leader and it’s nothing to do with anything, it’s still a nice way to leave them.

I’m torn that we didn’t see Sonya again so Nerd only got a partial wrap up, but I know it was a logistics issue because Lyndie Greenwood was Sleepy Hollowing. It’s just a shame they couldn’t spring her for a day to wrap up.

I also kind of hate that we never got Owen back, although it’s fitting that Alex be paired with him in the end when she’s had to be duplicitous and live two very different lives, and she can relate to Sam regaining his identity while trying to figure out where Owen fits into that without shutting him out entirely.

I’ve said since we kicked off  last month, that I’m so glad we were given a proper wrap up, and this was the way to do it. I would like to have been in on the plan instead of told afterward, but we didn’t really have the time to hear the it all laid out. I’d like to know at what point Michael and Nerd were read in, and whether Michael’s pleas to Nikita were really genuine when he said them, and if what he expressed to the Senator about a concern for her focus was true at the time, or part of the con. Nikita tells Amanda she listened to Michael, so I think that means he was read in later but we don’t really know.

As for leaving Amanda to rot, I’m kind of OK with that. Nikita tells her plainly she wanted to rip her guts out and wipe the walls with them, but was talked down by her family and friends. I think the leaving of Amanda in another hole, to dovetail to the childhood that made her into a monster in the first place, is fitting. And it means if anybody ever resurrects these characters, there’s still a big bad in play.

I’m also glad the flashbacks were kept to a minimum as we saw the wild woman Nikita was in 2004 but didn’t linger there. When we opened with it, I was afraid we were in for a clip show. Thankfully, it was a brief glimpse for folks who maybe weren’t up on the lore of how Nikita got here, and how her grudge match with Amanda was born.

I love that we finished with Michael and Nikita, in love, together, happy, and safe. I came to the show late in the first season when TPTB boldly pulled the trigger on them as a couple. They have always been the anchor for me. I love how they ended up, with hope, and peace, and still a twinkling of drive to right the wrongs in the world on their own terms.

Sidebar: I hope Vincent Ventresca is now on people’s radar for pilot season. I was a HUGE Invisible Man fan, and Ventresca was wonderful in it as Darien Fawkes. I’ve so wanted him back on my TV every week, so I hope his arc here as Adrian pays off.

We also need Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Devon Sawa back on other shows ASAP (Shane West is headlining WGN America’s first show, Salem (along with Xander Berkeley); and Aaron Stanford and Noah Bean are shooting a pilot based on 12 Monkeys for Syfy).

All of Nikita’s fourth season is available on iTunes, and if you missed the finale, it’s up on the CW website.