Innocent

[cin]

So the only way were' gonna get through all 96 eps is if we book it. So,
I'm paring down the reviews a bit. Here goes:

Innocent:

I've decided to forego any arguments about where Section is (as revealed in
s3) v. where the writers assumed it was in s1. So, no discussion on what
"...into the country" means.

Post 9/11 world, Michael saying "Assuming he plans to land the plane" is
still unsettling.

Nik w/ Michael in the white room during his initial interrogation. Is this
the first time since Charity she's been back in the white room? Remember in
Charity she involved herself in the interrogation of Skylar against
Michael's wishes ("Well... by all means... come.") and she finds out about
the trafficking of children? So, what was she expecting this time?

She sees Michael who is unable to cope with this atypical white room
scenario. Clearly Rudy's different, and not just because he's "simple" as
Nikita calls him. He actually *is* innocent and doesn't really have a lot
of *seemingly* useful information. So Michael who said in a previous
episode - "If you're a hammer, you treat everything as if were a nail" - is
unable to cope with Rudy outside the typical White Room hammer and nail
scenario. He's unable to or disinterested in even figuring out if anything
Rudy does know is useful. Leave that to Nikita - she figures it out. She
relates best to Rudy since she's both an innocent and, in a certain way,
simple. She's simple black-n-white, not the more sophisticated, difficult,
nuanced shades o' gray. Makes me think that the point here is that Nikita's
POV is conveyed as quaint and naive when in fact Section's notion of greater
good is held as paramount, even though it's flawed in this case.

Comm: Everybody's watching the communique. Everybody. No way would
everybody be there to see that. But I like that Nik has a sense of what's
coming and chooses to look away before the gun goes off. She even flinches.
Michael does neither.

Michael's office: Nik schools Mike on how to deal with Rudy. She's got the
upperhand for a while - she got intel nobody else could get from Rudy.
Michael succinctly turns that around on her and takes back control "You
might be right about the sister. Go back in there and calm him down." Nik
won't have it, though, and calls him out. " That's a good idea, Michael."
Take that!

Rudy's interrogation w/ Ops: I love LOVE how Ops tells Rudy he's 500 feet
below ground and Rudy looks up. Wonderful acting that! and then to follow
that up w/ "Who's Birkoff? Is he the big cheese?" Bwahahaha!

Well, simpleton Rudy is smart enough to finger the wrong guy and escape.
Guess Rudy's not so simple after all. Does this mean Nik's POV is now less
valid - go easy on the interrogation techniques and get the wrong
information? Because the usual violent White Room Techniques always get the
right information, right? Hm... it's a conundrum.

Conference call: For the most covert anti-terrorist unit on the planet, one
would think that Section would be more of a lone wolf than one who takes
conference calls and team works with other Agencies. And shouldn't this
conference call be done in private, not in Comm where any Joe Op can see?

Ops goes outside Section. Wow. This is a big deal. And we know it because
he says, "If I'm killed, implement the chain of command." He's risking
himself for the greater good. Two seasons down the road, he will do
anything to maintain control of Section. Interesting. We believe Section
still is something striving toward the greater good. We won't in another
couple of seasons.

Preemptive Rudy cancellation: Seems hasty and it proves to be so. It's
kinda scary that Section is so organized that there'd be no lag time here
between issuing the command and carrying it out. Why so hasty, Ops? Is the
cafeteria budget in the red you can't feed Rudy for one more day? It seems
time and time again that Section relies on it's techniques and protocols.
They assume the mission will be successful and that there will be no further
information needed. Such assumptions fail them. Good thing The Twins were
running a little late.

Didn't you just love those foam hand restraints? Heh... I love even more
that Magyar thinks at this point having his finger back will be useful.
Doesn't he know he's a goner at this point? Can he spell Cancel?

Tag: Ops gives Nik a little speech about black-n-white v. gray. Nik
thinks she's won - Section let's Rudy go with the aid of a Cesium clock and
satellite tracking. Rudy may have been innocent at the beginning, but he
no longer is now. Now he's a threat to Section's very survival.

Tomorrow? Gambit. Neither of these eps are among my favorite, but I will
plug through.

[laura]

Hi cin! Glad to see we're moving along with the ep discussions. This
is so interesting!

Post by cin
She sees Michael who is unable to cope with this atypical white room
scenario.  Clearly Rudy's different, and not just because he's "simple" as
Nikita calls him.  He actually *is* innocent and doesn't really have a lot
of *seemingly* useful information.  So Michael who said in a previous
episode - "If you're a hammer, you treat everything as if were a nail" - is
unable to cope with Rudy outside the typical White Room hammer and nail
scenario.  He's unable to or disinterested in even figuring out if anything
Rudy does know is useful.  Leave that to Nikita - she figures it out.  She
relates best to Rudy since she's both an innocent and, in a certain way,
simple.  She's simple black-n-white, not the more sophisticated, difficult,
nuanced shades o' gray.  Makes me think that the point here is that Nikita's
POV is conveyed as quaint and naive when in fact Section's notion of greater
good is held as paramount, even though it's flawed in this case.

I loved that scene. It was like Rudy produced some kind of a role-
reversal between Michael and Nikita in terms of their "rythm". He, the
veteran and wise interrogator, the patient, calm, cool and collected
one, now kind of gets frustrated with Rudy. She, the inexperienced,
rash, hotheaded and impatient one, adapts to Rudy's "slowness" and
actually gets much better results than Michael, Ops and Birkoff all
combined (btw, where's Maddy in this ep? I'd have love to see her
interaction wih Rudy!). Why is that? Because of Nikita's empathy,
which allows her to overcome her natural impatience because she
understands Rudy needs a "different" approach than the average white
room guest. Michael, OTOH, is still quite green in the empathy/
compassion front, so he can't deal with this situation as well as her.

Post by cin
Comm:  Everybody's watching the communique.  Everybody.  No way would
everybody be there to see that.  But I like that Nik has a sense of what's
coming and chooses to look away before the gun goes off.  She even flinches.
Michael does neither.

Yep. There was more like a "family" feel in section back in season 1.
Like a "we are in this together" feeling, a sense of unity of purpose
that gradually disappeared.

Post by cin
Well, simpleton Rudy is smart enough to finger the wrong guy and escape.
Guess Rudy's not so simple after all.  Does this mean Nik's POV is now less
valid - go easy on the interrogation techniques and get the wrong
information?  Because the usual violent White Room Techniques always get the
right information, right?  Hm... it's a conundrum.

IMHO, it wasn't Nikita's technique that failed, but Michael and
section's "stick to standard rules" point of view. If they had only
tried to understand Rudy and his need to care for his sister, he would
have identified Maygar directly at the party.

Post by cin
Tag:  Ops gives Nik a little speech about black-n-white v. gray.   Nik
thinks she's won - Section  let's Rudy go with the aid of a Cesium clock and
satellite tracking.   Rudy may have been innocent at the beginning, but he
no longer is now.  Now he's a threat to Section's very survival.

I remember the first time I watched this ep I felt relieved that the
tag was much more optimistic than the previos ones. For once, the good
guy got out, free. A rare gesture of compassion by Ops/section. I
wonder who was that young operative who convinced Ops to let that
other innocent free. Maybe Michael when he was a rookie op? Maybe
Simone? Jurgen? Ah, possibilities...
Of course, not everything is rose-colored , this is section after all:
Nikita will have to cancel Rudy herself if he can't keep the secret.
btw, why didn't they modify his memory a bit, like they did with young
Louis Armel in PP? Wouldn't it have been much safer? Maybe the
technique was not developed enough at the time? It seems to me like a
very big danger, entrusting Section's security to Rudy's discretion. I
have the feeling that, had this episode occurred in later seasons,
dection would never have accepted to take this risk. Either way, we
didn't know anything more about Rudy, so we could assume he did really
keep his word. I hope.

Laura

[cin]

"laura" <***@eresmas.com>

<<IBecause of Nikita's empathy,
which allows her to overcome her natural impatience because she
understands Rudy needs a "different" approach than the average white
room guest. Michael, OTOH, is still quite green in the empathy/
compassion front, so he can't deal with this situation as well as her.>>

I like your points about empathy.

I do think Section relies on its own tried and true methods - distraction,
subterfuge, brute force interrogation. If it can't be done forcefully
(whether that's fake paralyzing fluid in an IV or getting the brains beaten
out of you), then Section supposes the information just isn't there or is
knowable. It's a false option, though. Nikita does show there are other
ways of doing things, and in Section's opinion, she's simple and naive like
Rudy (even though she's right).

But you're right - where is Maddie in this episode? Would things have been
different? Usually I think of Michael as more empathetic than her.

Comm: Everybody's watching the communique. Everybody. No way would
everybody be there to see that. But I like that Nik has a sense of what's
coming and chooses to look away before the gun goes off. She even
flinches.
Michael does neither.

<<Yep. There was more like a "family" feel in section back in season 1.
Like a "we are in this together" feeling, a sense of unity of purpose
that gradually disappeared.>>

That was back when we didn't know how big Section was or how many Sections
there were (and neither did the writers).

Well, simpleton Rudy is smart enough to finger the wrong guy and escape.
Guess Rudy's not so simple after all. Does this mean Nik's POV is now less
valid - go easy on the interrogation techniques and get the wrong
information? Because the usual violent White Room Techniques always get
the
right information, right? Hm... it's a conundrum.

<<IMHO, it wasn't Nikita's technique that failed, but Michael and
section's "stick to standard rules" point of view. If they had only
tried to understand Rudy and his need to care for his sister, he would
have identified Maygar directly at the party.>>

I agree with you. I was referring to how Section would turn the situation
around to suit itself. Section would always make it seem like Nik's pov was
invalid, weak, etc. What's the viewer's POV? Somewhere between Section and
Nik.

Tag: Ops gives Nik a little speech about black-n-white v. gray. Nik
thinks she's won - Section let's Rudy go with the aid of a Cesium clock
and
satellite tracking. Rudy may have been innocent at the beginning, but he
no longer is now. Now he's a threat to Section's very survival.

<<I remember the first time I watched this ep I felt relieved that the
tag was much more optimistic than the previos ones. For once, the good
guy got out, free. A rare gesture of compassion by Ops/section. I
wonder who was that young operative who convinced Ops to let that
other innocent free. Maybe Michael when he was a rookie op? Maybe
Simone? Jurgen? Ah, possibilities...>>

Interesting point.

My guess is probably not Michael. If Ops has been in Section for 24 years
and only 9 with Michael, I suppose the lesson was learned long before
Michael came around.

<<Of course, not everything is rose-colored , this is section after all:
Nikita will have to cancel Rudy herself if he can't keep the secret.
btw, why didn't they modify his memory a bit, like they did with young
Louis Armel in PP? >>

They did that? I don't recall. s2 was a long time ago. LOL!

<<Either way, we
didn't know anything more about Rudy, so we could assume he did really
keep his word. I hope.>>

I think the point was that nobody would believe Rudy's story, right?

Still... he's kind of a ticking time bomb. He's really no longer innocent
and none of it is his fault... just like Nikita.

cin

[laura]

 Nikita does show there are other
ways of doing things, and in Section's opinion, she's simple and naive like
Rudy (even though she's right).

Yep, that's Nikita. Always thinking outside the box, struggling to
find another, more compassionate way, even if it's against Section's
standard protocols. That's what gives me hope for her after season 5;
she knows there are other ways to do things. I believe she'll revise
the old rules and try to incorporate her compassion in them. And
she'll do it in a way that Section's efficiency levels will even rise.

But you're right - where is Maddie in this episode?  Would things have been
different?  Usually I think of Michael as more empathetic than her.

I agree, Madeline is not empathetic. But she's a good analyst of
people's minds. Maybe she would have realized Nikita was making some
progress with Rudy (which neither Ops nor Michael seemed to really
acknowledge) and so she would have asked Ops, for permission to let
Nik do things a bit differently this time around (given the urgency of
the situation). Maybe.

My guess is probably not Michael.  If Ops has been in Section for 24 years
and only 9 with Michael, I suppose the lesson was learned long before
Michael came around.

So, you think this happened before Michael-Simone-Jurgen's time? They
let Rudy free, so I guess the lesson was not so well learned after
all.

They did that?  I don't recall.  s2 was a long time ago.  LOL!

Yep:

Maddy: What do you want to do with Louis Armel?
Ops: Louis Armel? Oh, yes, the young boy. What's our exposure if we
release him?
Maddy: If you want to do that I'd recommend some memory modification
Ops: Is he of any use to us?
Maddy: We considered that, but it wouldn't work
Ops: Let's do the modification, and let him go, but keep him
monitored


laura