Gambit

Gambit
La Femme Nikita
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 111
Directed by	Jon Cassar
Written by	Michael Loceff
Production code	113
Original air date	June 29, 1997
Episode guide
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"Gambit" is the eleventh episode of the first season of La Femme Nikita.

Summary

George Kessler is a terrorist with a mind of a serial killer, but his physical identity is unknown. To stop the theft of a canister of Cobalt 60, Section must find and capture him--and fast. Section finally does so, but the battle has only just begun. Madeline quickly discovers that Kessler is a master of mind games, which eventually requires her to risk her life in order achieve Section's objective.

Plot

Teaser

A haunting chorus rises up to a full moon over water.  In a dark room are four people in a row, bound in chairs, blindfolded with red cloth.  They are in extreme fear.  Madeline emerges from the shadows wearing a comm set. "I want the information or four innocent people will die," Madeline says. She lifts a handgun and chambers a bullet. "We'll do the best we can," an unseen man answers. Madeline shoots the man at the far end of the line.  He slumps forward. "I want the information or three innocent people will die," Madeline says.

Nikita walks through the halls of Section. As she passes Comm, Birkoff takes note of her appearance with a slice of pizza half way to his mouth. "What are you doing here?" He asks her. "Madeline wants to see me," Nikita replies.

Madeline shoots a second hostage and that individual falls to the floor with their chair.

"Are you sure?" Birkoff asks Nikita. "Yeah. Why?" She replies. "I think she's tied up right now," he tells her. Nikita is intrigued and sounds it.

Madeline points her handgun at the final hostage, a young woman.  The woman trembles and gasps, in fear for her life. "What's your answer?" Madeline asks the man she'd been negotiating with. "Okay. We'll give you what you want." Madeline removes the blindfold from the woman’s face. "Good news," Madeline tells her. "They met my demands."

Act 3

Madeline enters the interrogation room where Kessler wears a head piece that promotes torture. She approaches the machine controlling the pain and turns it off. The head piece lifts off of Kessler but he remains suspended by this bonds. He sighs in relief. "I was having the most pleasant dream," he tells Madeline. "You were in it, I think. Yes, I think it was you. Two little girls. One had auburn hair and the other's was a little darker. You were playing at the top of the stairs. You both wanted the doll and then I can't remember what happened then. Perhaps you can help, Madeline?" Madeline steps closer and Kessler prompts her once more. "We have your daughter. We have Annie," Madeline informs him. "Well, I have never met Annie," he responds, somewhat dismissive. "I doubt she has the same capacity to endure pain as you. In fact, she will suffer from the start and it won't end for a long time." Madeline is calm in her delivery. "Why would you have all people want to harm an innocent young girl?" Kessler reacts, bothered by Madeline's words. "I never said I wanted to," Madeline replies. "You won't do this. You cannot do this," Kessler tells her. Madeline turns to leave but Kessler calls out to her. "I'll tell you what you want to know...once I'm convinced that it is her." Madeline considers the request. "She's on her way," She tells him and walks out.

Tag

While in her apartment, Nikita hears a knock at her front door. She rises to answer it and is surprised by who she sees, it's Madeline, who asks if she can come in. Upon her entrance, Nikita asks her if something was wrong. "I've never been here before. It's not what I expected," Madeline comments as she looks around the apartment. "Oh yeah, well, what did you expect?" Nikita asks curiously. "Something darker, more severe. I like it." Madeline walks over to Nikita's balcony window. "Do you want something? I'm just having some tea," Nikita offers. "Tea would be fine, yes. This is a beautiful view," Madeline compliments as she continues to look out of the balcony window. "Isn't it? Sometimes I stand here for hours, just looking out over the city," Nikita confesses. The two women continue to look out at the view. "So why are you here?" Nikita ask her. "To remember," Madeline replies. "To remember what?" Nikita asks. "Who I was," Madeline tells her simply as she sips her tea.

Cast

Main Cast Peta Wilson as Nikita Roy Dupuis as Michael Eugene Robert Glazer as Operations Alberta Watson as Madeline Matthew Ferguson as Seymour Birkoff Don Francks as Walter

Special Guest Stars Harris Yulin as George Kessler

Episode Quotes

• Madeline: (referring to Annie)"Is she dead?"
  Nikita: "Not yet. But she won't make it through the night. So we were wrong. She didn't mean anything to Kessler."
  Madeline: "On the contrary. He cared enough to kill her. It was an act of mercy, Nikita. He was protecting her."
  Nikita: "Protecting her? From who?"
  Madeline: "From us."

Behind the Scenes

Joel Surnow said the following in Retrovision #6: "We wanted to do a Madeline show. We wanted to bring somebody in to match wits with Madeline that would start to reveal things about her. It sort of became a little bit like Silence of the Lambs along the way, but we didn't set out to do that. It sort of takes on some of those shades. The guy was almost mystical. He knew things about her that he dropped in very cryptic ways that we don't know how he knew, but we just know this is a guy who's been in the terrorist community and been at it brilliantly for 30 years. It's like getting Carlos the Jackal in his prime. We just came up with a back story for Madeline that she was sort of a bad seed as a child, with a little bit of wiggle room that maybe she killed her sister, maybe she didn't. The point of this show was to give Alberta an episode and to (a) let us see what the show is like when Nikita is not in the foreground -- and I think it was very successful -- and (b) it started to show the strength of our cast is such that we could do stories about the other characters so we didn't have to dwell on Michael and Nikita in every episode, which, quite frankly, gets tiring if you're just going to hit that relationship each week. We started to expand and do a few new colors."

Music

No third party music was used in this episode.

Trivia

• Harris Yulin received a Cable ACE Awards nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series for this episode.

• Jon Cassar received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Direction in a Dramatic Series for this episode.