Ok for those wondering here is how DL died and the little hint the producers threw in as a limitation to his power.

If you notice as the guy takes the gun out and aims it at DL the gun actually makes contact with his chest and you hear a small thud (Added SFX).

Which mean even if DL would have phase it would have still killed him. It would have simply phased the gun and the bullet with him.

Therefore they just put a limitation on the power. In order to kill a phaser or shifter or whatever all you have to do is make contact with him before he phases and he cant get away.

This episode really made me like DL and it's too bad he is dead. He was the only thing good about the Niki/Jess story line.

So the episode where DL dies is when you start to like him? That is ironic.

Anyway, the death thing came suddenly, but I thought it was really good as far as moving Niki's story along. After that incident, Niki has got to be feeling racked with guilt and desperate for help. Good motivation for Niki to go back to the company.

Looking in retrospect, I'm surprised that Micah didn't freak out on Niki more in their last scene together. Niki in essence caused DL's death, and then dumped Micah to go live with some distant relatives. If I were Micah, I would have flipped on Niki.

I'm starting to like Niki more and more, it's just unfortunate what they had to do to get her there.