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Division decides to test Alex's interrogation skills with an Egyptian terrorist. She's too soft on him, and he nearly strangles her. Percy notices that Michael seems a little soft on Alex, judging by his tender ministrations when she's hurt. Later, Alex and all the recruits (minus Jaden -- woo!) are on a bus headed for a shooting range when the terrorists hijack the bus. Alex and Thom are kidnapped. Alex is tortured for information, but it turns out it's all a part of Division's test. The terrorists are all agents, including the one Alex "interrogated" earlier. While Percy, Michael and the rest watch, Alex seemingly gives up Division info, goes nuts when she's shown Thom's "dead" body, shoots her captor, and escapes into the world beyond. Percy sends Michael to "fix" the situation. Alex immediately calls Nikita from a pay phone.
Nikita's been busy with Hot Owen from the last episode. He spends some time trying to escape and a lot more time just lying around naked. Nikita eventually earns his trust when she tells him the story of how her fiancé Daniel was killed. Owen realizes he was the one who killed Daniel. He first gives up the location of that black box he's got hidden and then confesses to Daniel's murder. Nikita is devastated. Owen wants her to kill him, but this is when she gets that call from Alex, so she can't deal with him just yet. When she leaves, Owen escapes to go dig up the black box himself, after first looking like he's going to kill himself with an overdose of morphine. Damn, that was tense.
Nikita goes to rescue Alex, but Michael shows up before she can do anything. Michael begs Alex to trust him when he says he won't let Percy hurt her. He returns her to Division, where Percy orders her killed. Michael seems more than happy to oblige, much to Alex's horror, but it turns out Percy was just testing him and cancels the cancelling. Michael later tells Alex that he knew he was being tested and knew she was in no real danger. Does she believe him? We'll see. Throughout the episode, there are flashbacks that reveal the truth about Alex's parents: Division killed them, and Nikita hid a young Alex to keep her from meeting the same fate. Nikita's revealing of this is when Alex decided to team up with her against Division, thus filling in that little gap in our knowledge. Stay tuned for the full weecap for the rest of the gaps.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!This week, Nikita's voice-over at the beginning of the episode is updated to include a reference to Owen and the black box. After that, we start things off one year ago, with Nikita leading Alex through a cemetery. She shows her a grave marker. Alex reads the inscription and asks, "Who's 'Nikita'?" "Me," Nikita answers. Wait, they went through that whole detox-in-a-box thing and Nikita never mentioned her name? Huh. Her last name isn't shown, for whatever reason. Nikita says according to records, she was executed by lethal injection. Alex is understandably weirded out, more so when Nikita goes on to explain how the same black ops program that faked her death also killed Alex's parents. Nikita knows because she was there that night and rescued Alex. Overwhelmed, Alex runs. Nikita watches her go and then whispers, "Told you you weren't ready." Then why'd you tell her?
Alex runs and runs all the way into the present day. She's lying in bed, in her Charm School quarters. She sits up and looks thoughtful for a while. thing we see is an increasingly grungy-looking Birkhoff and the recruits in the computer lab. He says they have three minutes to finish whatever they're working on before they report to Amanda. Alex uses the time to message Nikita about an upcoming evaluation. She seems unconcerned that the recruit behind her might see what she's doing. Alex will be interrogating a new prisoner. Nikita tells her to find what info she can.
Meanwhile, Michael is just dropping by Percy's office to welcome him back from Montreal. Also: "I thought you'd like to discuss me breaking into your office." Percy doesn't look surprised or concerned. Michael starts explaining (sort of) but Percy cuts him off. The only time he's doubted Michael's loyalty was during his relationship with Nikita. Michael tries not to have a visible reaction. He just asks, "What relationship?" Percy gives him a funny look then says they don't have to worry about Nikita anymore. He's sure she's dead after shooting blindly into the water in her general direction. He says the divers will find her body, and the body of the agent who was with her. Michael tries to casually find out who that agent was, but Percy only ominously identifies him as "another soldier who couldn't follow orders."
Make that a hot soldier who couldn't follow orders. He's currently in Nikita's loft, handcuffed to the bed in which he's just awakened. His bare torso is bruised to hell. There are bandages on his shoulder and abdomen. He tugs at his cuffs. Nikita greets him mildly from her computer desk. "Where am I?" he asks. "My safe house," she says. "You've been in and out of consciousness for 48 hours." I hope at least one of those "in" times was used to visit the little boy's room. She tells him she removed Percy's bullet and tracking implant. She walks by his bedside to show him the bullet. Lightning quick, he kicks her, flips her, then pins her to the bed under his leg. Nikita pulls off her metal belt buckle and stabs him in the thigh with it. She escapes and runs across the room for a gun. He yanks the buckle out of his leg and throws it at her, shuriken-style. It thunks into the lid of her gun safe. She levels a pistol at him. "Do it!" he shouts. Instead, she throws him a towel and some antiseptic for his new wound. She wants him to trust her, but he blames her for Emily's death. Before Nikita showed up, Emily was safe. Nikita tells him Percy would have killed him and Emily. He looks like he knows it but doesn't want to believe it. He accuses Nikita of wanting the same thing Percy does, namely the black box Owen has hidden somewhere. Nikita agrees. "But we'll deal with that later," she says, then shoots him with a tranquilizer dart. "Right after I patch you up -- again." Heh.
Charm School. A sharply-dressed Alex is walking with Amanda toward the interrogation room where her evaluation will take place. Waiting for her is Maro, an Egyptian terrorist. Amanda tells her she has ten minutes to get Maro to give up the names of the other members of his cell. She gives Alex a little remote control for an "electrocution device" they've put on Maro. Alex walks into the room and three Division heavies walk out, leaving her alone with Maro, who is... pretty easy on the eyes. He's shirtless, sitting in a chair, hands tied behind his back. Wires are hooked up to his head and chest. He mocks Alex's youth. Amanda joins the gang in Ops to watch. Michael is surprised to see Percy sitting in on an evaluation. Percy is there because of Michael's high opinion of Alex. Alex questions Maro, bringing up his family in Cairo. "Give up your peoples' location, and maybe you'll get to see them again." Amanda tells her, via an earpiece, to try a "negative" incentive. Alex hesitates. Maro spits on her. See, I would have shocked the dude right there. Like, a whole lot. Instead, she leans over and whispers in his ear, begging him to tell her something. He breaks out of his flimsy restraints and pins her against the wall by her throat. Maybe they should have used a Street Sweeper's Daughter or some other means of restraint. Michael and the heavies bust in and pull Maro off her. Michael checks her neck tenderly. Percy and Amanda watch with interest as Michael offers to get Alex an icepack for her booboos.
Alex seems none the worse for the wear as she works out in the training room. Michael comes in to tell the recruits they'll be learning to use sniper rifles at an off-site training ground. As the recruits leave to get ready, Thom catches up to Alex and says he's sorry he wasn't there during her evaluation. "I would have beat that guy's head in," he says. Aww, it's love!
In Nikita's fabulous loft, Owen is just waking up for the second time and realizing he's buck naked under the sheets. He's hungry, so Nikita offers to make him a veggie shake, which sounds awful. He asks about his newest wound and Nikita uses it as a segue to discuss other hurts, like losing Emily. They have something in common: "Division took everything from me, too." That's why she ran away. She tells him about falling in love with Daniel three years ago. He was a goofy (but hot) web designer. They were going to live on the beach and have a family. "What happened?" Owen asks. Nikita tells him about finding Daniel face-down in the lake by his parents' cabin in the Adirondacks. A look of growing recognition comes over Owen's face. "Coroner said he drowned," Nikita says. "But I knew it was Division." Nikita says if she can get that black box, she'll be that much closer to bringing down Percy and then he won't be able to hurt anyone else.
Meanwhile, the recruits are on a bus. The windows are blacked out. Armed guards sit up front. Alex and Thom are sitting to each other. Thom brings up the night he kissed her and plays it off like it was no biggie. His hair is about two feet high in this scene. Their conversation is cut short when the bus suddenly skids to a stop. Bullets pierce the windows. The guards go down. Masked men board the bus and grab the recruits. Alex gets the butt of a rifle to the back of the head. She goes down.
She wakes some time later in a dank warehouse of some kind, duct-taped to a chair. Copper wire encircles her ankles. A man walks in carrying a small case. By way of introduction, he says, "Your people took my brother from his bed while he was sleeping." He shows her a picture of Maro. Alex claims never to have seen him. He takes a battery from the base and hooks it up to the copper wire. She says she doesn't know where his brother is, but he gives her a shock just the same. She cries out. Via a small camera tucked into the corner of the warehouse, everyone back at Division is watching. Amanda remarks coolly that Alex seems to be buying into their "scenario." "It's Samir," Percy says. "He sells it every time." Maro walks into the room behind them, now clad in a suit. Amanda greets him as "Agent Rahal." Percy walks outside with Rahal while Birkhoff munches Twizzlers like he's at the movies. Michael questions the use of electric shock, cringing when Alex gets juiced again. Amanda explains, basically, that it's for her own good. Percy comes back just in time to see Alex getting jolted again. She offers information in exchange for mercy. When Samir lets up, she spits out that she works for a group called Division. "But I'm not one of them," she says. Percy and Amanda are puzzled by Alex's approach. Alex tells Samir about being abducted along with all the other recruits. "She gave that up pretty easy," Percy says. Michael protests that she lasted three rounds of electric shock. Amanda thinks Alex is manipulating Samir, making Division seem like a common enemy. Alex secretly works at the duct tape binding her wrists.
Back in the Loft of Fabulousness, Nikita is checking for messages. This doesn't escape Owen's notice. She lies that she was looking for black boxes. Owen says there are six other guardians she'd have to get through. He doesn't know who they are, though. He tells her he was picked by Percy because he was Percy's favorite cleaner. But then he met Emily. "Then it hit me," he says. "I started to see the people I killed, their faces." I won't transcribe the rest for time's sake, but it's a really good scene. Mr. Sawa can convey a lot while chained to a bed.
Torture warehouse. Samir mentions Thom, being held in the room. Thom hasn't said anything about Division, which makes Samir doubt Alex. "He's been there longer," she says, her voice shaking with quiet rage. "He's been brainwashed." I wish Lyndsy Fonseca were a few years older so she could have been Nikita. [Maybe season! - Zach]Samir turns on a two-way handset and lets Alex hear Thom being roughed up. "Tell me the truth or he dies," he says. Alex has no other information to give. Samir leaves and goes to Thom's room. Some men hold Thom down and inject him which Amanda explains will make him seem dead. Percy shushes them: "I'm trying to watch!" Heh. Alex hears a gunshot. Thom is dragged into the room and dropped onto the floor in front of her, fake blood on his shirt. Samir questions Alex about her family. Michael wants it to stop, but Amanda had Samir ask these questions specifically to learn more about Alex. Alex whispers, drawing Samir closer to her in order to tell him more, but as soon as he leans toward her, she busts out of her tape restraints and grabs his gun. He rushes her and she shoots. Michael and Birkhoff flinch. Alex screams. Percy gives the order to get Alex before she escapes, but she's already clambering out of a vent shaft to freedom.
Time for another flashback: Nikita finds Alex huddled under a bridge as the rain falls around them. She tosses Alex an envelope. "Leave me alone," Alex says. Nikita acquiesces and walks a few steps away. Alex looks in the envelope; it's full of money and a fake ID. She calls Nikita back, confused. Nikita tells Alex again about the night she rescued her. Alex bitterly remembers what happened afterwards, being sold to sex traffickers by a family friend. Nikita swears she had nothing to do with that. "Once I escaped from Division," she says, "I told myself if I could find you, see if you were okay, then I would have done one good thing in my life." Her voice breaks with emotion. She just wanted Alex to know the truth. She walks away while Alex watches, wide-eyed.
In the present, Alex is running through the woods. Birkhoff activates her tracker and finds her headed toward a truck stop. "Prep a team immediately," Percy says. Michael says he'll handle it himself.
In the Loft of Fabulousness, Nikita is giving Owen a little injection of morphine, careful not to give him too much. He looks at her for a long time then tells her where he hid the black box. He wants her to go get it and take down Percy. "I'm going to stay here till you're better," she says. "And then we're gonna go get it together." "I'd like that," Owen says, "but I don't think it was meant to be." Damn, that sheet is slipping kind of low. He's saying something about how he was an in-house cleaner. He calls himself a "reaper," someone who cancelled other agents and the people they'd fallen in love with. Nikita listens with growing realization of what he's confessing to her, shaking her head, but unable to not come to any other conclusion. "How?" she whispers. "It was quick," he says. "He didn't feel a thing." Nikita breaks down crying. Owen says he realized he was the one who killed Daniel from how Nikita described the scene. Nikita wants to know if Michael knew, but Percy gave Owen his orders directly. Nikita either is numb or Maggie Q is finished acting for this scene.
Alex runs to the truck stop and calls Nikita on a pay phone. Nikita reluctantly turns away from Owen to answer. Alex explains the situation to her. It sounds like a test Division once put Nikita through. Nikita promises to get her and changes outfits for some reason, while Owen does the gentlemanly thing by averting his eyes. She picks out a gun. "Do it," he says. "That's why I told you where I hid the box; you don't need me anymore." She gives him an icy look and leaves without shooting him, much to his surprise.
Nikita pulls up at the truck stop. Alex takes a few steps towards her, but Michael arrives and Nikita ducks behind a gas pump. He tells Alex the whole thing was part of an exercise. She's infuriated that they made her kill someone. "That was the agent's fault," Michael says. "You did what you had to do to survive." He leads her to his car and promises he won't let Percy do anything to her. "I'm not gonna lose you, too," he says, leaning his forehead close to hers. Nikita overhears this. He takes Alex by the shoulders and for a while it looks like he's going to hug her, but instead eases her into the car.
Meanwhile, back at the loft, Owen sees the morphine bottle and syringe lying on a table near his feet. He gives the bottle a long, serious look that made me dread the seeming inevitability of Nikita returning to find his dead body.
Charm School. Michael leads Alex into the training room. She looks like a zombie, perking up a little only when she sees Thom alive and well. Percy arrives and an agent orders all the recruits to scram. Michael's hair looks really red suddenly. "Is this your idea of handling a situation?" Percy asks. Michael says he couldn't leave a dead body out there, so he brought Alex back here. "I think this is best handled on sub-level six," he says. Alex tries to run but two heavies grab her. "That won't be necessary," Percy says. They release her. Samir walks in wearing a suit. Percy tells Michael that it wasn't Alex being tested. "Or rather, she wasn't the only one," Percy says. Samir was told to let Alex escape in order to test Michael, to make sure Alex wasn't another Nikita. "Did I pass your test or not?" Michael asks. "For the most part," Percy tells him. Alex pronounces them all sick and storms off.
Later, Michael visits her in her quarters. She's furious at his betrayal. He implies that he knew he was being tested all along. She looks doubtful but clearly wants to believe him. He leaves so that she can have a flashback in privacy. She remembers returning to Nikita's loft and telling Nikita that she believes her story. She wants to help Nikita bring down Division. She asks Nikita to train her. "They killed my parents," she says. "This is my fight, too." Nikita gives her a long look.
In the present day, Nikita is returning to her loft. She finds Owen's bed empty and draws her gun. The syringe lies near his pillow, the needle bent from being used to unlock his handcuffs. She finds a note: "I have to do this on my own. I'm sorry." The last thing we see is Owen, back in Montreal, digging up the black box. He lives to return some other day! Hurray!
All right, I said the episode gets an "automatic A" because there was no Jaden, but that's not the only reason for the high grade. The pacing was good, the plotting was smart, the acting was mostly effective. Here's hoping the show continues in this direction.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see who we think is the most annoying character on the show. And see what our vlogger thinks of Nikita when he has No Prior Knowledge, below!
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Tippi Blevins is going shopping for a deadly belt buckle. You can reach her at b_tippi@yahoo.com or http://twitter.com/tippib.