For some reason, Alex is tapped for a mission where she has to kill some crime boss. Who he is or why he has to die isn't really important; it's all just backdrop for the real plot of the episode. In fact, neither Nikita nor Alex discuss trying to save him. Nikita does plan on killing the guy herself, though, so that Alex doesn't have to become a murderer. Alex protests that she can do this, and we get flashbacks to when Nikita and Alex were planning the robbery (from the series premiere) that shows this pattern in their roles. When Alex botches the assignment, Thom's the one who takes him down. At Nikita's insistence, Alex hands her over to Division, so that they don't "cancel" her for her failure. The plan is for Alex and Nikita to escape together once they're inside Division, but things don't go well for them.
There are a couple of hitches in the plan: First, there's the ever-annoying Jaden, who has ratted out Alex to Thom. Then there's Birkhoff, who has finally uncovered the secret chatting program that Alex and Nikita have been using. The software is untraceable, though, so they have no idea who's been using it. All they know for sure is that Nikita has some mole on the inside helping her out. Everything comes to a head when Alex sets off bombs to create the diversion that will allow her and Nikita to escape. Thom finds her, and even though Alex wants to explain everything to him, they start a fight that ends with Alex accidentally shooting and killing poor Thom. Nikita escapes while Alex plants evidence on Thom's body that marks him as the mole. Having thus completed her first kill, Alex graduates to full agent status. She doesn't feel much like celebrating. Stay tuned for the full weecap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We're back to the usual voice-over this week, but the music at the end is a little different. There are horns of sadness instead of the little percussive dongs of defiance. Anyway, Alex is trying on an assortment of cocktail dresses for Amanda, most of which displease both Amanda and me. I'm pretty sure I wore one of them to a junior high dance. Finally, she tries on a red number that I sort of like, but Michael, watching from the doorway, says he prefers a sapphire dress we didn't get to see. "It's better for concealing a weapon," he says. Alex looks shocked to hear a weapon is needed, so her mentors explain that her new mission will be her graduation test. "Do you know what that means?" Amanda asks. If she didn't, she'd be a pretty sucky graduate. "It's a kill job," Alex says. "I have to waste someone or I get wasted myself."
She keeps her cool until she can get to the computer lab and freak out to Nikita. Nikita is shocked at how early this is happening (so am I, lady) but assures Alex that she won't have to kill anyone. She proposes they handle this like their other missions: "You set 'em up, I knock 'em down." As long as Nikita is the reason for Alex failing to kill her target, she won't get in trouble. Or so she thinks, anyway. She flashes back to six months before Alex's recruitment. The two of them are in the Loft of Fabulousness, frustrated that Nikita was too late to save an ambassador being targeted by Division. Alex suggests they hack into Division's networks, but Nikita doesn't think they can get past Birkhoff. We find out about the chat program they've been using in the present day, and how Nikita installed it when she was a recruit. It's just a simple chat shell, not sophisticated enough to hack the system. Alex volunteers to be recruited by Division so that she can feed Nikita info from the inside. Nikita thinks it's too dangerous. "No risk, no reward," Alex reminds her. Nikita smiles in the past, but frowns in the present.
Alex and Robin Givens drive up to the gate outside a big honkin' mansion for the recon part of Alex's mission. A guard via intercom asks, "Can I help you?" He's very polite for the employee of a crime syndicate. Givens introduces herself as Mary the wedding planner. While the guard scans the vehicle (electronically, it seems; no one actually shows up), Mary starts getting nervous. Alex tells her to relax: "I'm just here to take to take pictures; you just do what you normally do." "I don't normally do this undercover stuff," Mary says. Gee, I hope those guards aren't still listening through the intercom. Mary's a wedding planner who's apparently under Division's thumb because of some IRS mess. There's more blah-blah-blahing, but none of it's really important.