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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.
Once they're inside the Zoman mansion, Mary goes over flower options with the snooty bride-to-be and her weary mother. Zoman, the crime boss, is hanging around the perimeter of the room, talking on his cell, always surrounded by guards. Miss Snooty is having trouble envisioning the decorations, so Mary offers to send Alex around to take pictures. They can use software to show her what the finished décor would look like. It's a lot of boring setup, is what it is. When Alex is allowed onto the grounds to snap photos, Nikita is waiting for her. They duck behind a retaining wall in the garden for a confab. Nikita's already scouted out the guards and taken her own pictures. She gives Alex an SD card of images: "I know what angles Michael likes." Dirty. Then Nikita fills her in about Zoman, who's the head of an Armenian crime syndicate. She thinks it's an opportunity. She's going to kill him for Alex and let Alex take the credit so she can graduate. Alex isn't happy with that. "I don't need you to fight for me," she says, "and I don't need you to do my homework for me." She gives back the SD card. Nikita says Alex can't kill, but Alex knows becoming an agent will help her bring down Division. "I can do this," she says. She leaves Nikita to join a guard who's looking for her.
Charm School. Jaden is sparring with other recruits on the training floor when she sees Thom walking by. She takes him to her room, which he mistakes for a booty call, but she gives the "makeshift print pad" that Alex used to break into Percy's office. Jaden says she trusts Thom. Thom turns right around and goes to talk to Alex. He warns her that Jaden is out to get her. "She's always had it in for me," Alex says. "She thinks you are are are, you know, together." "She's mistaken," Thom says, looking shy. He turns to go, but Alex calls him back. She asks what it's like to kill someone. He says it's been a month since he killed that spy: "And I still see her face every day." He also tells her that she's strong -- stronger than him. Sad music plays. Sense of dread... rising!
We flash back to the week before Nikita and Alex's "robbery." They've targeted a drug smuggler who's been on Division's radar. Nikita holds up the cartoon masks we saw in the premiere. "So who do you want to be, the bunny or the piggy?" Alex realizes this means Nikita plans on coming with her. "After all this time, after all this training, you're still worried about me," Alex says. Nikita doesn't want Alex to have to kill someone, even if that someone is awful and doomed anyway. "It takes away a piece of you that you can never get back." A steely Alex decides to wear the bunny mask. Get ready for Night of the Lepus, bitches!
In the present, Alex talks to Michael on the training floor. "Seems like the target has a lot of security," she says. It's probably a normal amount of security for a crime boss. Michael tells her not to worry about that; he'll be there to provide support. While he outlines their plan, we cut to Nikita outside of Zoman's mansion, setting up her own equipment. Michael leads Alex over to a practice dummy and hands her a small syringe of potassium chloride like the one she'll use on Zoman. She jabs the dummy in the side of the neck. Michael advises her to go for the larynx instead: "Paralyze the vocal chords with one blow -- now he's dead and he's quiet." Yeah, I hate noisy dead people, too. He guides her hand to its target a few times, repeating "hush" in a whisper. I can't tell if their physical closeness is supposed to signify sexiness, because the scene is kind of cracking me up. Birkhoff calls Michael away to show him something, leaving Alex to practice her ill-advised larynx jabs.
Ops. Birkhoff shoos everyone else away so that he can show Percy and Michael the breach he's found. He was running a system diagnostic with some new things he learned from the late engineer when he came across a "shell program." He explains that it's a two-way chat and none of the chats are logged. "Nikita," Percy grouses. But Nikita and who? Birkhoff calls up the shell and Percy types in "Nikita are u there?" (He's hip to how young people don't spell things out.) A moment later, he gets a response: "At Zoman estate. Contact later." Michael suggests calling off the Zoman op, but Percy sees an opportunity to get Nikita. Michael is worried about putting their "people" at risk, by which he means Alex. He looks through the observation window, to where she's still jabbing that larynx. He's especially whiskery in this episode. He must be growing in his coat for the cold winter waters.
Zoman wedding. Guests arrive. No one notices Nikita just perched up on the roof like a fashionable bird. Having tapped into the security system, she can watch the party from her little netbook. Alex, in her odd little sapphire dress, has the wedding planner get the bride out of the way. Michael and the other Division backup wait down the road in a conspicuously inconspicuous van. He tells her to go get the weapon. She goes to Thom, who's posing as a bartender. She asks him for a glass of water, which comes with a little cocktail napkin and a syringe. She touches his hand when she takes the syringe. "I'll be right here," he reminds her. As Alex moves to get Zoman upstairs, M
ichael tells Thom to create a diversion. He picks up a tray of champagne flutes, ready to spill them but Nikita cuts the lights. Percy knows it's Nikita's doing, so he tells Michael to find her. Birkhoff uses the shell program: "Where R U?" He, too, knows not to spell things out. Nikita, puzzled, sees on her netbook that her usual chat partner is currently walking up the stairs with Zoman. Realizing her program has been discovered, she grabs her gun and leaps into action.
Alex, alone with Zoman, charges clumsily toward him, syringe upraised. Woman, you should have pretended to fix his tie and then quickly jabbed him. I missed my calling as a spy. But at least I don't have to wear weirdly pleated too-short dresses. Zoman's guard rushes in. Alex knocks him out and grabs his gun. The syringe is broken. Michael tells her to take the target but Alex hesitates. She flashes back to the robbery. She has the drug smuggler on his knees, but can't shoot. He grabs the gun from her and Nikita shoots him in the back. In the present day, Thom spots Nikita heading into the party. More guards attack Alex. Nikita finds her and together they fight them off. Percy tells Michael to get inside and kill both Nikita and the target. Panicked guests scatter. Michael, running up to the mansion with no cover whatsoever, is shot in the leg by one of Zoman's guards. A gunfight ensues. Zoman runs back toward the house, but Thom meets him on the steps and efficiently empties three rounds into his chest.
Nikita and Alex run into a garden shed, cornered by Division operatives. Alex feels defeated because she couldn't pull the trigger. "You were right and now we're both dead." Nikita has a plan: Alex will hand Nikita over to Division. Once inside, they'll get out together through the silo escape hatch. Nikita hands Alex her gun, instructing her to hit her. Alex, hearing the operatives approaching, screws up her courage and pistol whips Nikita. She's in the middle of kicking Nikita a few times when Thom comes in and grabs her. Michael zaps Nikita with some fancy cattle prod thing. His expression when he looks at Alex is hard to read. Disgusted? Frustrated?
Charm School. Percy leads Alex to a room where Nikita has been shackled to chains that hang from the ceiling. Percy introduces them. "Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame," Nikita says pointedly. "I think it's gonna be a little longer than that," Alex says just as pointedly. "Fine, make it twenty," Nikita says. With that, Percy dismisses Alex. She takes care to bump into a guard outside and steal his key card. Percy questions Nikita about her inside help, but she remains mysterious, so he lets Amanda into the room. Nikita looks genuinely afraid for the first time.
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Alex is trying to put her twenty minutes to good use. She heads for the weapons locker, but a guard tells her Michael needs to see her in medical. She's like "I don't have time for this shit! but she goes. He's all bandaged up from his gunshot wound, but his first concern is for Alex. He wants her to tell Percy that her gun jammed when trying to kill Zoman. She turns to go, but he wants to know how Alex got away from Nikita. Alex makes up something that doesn't seem to quite satisfy the suspicious-sounding Michael.
Amanda's idea of torture in Nikita's case turns out not to be physical but emotional. She shows Nikita recordings of her first debriefings after she met Daniel as well as footage of them cuddling in bed, making plans for their future. Nikita is disgusted that they would have invaded his home like that. Lady, they kill people. I don't think they're gonna draw the line at privacy. While Nikita's personalized torture is taking place, Alex runs around Division, stealing explosives from the weapons locker and placing them in strategic spots around the building. She places one of the charges under a table in the mess hall. Other recruits congratulate her, but Jaden shows up to crap on her. They agree to meet for a fight later. Man, I hope one of the explosions puts Jaden out of commission for a while. The last charge goes deep into an air vent. The camera pans down, through the vent to Nikita's torture sessions directly below. Maggie Q is acting the hell out of this scene. Nikita is in tears, as devastated as she is enraged. As Alex crawls back out of the air vent, Thom is waiting for her. He aims a gun at her. She starts to lie about why she was down there, but he cuts her off. She drops the pretense. "I wanted to tell you," she says. He tells her to shut up. He looks like he's about to cry.
The timer on the charges counts down. Amanda is still twisting the knife. "I know you think you're fighting fire with fire, but if you keep down that path, everyone will burn," she says. "Including innocents like Daniel." Nikita seems to be silently counting the last few seconds of those twenty minutes. Amanda wants her to give up the black box, to save the lives of others. Nikita tells Amanda to worry about saving herself. This coincides perfectly with the explosives going off. The one in the air vent cracks the ceiling around Nikita's shackles. She pulls hard on the chains, hard enough to lift herself off the ground, and the shackles break free of their bolts. She looks like some kind of sinewy hell-beast. It's awesome.
The distraction of the explosions lets Alex get the drop on Thom. She kicks his gun away. They proceed to beat the snot out of each other. Nikita runs by medical, momentarily locking eyes with a stunned Michael. He calls up to Ops, warning them she's on her way, but she's already fighting her way through all the recruits on the training floor. She takes a bunch of them down, including Jaden -- yay! - then grabs a guard by the arm. She fires his gun at the bulletproof Ops room window while Percy just stands there, unflinching. Another explosion momentarily knocks out the lights; by the time they come back on, she's vanished. Meanwhile, Alex and Thom are still fighting. He manages to grab her for a second. "Was everything a lie?" he asks. She breaks free. They both go for his gun. There's a struggle and, as always happens in these scenes, someone is accidentally shot. Thom slumps to the floor. Alex drops the gun. She remembers kissing Thom, being his friend. Nikita comes to her side, tries to get her to leave with her as Thom gasps and bleeds. Alex refuses to leave his side. How about carting him to medical? You look strong enough to carry the little guy. He's spending a lot of time just gurgling and dying, so you probably have time. But no, she tells Nikita to go without her. Reluctantly, Nikita leaves. Alex cries over Thom. "I'm so sorry," she says. She plants the security guard's key card on him, then presses one last kiss to his lips. If I were him, I'd use my last bit of strength to bite her. Instead, he whispers, "You're gonna see me," as the light goes out of his adorable eyes.
Nikita escapes through the silo, which Percy voice-overs has now been sealed. He's talking to Alex in his office. He asks her about Thom. Did she ever suspect he was the mole? She says he seemed loyal to Division. Percy tells her about all the awful things Thom did, which Alex is actually guilty of. "If you're feeling sorry for him, don't," Percy says. He needs to know that Alex believes she was justified in killing him before he can promote her. "I know why he had to die," Alex says. "I know why I had to kill him. It hasn't weakened my belief as to why I'm here, or my commitment to my mission." She finishes: "It's made it stronger." There's an extra note of defiance and double meaning that Percy doesn't pick up on. He congratulates her on becoming an agent. Fade to black.
Enjoy the hiatus, everyone!
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