Alex has graduated from Division's recruit program. Birkhoff installs a new tracking device that Alex doesn't know can give her an aneurysm any time Percy wants. Michael takes her to her fancy new apartment and tells her she's pretty much on her own till they need her. She's all awkward and unsure of what to do or how to pretend to be normal. Shouldn't she have learned that before graduating? Anyway, she soon meets Nathan, the coincidentally good-looking guy who lives across the hall. He invites her to come hang out and stuff, but she's mostly a total dork about every social encounter. She soon meets up with Nikita at a Bed, Bath & Beyond sort of place that becomes their rendezvous point for the rest of the episode. Nikita plans to remove Alex's tracker, but soon realizes she can't do it without possibly killing Alex. Does she tell Alex this? For some reason, no, she does not.
Instead, she persuades CIA agent and fourth Chipmunk Ryan Fletcher to "arrest" Birkhoff so she can hack into his laptop and access Alex's tracker. Michael soon swoops in and rescues Birkhoff, leading to the episode's only real fight scene. Boo. Nikita gets the info, but she can't deactivate the tracker, so she just reprograms it a little bit. Now Division will think Alex is at home when she's really out doing her secret mole work. Nikita encourages Alex to run away, but Alex insists on staying to fight Division, even as she starts to get overly comfortable with her new fake life. During all this, she has flashbacks to her father telling her she's meant for something great, because we can't have a CW show without fate and destiny. For his part in the plan, Fletcher gets demoted at work, but promoted to Kissable Status by Nikita. Whether or not he finds this an even trade remains to be seen.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Welcome back from winter hiatus, everyone! The spoken intros have gotten even more awkward during the break. After introducing Ryan and Alex, Nikita says, "Together we will take down Division piece by piece, and the last word they'll breathe before the end will be my name." The phrasing makes it sound like she means Ryan and Alex. Nikita's just gonna kill everybody before this whole thing is over! When the episode starts, Nikita and Alex are skulking around some big mansion at night, guns at the ready. They're looking for one of the black boxes. Nikita holds off some guards while Alex goes inside to one of the bedrooms. She crawls under the bed and seems happy to find a pink MP3 player instead of the black box. Suddenly, a man's hand falls on her shoulder. Thom is lying beside her, bullet wound still fresh. "Is this really the life you wanted, Alex?" he asks.
Alex wakes up from the dream in Charm School's medical lab, having just been implanted with her new tracking device. There's a fresh wound at the back of her neck. Just outside the room, Michael expresses concern over the device, but Percy pshaws. Just the same, he tells Michael not to tell Alex all the details of their new upgraded tech. Birkhoff finishes up with Alex's tracker, packs up his giant laptop, and warn-tells her that they can now find her anywhere in the world. Also, don't try to take the tracker out: "That'll trigger an instant alert; bad times," he says. Michael escorts her through the training room where Jaden offers her a hug and syrupy sweet congratulations on becoming an agent. "Even though you had to kill Thom to do it," she adds. "I hope you get everything you deserve." You know? I kind of do, too.
Out in the real world (New York City), Michael gives Alex her new product-placed Kia, which dazzles her, and takes her up to her new apartment. She shyly smiles at a handsome neighbor in the hall before taking her first step inside. She's instantly awed by her new surroundings. It's like she's living in a West Elm showroom! "It'll do," she says, trying and failing to play it cool. Michael smirks and gives her her "cover kit," which is a purse full of credit cards and IDs. There are also probably exploding lipsticks and bola tampons. She's now Alex Winslow, "youth trend consultant for a guerrilla marketing company." He turns to go, but Alex calls him back, confused about what she's supposed to do now. Shouldn't they have covered this in orientation? He says she can do whatever she wants as long as it doesn't interfere with her Division work.