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Alex is assigned to steal a prototype cellphone from the lonely nerd who invented it, which she does on their Division-arranged date at a nightclub. While there, she runs into Irina, a girl who came to America on the same cargo ship as Alex. Alex got away from Vlad, their pimp, but Irina wasn't so lucky. Alex reaches out to Irina against Nikita's warnings. Irina immediately turns Alex over to Vlad, who's been looking for her ever since Nikita rescued her two years earlier. He's done some research and found out that Alex is Alexandra Udinov, daughter of the assassinated Nikolai Udinov. Vlad wants to sell her to her father's enemies. He keeps her in a cage that would be too small for a dog, and when she refuses to confess her true identity, he injects her with a speedball, taking her right back to her junkie days.
Meanwhile, both Michael and Nikita are each looking for her. They can't find her because Alex's chip doesn't transmit from Vlad's underground lair. Their individual searches bring them to the same Russian bathhouse where they fight each other and then the Russian mobsters they've barged in on. They agree to work together, with Nikita claiming she's only interested in the prototype cellphone. Just as Nikita and Michael are storming Vlad's lair, Alex convinces Irina to set her free. Alex's first act as a free woman is to shoot Vlad several times. This comes after flashbacks in which we see that Nikolai has most likely killed people and predicted that his daughter will do so one day, as well, because it's "in her blood."
At the end, Michael brings a strung-out Alex back to Division and leaves her in Amanda's tender, loving care. Alex was probably better off in Vlad's cage. Stay tuned for the full weecap!
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Woohoo! No voice-over this week. Instead, we get a "previously on Nikita" that is much less awkward. The episode opens in a nightclub. There are lots of young people dancing and shrieking and wearing their best "look at me!" clothes. Alex makes her way through the crowd, starts to introduce herself to a gatekeeper who assumes she's a model or actress. A dweeby little guy pops up behind Alex and announces, "She's with me." We flash back to Alex being prepped for the mission. Birkhoff is making sure that Alex's profile comes up as a perfect match on the dweeb's favorite dating website. He's a tech billionaire who's invented a new gadget, codenamed Oculus. Michael tells Alex to gain the dweeb's confidence. Back at the nightclub, the dweeb suggests they order some champagne. Alex remembers telling Amanda that "a nightclub has a lot of temptations for a junkie." In the present, she changes the subject by dragging her date onto the dance floor. She takes the opportunity to lift the Oculus prototype from his pocket, then excuses herself to the restroom when he tries to kiss her.
In the immaculate and well-decorated restroom, she runs into a strung-out young woman who looks like the hooker version of Wednesday Addams. Alex helps her when she stumbles, offers her a cool washcloth. "I'm Irina," Wednesday introduces herself. Irina suddenly recognizes Alex, although she calls her "Sasha." Alex recognizes her, too, but pretends not to. She hurries back to the dance floor, where she bumps into Nikita. At first, Alex is like, "Hey, watch it!" Then she realizes it's Nikita and that this was part of their plan so that Nikita could get the Oculus off her.
Later, at the Loft of Fabulousness, Nikita is assuring Alex that they'll give the Oculus back to Zimmer. Alex stares out the window. Nikita asks her what happened at the club. Alex haltingly explains about recognizing Irina as one of "Vlad's girls." "We came over on the same container ship together." Nikita is freaked because if Zetrov finds out that Alex is still alive, they'll send someone to kill her. Alex lies that Irina was too high to recognize her. She's thoughtful for a while, then thanks Nikita. "If it wasn't for you, I'd still be like her." Apropos of nothing, Nikita is wearing some leather hotpants that would look ridiculous on anyone else.
Later, Nikita is recording a message on the Oculus, warning the dweeb that rivals tried to steal it. Suddenly, Alex's last words resonate for Nikita. She checks the computer for Alex's tracker location and sees she's returning to the nightclub.
Alex finds Irina on the dance floor. "I wouldn't have made it across the ocean if it wasn't for you," she says to her old friend. But she doesn't understand why Irina didn't get away. "I thought I'd given you a way out." Irina raps her knuckles on her temple, blames herself for blowing her chance. Alex promises to help her, get her clean. They make arrangements to meet outside in fifteen minutes. This doesn't strike Alex as especially odd, so she agrees. Later, when the two meet, Irina is looking a little more sober and a lot sadder. A runty little guy in a wool cap steps out of the alley and pulls a gun on Alex. He recognizes Alex as the one who ran away from him five or six years earlier. Alex pretends this is all a case of mistaken identity, but Vlad has brought backup. Men grab Alex from behind as Irina confirms she's the one who called Vlad. "You belong to me," says the wee Russian.
Nikita heads back to the club while Michael frets at Division because Alex hasn't reported in for a while. Birkhoff makes a joke about Alex hooking up with the dweeb. Michael doesn't laugh. Birkhoff says he has no sense of humor. Michael says having a sense of humor is why he doesn't laugh at Birkhoff's jokes. Heh. They activate her tracker.
Meanwhile, Vlad and his goons are bringing Alex to their underground lair. It looks like some kind of warehouse basement. Vlad complains that he took care of Alex and she thanked him by giving him a scar on his face. He got a second scar when "some wonder woman" came looking for Alex. "thing I know, she cuts me, releases all my girls and burns down my business." I wonder why Nikita didn't kill him outright, or at least turn him over to authorities? He survived the attack and opened up a new business here in this squalid place.
Back at Division, Birkhoff can't get a lock on Alex's tracker. "Maybe she's underground?" he offers. What a lame and mostly useless tracker. Michael tells him to hack into the club's security footage. At the same time, Nikita's doing the same thing from her Loft of Fabulousness. She sees Vlad confronting Alex in the alley and despairs. She flashes back to six years earlier, to the night Alex's parents were killed. She carries an unconscious Alex to the side of the road, gives her to her father's chauffeur after assurances that he's utterly loyal and will take care of her. "You'll be safe with him. I promise," Nikita says. In the present day, Nikita apologizes for being wrong. When Nikita can't find Alex's tracker, she gets her guns together. At some point, she must have fiddled with the security footage, because Birkhoff doesn't see the part where Alex runs into Vlad. Michael suspects the dweeb, but Birkhoff says he left the club earlier. Birkhoff thinks Alex may have taken the chance to run from Division. Michael tells him to keep looking, but keep it quiet. "If Percy finds out one of his agents is missing, it'll give him an excuse to test out his new kill chip."
Vlad's Lair of Unfabulousness. Vlad locks Alex into a small cage where he used to keep his pit bull. She can't even sit up without hunching over. Vlad leaves. Irina huddles in a corner of the room. Alex begs for her help.
Michael goes to Amanda for help. She's busy, but suddenly finds time when Michael says, "I'd like to get to the bottom of this before Percy finds out." She sees an opportunity to work against Percy, although she doesn't say anything like that to Michael. Michael tells her what's going on and needs to know more about Alex. Amanda says she's trying to hide her past.
She must tell him more than that, but we cut to Vlad's lair. He's setting up a camera to record Alex. He got the camera to film pornos, he says, but didn't find it very lucrative. He must be the world's worst shady businessman if he couldn't make a killing in porn. "You know, ever since Wonder Woman cut me up, I started thinking what the hell was so special about you?" Alex promises to kill him. Unwisely, Vlad laughs this off. He gestures for Irina to sit on his laugh so he can tell her a story about Anastasia Romanov. The story sounds a lot like Alex's and the parallel is made even clearer as Alex remembers the fire that killed her own family. Anastasia's body wasn't found with those of her murdered family. Vlad goes on to say that she was rumored to be alive, hiding from her father's enemies. "The rumors were false," Alex says. "She died in the fire." "No, she's here," Vlad says. He makes an elaborate bow in her direction, calling her the daughter of "the new Czars." She's the heir to Nikolai Udinov's billion-dollar company, Zetrov. Alex's look of hatred nearly kills Vlad where he stands.
Flashback. Little Alex sees the chauffeur accepting money from strange men. He tells her that the men will take her and do not know who she really is. "You sold me to them, I saw it," she says. He looks ashamed. "I have children of my own to feed," he explains." As if it makes anything better, he says he could have sold her to the new head of Zetrov for more money. She clutches her father's watch, which the chauffeur tells her to hide. He drags her to a slightly younger Vlad, who is almost unnervingly polite and friendly.
In the present day, Vlad tries to get Alex to confess her true identity on camera. Alex still protests that he's got the wrong girl. "Then who the hell are you?" he asks. This leads to a flashback of the Loft of Fabulousness, some eight months ago. Nikita and Alex are prepping her backstory for Division. They decide to stick relatively close to the truth. "My parents both died," Alex says eight months ago. She picks up in the present, for Vlad's cameras: "...in a car accident." She tells him the well-rehearsed lie about the car accident that we've heard her telling Amanda before. Vlad doesn't believe it, because Alex gave Irina her father's watch before she escaped. Irina was supposed to sell it. Vlad has it now. He dangles it in front of Alex like bait.
Division. Birkhoff shows footage from the nightclub to Amanda and Michael. Amanda recognizes Irina's temple-rapping gesture as Russian. She tells them that Alex was forced to work as a Russian sex slave. Maybe the other girl was, too. Michael figures Alex is trying to help her. He decides to call in a favor from the Russian mafia.
Russian bathhouse. Nikita has infiltrated this stronghold of sweat and hirsute old men by pretending to be a towel girl. She wheels a cart of towels into a steam room then reveals the claymore mine she's smuggled in. She explains what will happen (the thing explodes in their direction) if they don't tell her where she can find Vlad. A bunch of guys poop their towels. You can tell Nikita is awesome because her hair doesn't frizz even the slightest bit. She holds the mine trigger in one hand, finger on the button. Outside, Michael has just arrived. He tells the guard he's looking for... I can't understand the name. "Tell him it's Misha," he says. Not Mikhail, but Misha. I love it! In the steam room, one of the sweaty mobsters caves: "To hell with it! I'm not sweating my ass off for that durak!" Sounds almost... Klingon. He tells her where Vlad is running his brothel. Michael tries to get inside, but the door is locked. The guard says the guys are in there with the towel girl: "Dark hair, long legs... very hot." Michael smirks with recognition and kicks open the door.
Nikita, the trigger still clutched in one hand, attacks the intruder. It takes her a second to realize who it is. "Michael?!" Hee. The guards barge in and attack. Michael and Nikita fight them together. The whole, time she's still holding onto the trigger. The mobsters shake in their towels. One big guy grabs Michael by the jaw and hoists him off the ground. It is a fantastic shot to pause on. Michael beats on the guys head until he lets go. At one point during the fight, Nikita finally drops the trigger and the mobsters realize the bomb is a fake. They trundle toward Michael and Nikita, who hightail it out of there. They beat up another guard on the way out, then run into several more as they escape into the alley behind the bathhouse. A brief gunfight ensues, but a police car is pulling up into the street. Michael and Nikita run the other way, firing their guns as they go.
Lair of Unfabulousness. Vlad threatens to shoot Alex, but she's not afraid of dying. He thinks and says, "There was one thing that used to make you obey me... you'd practically do anything for it." He pulls out a syringe. "Anything for a speedball," he says. For the first time, Alex looks genuinely afraid.
Elsewhere, Michael and Nikita are still on the run. They stop to catch their breath in an alleyway behind some garages. "We made it," Nikita sighs. They simultaneously pull guns on each other. I love them so much. Nikita manages to convince him that she's just interested in the Oculus. He's all, "What's an Oculus?" She's sort of charmed by the fact that he's a terrible liar. Nikita puts her gun down first. She proposes they work together. Michael can have his "little recruit" if she can get the prototype. Alex is more important to him, so he agrees to the deal.
Lair. Poor Alex is high as a kite in her little cage. Just piercing through the fog, she can hear Vlad complaining about "Wonder Woman" to someone on the phone. Maybe he's talking to David E. Kelley. He slams the phone down. "Still expect me to believe you're some peasant girl?" he asks Alex. She flashes back to Daddy-Daughter Day at Zetrov. Nikolai tells little Alex that someday she'll be in charge of his company. She reluctantly tells him she looked up his name on the Internet. Kids, don't ever look up your parents on the net. Some doors are better not opened. Alex says that she read people are scared of him, that he's killed people. "Everything I have done was done for you and your mother," he says. "And one day, you will do the same thing for the same reason." She says she loves him, but doesn't want to be him. He says she has no choice. "It is who you are; it is in your blood." In the present, Irina brings Alex a sip of water. Irina breaks down crying, apologizing for what she's done.
Outside the lair, Michael and Nikita are planning their attack. This brings up memories of their team-up in Uzbekistan. Michael is still bitter that she stopped him from killing Kasim. He was so close and Nikita took it away from him. She explains she didn't realize he was that close. She didn't want Michael to be killed. "What I did, I did out of - " She cuts herself off before she can admit she loves him. They stare at each other for a long moment. She finishes, rather lamely, " - out of not wanting to see you get hurt." She promises she will help him get Kasim. Inside, Vlad tries to tempt Alex with another speedball. She reaches for the syringe desperately. She tells him the truth, that she's a secret agent for Division. He records the whole thing, even though he doesn't believe her. As she describes all the killer spy things she can do, we cut to Michael and Nikita in action, exemplifying those skills. Michael holds off the guards outside while Nikita makes her way into the lair. She leaps on one guy like a damned spider and brings him down. She makes her way around the dank, dreary brothel and frees all the girls, telling them where to find a women's shelter.
Alex sees her father as if he's peering down into the cage at her. "Remember who I was, Alexandra. Remember who you are." When Vlad goes to check out the commotion outside, Alex finally convinces Irina to set her free. Crawling out of the cage, she accidentally knocks the camera over. Vlad rushes back in a moment later and Alex shoots him in the back. "It is in your blood," her father's voice echoes. Alex stands over Vlad. "I am Alexandra Udinov, daughter of Nikolai Udinov," she says. "And this is your reward." She shoots him twice more then takes her father's watch back from him. She tells Irina to run, but warns her that if she ever speaks of this, she will hunt her down and kill her. Irina scrams.
When Nikita finally finds Alex, she's lying on the floor and in bad shape. Nikita cradles her in her arms, then hides the Oculus under Vlad's body. Michael barges in, demands Nikita hand over the prototype. "I don't have it," she says. "I wouldn't double-cross you." She tells him to search her, but he trusts her. To return the favor, he tips her off that Division is on its way. As soon as Nikita's gone, Alex gets the Oculus from Vlad's corpse and hands it to Michael. The thing we see, Michael is carrying Alex back to Division. She's passed out in his arms. Percy is miffed until Michael gives him the Oculus and tells him, "She took one for the team." Percy softens towards Alex.
Loft of Fabulousness. Nikita somehow has the recording from Vlad's camera. She watches the scene of Alex killing him. Nikita seems disturbed and saddened.
Michael brings Alex to Amanda for help. "I appreciate you keeping Percy out of the loop on this one," he says. "Percy doesn't need to know everything that goes around here," she says. Michael leaves the room. Alex shivers on Amanda's sofa, grasping her belly in pain. Amanda preps a syringe with methadone. "We'll get through this together," she says to Alex. "But first, I just have a few questions to ask you." Amanda withholds the promise of relief. She's just Vlad with a better wardrobe and fancier digs. Someday, maybe Alex will get to reward her the way she did Vlad.