What I’m Watching: Nikita

Nikita: Season 1, Episode 15 “Alexandra” (D+)

It wouldn’t be an episode of this show without Nikita having a run-in with one of her sworn enemies and then teaming up with him for the duration of the episode for no discernable reason. I’m at a loss as to why Michael, one of whose main responsibilities at Division is hunting down and bringing in Nikita, feels the need to partner with her and help her out without remotely thinking of trying to arrest or double-cross her. Additionally, Nikita keeps running these extraordinarily risky operations where she comes face-to-face with Alex and nearly gets both of their covers blown. I cannot understand why this show, which already proceeds at a terribly plodding pace, chooses to focus on such an uninteresting, tangential story such as that of Alex’s past. The fact that she’s essentially Anastasia is entirely ungermane to the show, and it’s far more relevant that she was a sex slave. Nikita is supposed to be the one who stirs fear in all those who think or know her name, sort of like Voldemort, and Alex has already proven that she’s far more fragile and susceptible to other influences, and making her into a lost princess isn’t going to change any of that. It’s also rather convenient that the club she happens to go to on a mission for Division happens to be owned and run in part by Vlad, and that her carefully constructed cover gets blown in a matter of seconds as she stops to have a conscience and help out a girl in trouble in the bathroom. This whole tracker modification thing also really does not make any sense.