Nikita (TV series)



""My name is Nikita. Six years ago I was taken out of prison and forced by a covert unit of the government to be an assassin. Three years ago I escaped, and have been hunted ever since. I was the first recruit to get out... I'm going to make certain I'm not the last.""

A secretive United States government agency known as "Division" has for years been recruiting young adult convicts by faking their deaths and forcing them to train as spies and assassins. The recruits are brainwashed and threatened with a violent death should they fail in their assigned duties. Answering to no higher authority in the U.S. Government, Division has in recent years begun to go rogue, hiring out their particular services to the highest bidder.

Nikita was one of the best of Division's operatives, who became the first to ever successfully escape the program three years ago after the agency had her fiance killed. After spending the last three years planning her revenge, Nikita declares war against the agency by thwarting a crucial assassination. Unwilling to remain hidden in the shadows any longer, Nikita delivers a message directly to Division's director... she is going to bring the agency down, one mission at a time if she has to, and she vows to ensure that no one else will have their lives stolen in the way that Division took hers.

Nikita is an action-drama TV Series based on the 1990 French film of the same name. Premiering in 2010 on The CW Network, the series stars Maggie Q, and is produced by Warner Bros.

Not in continuity with the previous series, La Femme Nikita, on which it is also based.

The third season will start in Fall 2012.

This series contains examples of:
"Percy: You don't kill someone just because they made a mistake."
 * Action Girl: Nikita, who was trained by Division to take out her targets by using guns, knives, or even her bare hands, is now using those skills against her former bosses.
 * The current female recruits of Division also qualify.
 * Alex, after a lackluster first season, goes totaly badass in Season 2 and, in the series finale,
 * Actor Allusion: One of the members of Oversight is portrayed by Alberta Watson, who played Madeline in La Femme Nikita
 * Nathan, Alex's Love Interest is played by Thad Luckinbill, Lyndsy Fonseca's main love interest as Colleen in The Young and The Restless.
 * Agent Provocateur: Sara's suicide mission is essentially this.
 * All Just a Dream: In Episode 1. And Episode 16. And Episode 19. And Episode 8 of Season 2.
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Thom loves Alex, Jaden loves Thom.
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Three times Nikita's safehouse has been compromised and three times it's been blown up.
 * And I Must Scream: Nikita after being injected with a muscle relaxant by Roan in the first season finale.
 * Anti-Villain: Michael The Dragon during Season One until his Heel Face Turn.
 * Anyone Can Die: Alex induces this in her fellow recruits.
 * Arc Words: "Daniel," after Nikita's dead fiance, pops up a lot. One of the recruits has a son named Daniel, Michael's alias is named Daniel, etc.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: Or in this case video, showing that Division was spying on Nikita and her boyfriend.
 * A Storm Is Coming: Not said, but invoked in imagery à la Sarah Connor at the end of Terminator- the last scene of the first season is of  discussing the potential future as they drive away, towards a gathering storm.
 * The Atoner: A big theme of the show. Nikita herself embodies the concept, slowly becomes one over the course of the season, and Owen somewhat deconstructs it in his last appearance, due to the influence of a Fantastic Drug.
 * Awesome McNickname Birkhoff's handle from back in his hacker days was "Shadow Walker".
 * Bad Boss: Averted, actually, with Percy, as part of his overall genre savviness. He takes the time to explain his decisions to his subordinates, and tries to keep them happy. Doesn't make him a good person.

"Michael: By the way, Birkhoff is not working with us."
 * Badass Longcoat: Less than in the original series, but after all, this is Nikita we're talking about.
 * Roan often wears one, being quite Badass in his own right (to the point where the main characters prefer to run away from him than fight, and if they do fight it's usually a running battle... with them on the retreat).
 * Battle Couple: Michael and Nikita.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Jaden, Alex's rival trainee in Division.
 * Batman Gambit
 * Becoming the Mask: An occupational hazard for deep cover agents, as Nikita and Owen found out. Also but switched teams for terrorists.
 * Big Bad: Percy is the straight up Big Bad in season 1, with Oversight as the Bigger Bad/The Man Behind the Man. Season 2 moves to more of a Big Bad Ensemble, with the plot being driven by the various power struggles between Percy, Amanda, Oversight, Semak and Ari, all of whom have their own agendas.
 * Big Damn Kiss:  share one in "Covenants", made even more awesome by the overlay of Florence and the Machines' "Cosmic Love".
 * A quieter one is shared by  in "Dead Drop."
 * "Homecoming" has one between.
 * Bilingual Dialogue: Ari responded in English when Gregor talked to him in Russian in "Partners".
 * Blatant Lies: In season 2 premiere, Birkhoff interrupts Michael's message to Division, giving an egomaniacal speech about how he was better than the technicians that replaced him.

"Amanda: Sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn to motivate your knights.
 * Bodyguard Betrayal: At the end of "2.0", Davitch is shot by Michael as part of a clean-up operation.
 * Book Ends: Percy starts Season 2 in a cell at the bottom of Division's missile silo. In the finale,
 * Boxed Crook: In season 2,.
 * Birkhoff was this to Division until he got out; he used to be a renowned hacker who stole millions of dollars, until Division caught up to him, and erased his past and crimes, with the condition he work for them.
 * Briefcase Blaster: Nikita's trunks full of guns.
 * Finally get used during the Season One finale (see All Your Base Are Belong to Us above).
 * Bulletproof Vest: Nikita shoots Sean in "Fair Trade" after she asks him if he's wearing one. Earlier, Alex took a bullet for Sean because she had a vest and he didn't.
 * Call Back:
 * The Cameo: Stan Lee in episode 5 as Hank Excelsior, a bystander to a bank robbery.
 * Calling the Old Man Out: In "Pandora", Alex calls Nikita out on her obsession with taking down Division.
 * Camping a Crapper: One of the bodyguards in the first episode.
 * Career Killer: The Cleaners, namely Roan, Brandon and Owen.
 * Cassandra Truth: Alex telling her captors in "Resistance" that she's infiltrating Division to get revenge for the murder of her family.
 * Chaste Hero: Alex is a rare female example. May have something to do with being.
 * Until she meets Nathan, that is.
 * Never mind she and Sean, fact is she is quite the aversion of Chaste Hero.
 * Chekhov's Gun: In a flashback to Nikita's "first kill", her target mentions to her (posing as a prospective nanny for his newborn) that he worries his daughter will inherit his peanut allergy. This comes into play later when it turns out
 * The print pad Alex made to access Percy's office is later
 * In the same episode, we finally see Alex's earlier shown escape tunnel get used, after which Percy discovers it and has it sealed.
 * Every few episodes after "All The Way" some small event causes Micheal to get suspicious about Alex's behavior. These include a phone call with strange background noise and surveillance camera footage of a failed mission. In "Echoes" he revisits all of these incidents which leads to the big Cliffhanger where.
 * We find out that.
 * In "Pandora", we find out that the nerve agent Jaden stole for Percy in "Girl's Best Friend" was.
 * Near the end of "Betrayals", Alex grabs an unseen object that in "Pandora" is revealed to be.
 * Nikolai Udinov's watch, which Alex gave to Irina to pawn. Amanda recovers it, and Sean later gives it to her as a Pet the Dog moment.
 * In "Glass Houses", Roan explains to Alex how he disposes of bodies. In "Pandora",
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Nikita's old mentor Carla is mentioned several episodes before she shows up
 * The Chessmaster: Percy, as of the penultimate first season finale turns out to be this.
 * Season 2 reveals that it's pretty much part of the job description.

Percy: Amazing how easily the chess metaphors come to mind when you're running Division, isn't it?"

"Alex: I knew there was something between those two. Michael's all "Nikita's like a cancer", that's personal baggage.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Division, Oversight and their various agents and allies regularly look for ways to backstab each other. Nikita, as the heroine will generally avoid backstabbing people but will do so if she sees no other way.
 * Cleanup Crew: Division has "Cleaners" who kill and dispose of bodies. In episode 6, we find out that  used to not only be a Cleaner, but a "Reaper", someone who killed/cleaned-up Division personnel. He's the one who killed Nikita's fiance.
 * Cliff Hanger: The episode "Echoes" (1x16) ends with a doozy of a cliffhanger -
 * As does "Glass Houses" (1x20).
 * Which is topped by the end of "Betrayals" (1x21). See Wham Episode below.
 * "Pandora" (1x22) ends the season with.
 * "Sanctuary" (2x12)
 * "Crossbow" (2x22):
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: Amanda's specialty.
 * Come With Me If You Want to Live: Nikita uses this a fair bit when foiling assassinations. Her mole in Division is not able to find out about these operations until the last minute so Nikita gets there just barely ahead of the assassins (sometimes she is late).
 * Concealment Equals Cover: The cover used on all sides can be of questionable effectiveness at that goal, including canvas laundry baskets.
 * Conspicuously Public Assassination: In the first episode, wherein Division attempt to assassinate a foreign leader in his New York hotel.
 * Continuity Nod: Quite a few in "All the Way", for example, Birkhoff naming the Engineer as the one who helped him to  and Thom mentioning the Russian spy he had to kill to be promoted to field agent.
 * And in "Alexandra", Michael and Nikita have a discussion about the last time they teamed up in "One Way".
 * In both "Dark Matter" and "The Next Seduction", Nikita uses the knife Michael gave her in "One Way". She appears to carry it with her all the time which is both sweet and sad at the same time.
 * In "Pandora", Nikita brings up how Alex once tried to kill herself when Nikita brought her off of the street.
 * In "Fair Trade", Birkhoff warns his  at Division that "when they're done with you, they'll snap your neck and melt you in acid", a reference to the Engineer's fate (though we only saw the former on screen).
 * At the close of "Dead Drop", Nikita and Michael discuss how they are now compared to how they were: in a safehouse, hiding from division, with no money, tech or weapons, and how their safehouses keep getting lost.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Several of the people Division takes as clients. Also, to a certain extent, Percy.
 * Also one of the members of Oversight, who manipulates the stock market in order to gather funding for Division.
 * Sergei Semak, the head of Zetrov (the power behind Division's rival Gogol).
 * Creepy Monotone: Roan, one of the Cleaners, and Percy's replacement Dragon.
 * Amanda often comes close.
 * Dances and Balls: Generally ends in violence.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: When Nikita brazenly crashes a political fund-raising party to confront Percy, the head of Division, she discovers that he has anticipated the possibility and replaced the wait staff with Division operatives with orders to take her dead or alive.
 * He also has a large number of "black boxes" all around the world filled with the United States dirty secrets for the past 20 years. Everyone knows he's gone from Well-Intentioned Extremist to Complete Monster, they just can't do anything about it since if he dies, the boxes will broadcast their information.
 * He's also Genre Savvy enough to
 * Dark Action Girl: Jaden
 * Also Anya.
 * Dark Lord: In "Dark Matter", the Engineer pretty much compares Percy with Sauron himself.
 * Dating Catwoman: Michael and Nikita's relationship borders on this - and everyone realizes it.
 * Lampshaded in "Echoes", when Alex imagines the two kissing in her drug-induced state, even imitating Michael in a voice like his own.

Amanda: (listening to Alex in her delirious state) I've always thought so."

"Tasarov: The enemy of my enemy...
 * Dead Little Sister: Another rogue agent's girlfriend is murdered by a Division cleaner team, he decides to kill Percy despite Nikita's warnings that the release of the Big Bad's little black boxes will cause immeasurable damage to countless innocent people.
 * Michael turns out to have
 * Deadly Euphemism: When Division kills their own agents/trainees/prisoners, they refer to it as having "cancelled" them.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Michael, Nikita, Alex, Birkhoff, even Percy sometimes... it's very nearly World of Snark.
 * Deal With the Devil:
 * Nikita actually refers to it as such when she finds out about it.
 * Death By Origin Story: Nikita's fiancee.
 * Death Faked for You: Division's standard recruitment policy -- take death row inmates and create "official" documentation of their deaths, thus giving them no choice but to stay at Division and be trained.
 * in Season 2, convincing even Nikita that he's dead, so she can kidnap him and force him to work for her.
 * Deceased Fall Guy Gambit: Alex frames as Nikita's mole after being forced to kill him.
 * Alex also frames ; she tells Division that her jealously attacked her and Alex was only defending herself. The truth is that
 * Deep Cover Agent: Owen, Nikita at one point, and Sara
 * Dirty Cop: The prison guard in Clawback.
 * The corrupt ICE agent Alex killed in "Fair Trade".
 * The cops who tried to shakedown Carla's halfway house and killed Nikita's friend when he was going to call 911.
 * Dirty Harriet: In "Fair Trade", Alex goes undercover at a strip club known to hire illegals, then calls ICE in order to get to Russia covertly.
 * Disney Villain Death:
 * The Determinator: Michael, when it comes to hunting down the man that
 * The Dragon:
 * Michael to Percy
 * In Season 2, Roan seems to have taken on the role
 * Sean to Oversight (specifically his mother).
 * Ari to Semak.
 * Dragon With an Agenda: Michael would be happy to shoot Percy in the face himself...unfortunately, Percy has things set up so that if he dies, so does the entire US government.
 * Ari Tasarov becomes this to Sergei Semak over the course of Season Two
 * Dramatic Unmask: Alex in the first episode
 * Dysfunction Junction: Nikita was a drug addict and delinquent, abused by her foster father, then got into Division which made her a killer and murdered her fiance. Alex's parents were killed by Division, she was sold into sex slavery and kept there for several years. Michael's family  And that's the only backstories we know.
 * And Jaden was apparently  This show runs on this trope.
 * This is justified in that Division recruits convicts and criminals to work for them. If there's not something seriously wrong with you, you don't belong there.
 * Elaborate Underground Base: Division headquarters.
 * Elite Mooks: Several levels in Division.
 * The Cleaners, described by Owen as being stronger and faster than regular Division agents, are the ones who "clean up" murders that Division commits.
 * The Reapers - like  - are Cleaners who kill/clean Division personnel.
 * The best of all are chosen to act as Guardians, the ones who protect Percy's black boxes.
 * Enemy Mine: Gogol keeps trying to carry out this trope with Nikita, but she's Genre Savvy enough to know that that would be a bad idea:

Nikita: Is just another man in my way."

"Birkhoff: Say it!
 * Nikita and Michael have pulled this off a few times, but it usually falls apart before the episode's even over.
 * And in "Girl's Best Friend", Alex and Jaden truly put aside their differences for the first time, with intriguing results.
 * The end of "Falling Ash" reveals that  has apparently taken up Tasarov's offer.
 * Owen Elliot tried to do this with Gogol, but Ari wised up and doublecrossed him first.
 * In "Guardians", Nikita and a Guardian briefly work together to keep Gogol from stealing one of the Black Boxes.
 * It's a weekly event in Season 2, with all the different factions.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Sean, although rather decent for an Oversight member, is determined to go to any lengths to protect his mother, one of the head members of Oversight, even if that includes killing Nikita.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: In "2.0", Michael takes great pleasure in, as the man is a Complete Monster who among other things abuses prostitutes
 * Oversight, the group Percy nominally reports to, doesn't approve of Percy selling Division's services to the highest bidder, as it was meant to be a necessary evil, not a mercenary outfit.
 * Evil Counterpart: Anya to Nikita. Jaden to Alex.
 * In Season 2, Michael and Birkhoff gain counterparts in Sean and Sonya.
 * Evil Versus Evil: Gogol is basically the Russian Division and just as evil.
 * There's the power struggles between Amanda, Percy, and Oversight.
 * Extreme Graphical Representation: Greatly subverted, lampshaded and even justified. When the recruits are told to hack a system, all you see is some 3D-magic on the screens. Alex fails and after saying that the hacker stuff is complicated, Birkhoff loses it and shouts, "Actually, it’s not, it’s simple. Because, you see, I do all the hacker stuff. I write the exploit. I even make it look like a video game so your tween minds can understand it!", earning this a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * Expy: Percy, of La Femme Nikita's Operations (a.k.a. Paul Wolfe).
 * Amanda, of Madeline and the original Amanda of the French film.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Seeing as the show is on The CW, no wonder it has a few. Michael and Owen stand out the most, probably, but Thom also has quite a few fans.
 * Also, now Nathan and Ryan both qualify.
 * Fail O'Suckyname / Awesome McCoolname: Shadownet is one of these, both in and out of universe.
 * Fail O'Suckyname / Awesome McCoolname: Shadownet is one of these, both in and out of universe.

Michael: No.

Birkhoff: Shadownet."


 * Fake Defector: Alex attempts to pull this on her captors in "Resistance".
 * Faking the Dead:  in "Pandora".
 * False Flag Operation:
 * And the plot of "Coup de Grace" revolves around one of these: the attempt to assassinate the prince of Georgia and frame the Georgian president for it, in order to facilitate a coup by.
 * And in the season finale "Pandora", Percy reveals that he was planning on blaming his  on Nikita herself, painting her as an anti-government terrorist.
 * False Reassurance: In "Into the Dark", Alex uses this to beat an fMRI Lie Detector.
 * Fatal Flaw: For Michael, at least, it's his obvious affection for Nikita...which everyone knows about.
 * Five-Bad Band: Division
 * The Big Bad - Percy
 * The Dragon - Michael, now a heroic version of Dragon With an Agenda.
 * The Evil Genius - Amanda
 * The Brute - Roan
 * The Dark Chick - Birkhoff (though when it comes to computer stuff, he's another Evil Genius)
 * Sonia in Season 2.
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor - Alex
 * Five-Man Band: Team Nikita in Season 2
 * The Hero: Nikita
 * The Lancer: Micheal
 * The Smart Guy: Birkoff
 * The Big Guy: Owen: Two words: Ex-Guardian
 * The Chick: Alex

"Team Nikita post "Dead Drop""

""I am Alexandra Udinov, daughter of Nicholai Udinov. And this is your reward.""
 * The Hero: Nikita
 * The Lancer: Michael
 * The Smart Guy: Birkoff, Fletcher
 * The Big Guy: Sean
 * The Chick: Alex
 * Mentor: Kendrick
 * Foreshadowing: The Engineer tells Birkhoff that to be in Division one requires killer instinct. Minutes later Percy kills him.
 * In 1x16, Alex . In 1x20,
 * From a Certain Point of View: After being caught lying when interrogated by Amanda and monitored by an FMRI, Alex tells the truth, in a manner of speaking, omitting what would reveal her as the mole but not denying her actions.
 * Future Me Scares Me: A drugged Alex is horrified to see a vision of the Complete Monster she could become if she reclaims her birthright by the means she's currently using.
 * Gambit Pileup: In 2x16, aptly named "Doublecross", Team Nikita, Percy, Amanda/Division, and Carla all try to out-gambit each other, with several allegiances briefly forming. The resulting mess
 * Season 2 is this trope om a nutshell. Percy, Amanda, Oversight, Nikita's group, everyone has their own agenda.
 * Genre Blindness: In "Into the Dark", Owen tells Nikita to keep her head down to prevent her face being caught by traffic cameras. However, he doesn't bother to wear a cap or hood to keep his face concealed.
 * And in "Glass House", when Dana Winters reveals herself as a trained assassin to her boyfriend, no one bothers to make sure the boyfriend's son isn't listening.
 * Carla, Nikita's mentor and founder of Division, somehow gets the idea that Percy should have Division back and is a good guy.
 * Get a Room: Said by Birkhoff to Michael and Nikita when Michael asks Nikita if she is alright whilst being in the CIA HQ, to which she replies "Oh, babe, I will be as soon as you get me out of here."
 * Gilded Cage: 's prison in Season 2 is rapidly becoming one.
 * Girls With Guns: Nikita herself, Alex, Jaden, and at least half of the female recruits at Division.
 * The Good the Bad And The Evil: What Season 2 is shaping up to, with Nikita and company as the Good, Division/Oversight as the Bad, and Gogol/Zetrov as the Evil (though the latter two are pretty interchangeable),.
 * As of the latter end of Season 2,
 * Government Agency of Fiction: Division started as this, though at this point it's more of a mercenary outfit than anything else.
 * Government Conspiracy: Division. Even more so, Oversight, the group of politicians Percy reports to.
 * Oversight at first seems just to be a group of extremists inside the CIA, then Percy meets with three members from other parts of the government - an Admiral, a Senator, and a Joint Chief of Staff - and by the end of the first season has become a full blown Omniscient Council of Vagueness.
 * As revealed in "Shadow Walker" and then "Crossbow", apparently there is
 * Guile Hero: While most certainly an Action Girl in nearly every respect, Nikita also employs her wits, mind-games, and counter-espionage to track Division's movements in an attempt to thwart them at every turn.
 * Gun Porn: Loads and loads of guns.
 * Guttural Growler: Michael. Alex does a hilarious impression of it in "Echoes".
 * When Nathan answers Alex's phone, he says that Michael sounds like Batman.
 * The Handler: Michael to Nikita, once upon a time. Michael to Alex, later.
 * Hannibal Lecture:
 * When Nikita is captured, Amanda gives her one, prompting a Shut UP, Hannibal from Nikita prior to her escape.
 * Robbie gets a couple sentences into one in his reappearance episode before being cut short by a pistol butt to the back of the neck.
 * Heel Face Door Slam: In "Glass Houses", place after honestly changing her (mutually) antagonistic attitude towards her after the mutual life risking they did for each other the previous episode, only to inadvertently learn of her double agent status and die in the ensuing fight.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * First, Owen.
 * As of "Covenant", it looks like  has pulled one as well.
 * And in "Pandora",  pulls one.
 * Nikita herself, pre-series.
 * Sean joins up with Team Nikita as of Season 2, Episode 13.
 * Hidden Wire:
 * Nikita in "Phoenix".
 * And Alex is forced to wear one in "Betrayals" by Percy to spy on Nikita.
 * Hollywood Hacking: Justified. Division's resident genius hacker wrote some kind of super program that looks like a video game for the benefit of everyone else. Judging by how frustrated he gets when they can't use it, he is well aware of how impressive this all is.
 * Honey Trap: A flashback in "Covenants" shows that Nikita was supposed to be this to a male Division target, until she realized he was paying more attention to Michael. Michael claims that he does make an "excellent honey trap."
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Division may employ highly-trained killers, but none of them can hit Nikita with a single bullet.
 * All the regulars fall victim to this when the plot calls for it, but it's generally averted with Cleaners like Roan, who calmly takes down attacking soldiers with precisely one bullet each.
 * Except when shooting at Nikita or her associates, of course.
 * In the Blood: Alex's father told her she would be like him because its "in her blood".
 * And her Journey to The Center of The Mind shows that the thing she fears most is this coming true.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Alex.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The entire thing in Falling Ash.
 * I Owe You My Life: Michael to Percy, due to Percy  by promising to help find the murderer.
 * Jumping On a Grenade: Discussed in the Season 2 finale; Michael holds Operations hostage with a primed grenade, and warns the guards that if they kill him, it will go off. One guard replies that Michael trained them to invoke this, and they will do it. Fortunately, it doesn't come to this.
 * Kill Sat: At the end of season 2, Percy gains control of an old Strategic Defense Initiative laser satellite, and uses the threat of it to make the President his puppet.
 * Know When to Fold Em: Ari and Amanda originally planned to use Alex as a puppet to control Zetrov.
 * Latin Land: Nikita's version of Santiago, Chile's capital.
 * Leave No Witnesses: Division's stock-in-trade.
 * Locking MacGyver in The Store Cupboard: In the Season 2 episode "Knightfall", Nikita and Michael raid a Division safehouse. The defenders manage to separate the duo and corner Michael...in the safe room.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: Owen is too reckless for Nikita's liking.
 * Loose Lips: Thom in the first episode, Michael in the fifth.
 * Lzherusskie: A lot of them in episode 1x09, set mostly in Uzbekistan (technically, at least some of them were supposed to be Uzbeks (judging by last names) but everyone, even the police, speaks only Russian).
 * There was also an ex-KGB agent with a very Russian name Ari.
 * And episode 1x12 shows that Alex(andra) is apparently of Russian descent, as flashbacks to her childhood show her father speaking with a Russian accent.
 * A later episode shows that Alex's father was a very successful Russian businessman (possibly Russian mafia).
 * MacGuffin: The Black Boxes, Percy's failsafe to prevent an assassination from the U.S. government. Nikita
 * Though one of them ends up.
 * The Mafiya: Vlad, who runs a sexual slavery operation. Alex's father is hinted to also be part of the Bratva, or at least employ its methods.
 * Mama Bear: Dana Winters. When Martin takes her boyfriend's son hostage to capture Nikita, she shoots him down, and then she quickly takes out the rest of the Division agents. All four of them.
 * Manchurian Agent: P9, a sleeper assassin program set up by Oversight.
 * The Man Behind the Man: Oversight, the organization that oversees Division. Although, Percy's made it quite clear that he doesn't like taking orders from anyone, and has already had at least one member of Oversight killed to cover Division's tracks. And the season finale shows that they don't even like him - he's long since broken free of their control, and is blackmailing them with the information on the Black Boxes.
 * Speaking of the finale, Percy reveals that his huge plan is to.
 * In late Season 2, it's revealed that Gogol is the intelligence wing of Zetrov, making Semak the man behind Tasarov.
 * Late Season 2 reveals a mysterious somebody who heads some group of bad guys that Percy wants to join.
 * Mata Hari: Nikita, while unquestionably an Action Girl, can sometimes double as this.
 * Jaden shows us in "Girl's Best Friend" that she's pretty good at this, too.
 * Michael once had to do a male version of this, as shown in "Looking Glass".
 * The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Literally, in the case of Daniel
 * Meaningful Echo: Nikita and Michael tend to have a lot of the same lines, especially when they're trying to teach Alex something.
 * Mega Corp: Zetrov, Alex's father's corporation, which appears to have started out as an oil company before expanding into... well, everything else.
 * Mind Probe: Manipulative Bitch extraordinaire Amanda does this to Alex in "Echoes", resulting in a Battle in The Center of The Mind where Alex and her younger self try to escape from her own dark side and her father's legacy. And she also kills Dream!Jaden in the process.
 * As a bonus, Alex's mental defenses manifest as Dream!Nikita. At one point, Amanda's questioning manifests as Dream!Michael. Dream!Nikita fights off Dream!Michael for a few minutes... before they end up making out passionately. Both Alex and Amanda lampshade the UST.
 * Mission Impossible Cable Drop: "Tom Cruise on a harness couldn't get in there." Discussed with regard to infiltrating the SCIF room at CIA HQ in Langley.
 * Mook Face Turn: When Sara, an underperforming Division candidate, is sent on a suicide mission, Nikita intervenes and kidnaps her. When she finally gets Sara to accept that Division planned to have her killed, she is able to convince Sara to go into hiding after delivering one final blow to her former employers.
 * may or may not have pulled one in "Pandora" due to his friendship with . It wasn't very clear if it was permanent or a one time thing.
 * 16 episodes into Season Two, his turn is permanant.
 * Mugged for Disguise: Happens occasionally, lampshaded in "Alexandra" when Nikita steals the uniform of a towel girl to get into a sauna full of baddies. The guard states that the man inside the sauna whom Michael is waiting to talk to won't be long as he's with a towel girl with "dark hair, long legs, very hot." Michael immediately knows who he means and breaks down the door to the sauna.
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Nikita is seriously worried that Michael might have done this.
 * My Greatest Second Chance: In "Fair Trade"
 * My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Alex pulls this on Vlad,
 * My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Alex pulls this on Vlad,

"Birkhoff: "She pistol whipped me in the mouth. I don't see what's left to talk about here!""
 * Naive Newcomer: Alex is set up as this.
 * Near Villain Victory:.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Girl's Best Friend", Alex saves Jaden's life instead of blowing up a nerve toxin lab with Jaden inside. However, Jaden's survival allowed Percy to get his hands on said nerve toxin.
 * In "Power", Birkhoff confirms to Sonya that Amanda is working with Ari, which allows Percy to seize Division's loyalties from her.
 * Noble Demon: Michael in Season 1, Sean in Season 2
 * No Honor Among Thieves: Birkhoff trying to blame his breaking-into Percy's office on a random recruit.
 * Not So Harmless: In the first few episodes, Percy seems ineffectual and incompetent. As time goes on however, you can see just how dangerous and how much of a Complete Monster he really is.
 * And as of 1x21... sweet Jesus. Just check out his description on the Magnificent Bastard page.
 * In the Season 2 premiere, semi-innocent Non Action Guy Birkhoff unleashes a pair of machine-gun armed attack drones on a Division strike team to save Michael and Nikita. The strike team is dead in one pass. And then when  attempts to betray Nikita and Michael, it's Birkhoff who shoots her.
 * This also applies to several minor enemies Nikita faces, such as a nanny and a "sweet" Texan cat lady.
 * Oh Crap: An amazingly collective Oh Crap face by all the recruits as Nikita comes out of the elevator in Division. She then proceeds to wipe the floor with all of them.
 * Also the look on Percy's face when.
 * And Nikita herself has a small one in the pilot when she runs into Roan in the hotel hallway.
 * Also in the pilot Michael, when he sees Nikita for the first time.
 * Birkhoff gets a pretty epic one in "343 Walnut Lane" as
 * Birkhoff has a verbal one over the phone when Alex accidentally runs into Roan in S02E13, when Alex is in the middle of . Alex, upon seeing him, has one herself. Then Birkhoff gets another one when Alex . Roan just seems to pick these up any time he runs into one of the main characters.
 * Opening Narration: Changes depending on how far in the TV series you are, but tends to end with a particularly wham-y one liner, such as "the last word they breathe before the end, will be my name." *cue opening theme music*
 * One Woman Army: Nikita Vs. Division. Nikita generally wins.
 * In case no one had gotten the point yet, it's made quite clear in "All The Way", when Nikita takes on a whole room of Division recruits and guards. She wins, quite easily.
 * Only in It For The Money: Percy seems to be this, but he likely has deeper motives.
 * Tasarov, the head of Division's Russian counterpart Gogol, seems to fit this trope better.
 * And the first season finale implies that Percy really is only in it for the money. One of the Oversight members suggests that the whole motivation for his plan to  is for access to the CIA's enormous black budget.
 * "Origins" reveals that Ari and Amanda are working together to seize Zetrov from Semak, using Alex as their pawn.
 * OOC Is Serious Business:.
 * Operation Blank: All of Division's missions are named this way, but the most important is "Operation Sparrow", which is involved in the last several episodes of the first season, and is revealed in the finale to be.
 * Our Hero Is Dead:
 * Pistol Whipping: Nikita's interrogation technique when she captured Birkhoff in the pilot episode. Later brought up by Birkhoff in his own defense when Percy questions whether he is Nikita's mole.
 * Pistol Whipping: Nikita's interrogation technique when she captured Birkhoff in the pilot episode. Later brought up by Birkhoff in his own defense when Percy questions whether he is Nikita's mole.
 * Pistol Whipping: Nikita's interrogation technique when she captured Birkhoff in the pilot episode. Later brought up by Birkhoff in his own defense when Percy questions whether he is Nikita's mole.

"Michael: You're using rehab to conduct an interrogation?
 * Poison and Cure Gambit: In "Phoenix".
 * Power Trio: Season 2 has.
 * Pragmatic Villainy: To prevent any future betrayals by agents, Percy has started having them implanted with kill chips that can be activated at any time. May also count as a Moral Event Horizon.
 * Psycho Serum: The Regimen.
 * Except the serum isn't the cause of the psycho - it's the withdrawal from it that drives you crazy.
 * The Purge: Oversight has a "Clean Sweep" protocol in place for Division, so that if they ever decide to shut it down, they can remotely gas the entire facility.
 * Replacement Goldfish: Sonya is the new Birkhoff at Division.
 * Resignations Not Accepted: As far as Division is concerned, the only way out is cancellation.
 * Revealing Coverup: To Division's credit, they generally try to avoid these to the general public, either finding a scapegoat or cleaning up after themselves thoroughly. Unfortunately, Nikita's mission is to cause havoc with these.
 * Reverse Mole: Nikita is revealed to have a "man on the inside" in the pilot episode. Make that woman on the inside: it's Alex.
 * As of 1x17, it's looks like she's getting another one in the form of  of all people.
 * In Season Two, Alex returns to this role, after her reconciliation with Nikita.
 * Scary Black Man: Richardson, a Division agent. Complete with Bald of Evil.
 * Secret Test of Character: In "Resistance", Alex is tortured by supposed Egyptian terrorists. She passes the test, but, may not have.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: not as romantic as usual. Owen literally says this to Nikita, who just replies he should brush up on his compliment-skills.
 * Ship Tease: There has been significant ship tease between Sean Pierce and Alex, culminating in them holding hands at
 * There has also been some ship tease between Birkhoff and Sonya, Division's new IT expert.
 * Shipper On Deck: Alex and Birkhoff for Michael and Nikita.
 * Shirtless Scene: Sean spends much of 2x12 shirtless.
 * This continues in 2x21 "Dead Drop", as he recovers from being shot.
 * Shoot the Dog: Alex  borders on this, although she did the former in self-defense.
 * Shot to The Heart: In the first season finale, It was the only way to set her free...
 * Shout Out:
 * Nikita's dead fiancee is named Daniel. There was also a Russian spy (with a daughter!) called Irina.
 * The final two minutes of 2.10 are immediately identifiable to Alias fans as either an homage or a blatant ripoff of the final two minutes of "Almost Thirty Years", right down to the
 * Birkhoff calls the black boxes Percy's Horcruxes in "Betrayals".
 * In a later episode, he refers to Ari as "Lord Voldemort".
 * Apparently, Tom Cruise in a harness couldn't break into the SCIF room in Langley.
 * Birkhoff - played by Pyro - says he'll "fire up Cerebro".
 * After, Birkhoff tells the others he'll meet up with them "on Tattooine, or wherever I set up the next rebel base."
 * When Sean suggests Division can use USAF assets to send Alex into Russia, she derides it as a Captain America plan.
 * A Division Guardian mentions the Golden Ticket when Nikita asks him if he knows what the black box is. He does.
 * Birkoff refers to Roan as "the Terminator" after Alex has a run-in with him.
 * Alex quips that revealing herself as Alexandra Udinov to the world is "like I'm about to tell everyone I'm Iron Man or something."
 * In the same episode, a foreign agent is introduced to a third party under the alias "Bill Clay," which is the same alias Hans Gruber used when introducing himself to John McClane.
 * In "Power", after Nikita flirts with two guards and then knocks them out, she quips, "Boring conversation anyway."
 * In "Shadow Walker" Division sends three trucks to deliver some money. Alex sugests that they see which truck is riding lowest "Hey, I saw it in a movie once". Later, when Birkoff does just that, Micheal snarks "I guess Birkhoff saw the same movie".
 * "Crossbow" turns into a 42-minute Shout Out to Star Wars. The old Star Wars missile-defense sytem is mentioned, Percy's Kill Sat (dubbed the Death Star by Micheal) is called Crossbow (Like Chewie's bowcaster), Birkoff tells Nikita "May the Force be with you".
 * Shut Up Kiss: Nikita gives one to Ryan Fletcher in "Free".
 * Slap Slap Kiss:
 * The Sociopath: Amanda, Percy and Roan, and probably one or two of the Guardians as well. All of them extremely deadly individuals.
 * Spy Catsuit: Nikita frequently, but especially in "Phoenix".
 * And also for the majority of "Betrayals" and "Pandora".
 * Spy Couple: Michael and Nikita.
 * The Spymaster: Percy, Amanda, Ari.
 * Spy School: Division. Owen hides in an abandoned school in "The Guardian" to which Nikita quips "Good place to hide, a school bound to hell. Remind you of Division any?"
 * The Starscream: Interestingly, despite being the Big Bad, Percy is The Starscream to the Bigger Bad that is Oversight - he stopped taking their orders a long time ago, does what he wants, and is pretty much blackmailing them with the information on the Black Boxes to stay in power.
 * And as the first season finale shows, Percy has his own Starscream in, who is working for Oversight and seems to be plotting against Division.
 * This is taken even further in the second season when
 * Start of Darkness: Robbie in "The Recruit", when he.
 * Percy claims Operation Pale Fire was this for Division, though Ryan Fletcher doesn't buy it.
 * State Sec: Division, thought it slips into a villainous version of Private Military Contractors by offering their services to the highest bidder.
 * Storming the Castle: In "Crossbow",
 * The Syndicate: Gogol. Second Season reveals that they are the Intelligence arm of Zetrov.
 * Teen Superspy: Alex is supposed to be about eighteen at the start of the show. Nikita to a lesser extent in her early days at Division.
 * Theme Naming: Birkoff seems to like the word "Shadow"; his hacker name is "Shadow Walker", his computer network is called "Shadow Net'', and his new search program in Season 2 is called "Shadow Bot".
 * There Are No Therapists: Averted. There is a therapist... and she's also the head torturer. Now that's the kind of job overlap you really don't want.
 * Theme Naming: Birkoff seems to like the word "Shadow"; his hacker name is "Shadow Walker", his computer network is called "Shadow Net'', and his new search program in Season 2 is called "Shadow Bot".
 * There Are No Therapists: Averted. There is a therapist... and she's also the head torturer. Now that's the kind of job overlap you really don't want.

Amanda: I'm multitasking."

"Nikita: "You're a decorated soldier! Why are you doing this?"
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: In "Fair Trade" when Nikita explains to Sean that she is not the enemy.

Sean: "You're trying to kill my mother."

Nikita:: "Your mother (Sen. Madeline Pierce) is a bitch. I am not the threat, Sean. Open your eyes.""


 * In "Origins", Birkoff tries to get Carla to stop what she's doing: "Get your hands off my hardware, bitch!"
 * Tired of Running: In "Crossbow", Nikita says that she's tired of running from Division and decides to finally take the fight to Percy.
 * Took a Level In Badass:
 * Jaden, in "Girl's Best Friend". For most of the first season, she gets beat down by Alex, Nikita, and is shown to be pretty inept. But in that episode, on her first high-profile mission, she takes out four mooks, the episode's Big Bad, and saves Alex's bacon.
 * Birkhoff seems to have taken some in the interim between S1 and S2. By "343 Walnut Lane", he's  Of course, he had incentive, after being kidnapped on separate occasions by Nikita and the CIA. After Division kidnaps him and Amanda tortures him, he now keeps a gun in close reach at all times, and regularly spars with Michael.
 * Alex takes serveral levels in Season 2, starting in "Knightfall" by ignoring a direct order from Amanda and killing her target (her first real kill), later infiltrating Russia to get revenge.
 * Tough Love: Nikita to Alex in the second season premier when she

""Kill them both!""
 * Torture Technician: "The Inquisitor,".
 * Tracking Device: Embedded in the Division agents' bodies, even the recruits, which Michael thought was excessive. As it happens, not so much.
 * Tragic Keepsake: Owen, a rogue Guardian and former Cleaner, has drawings (later tattoos) reminding him of all the people he killed or failed to protect.
 * Nikolai Udinov's watch, which Amanda seizes, and which Sean later gives to Alex.
 * Trash the Set: In the first season finale, Nikita's loft is assaulted by a Division strike team.
 * Birkoff tells Alex that "You're buying the next house". May be on its way to becoming a Running Gag.
 * Trauma Conga Line: Quite a few characters in the show have crossed this. But Alex may be the definitive one. The list of traumatic events she's faced is ridiculously long.
 * Treachery Cover Up: The reason why Percy can't be assassinated.
 * Tree Cover: Michael and Nikita in "One Way
 * Trojan Horse:.
 * TV Telephone Etiquette: A large part of the drama sometimes replies on technology such as communication between two characters on a "safe" or "unsafe" line, such as Alex and Nikita. No one ever has a conversation as a normal person would (no one ever answers the phone with a "hello", leading to plans being uttered to enemies, of course), but that's pretty much justified.
 * Undercover As Lovers: Michael and Nikita in "Glass Houses", two episodes after they.
 * Undying Loyalty: Roan and the Guardians to Percy.
 * Unholy Matrimony: . Alex even describes it as "a match made in Hell".
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: Michael and Nikita is the most obvious, but there are other examples as well.
 * Villainous BSOD / Roaring Rampage of Revenge:  in "The Recruit", when.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Percy has a mild one in the season finale - after his big plan  is ruined, he orders an attack on Nikita's loft. Rather than watching the screens with his usual calm detachment, he spends the whole time glaring in cold fury and screaming orders at the strike team:
 * Villainous BSOD / Roaring Rampage of Revenge:  in "The Recruit", when.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Percy has a mild one in the season finale - after his big plan  is ruined, he orders an attack on Nikita's loft. Rather than watching the screens with his usual calm detachment, he spends the whole time glaring in cold fury and screaming orders at the strike team:


 * Percy nearly goes through this in "Shadow Walker", as he watches all 70 million dollars of his money burn. It is with visible effort that he controls himself.
 * Villainous Rescue: Nikita and Michael every other episode or so, during Season One.
 * Waif Fu: Generally averted. Nikita often takes on larger opponents and is shown picking up objects or using the environment to her advantage. At one point, when she's fighting a gym full of people, she smacks a few of them with barbells, thus inventing Weight Fu.
 * Wham Episode: 1x11, "All the Way":
 * Episode 1x16: "Go ahead, ask me how I got here."
 * Episode 1x17, by the look of the 2nd promo. Except some of the Wham-ness has been blown by said promo.
 * Though something it didn't spoil was The Reveal that . It also didn't give away that this revelation would lead to.
 * Episode 1x20 -
 * Followed immediately by 1x21 -.
 * The following episode - the season finale - involves.
 * Season 2 has had a few shocks and surprises, but the first real Wham episode was 2x10, where in the last few minutes it's revealed that.
 * 2x13:
 * 2x18:
 * 2x23 ends the season with
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous??: Birkoff starts complaing to Alex after she uses his computer. His complaint: She changed the font.
 * Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: A common question throughout Season One. It's eventually revealed that Nikita possesses a printing press used to print counterfeit "superdollars", meaning her only problems are getting ink and the right paper, though it's eventually lost when Division storms her loft.
 * In Season Two, Birkhoff is revealed to have stolen over twenty million dollars prior to being "recruited" by Division, and uses this to bankroll Team Nikita.
 * Alex, having cashed in her Zetrov stock, seems to have taken over the money side now.
 * World of Badass: Let's face it, the least dangerous people on the team are a CIA analyst and a Navy SEAL. That's after a pair of One Man Armies, the Badass who trained one of them, and an Action Girl. And the hacker has a drone airforce.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The standard procedure for Division is to 'cancel' agents who have failed or no longer have a use. This applies even to Percy and members of Oversight.
 * A Guardian in "Guardian" takes out a Swiss scientist after he secures his supply of Regimen drugs.
 * You Look Familiar: The senator on Oversight from "Pandora" is played by Alberta Watson, who also played Madeline on La Femme Nikita.
 * You Killed My Father: Alex's entire motivation is to avenge her parents' murder.