Clearly, every single TV show and their mother wanted to reference The Social Network this week. The Good Wife featured a Zuckerberg-like programmer suing for defamation. And, on Thursday, Alex seduces a nerdy programmer cross between Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs for his iPhone 5/Google Nexus-like prototype. However, the show quickly moved beyond contemporary social references to Alex’s back story.
From start to finish, this episode gave me excellent acting, writing, and directing. Everything clicked. The flashbacks went smoothly. Once again, the director incorporated the background snow beautifully. And, the Michael-Nikita fight scenes upped the ante.
I’m definitely not a fan of Alex’s former colleague, Irina. While she’s Vlad’s victim, turning Alex over to the pimp who assaulted her, started her drug addiction, and forced her into prostitution seems cruel. If Irina truly believed Alex could help her, why didn’t she just follow her? OK. I know why, but let me have my moment of idealism.
As a side note, I don’t understand how Alex trusted Irina wholly but Nikita partially. After almost two years of training, Alex knows if someone says meet me in the back in fifteen minutes, that’s code for “give me 15 minutes to get together a gang to beat you in a dark alley where no one can see.” Why didn’t Alex trust Nikita initially? While Nikita shares Division’s mentality, she has a bleeding heart (evidenced when Fletcher talked her into last week’s non-Division mission). It’s interesting that Alex felt whoever rescued her, Division or Nikita, would probably kill Irina. It seems Alex sees the similarities between her mentor and her employer, even when the former does not.
I loved Amanda’s Russian doll analogy which played out in the end. Although I’m glad that Nikita found the video (to prevent others from viewing it), I’m sad that she suddenly realized the one person she trusted almost unilaterally also hid things from her.
Other things I loved included the kickass fight scenes. Once again, I must devolve to geeky enthusiasm and profanity. [CliqueClack V-Chip Off] Nikita’s instant throat choke hold on Michael? DAMN! Nikita using the bomb strings to choke the bouncer? DAMN! Nikita using a knifed-through tray to take out another opponent? DAMN! Michael and Nikita fighting back to back? AWESOME! Like I said before, these two mega fucking hot-assed bad asses are SUPERBAD awesome. [/CliqueClack V-Chip On]
Notes and Quotes:
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Feb 19, 2011 @ 10:50 EST5EDT
“and I’d find it highly unlikely that Nikita might search Alex’s body but not look in her purse”. Nikita said to Alex that she hid the prototype under the body (of Vlad). Which sounds reasonable (for Michael) for her (Nikita) not finding it…
*POST AUTHOR*
That’s what I thought. But, then it looked like Alex just reached into her purse for the phone –
So I had to go back and rewatch it and to me it looks like it’s in his (breast?)pocket..? Nevertheless, awesome episode and review! :)
Alex took d phone from Vlad’s pocket. It was actually a very clever place for her to have hidden it.
When did Alex lie to Nikita?
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks, MS, Rosay point that out earlier. Alex lied to Nikita at the beginning when she stated Irina didn’t remember her and pretended to go home. Also, at the end, she stated Irina wasn’t in the room and pretended she was more out of it than she was (even when she realized it was Nikita).
There’s one more instance that you could potentially interpret as a lie or just a manifestation of Alex’s Matroshyka personality. The writers seem to want to frame Alex shooting her attacker as shocking because she didn’t fully relate what occurred to Nikita, forcing N to use the video tape to find the truth. But is Alex’s hidden layer a lie of omission or a lie of personality?
If Alex can hide so effectively from Amanda and Nikita, I wonder if the part of her that becomes future Alex wants revenge on the person who killed her father and destroyed her birth home –