That seemed like Nikita's biggest slip-up.

Agree wrt Alex backstory, I'm anxious to learn more.

Not sure I understood the backstory thing at the end. Why did Alex lie under the bed?

It was just showing that her father took away the mp3 player, but then gave it back to her after she completed the wilderness survival stuff with him in the woods. Her going under the bed was looped into the dream from the very opening of the show where she and Nikita broke into her old house to steal "the blackbox" (it was the same walkman mp3 player, same bedroom and same house). She went under the bed because that is where she hid it because her father didnt allow her "distractions" such as it.

The whole episode was showing the contrast and compliment of her life previous to Division killing her parents and how she is now. Because from that point she was then sold as a sex slave, became a drug addict and then met Nikita - its basically showing she is finally becoming happy with her life.

It also has another significance along those lines, in that they never showed her backstory when she was in Division (prior to Nikita saving her). This is basically showing that at Division she had no backstory, no previous life. It was only after she left the training centre she can start to become herself again. The dream was literally her breaking back into her old life to steal back who she was.

I would assume over the next few eps, probably to the finale, they will intercut her backstory into the episodes. The "theme" of this episode was music which was used to tie everything together. She used an ipod to upload the virus at Division, there was music playing when her Division training kicked in at the party, at the end she met the neighbour going to a gig and the song at the very end was Life For Rent by Dido whose lyrics match Alex's story pretty well as she no longer is anyone or has anything outside of her Division provided cover and it was the right release date for her to be listening to it in the "6 years earlier" flashback.

I thought some stuff in this episode was pretty bad in ways episodes haven't been bad earlier. This makes me slightly concerned for the future. Specifically, I feel like pretty much every character made stupid, out-of-character, decisions just for the sake of creating a story, whereas earlier it's been more like, a story unfolds, and the characters act pretty reasonably to respond to it.

I also dislike how Alex can supposedly just walk around/hang out with Nikita in broad daylight, just because her tracker signal has been redirected. This doesn't mesh well with what we know about how division keeps track of their agents on the outside and knows every detail about their life (Nikita and Daniel, etc). For me, this takes me out of the story in a pretty bad way.

Also, I put the over/under on 2 episodes before this exchange happens, pretty much word for word:

[Alex is with Nikita in Nikita's apartment. Phone rings]
Alex: Hello?
Michael: Alex. It's Michael. Is everything all right?
Alex: Yeah everything's great *winks at Nikita*. What's up?
Michael: Where are you right now?
Alex: I'm in my apartment, why?
Michael: That's strange, because I'm standing in your apartment, and it's empty.
[Dramatic music plays. Close-up on Alex looking worried. We go to commercials]

Yeah, except im 99% sure it will turn out the neighbour from the last ep is an agent.

The writing is less tight than it was at the start, Nikita is making errors that can blow Alex's cover, but its aight still.

Anyone else notice the difference with the intro? It ends differently from all the previous episodes. Wonder if it means anything

They have changed the intro at least three previous times. Its used as a "previously on" style summing up, more or less.

Wouldnt they know that Alex let the girl (The lover of the Prince or whatev it was) go when she was tied up. I mean when that guy that was in charge debriefed he has to have told that they got that girl tied down, and Alex was watching here. Maybe I missed something?

All of the intros used to end with "and the last word they'll breathe before the end, will be my name"..

This last intro ended with "I will protect the innocents they target and I will make them pay"

I'm 90-95% sure there's been one or two episodes previous to this that didn't end "and the last word...". They certainly are changing other stuff in the intro in any case, almost every episode.

Phil, I hadn't considered that the neighbor would be an agent, but it seems very likely to be true now that you mention it.

noob, I can't find a good explanation for that either. It feels to me like the plot of this episode was just thrown together, completely unlike plots of earlier episodes, and it bugs me and worries me for future episodes.

I am 100% sure they are all the same minus the pilot episode and this last one. Just wondering if that means they got the renewal already (or something).

Just rewatched all the intros. Episodes 8 and 9 didn't have an intro, at least not the versions I have, but the others did. Episode 7 ends "another piece in our plan to take down Division", with no mention of the "will be my name" line. The wording of other stuff changes a lot depending on episode.

You're right. Next time, your 90% trumps my 100%. I didn't have 8 (9 I probably assumed was the same) and somehow missed 7 being different.

I dont know if that specifically is a bit of a plot hole oversight, or if it will come back around or anything else, but they are showing Nikita and Alex take bigger risks and make more errors which seems to be used to advance the plot of Michael finding out Alex is the mole.

Personally i dont like it and they should play the characters off as uber careful and its only cos Michael goes the extra mile they are caught out, but meh.

The show was overdue a flaw to it, right now it is the inconsistency of Nikita making mistakes and them taking chances such as Alex spending a lot of time physically meeting Nikita inc at her place while they spoof her signal. She just isnt gonna be doing these things, its pretty clear to us as viewers.

Wow you almost called it this last episode. At the very end I recalled your post and thought "damn, did he really predict this almost word for word?"

It was close. Next episode should be pretty good then.