After a few episodes which didn't use the premise to full potential, Nikita came back with "Rough Trade," easily one of the top two episodes. The episode has the awesome action scenes, but calls in question exactly what people are looking forward and introduces the element of unpredictability.
At the forefront is Alex's panic attack. In a brilliant scene, Amanda attempts to calm Alex by putting her in a locked jacket which only comes off when her heartbeat drops. The solution is for Alex to tell what's troubling her--and she kind of does, telling a story about her parents dying in a car crash. But at the same time, we see flashbacks of reality, Alex hiding under a bed with fire all around and presumably her father shot. Alex brings her heartbeat down, but Amanda now knows Alex is hiding something.
This week, Nikita takes on the Triad which is working with Division, and discovers that her first kill--performed six years ago--was all faked to protect the target. When Nikita confronts Michael about this, he's clearly shaken, but as he says, he owes Percy his life.
Four episodes in, and there's lots of characters and plots to play around with. The question now is whether the writers can deliver an episode like this on a consistent basis.
Score: 8.9/10
