Nikita - Pilot (1.1): Remember What I Taught You
There is a particular kind of relationship that is extremely common in stories about heroes, but exceedingly rare when it comes to heroines - that of mentor and student. Even when a heroine is part of a teacher and student relationship, she is almost always either one of many, such as Buffy’s Potentials, or the student only, the master being an aging hero rather than heroine.
When I originally decided to write about the latest version of La Femme Nikita, I had meant to write about feminist themes and ideas like the White Knight Syndrome and the Bechdel Test. I still will. But the aspect of Nikita that struck me as most unique and refreshing upon re-watching the pilot was how much the relationships between the women on the show are ones that imply a certain amount of mentoring. The central female villain, the amazingly wicked Amanda, is clearly trying to present herself to Alex as a willing guide through the new world she finds herself in. Even Jaden, whose overall characterization is less than stellar, can be seen - in the first episode at least - as taking on the task of putting Alex through a type of initiation.
But the main student-teacher relationship is, of course, that of Nikita and Alex. The pilot plays a clever shell game with it’s audience, initially presenting parallels between Ms. Legendary and the new recruit as if the purpose was to simply give us insight into Nikita’s past, give the audience a connection to both her and Alex, and provide further exposition regarding the inner workings of Division. By the end of the episode, however, we also know that Alex being in Division is no accident on her part, nor Nikita’s. It was all a set-up. Alex, it turns out, has no need of Amanda’s help (nor Michael’s) for she already has Nikita’s guidance - and neither Amanda nor Michael have any idea (yet) that they are being played.
All in all, by the end of the first episode, Nikita has shown every single one of it’s female characters to be clever, smart, focused, and capable. (Yes, including Jaden.*) The men, by comparison, come off as made vulnerable by their own arrogance. Percy in particular, what with his angrily proclaiming Nikita to be merely a “nuisance” and not an actual “threat,” but Birkhoff and Michael as well. The former for backing Percy’s assessment of Nikita and the latter for...well...everything from claiming that what Division is offering Alex is a second chance - as long as she is willing to “earn it,” to taking it upon himself to define Nikita’s experiences for her: “That wasn't you life. it was your cover,” to falling so easily for Alex’s story of being led astray and abandoned by her (now dead) boyfriend.
This is not to say that the women are shown as lacking nuance or infallible - far from it. Amanda hasn’t caught onto to Alex any more than Michael has. Jaden...occasionally gives Amanda a run for her money on the creepy factor, what with presenting herself as a little extra eager to fire guns at actual people. Alex comes across as fairly incompetent and femininely vulnerable for most of the pilot. Even Nikita herself failed her true love, is willing to set up her abusive foster father to be murdered, and barely escapes in the end - just to name a few mistakes and/or character flaws.
It is, in fact, these very flaws that make the teacher/student relationships in Nikita so very real and multi-dimensional. We believe that Alex has something to learn from Nikita - and is capable of doing so, that Amanda is more than just evil, that Nikita's reasons for doing what she does are anything but simple, and even that there is more to Jaden than just being a minor nemesis for Alex.
*In defense of the writer’s treatment of Jaden (in this first episode at least), I do feel the need to point out that it is Jaden that comes closest to discovering the truth of what Alex and Nikita are doing. She may be only messing with Alex at the time, but “Aw, man...is she playing with me?” is just plain awesome for it’s truthiness. Also her “This is a spy school, Tom” in response to his asking “Who told you that?” has to be one of the funniest lines of the episode, in addition to showing us a lot about her character - while cleverly sneaking in Necessary Plot. I also appreciate the fact that Jaden may never let up on mocking Alex, but she also clearly respects Alex's ability to give the same back. If only the writers could have managed to consistently make Jaden something other than Angry Black Woman.
When I originally decided to write about the latest version of La Femme Nikita, I had meant to write about feminist themes and ideas like the White Knight Syndrome and the Bechdel Test. I still will. But the aspect of Nikita that struck me as most unique and refreshing upon re-watching the pilot was how much the relationships between the women on the show are ones that imply a certain amount of mentoring. The central female villain, the amazingly wicked Amanda, is clearly trying to present herself to Alex as a willing guide through the new world she finds herself in. Even Jaden, whose overall characterization is less than stellar, can be seen - in the first episode at least - as taking on the task of putting Alex through a type of initiation.
But the main student-teacher relationship is, of course, that of Nikita and Alex. The pilot plays a clever shell game with it’s audience, initially presenting parallels between Ms. Legendary and the new recruit as if the purpose was to simply give us insight into Nikita’s past, give the audience a connection to both her and Alex, and provide further exposition regarding the inner workings of Division. By the end of the episode, however, we also know that Alex being in Division is no accident on her part, nor Nikita’s. It was all a set-up. Alex, it turns out, has no need of Amanda’s help (nor Michael’s) for she already has Nikita’s guidance - and neither Amanda nor Michael have any idea (yet) that they are being played.
All in all, by the end of the first episode, Nikita has shown every single one of it’s female characters to be clever, smart, focused, and capable. (Yes, including Jaden.*) The men, by comparison, come off as made vulnerable by their own arrogance. Percy in particular, what with his angrily proclaiming Nikita to be merely a “nuisance” and not an actual “threat,” but Birkhoff and Michael as well. The former for backing Percy’s assessment of Nikita and the latter for...well...everything from claiming that what Division is offering Alex is a second chance - as long as she is willing to “earn it,” to taking it upon himself to define Nikita’s experiences for her: “That wasn't you life. it was your cover,” to falling so easily for Alex’s story of being led astray and abandoned by her (now dead) boyfriend.
This is not to say that the women are shown as lacking nuance or infallible - far from it. Amanda hasn’t caught onto to Alex any more than Michael has. Jaden...occasionally gives Amanda a run for her money on the creepy factor, what with presenting herself as a little extra eager to fire guns at actual people. Alex comes across as fairly incompetent and femininely vulnerable for most of the pilot. Even Nikita herself failed her true love, is willing to set up her abusive foster father to be murdered, and barely escapes in the end - just to name a few mistakes and/or character flaws.
It is, in fact, these very flaws that make the teacher/student relationships in Nikita so very real and multi-dimensional. We believe that Alex has something to learn from Nikita - and is capable of doing so, that Amanda is more than just evil, that Nikita's reasons for doing what she does are anything but simple, and even that there is more to Jaden than just being a minor nemesis for Alex.
*In defense of the writer’s treatment of Jaden (in this first episode at least), I do feel the need to point out that it is Jaden that comes closest to discovering the truth of what Alex and Nikita are doing. She may be only messing with Alex at the time, but “Aw, man...is she playing with me?” is just plain awesome for it’s truthiness. Also her “This is a spy school, Tom” in response to his asking “Who told you that?” has to be one of the funniest lines of the episode, in addition to showing us a lot about her character - while cleverly sneaking in Necessary Plot. I also appreciate the fact that Jaden may never let up on mocking Alex, but she also clearly respects Alex's ability to give the same back. If only the writers could have managed to consistently make Jaden something other than Angry Black Woman.