It Still Stings: The CW’s Rush to Judgment With Nikita

For four seasons, The CW’s Nikita brought action, surprising brutality, and a beautiful vulnerability to the screen with each thrilling and heart-stopping mission the characters became entangled in. Based on the French film La Femme Nikita, the series begins with the so-called killer with a conscience, Nikita Mears (Maggie Q), putting her years-long plan in motion to bring down the covert, government-funded organization Division, which faked her execution seven years prior and subsequently groomed her into one of the world’s deadliest assassins. Unfortunately, Nikita never quite got the attention it deserved for its high-quality storytelling and rich character work, and was ultimately cancelled after a shortened fourth and final season consisting of just six episodes. Although Nikita still managed to pull off a great ending given the circumstances, this too-tight episode count didn’t allow for proper closure, as there was simply too much story to tackle.

In the CW’s adaptation, the show dives much deeper into the world of its titular (anti-)heroine and her complex motivations than a feature film could ever hope to provide. Here, the journey begins years after Nikita’s escape from Division, at a time when she probably could have remained in the shadows for the rest of her life, but purposefully returns seeking vengeance and justice. Why? Firstly, Division turned her into a killer, a fact which weighs on her every day. Second, those in charge killed her fiancé, a civilian, because she had gotten too close to him, and they realized her loyalty had become compromised. But, most importantly, because the organization strayed far from its original purpose to be the government’s secret, untraceable weapon.  still conducts the occasional government-sanctioned operation, but most of its new missions are assassinations paid for by anyone with enough cash to line the pockets of its leader, Percy (Xander Berkeley). 

Despite the odds being stacked against her, facing off against a group with hundreds of trained operatives and millions at its disposal, Nikita and, eventually, her team—Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca), Michael (Shane West), and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford), to name a few—prove their impeccable skills and fierce commitment repeatedly, sometimes only narrowly escaping with their lives. The well-written story takes plenty of twists and turns along the way, including Nikita and her team taking charge of Division during the show’s third season. It’s an unexpected but necessary development—though the group hated the place, staying and hunting down rogue operatives is the only option. (Otherwise, the President will kill every existing operative and wipe Division off the map entirely.) But the season’s most shocking twist occurs when Nikita’s nemesis (and former mentor), Amanda (Melinda Clarke) uses science-fiction-esque technology from a new shadowy group known as The Shop to frame Nikita for the murder of the President in the Season 3 finale. 

After this cliffhanger was filmed, The CW canceled Nikita, giving the series only six more episodes to wrap up not one, but three enormous plotlines (including finally putting a stop to Amanda). How could even one of those be wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion in such a meager timeframe? Of course, the fact that the show got six episodes to conclude its story is a blessing and better than total cancellation, especially in the wake of such a game-changing cliffhanger. But that doesn’t mitigate the ways that The CW essentially set Nikita up for failure.