List of Nikita characters
Nikita is an American spy drama which premiered on September 9, 2010, on the CW Television Network. The series is based on the French film La Femme Nikita, the film's remake: Point of No Return and a previous series La Femme Nikita. The series stars Maggie Q as Nikita Mears, the title protagonist of the series, as a rogue spy and assassin whose mission is to bring down the secret government agency called Division. Other main cast members include Shane West as Michael, Lyndsy Fonseca as Alexandra "Alex" Udinov, Aaron Stanford as Seymour Birkhoff, Ashton Holmes as Thom, Tiffany Hines as Jaden, Devon Sawa as Owen Elliot, Noah Bean as Ryan Fletcher, Dillon Casey as Sean Pierce, with Melinda Clarke as Amanda Collins and Xander Berkeley as Percival "Percy" Rose.
Main characters
Nikita Mears
Portrayed by Maggie Q, Nikita Mears, the show's main protagonist, and titular character was a waif who never knew her parents and went from one foster home to another. She later became a felony addicted teenager sentenced to death row. The secret government agency, Division, recruited her and faked her death to rescue her from death row. Following her rescue, she was trained as a spy and assassin. Her dreams of serving her country well were broken after Division, the only people she thought she could trust, betrayed her. After a three-year hiding period, Nikita now seeks retribution against Division and vowed to bring the agency down. She is Michael's main love interest throughout the series. In the season three premiere, Michael proposes to Nikita and she accepts saying "You had me at giving you the damn Glock." Maggie Q performs her own stunts.Michael Bishop
Portrayed by Shane West, Michael is a Division operative who trained Nikita. Michael is second in command at Division surpassed only by the ruthless Percy. He is a former US Navy intelligence officer. Shane West, the actor who plays Michael, described Michael as "confused" and "torn between his loyalty to Division and his own feeling on where he should be going in his life". West also said that "Michael's not inherently a bad guy, at all. He's doing some things that I think he started off believing in, and now he's a little unsure". It is later revealed that Percy, Division's head, hired Kaseem Tariq to kill Michael, but due to an accident, Michael's wife and daughter died. It was this that Percy used to get Michael into Division saying that he could seek retribution. Michael also serves as Nikita's main love interest throughout the series. In season 2 it is revealed that Michael has a son, Max who he was unaware of. Michael proposes to Nikita in the season three premiere after a grueling first mission with the "new" Division. She happily accepts and they kiss passionately.Alexandra Udinov
Portrayed by Lyndsy Fonseca, Alexandra "Alex" Udinov is a new recruit in Division. Udinov shares many similarities to Nikita. She is a former street kid who was arrested after a robbery. Udinov, secretly, assists Nikita in her quest to destroy Division by acting as a mole. Alex suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after she was kidnapped by Russians and sold as a sex slave. In "Alexandra", the 15th episode of the first season, it is revealed that Alex is the daughter of a Russian oligarch, and the heir to his business empire. After accidentally killing Thom, then framing him as Nikita's mole, she graduated to agent.In the 21st episode, Alex's true identity was recovered by Amanda, and Percy re-activated her kill chip as a deal to use her against Nikita. In the Season 1 finale, Alex faked Nikita's death so that Nikita could stop Percy, resulting in her recapture by Division. Amanda, however, permanently deactivated Alex's kill chip and let her escape, persuading her to make her own life without being Nikita's mole. Alex then abandoned Nikita, only to be captured by Oversight, who controls Division, and given an order to find and apprehend Nikita and Michael. In Season 2, Alex becomes a free agent and an independent contractor for Division, working with Amanda to bring down Nikita and Michael in exchange for Division's support in her own mission to bring down Sergei Semak; accepting herself as the Udinov heiress.
In the episode "Pale Fire" Alex is shown to be in Russia hunting down Semak. However, Alex discovers that her mother; who she believed was dead is, in fact, alive and is now married to Semak.
After Oversight's fall, Alex starts to declare war against Semak in public, and soon she discovers the fact that Amanda is co-working with Ari who has been long-time planning to fight against his boss Semak.
After Semak is down and Alex has saved her mother from Gogol, Amanda asked Alex to sign a contract that she was willing to pass Zetrov out to Amanda and Ari, but she refused to give the Zetrov to Amanda and soon turned against Division. In the episode "Dead Drop" Alex and Sean share their first kiss.
Seymour Birkhoff / Lionel Peller
Portrayed by Aaron Stanford, Seymour Birkhoff is Division's head technician and is later promoted to head engineer. A talented computer genius and hacker, Birkhoff, as a college student, was originally an infamous cybercriminal known as "Shadowwalker", responsible for many infamous digital attacks on the government and its agencies; he was caught after trying to gain access into the security systems at The Pentagon from his college dorm room. While in prison, Percy got Birkhoff released and recruited him to Division. Birkhoff was recruited at around the same time as Nikita. Birkhoff is known for his nonconformist nature; despite his work for Division, he maintains pride in his individual work with computers. Despite his fear of Amanda and Percy, Birkhoff is fairly loyal to Division, although at times protests against his more violent duties. In Season 2, Birkhoff, after rescuing Nikita and Michael from a Division ambush, revealed he had escaped Division like they had after Percy was relieved of command and Amanda put in charge; and Birkhoff feared her wrath if she ever found out Birkhoff was responsible for decrypting Percy's black box master drive so much that he fled altogether. Initially hesitant to get involved with their efforts to undo all of Division's crimes, Birkhoff, after seeing the effects of a Division mental manipulation program turning a woman; Alicia, who he had quickly grown to care about, into a mindless killer, eventually he teamed up with Nikita and Michael to take down Division and Oversight.Seymour's backstory is further explored in the season four episode "Setup." He was born Lionel Peller to father Ronald Peller, a senior NSA computer engineer, and mother Rosemary Peller. He was the third and youngest child in his family, and was considered an accident by his parents. As a teenager, he involved himself with hackers and phreakers. His father attempted to enroll him in military school, but upon discovering this, Lionel faked his own death under the guise of a drunken boating accident, thereafter changing his name to Seymour Birkhoff. In the episode, he reveals to Nikita and the others that his father has been kidnapped by Amanda and she has been using a double of him to act as her mole within the NSA. Nikita convinces Seymour to reveal his existence to his father later in the episode. Despite the animosity he feels towards his father, Seymour still cares for him and attempts to use the double to discover his father's location to rescue him alive; this goes awry however when Amanda discovers the deception and orders the double to kill Seymour; this forces Nikita to kill the double, leaving the fate of his father in doubt.
Helen "Amanda" Collins
Portrayed by Melinda Clarke, Amanda is the intelligent and beautiful resident psychologist and a master of mental manipulation; she is the official manipulator of Division, under the code-name "Inquisitor". Percy is rumored to have built his entire operation around Amanda's methods and relies on her to get inside people's heads, both during torture and to break them down to believe in Division unconditionally. As an expert manipulator, she can usually tell when people are lying to her and enjoys getting to know the recruits and their secrets. She has a certain fascination for Nikita because she was never able to break her completely. Although she works for Division, she seems to care for some agents and recruits. In Season 2, Amanda has been promoted to Commander of Division and Director of Operations following Percy being relieved of command by Oversight. Amanda, over the course of Season 1, develops a fascination with Alex, similar to Nikita, due to their similar personalities and actions during missions—ultimately resulting in Amanda finding out Alex is Nikita's mole. In Season 2, Amanda and Alex are "business partners". Amanda wants the black box master drive which Nikita and Michael possess and are threatening to expose Division and Oversight with, Alex wants to kill Sergei Semak; who used Oversight to order her family's deaths. Amanda gives Alex information to further this goal, and Alex promises to get the black box master drive. Amanda captured Nikita and introduced her to a story about how she grew up in a hallucination, Nikita thinking she was Amanda but she was really her twin sister. Amanda's real name was Helen. The other twin sister Helen strapped up in a basement being tested and tortured by her own father..In Season 2, it is revealed that Amanda has been promoted to Head of Division, and is holding Percy in an underground cell at Division. However, later on, with Oversight and Division itself hostage, Amanda is forced to release him. At the end of the episode "Clean Sweep," it is revealed that Amanda has been working with Ari Tasarov throughout her time at Division, and was also involved with Ari romantically. They were secretly plotting to take their bosses down and install Alex as head of Zetrov as a puppet, so that Ari may gain the power from her; however, Alex refuses their demands and stops dealing with them.
In "Power", Amanda goes to Moscow with Ari to attempt to offer Gogol the services of Division. While she's gone, Percy manages to reach Division, telling the agents in charge that Amanda is betraying them. Amanda's aide, Sonya, contacts Birkhoff who, unaware of Percy's presence, plays her a video he'd recorded of Amanda offering Gogol the use of Division agents and her calling the agents considered expendable. When Nikita disrupts the plan, Amanda calls for backup only to have Percy answer and let her know she's now being hunted. She and Ari escape to try and plan revenge.