Alex Udinov
Alexandra "Alex" Udinov is one of the main characters on the television series Nikita, portrayed by Lyndsy Fonseca. Many fans of "Team Nikita" consider Alex as the baby of the "family," this is because Alex, being the youngest of the group, when her walls are down, can behave childlike and callow.
Character arc
Background
Alex is the daughter of the late Russian oligarch Nikolai Udinov and his wife who were murdered by Division, on orders of Sergei Semak, when Alex was a child. Udinov owned the billion-dollar company Zetrov, of which Alex was the sole heir. Alex was to inherit the Zetrov company, which flashbacks show her as never really wanting in the first place. She was saved by Nikita, after Nikita killed her father, as she watched the rest of her family perish in a fire. Nikita was powerless to save Alex from anything else as she had to return to Division, and she gave Alex to one of Udinov's associates for safe-keeping. Instead, Alex was sold into sex slavery by her father's associate since he needed money and thought no one would recognize her if he did.To keep her from fighting against them, the slavers kept Alex high and eventually forced her to become a drug addict. She escaped the slavers by herself, though she remained a user and was shown in flashbacks to be living as a junkie, living from hit to hit. Alex brings this part of her past up to Amanda, saying that the slavers "had the decency to keep high" as they held her captive, comparing this to Division.
After Nikita escapes Division, she finds Alex again and rescues her before she is about to get raped and forces her to get clean, much to Alex's irritation. It is revealed in a flashback that it was Alex's idea to infiltrate Division, and that if Alex hadn't tried to kill herself in front of Nikita, Nikita would never have told Alex the truth about Division. After Nikita succeeds in helping Alex past the worst part of her withdrawal, she starts to train her both mentally and physically to stay one step ahead of Division once she is inserted there. Nikita makes it clear to Alex that once she gets in, she will be on her own and Nikita won't be able to be there if something goes wrong.
Alex also suffers panic attacks when certain things trigger somewhat suppressed memories of her past, such as being under a car. Alex was shown to also have nightmares about her deceased family, often speaking Russian and screaming for her father. Amanda and Nikita also don't allow Alex to drink alcohol, because if she were she would go back to doing drugs.
Season 1
At the beginning of season one, Alex was arrested while robbing a drug store with her abusive boyfriend Ronnie; Ronnie shoots the store owner and runs away as the police arrive, leaving Alex, covered in blood, with the stolen drugs. Alex was blamed for the murder and sent to prison – soon after; Alex wakes up in Division, officially having committed suicide in prison, and meets with Michael, who brings her into Division as a new recruit.This was revealed as a ploy set by Nikita who was actually portraying Ronnie in the robbery, so Alex could get into Division as a mole. Amanda originally thinks that Alex is Ukrainian, yet Alex is originally from Russia. As the season went on, more was revealed of Alex and her relationship with Nikita. Saving Alex was the first time Nikita defied her orders from Division, which were to kill her entire family. As a result, Nikita and Alex share a very close bond that is always being tested. Amanda and Percy both think Alex reminds them of Nikita.
Season 2
Alex was working with Division to gather the intel and resources she needed to reclaim her birthright. She claimed that she was merely using Division, she had gone on a number of missions for them, although only if they provided vital information on Semak. Percy only agreed to feed information to Amanda if Alex was the one sent to talk to him. In the first half of season two, Amanda and Alex's relationship took an interesting turn. Although they agreed to be "business partners", it ran a lot deeper than that. Since Alex was away from Nikita, given that she was in Division and Nikita wasn't, Alex turned to Amanda for council. Alex disobeyed Amanda by assassinating Anton Kochenko, they tried to make Alex abort the mission after Nikita messed up their plans. Alex said, "So, Nikita wins again," and then fired her sniper rifle, killing Kochenko. When Alex returned, Amanda was disappointed and angry that Alex disobeyed a direct order. However, unlike any other recruit who would have been punished severely, she went unpunished. Alex, through a series of events, was also being manipulated by Percy. At one point, through blackmail, Percy seemed to have his claws around Alex. Where Alex was once a mole for Nikita, she appeared to be becoming one for Percy instead, though unknowingly.Eventually she managed to reconcile with Nikita and was able to betray Amanda and Ari. She inevitably retook her father's empire and rescued her mother. For the rest of season two she worked with Nikita in bringing down Division. She later assisted Nikita in her raid on Division, which ended successfully with the deaths of Percy and Roan, and with Ryan Fletcher placed by the US government to be Division's Director.
Season 3
Alex reprises her alter ego, the spoiled Russian princess Alexandra Udinov, in a unique way for a couple episodes this season. Liza's abduction brings up painful old memories for Alex, who tries to get closer from Liza's mother. Nikita, Michael and Sean attempt to stop a terrorist attack but are one man down after Alex is shot. She saves Nikita by taking a bullet to the shoulder, Nikita goes to kill Mia for revenge. In season 3 episode 4, Alex starts to unravel.It appears Alex is starting to relapse into drugs; however, it is just taking pain pills. She takes them after a heated argument with Sean in the medical facility, and because her bullet wound was causing her so much pain, she gave in and took one pill. After Alex gets sick of waiting at Division and hurt after her and Sean's conversation, she tells Nikita she's going on the mission to Amanda's house with her. Nikita allows her reluctantly, which results in Alex taking a heavy beating from a man twice her size and leaving her in immense pain.
When she gets back to Division she secretly takes more pills, and it appears she is slowly starting to get addicted to them. However, her apparent addiction was not full blown, she would only take them when her arm was in pain. Michael eventually confronted her in season 3 episode 7, and she told Nikita the truth.
Nikita was disappointed and mad at Alex, however, later she told Alex that they would handle her addiction together. When Alex was addicted to drugs, Amanda told her that she becomes anger, and tells her she can use it to her advantage.
In episode 10, Ryan allows Alex to go back out into the field. Sean becomes jealous of Alex's relationship with Owen. She tells things about her past to Owen that she can't tell to Sean because Sean grew up in a regular American family, and she is afraid of him judging her or not understanding her. Amanda holds Alex hostage and tells Nikita she will release Alex in exchange for Ari. Amanda "brainwashes" Alex with "the chair" by forming bridges where they aren't supposed to. Such as Alex's sex slave past is linked with Division and their current predicament, Alex is still Alex and has good intentions, but she is irrational and mentally unstable.
However, as far as Alex knows she is still herself and everything she is doing is because she wants to. Alex recruits Birkoff to dig up secrets on Danforth to use as leverage in case things get messy with the government. They are shocked when they find out the president has made a kill house and was ready to wipe out all of Division with the marines that were trained. Alex and Sean are tasked with investigating who, inside Division, is behind a mutiny that ends in bloodshed. It is revealed Alex is, but only the mutineers and Ryan knows. Ryan is in a coma because Alex shot him, not with evil intentions though. Alex confesses her desire to leave Division to Birkhoff and almost gets him aboard until Sean interrupts them.
Personality
Alex is known for her complex personality, she is a very debatable and complicated character, she is neither black or white, nor good or bad; she is a gray character. She has many sides to her that some don't see. On the outside, she can appear tough and snarky, but on the inside she is a damaged girl. She is known to have a dangerous streak about her. She is very unpredictable and has a sneaky attitude with a strong determination that constantly gets her into trouble. Alex is known to have many walls that protect herself from being caught emotionally off guard. Amanda even has trouble getting through to the real Alex. Amanda claims that "...the girl's like one of those Russian dolls, you open one version of her, only to find there's another hidden inside her." Birkhoff also claims Alex is a bunch of small "why" dolls stacked inside bigger "why" dolls She does not talk about herself or her past much. When she does, she talks to Nikita and Amanda, or it is shown through flashbacks. Despite Alex and Nikita's closeness, she sometimes lies to Nikita to hide what she's really feeling, sometimes it may be because she is afraid that Nikita may become disappointed or overprotective. Alex also has a hard time conveying her emotions, she is also sometimes oblivious if a guy is hitting on her. She is emotionally close to a few people, her distinctively tragic past has caused her to close off herself from many people. Sean once jokingly said " Wow, those walls you got there are tough." "What do you Russians build with anyway? Field stone...petrified potatoes?" He claims that sometimes, when he's with her, he can see a crack in her wall, and he can see a look she gives him that shows him she does treasure her relationship with him. Many people remark how much Alex reminds them of Nikita, which is both true and not.Alex has a mature and condescending exterior. Sometimes when she opens herself up, she appears to still be an immature kid that never had the chance to be a child. She also thinks that she can take care of herself and doesn't always need Nikita to help her. However, she is fiercely loyal to Nikita, and she is Alex's only meaningful family. Alex on many occasions proves how much she loves Nikita, however, their relationship is very complex. Alex doesn't build many emotionally charged bonds with men. Michael, Sean, and Birkoff are some of the few closest male relationships she has. Alex leans towards the mother figures, like Amanda and Nikita, to give her comfort and support. Despite that Amanda and Nikita are enemies, Amanda shows her way of affection to Alex. Although Alex can for the most part control herself from taking drugs or alcohol, she isn't allowed to take any type of drugs, such as pain pills, due to the fact that she might relapse. Therefore, if Alex gets shot, breaks an arm, or is seriously injured, she isn't allowed to take morphine that will help her with her pain. After Alex takes a bullet to the arm for Nikita, she isn't allowed to go on missions because she is still healing. Since Alex no longer has a reason to do something, it forces her to remain still and recollect her thoughts. However, Alex is not the type of person to throw down a towel and bathe in the sun. Division is her life, and it's all she knows and what she considers home. Her dark past is something she rarely talks about, and some repressed memories are starting to come back to her as she has time to think about it. Alex mostly plays the physical and emotional punching bag of others. She can be cool headed in one moment, then fierce and passionate in the next. She is playful and snippy with many people such as Amanda and Owen. But then she can be gravely serious and no nonsense if it is a topic that affects her emotionally. Birkhoff makes a note that Alex is so fired up and ready to put her life on the line, that she would do drugs just to get back out into the field. This greatly conflicts him, Alex, and Nikita; Nikita told Alex, in order for her to get clean, she must find the reason why she feels the need to put her life is to confront her suppressed past.
Alex's traumatic past has made her a survivor. She doesn't understand why she is always the one to live; such as when her family was murdered, when she escaped her sex slavers, and when she was a junkie.