'Nikita' 'Tipping Point' Postmortem: Lyndsy Fonseca On Alex's Shocking Actions And Amanda's Role In Her Betrayal

SPOILER ALERT: Lyndsy Fonseca On Alex's Shocking Actions

Spoiler Alert: Do not read on unless you have seen "Nikita" Season 3, Episode 16, titled "Tipping Point."

Did you see that coming, "Nikita" fans? After Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Sean (Dillion Casey) spent this week's episode searching for mutineers inside Division, Rachel's (Jessica Camacho) careless mention of reaching a "tipping point" during her interrogation revealed that Alex herself was involved in the plot, leading her to shoot Ryan (Noah Bean) to cover her tracks.

Now, Ryan is in a coma, and it appears that despite her protestations, Amanda (Melinda Clarke) did do something to Alex while our troubled heroine was imprisoned in South Ossetia, somehow subconsciously linking her dissatisfaction with Division to her memories of being sold into the sex trade. The Huffington Post caught up with Lyndsy Fonseca via phone to find out what's next for Alex after her betrayal, how her secret will affect her relationships with Sean and Nikita (Maggie Q), what else Amanda has in store and much more.

While Ryan is still in a coma, Alex's secret is safe. But in her last words to Nikita, she didn't make much effort to hide her true feelings about the state of Division. Where does she go from here?
Well, basically, Amanda didn’t brainwash her in the sense that she’s doing things that Alex would never have done or thought of. Instead, it’s a little bit more like Amanda planted a connection that Larissa [Olga Fonda] and Alex had a past [with] the girls in the brothel; she’s basically making the connection that the people in Division are like those girls and Alex has this passionately visceral need to save everyone in Division.

That was already there for all of the main characters, because obviously we’re doing this to get everybody on the right track, but it’s coming from a much more black and white emotional place [for Alex now]. Alex gets herself involved with something she realizes she can’t turn back from. They call them the Mutineers, Rachel and the rest of them. There’s basically a group that has rallied with Alex to try and shut Division down and get everyone money so that they can get out, instead of doing all of these things we keep saying Division doesn’t do anymore. But it’s just going to end in a big, big explosion ... it’s going to reach a climax that will change everything.

I'm relieved she didn't go through with killing Ryan outright, even though it would've completely protected her. What do you think stopped her?
Exactly. She’s not out to kill anybody. In fact, she’s out to save everybody. She’s confused and conflicted and it’s kind of like ... a crazy person doesn’t think that they’re crazy ... She’s got this tunnel vision of what she wants to do and Ryan’s threatening that and in an instant, the gun goes off and it’s like, "Oh my God," and it just kind of spirals from there.

Is she feeling any guilt at this point, since her decision-making process is kind of blurred, or do the ends justify the means in terms of what Amanda's programmed into her?
No, I definitely think that there’s some guilt, because the whole point is that she’s tired of killing people and she wants to get out ... Rachel kind of defies her a few times ... like, “I won’t kill anyone on sight, but that goes against our orders,” and Alex [has] created these monsters that she didn’t need to create. Her way was just get everyone out and so there’s guilt in that. But she’s kind of stuck, because she’s not fully with the Mutineers and she’s not fully with her friends. She’s trying to be the person that’s in-between to make everybody get along, and that’s kind of a job set up for failure. [Laughs.]

So now we know that Amanda did do something to Alex with that creepy torture chair. Is Alex consciously aware of that, or is it something that's still subconscious for her and only the audience is aware of?
At this point of airing episodes, she definitely doesn’t believe that, because to her, the way that she’s acting is just her. She physically feels like herself and none of her actions are things that are completely out there -- it’s just that she’s been kicked into overdrive ... Right now, she has no idea. There will be a point very soon where something big happens and it makes her really stop and think about it. She gets some information about people that left the team already and the truth about them and when that happens, she just goes off and, like "Hanna," the movie ... she goes on this whole rampage of just getting vengeance for a little bit. But right now at least, she doesn’t have any idea.

What was your reaction when you got this script, since it's such a huge twist and seems like a catalyst for a lot of big things to come?
I think the most challenging part for me was, I felt very much stuck in between. I’m fighting for justice, like my friends Nikita and Michael [Shane West] are, yet I’m going completely against them and on the other side with these Mutineers. It was challenging between scenes and between characters to find my line all the time, my point of view, because as Alex, she’s also confused. She’s also doing things that are trying to find her straight line and part of it is trying to keep everybody together. It was very challenging, but in the end, it all paid off.

Alex and Owen [Devon Sawa] have now both been victims of Amanda's manipulations in a major way. Will we see more scenes between them that touch on that common ground?
Yeah, definitely. There’s not a storyline of just the two of us for the rest of the season, but for him, there’s some crazy, cool shit coming up because yes, his past with Amanda comes out and it gets even crazier and it just justifies the amount of power that Amanda has with myself and with Nikita. Those three characters are really affected the most by the chair and Amanda and that power.

Alex and Nikita haven't had much bonding time all season, with so much else going on -- and now with the secret Alex is keeping, I imagine things will become even more strained. What can you preview about the dynamic between them in upcoming episodes?
I think for the first time, they really go head to head. And not in an “I hate you" way, but kind of the way that a couple or best friends would be. They think they know everything about [each other] and they’re their everything, but then, all of a sudden, they’ve got completely different political views and they are just passionately going against each other. It gets very tense and crazy and Ryan [has said,] "You guys, Division doesn’t work if you guys are not together,” and he’s right. Things really start to fall apart and we start seeing those consequences, because the operation just doesn’t work if those two characters aren’t together. So because Alex is so passionate about her point of view and Nikita is so passionate about her point of view, it definitely lends itself to some conflicting episodes coming up.

How is her relationship with Sean going to suffer because of everything she's hiding? She was pretty much working against him even while working with him this week.
I made the decision that she wasn’t telling Sean everything in order to protect him -- just because she’s going against Division, doesn’t mean she all of a sudden isn’t herself. She is still in love with him and she still is who she is. It’s just that she needs to do what she needs to do and then keep that separate. But because they’re in a relationship, that’s obviously wishful thinking. Eventually, he does confront her and he figures things out and their relationship is tested. I don’t want to give anything away, but it definitely gets resolved in a certain, unfortunate manner.

As you pointed out, these are concerns that Alex has had from even before Amanda captured her. I think she's actually fairly justified in wanting the rest of Division safe and shut down, since that was the team's motivation at the beginning of this season anyway. So what percentage of her actions do you think are because of her existing beliefs, and how much are a result of what Amanda did?
I think that it’s half and half. The fact is that she does believe and believed it before Amanda ... but the problem is that what Amanda planted in her brain is this connection with Larissa and the fact that Nikita never helped her save Larissa and nobody helped her [as a sex slave]. So it's connecting these dots that aren’t exactly meant to be connected. They’re separate, but she’s putting them all together as one and going, “I have to save everyone in here. I have to save the girls in the brothel." And Sean’s like, “These are criminals. These people in Division are not the people that you set out on saving,” so it’s kind of this emotional confusion. It’s very 50/50 in what she already believed in and then what’s making her actions different now.

"Nikita" airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

Were you shocked by Alex's actions? Do you think she and Nikita can mend their friendship? Share your reactions and predictions below!

Episode 322: "Til Death Do Us Part"

Nikita Season 3

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