If there’s one thing Nikita knows how to do, it’s cliffhangers. And the one on last week’s episode (the last new episode until April) was one of the best of the series so far. But assuming Michael doesn’t pump Nikita full of lead with that giant gun he was hanging on to, what can we expect from the next new episode? Maggie Q. dished exclusively to EW about it, and gave a little preview of the upcoming exploration of Mikita. (We all use the term; I say, embrace it.)

“What I really like on an emotional level about the next episode is that you’re going to see a new side to Michael and Nikita and their relationship you’ve never seen before. And you’re going to see a type of vulnerability from the both of them that they don’t really ever have around anyone else but each other,” the actress says. “And it’s not only what you’ve never seen it before, you’re going to understand where it comes from and a lot of the source of the pain as to why they’ve been at odds.”

But as the show starts getting deeper and deeper into the pair’s story, she teases, there could start to be cracks in Nikita’s stony mask. “You’re going to see Nikita shift a bit when Michael’s in the room and shift when Michael’s around because he provides a presence for her that she doesn’t have with anyone else,” she says. “I think that at the end of the next episode, everything that they’re going to go through — and there’s a lot — I think it’s going to be a sad thing for people. Then I think that after the sadness, there may be hope out of a dark place.”

Source: Entertainment Weekly