Kenzi Malikov

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Character Name: Kenzi Malikov
Series: Lost Girl
Timeline: Food for Thought: Se01Ep06. After receiving the cure.
Canon Resource Link: Wiki Linkage This Wiki page glosses over far too much of her arc, particularly in Season 1 & 2 and isn't entirely accurate. The Bio on Succubus Net is considerably better.

Character History: When a Luck Fae by the name of Mayer asserts that Kenzi is a Survivor, he couldn't have summed up Kenzi more accurately if he had tried. Though we don't meet Kenzi until she is rescued by the reluctant Bo when Kenzi is roofied by the man who intended to drug her instead. Kenzi's story of survival starts from a young age and is referenced in a way that might leave you thinking she's joking, if not for the rare serious moments where she confronts her past throughout the series.

The tragic turns in Kenzi's life began with the loss of the father, whom she has no recollection of and worsened when her mother chose to remarry. While little is known of her childhood and Kenzi herself tries to downplay the abuse she experienced when she finally does tell Bo about it. It is known that Kenzi's Stepfather, Bodgen would lock her in closets for making too much noise. That her family members would repeatedly dismiss her pleas for help. Her alcoholic mother would always choose her Stepfather over her and for that reason, Kenzi would first run away from home, at the ripe old age of ten.

For more than a decade, Kenzi would turn survival into an art-form. The streets and abandoned subway tunnels under the city became her home while running cons and lifting wallets became her tools of the trade. We learn from run ins with people from her past that she engaged in a number of nefarious acts in order to get by and even Kenzi at one point says, she did things she's not proud of. It's suggested that her life took a far darker turn than even the show reveals, when she confronts her mother in Season 4; The implication of possible prostitution is clear, though never confirmed. At the very least we can be sure that according to Kenzi, she had to do degrading things that she wasn't proud of in order to survive.

We first get to see Kenzi in action when she steals the wallet of a patron in the bar where Bo works. (It's a Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae World: Se01Ep01). A chance encounter between her and a known rapist could have seen Kenzi's life take another dark turn but it's the intervention of Bo that not only saves Kenzi, but will set her on a completely new path. Bo, as it turns out, is a Succubus who has been running from these abilities that she can't explain since she was a teenager. Somebody who has no idea what she really is: A member of a group of supernatural species (The Fae), who have lived hidden among the humans for centuries.

Kenzi is the first person to not only see what Bo is capable of, but embrace it rather than reject it; Telling the woman to 'learn to enjoy your shit'. She in no way appears to be bothered by the fact that Bo, killed the man who had drugged her and shows nothing but an eager interest in learning more about what Bo can do. Immediately declaring herself, the possible Robin to her Batman, Kenzi casts Bo in a much different light to the one she's seen herself in for years.

Kenzi's loyalty, resourcefulness and bravery quickly come into focus when Bo is kidnapped by two men with unexplained abilities. (Whom we later discover to be Dyson & Hale.) Rather than turn her back, Kenzi manages to track Bo down to a warehouse where Bo is being thrown head first into the world she's supposed to belong to. In order to not be put to death, Bo must undergo a test. If she fails she will die but if successful, she will be asked to choose which side of the Fae she wishes to belong to: The Light, or the Dark.

While Kenzi's attempts to rescue Bo might result in her capture, she is there to offer moral support to Bo and is the first to rush to her side when the Succubus manages to emerge, victorious. It's fitting in that moment that while being supported by a seemingly insignificant human, Bo stands before the members of The Fae and declares herself unaligned; Choosing humans over the Fae and in the process, refusing to play by the rules that Fae society has been built on. This choice marks Bo as a rarity among the Fae and cements the quickly forged bond between her and Kenzi.

Now that Bo is no longer looking to run from what she is, she and Kenzi move into an old abandoned warehouse together, providing them both with a stable home for the first time in years. They barely have a chance to settle before the Fae world comes to them. A man by the name of Will O' The Wisp seeking Bo's help. Bo, as neither Light, nor Dark, does not need to play by the same rules as the rest of the Fae and it's this encounter, and Kenzi's tendency to scheme that will see her and Bo become Private Investigators who specialize in all things supernatural.

They fast learn that Kenzi, as a human, isn't altogether safe in the company of Fae and in order to offer her protection, Bo is advised by Trick to publicly claim her as her own, therefore making Kenzi off limits to the members of the Fae who would otherwise see her as food. While most of the Fae do appear to see Kenzi as little more than the pet of a Succubus. There are at least three who the women come to know (Dyson, Hale & Trick) through the Dal Riata - A bar that is considered neutral territory for members of The Light and The Dark, who at the very least acknowledge her existence and in time, consider her to be their equal in many regards.

Following a mystery of the week style formatting for the majority of the first season, we watch as Kenzi and Bo immerse themselves in the world of the Fae and their problems as each week, Kenzi finds a way to keep up with the fast pace and oftentimes, dangerous antics the pair get into, helping Bo wherever she can. While investigating the case Will O' The Wisp brought to them, Kenzi successfully manages to 'cockblock' Bo from accidentally killing a human when her hunger overcomes her and despite being told to stay in the car? It's Kenzi who runs headfirst towards a... headless Fae in order to save Bo from a Dullahan when the person who stole from Will, turns out to be his son.

As if unperturbed by what happened, Kenzi is quick with the puns when she and Bo go back to The Dal to discuss the Dullahan with Dyson, the Fae cop who along with his Partner, Hale, had been responsible for nabbing Bo and bringing her to The Fae in the previous episode. He explains to them that the Dullahan is a hired hitman and the girls realize they have to find Will, believing he used them to hunt down the person he wants killed and not to get his belongings back as he first suggested.

The two find Will and come face to face with both his son and yet another Dullahan. After a fight ensues between Bo and the Hitman, it's unexpectedly Kenzi who saves the day with a puntastic dropping of the Dullahan's head into a drum of fire, thus killing him.

Kenzi's unconventional background makes her useful in ways that Bo has never had to deal with and we first see that in Episode Three when the girls are asked to look into a case of a missing college student. Despite her initial reluctance to take on what would be an unpaid gig, Kenzi dons a wig and fakes her way through being a believable pledge at a Sorority, despite never finishing school, let alone having attended college. She excels in adapting to college life, particularly when it comes to alcohol consumption and while she has a few missteps along the way, such as when her wig falls off after doing a funnel of beer. Her intoxication in no way dulls her quick thinking, Kenzi able to write it off as a problem relating to a made up medical condition.

When investigating the Sorority itself turns up little to nothing. Kenzi and Bo start looking into the rest of the College and find that a number of students have gone missing. With Bo onto a new lead, Kenzi is forced to undergo a Sorority initiation that in a shocking, to her, twist... involves red cloaks but no actual killing. When she calls Bo to check in, the call cuts out and Kenzi races to the Deans office where she was supposed to be, only to discover one dead Dean and no Bo to speak of.

Calling Dyson for help, the two of them manage to track Bo to a forest where after getting told what to do by Dyson, he shifts into wolf form and goes after Bo, leaving an awestruck Kenzi to excitedly exclaim how awesome it was. While Kenzi might miss out on the rest of the action, she and a rescued Bo decompress at home over a drink where Kenzi lets her approval of Dyson and his 'wolf junk' be known and encourages her to go and get some from the shifter in question.

In the next episode, Kenzi learns of Dyson's seemingly 'manwhore' ways - His hooking up with another woman at the end of the last episode and Bo walking in on it. Irritated by Dyson's rejection of Bo, Kenzi takes it upon herself to help her bestie feel better, introducing Bo to the Kenzi way of dealing. It mostly involves Bo taking to a car wreck with a baseball bat while Kenzi shouts encouragement before she drags a reluctant Bo to The Dal for drinks. Once there, they realize that Dyson and Hale are as well and making a point of ignoring them, Kenzi then makes it her mission to get Bo drunk before the Succubus embraces the idea that to get over somebody, you have to get under somebody else. Or in Bo's case, two somebody else's.

The next morning we hear that the 'getting over' portion of the night is still going as a sleepless Kenzi drinks wine straight from the bottle while plaster rains down on her head from the ceiling below Bo's bedroom. She and Bo talk again after their house guests have left but it's not long before they're interrupted by the return of the Fury woman who had shared Bo's bed the night before. She wants them to look into her husband, believing him to be unfaithful with to her with a human, something which is quickly seen to be the offense, rather than the idea that he might cheat. Kenzi for her part tries to force the Fae to take her - as a human herself - seriously, refusing to back down despite how incredibly out-powered she is and even going so far as to call the Fae on their racism - for all the good that it does her.

While neither Bo nor Kenzi have any interest in helping the Fury out, it becomes clear that not doing so could put the human she believes is having an affair with her husband at risk and once again, they're on a case that's not likely to get them much money, let alone much luck. The two chase down leads until they end up at the home of the human woman - Jenny, just in time to find that she's being attacked by the Fury. Bo intercedes, saving Jenny and taking her back to the warehouse until they can figure out their next move.

Kenzi remains with Jenny as Bo goes to find the Fury's husband, only to return soon after and inform them that not only is he dead, but he's missing his head. Bo is forced to use her abilities on Jenny in order to calm her down but it's quickly apparent that it might have helped a little too much. As Bo goes off to help Dyson and Hale hunt down the Fury who they believe to be with her sisters, Kenzi continues to babysit the human. Jenny's jealousy of Kenzi's friendship with Bo quickly shows itself and in a seemingly competitive turn, Kenzi's words do very little to soothe the Succubus-powered, heightened emotions of the other woman. Kenzi starts to believe that Jenny is hiding something from them and goes so far as to snoop in her belongings. That's when she discovers the Fae's missing head and is immediately rendered unconscious with a blow to her own.

When we see Kenzi again, she's being held captive in a shack, tied to a chair as Jenny rants and raves. Kenzi does very little to help herself by mocking the actual crazy person who clearly wants her dead, showing she will do so when shown a cabinet full of human skulls, reveals Jenny to be a serial killer. Bo arrives in an attempt to save the day and tries to distract Jenny by convincing her she really is in love with her. Jenny reveals her plans to go out in a blaze of glory with Bo, when she shows her that she's rigged the cabin to blow up.

A distraction arrives in the form of the sisters of the Fury that the women first encountered. Seeking revenge for their sister (who died during an altercation while Kenzi was in the process of being... kidnapped), Kenzi is able to free herself while the women and Bo face off with each other. Injured during the commotion, Jenny starts to crawl towards the detonator and realizing they don't have time to deal with two furies and a madwoman, Kenzi and Bo make a run for it. Arriving just in time to be shielded by a newly arrived Dyson's car, as the shack, with the three women in it... blows up.

At the end of the episode we find Kenzi and Bo have returned to the Dal Riata, the two of them drinking away a very bad day. Dyson comes in to talk to Bo and Kenzi gets pulled aside by the Bar owner, Trick, who would like to discuss a 300 year old bottle of mead that happens to be missing.

It's in the next episode that we encounter the Luck Fae, Mayer. While Kenzi is in the process of trying to line up a job for her and Bo involving a woman who believes her cat is possessed, Bo is getting herself fae-napped by Mayer because he wants her to look into an issue he's having. Bo is obviously unwilling to do so until Mayer reveals that his niece, Cassie, is an Oracle who can help Bo to uncover information about who she really is.

With the bait taken, Bo returns home to fill an irritated Kenzi in on what happened. Bo's failure to show up at their meeting instantly forgiven once she explains. Kenzi is less pleased however when their next step is to pay a visit to Dyson, Kenzi making it clear that even though he and Bo had sorted things out, she was no longer on Team Dyson because of what happened between them and she emphasizes that point by putting a post-it on his shirt that reads; I'm Stupid.

Kenzi and Bo head off to find the guy Mayer hired them to look into, only to arrive in time for his wake where Kenzi happily helps herself to free whiskey, before they go back to the Dal to pick Trick's brain. Trick explains to them that they're likely dealing with something called a Hsien; Body Jumpers who take over the bodies of the recently dead. While Dyson offers to help Bo on that front, Kenzi is left behind to play a round of pool with Hale. For the first time we see Kenzi a little jealous of the Fae and their abilities, when Hale uses his to out-shark Kenzi in a game of pool. He follows it up by telling her she needs to stop being Bo's sidekick and prove that she's more. While Kenzi openly dismisses his words and says that she only cares what Bo thinks, as the episode continues it becomes clear that his words get to her, at least a little.

Back with a fresh lead, Bo takes Kenzi with her to a backroom gambling establishment. While Bo goes to try and get information from a Fae, Kenzi plays a few rounds of poker, fitting in comfortably with the less than up and up crowd. Bo lands herself in trouble of the potentially deadly variety when it's Kenzi who busts in and rescues her, presumably killing the Fae in the process.

Back at The Dal, where Bo gets herself a little sexual healing of the Dyson variety, a bored Hale and Kenzi bide their time until a freshly healed Bo emerges, followed by a shaky Dyson who is clearly suffering the ill effects of his healing sessions with Bo. After receiving a call, Dyson and Bo head off to look into a lead while Kenzi takes it upon herself to solve the case solo, and goes to the restaurant where Mayer is. It's here that she witnesses the arrival of Mayer's nephew. When she goes to take a peak at what he has in his trunk, not only does she discover what looks like a dead body, but ends up being shoved in there along with it when somebody attacks her from behind.

We don't see Kenzi again until Dyson of all people, discovers her towards the end of the episode, in the trunk of the car. It becomes immediately apparent that the harsh feelings she harbored for him are beginning to soften and she asks him to promise not to tell Bo where he found her. In turn, she acknowledges that she knows it hurts him to be around Bo and yet, not be with her and things between them finish on a happier note. While she's not ready to say that she's back on Team Dyson, she does walk away smiling and he bids her farewell by promising that Team Dyson is getting shirts.

Kenzi leaves Dyson to go into the restaurant and wait for Bo while she meets with Mayer's niece. It's here that Mayer tells her that she tastes like a survivor (using his inherit abilities as a Luck Fae.) He goes so far as to offer Kenzi a job but she's happy to inform him, that she already has one.

Food for Thought begins with Kenzi eating pizza while Bo gets ready for a meeting with Lauren, the Doctor who works for the Light Fae. Kenzi taunts her about the fact that she clearly has something more in mind than learning how to control her abilities with Bo getting dressed up and despite Bo's attempts to dismiss it as nothing, it's fairly clear that Kenzi isn't buying it.

The next day, Kenzi accompanies Bo to meet with Lauren at her work, where Kenzi shows the first signs of her distrust when it comes to Lauren. In one breath she both says that she's happy Bo thinks Lauren is helping her but also asks her what it is that Lauren is getting out of the arrangement. When Lauren shows up, she offers to take two of them along as Lauren does a home visit with a woman who is an Aswang (pronounced Ass-Wang). Kenzi is only too happy to comment on that unfortunate name. While Lauren and Bo attend to the patient, an oblivious Kenzi helps herself to a bowl of soup that she finds on the stove. Only to discover that Aswang are carrion-Fae who feed on the body parts of dead people and she'd just consumed 'Foot Soup'.

After trying to wash her mouth out with liquid soap and a toothbrush, Kenzi is dragged off by Bo to look into who or what could be making the Aswang sick. It's as they go to the house of the dead guy that had been used in the soup that Kenzi imparts some wisdom on Bo, pointing out that it's not stealing when the guy is already dead. When they arrive they discover that the house has been ransacked and the two of the get into an altercation with a burglar. The burglar escapes and at first it appears that Kenzi may have been hurt in the fight but as she lifts her head, she's bleeding from her eyes, just like the Aswang had been when Lauren attended to her.

Despite Kenzi's insistence that 'it's just a little eye blood', Bo rushes her back to Lauren's lab where they attempt to provide her with help. Kenzi's attempt to leave is met with her being put in restraints while Bo races off to find Dyson. Though little is shown of Kenzi's predicament in this time, we do see people talking over her, about her and generally ignoring her as well as the fate of the Aswang who was first to fall ill. As Bo learns that the Aswang died, Dyson comes in to try and take Kenzi's mind off of what's happening. She does her best to put on a show, downplaying her illness despite the fact that she's fast deteriorating before their eyes.

While Dyson, Bo and Lauren head off to find out a way to help Kenzi, Kenzi calls Lauren's assistant on the fact that as a 'dirty human', they don't care whether she lives or dies. She knows that the Aswang has died and she's well aware that she faces the same fate. Having managed to get free from her restraints, she threatens the assistant with a syringe full of her blood and seizes upon the opportunity to escape.

Upon learning that Kenzi has disappeared, it's Dyson of all people who uses her scent to track her down in a Cemetery. While he comments on the morbid choice of resting place, Kenzi reveals that she came there a lot as a kid because it gave her somewhere to think. She tells Dyson she won't return to the Light Fae's lab and he in turn promises to take her somewhere safe. All she asks is that they stay in the cemetery a little longer and he assures her, he has nowhere else to be but right there with her.

Upon leaving the cemetery, Dyson takes Kenzi back to the Dal. Trick closes the bar in order to conceal the fact that they're hiding her there and she's taken to Trick's sanctuary, hidden beneath The Dal. Even with a fever and blood weeping from her eyes, Kenzi's wit doesn't escape her. The first words out of her mouth as she wakes up on Trick's couch 'Did I just wake up in Narnia?'.

Perhaps the most significant thing, not only about the episode but the series to date as far as she is concerned, is that Trick makes an extremely costly trade in order to obtain something to prolong Kenzi's life while Bo and Lauren continue to try and find a cure. She and Trick bond a little as he gives her the medication and again we see Kenzi trying to downplay what's happening to her; Assuring him she's feeling better already and that it's probably just a twenty-four hour plague or something. The reality is, that she's dying and they both know it but Trick allows her to keep up that facade.

While Bo and Lauren continue to rush to find a cure, Kenzi and Dyson share a moment on the couch and it's the first time in the episode where we see her openly acknowledge to the others that she's the dying girl. She tells Dyson that because everyone is watching Bo and not her that she sees more than people realize. She knows that healing Bo is physically taking a toll on Dyson. She tells him he can't protect Bo if helping her makes him weak and she asks him if she can count on him to have Bo's back, if she won't be there to do it herself. Even if that means, cutting her loose. (Romantically speaking). Rather than answer, Dyson simply encourages Kenzi to drink the medicinal tea.

The next time we see Kenzi, she's been administered the cure and while clearly still not in a good way, the first words out of her mouth are; "I'm hungry." We then see her back at the Dal, recovering and enjoying a big meal, while being taken care of by Trick.

Abilities/Special Powers: As she's repeatedly reminded in Canon... She's painfully human.That being said;

Kenzi has basic skills in swordsmanship and the use of a crossbow (As shown in canon) but is by no means an expert.

She's a con-artist and a professional thief which makes her cool under pressure, a great liar and more than capable of lifting your wallet without you even noticing.

Kenzi is fluent in Russian and is very good at hiding behind people during times of pant wetting terror. (The latter is totally a talent okay.)

Third-Person Sample: If not for the phone that she held in her still shaky hands, Kenzi would have been sure that she was dead. Still, even reading perfect strangers talking about Wonderland, she wasn't entirely convinced that's not the case. It was one thing to show Dyson and Trick that she was going to be fine but she'd known the truth. She was dying and no matter how much tea they tried to force down her throat, that wasn't going to change anything.

The fact that she felt like she'd been hit by a semi-trailer was somehow an encouraging sign for her. One of the few things she might have welcomed about death was the idea that she wouldn't have to feel like her insides were slowly melting. Unless she'd managed to piss off the man upstairs in a big way and hell was simply living an eternity in her death state? She should have felt better if she'd bitten the proverbial dust, right? At the very least she shouldn't be craving a double quarter-pounder with cheese and large fries. And a thickshake. Or a beer. Or maybe a thickshake and a beer.

It said much about the life she'd been leading with Bo that the new predicament she found herself in wasn't causing her to panic. Or perhaps it said more about the faith she had in Bo. It was because of Bo that Kenzi couldn't be convinced that she was dead because deep down she believed that Bo would have found a way to save her. It was then, because of Bo that she could only see whatever this was, as temporary, because she would come find her. The mere fact that she'd been here for more than five minutes and nobody had tried to kill her, eat her or kidnap her was making this a fairly average day in the life of Kenzi. If only she could make herself move from this comfy spot on the floor to get food and it would probably be considered a good one.

She tried to push herself up onto her feet, the mere act of holding her own body weight, too much for her to handle right now. Limbs that shook violently from the effort of it all, gave way beneath her and she crumpled back into a sad tangle of limbs. The petite, raven-haired woman pulling the sleeves of her shirt over the heels of her hands.

Even with nobody around to witness her display of weakness, Kenzi refused to allow the fatigue to show on her face. Forcing eyelids that felt like heavy metal doors to stay open through sheer, stubborn will. The overwhelming desire to curl into the fetal position and sleep for the next month was so strong, that she found herself looking longingly at the ground beneath her. The cool of the marble as welcoming in her current state, as if it were a soft, warm bed.

The pros list in her head was building so fast that her body started to inch towards the ground of its own accord. Kenzi's eyelids beginning to droop as the benefits of sleep started to outweigh any possible upside that could be achieved by moving. The sound of footsteps echoing in the cavernous entrance hall of the Mansion are enough to snap her out of it however. Kenzi immediately pushing herself up again, her exhaustion masked by a wry half grin as she arranged her limbs in a way that was supposed to look casual. The wall she leaned against, all that was really keeping her from face-planting at that moment.

As the footsteps grew louder, her sluggish mind was trying to formulate a greeting. Words, for once in her twenty-three years failing her as the stranger stepped into her line of sight.

When her mouth opened, Kenzi had every intention of saying something clever but when she did find her voice, the best she could manage was a half-hearted;

"Sup."

First-Person Sample:

[As the video starts to play, the person on screen looks like they've come about as close to the brink of death as anyone can manage and still come back from it. Her dark hair is pulled back from her ghostly white face and pale blue eyes that are normally accentuated with black eye make up, appear to be lined with blood. Her tongue flickers out over dry, cracked lips and the picture is shaky, as if the person holding the camera has unsteady hands.]

Aren't you supposed to take the red pill before you wake up in bizarro land? [The woman trying to inject as much vibrancy as she can manage into her voice, despite the obvious struggle to do so.]

There should at least be food. Like, nachos. Why don't any of my kidnappings ever come with nachos?

[The shake of the camera worsens as she pulls one hand away, trying to rub away the evidence of what had happened before she woke up here.]

As comfortable as this floor is... if somebody could point me in the direction of food? [Aware of how she looks, her hand vaguely gestures to her face.] It's okay. It was just a minor case of Fae plague. A burger or six and I'll be good to go.