Uncovering the Secrets of ‘CIA’s Dynamic Duo

According to the crime drama credo, opposites always make the best partners. It’s a tried-and-true formula that has powered the success of the best procedurals for decades. But you’d be hard pressed to find a pair as professionally mismatched as the one fronting the thrilling new series, CIA. And that’s a gamble worth taking by a man who ought to know—television producing legend Dick Wolf.

The new drama — an offshoot of Wolf’s longtime hit FBI, now in its eighth season — pairs FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss, Dr. Will Halstead on Chicago Med) with CIA intelligence officer Colin Glass (Tom Ellis, who played the title character on the Fox/Netflix fantasy Lucifer). The FBI’s decidedly “by-the-book” Bill wears a dark suit with a U.S. flag pin; the secretive and roguish Colin is in jeans, a pullover sweater and a leather jacket. Early in their partnership, Colin calls Bill “Felix,” and Bill calls Colin “Oscar.” What could go wrong?

“Bill follows the rules; Colin does [as well], but it’s such a gray area,” says Gehlfuss. “Bill operates in the black and white. CIA, we don’t even know what they do.” But together, they make for “a wonderful combination,” he adds.

“They have a common goal, but differing philosophies,” Ellis adds, relaxing at a New York City location for the series during TV Insider’s visit. “How those philosophies play off each other and how they have conflicts with each other is the heartbeat and the fun of the show.”

It’s also the secret to the character’s evolving chemistry, powered by the likable stars who have already bonded. On this day of filming, each has a serious case of wardrobe envy.

“I’d quite like it if I wore a suit from time to time,” the Welsh star Ellis admits.

“I was just going to say,” Gehlfuss adds with a smile, “I’d like to wear that jacket.”

Professionally, they must each stay well in their lanes. According to the government spy handbook, the job of CIA agents is to only collect information regarding foreign countries and their citizens. They don’t carry guns and have no law enforcement role — unlike FBI agents who do carry guns and are all about bringing criminals to justice. And in order for a CIA agent to operate on U.S. soil, they need an FBI agent to partner along.

In the new series, Bill and Colin team up as part of a fusion cell — a.k.a., a joint task force of their two agencies — for covert ops in New York.

“The goal is for all of the cases [on this show to] be CIA operations, not FBI cases,” says. Mike Weiss, showrunner for both series, which will air back-to-back Monday nights beginning February 23. “An FBI case finishes with a bad guy in handcuffs who’s going to be taken to jail and eventually tried in front of a jury of his or her peers. On CIA, there are no cuffs. There’s never going to be a trial. We might save the day, but there’s never going to be a press conference because the public can’t even know that we were here on this day to keep them safe.”

While the pair will be tackling cases of the week involving domestic terror, international terror and trans-national criminal organizations, fans can expect exciting longer arcs as well.

The series will also be going home with the characters. (A brief glimpse of the sets for both Colin and Bill’s apartments suggest the contrasts in their styles continue there.) Other key locations include the CIA SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) and an interrogation room.

In Weiss’ eyes, these two differing characters are great, but “they’re better together. Tom disappears into this shadowy career CIA intelligence officer who has secrets and information that he’s playing incredibly close to the vest, and Nick’s Bill is really good at chipping away, and getting him to reveal himself inch by inch. We’re going to activate a friendship that neither one of the guys knew they needed badly in their lives.”

Secrets Behind Glass

This world of secrets and shadows is comfortable for Colin. He’s lived everywhere and bumped into the task force’s boss — Deputy Chief of the New York CIA station Nikki Reynard (Necar Zadegan) — in their line of work before. How long have they known each other? “They’ll never tell you,” jokes Weiss. “Twenty years, six minutes, who knows?”

Gehlfuss regards his character’s new partner as “the poster guy for the CIA” who “lives in the gray” and has his secrets. But he thinks his character is “the person to bring out some of those.… I think deep down, [Colin] wants someone that’s on his level that he can rely on and trust potentially. Even though he says and claims he doesn’t trust anyone.”

Colin’s past is full of questions—you’ll never hear details about his operations, nor will you know about his history with people he bumps into (or if he has one). But there is a trauma that Bill will eventually learn and help him get answers about that will bring them closer together.

“An operation went bad one year ago in the Philippines; a person Colin cares about deeply died,” says Weiss. “He’s actually wounded.”

Weiss saw Ellis as the right person for Colin and believes viewers will look at him and think, “‘I wish I was that guy. I wish I could be as cool under pressure. I wish I could be that suave and sophisticated and charming.’ You are dying to figure out what Colin knows with Tom’s performance.”

Bill Goodman: Meet the New Guy

Bill on the other hand is the one who’s new to the world of the fusion cell—he has to adjust to how cases wrap up here, and it’s through his eyes we’ll be introduced to the CIA and how it operates. Ellis calls Bill “a career FBI man. He has a very linear approach to law and order and is particularly fastidious.”

Gehlfuss’ character been on “a specific, narrow, predictable trajectory” when we meet him, Weiss says. Bill’s from the Midwest, did two tours with the Army, got a law degree and joined the Bureau. That narrow journey changes with his induction into this task force.

Look for that to also affect his personal life, beginning with his engagement to his high school sweetheart. She’s “the obvious choice, the safe and predictable choice,” Weiss tells us. In other words, she fits with his life path as he’s seen it thus far.

But “as Bill’s worldview evolves, he’s going to wonder if that’s the right person for him and if he’s even the person that she thought he was,” the showrunner continues. “Is she ready for him to evolve as Colin and the CIA and the shadowy operations that they’re working start to rub off on him and change him in ways he couldn’t have predicted?”

That kind of versatility was right in Gehlfuss’ wheelhouse, according to Weiss. “You just root for Nick as Bill Goodman,” he says. “Nick is kind of like, if you had an incredibly handsome guy growing up next door to you. He just has that energy. You want Nick to get to the truth; you want him to win.”

Becoming a Team

When Nikki, the deputy chief, brings Bill in to be Colin’s new partner, she’s doing it because she knows it’s what he needs after that operation that went south. “She knows that Colin is hurting,” Weiss explains. “She knows Colin needs a partner and, on a deeper level unstated, she knows that Colin really needs a friend. So, when she recruits Bill, she wants to find someone who is smart and quick-witted and tough and is going to challenge Colin and be there for him.” It’s a familiar enough trope: Colin may want to go about things alone, but that’s not what he needs.

“She really is rooting for [Bill],” Zadegan says. “It’s very uncomfortable for him because he has a certain idea and a worldview, and now it’s being shaken. But she’s given him this great opportunity and she wants to watch him step into it, and she’s doing everything she can to support him in that and to help Colin see it, too.”

Neither man is thrilled by the new arrangement. “Bill likes to stick his nose into the business and ask a lot of questions and theorizes on his own,” says Ellis. “Colin finds that a little bit annoying to start with.”

And Bill? “He thinks he’s being sold snake oil,” says Gehlfuss. “He’s not sure why all of a sudden he’s being loaned out to this fusion cell. He’s extremely apprehensive, a little suspicious. He also probably has his opinion of the CIA, which we’re told the FBI and CIA have of one another.”

The slow change in their bond is where a lot of the fun and heart of CIA comes in. “When Colin realizes Bill is actually quite a capable human being and very good at what he does, he starts to begrudgingly like him and realizes that maybe this will be a useful asset to him,” Ellis previews.

Adds Gehlfuss, “Nick slowly realizes, ‘This guy is the best at what he does. We may not see eye to eye. We certainly don’t have the same methods, but we can figure out how to work together, especially for the greater good, which we both have the same goal in, keeping people safe.”

That’ll be a relief — and a source of amusement — for both Nikki and CIA Analyst Gina Gosian (Natalee Linez)

“It almost feels youthful between them, the banter, the hazing that Colin does to Bill, and the kind of enjoyment they share in watching Bill trip a little bit through this gauntlet that he’s walking through,” says Zadegan. But Bill’s skills win everyone over in the end.

Gina “watches them like they’re two brothers fighting and she can see the fact that they love each other, but they can’t,” says Linez. “She’s just watching like, ‘OK, you guys done?’”

Let the Crossovers Begin

Jeremy Sisto‘s FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine is in the CIA premiere to give Bill “a stamp of approval” when Nikki asks for the best agent he can provide. In other words, “someone that Colin isn’t going to run circles around,” Weiss says.

This is just the first of Sisto’s appearances, with the showrunner teasing future crossovers because “Bill’s assignment is not as simple as it appears and Jubal knows a little bit more than Bill does about what he’s actually signing up to do.”

Zadegan’s glad that the early scene between her and Sisto’s character establishes the “respect that comes from people who’ve had to rely on one another.” They can understand what the other has been through. We’ll likely see more of that when Zadegan returns the favor and guests on FBI to help them out.

The goal is to continue to build out the world of FBI — a big part of the extended Dick Wolf universe that has already produced two spinoffs in International and Most Wanted — with CIA. “We’re hoping to do as much crossover as possible between the two shows,” says Weiss. “We love the idea of an expanded Dick Wolf FBI New York Universe.”

After all, Bill does have relationships with the FBI characters; he was previously working out of 26 Fed for years, so he knows, beyond Jubal, Maggie (Missy Peregrym), OA (Zeeko Zaki) and Isobel (Alana De La Garza).

But what of Colin? Perhaps he’ll find a way to work alongside the more buttoned-up, equally cautious Bureau agents. After all, when Bill tells Colin, “I don’t really trust anyone,” Colin reminds him, “Those are the only people worth trusting.”

CIA, Series Premiere, Monday, February 23, 10/9c, CBS