CIA Premiere: Tom Ellis Breaks Down Series' High-Octane Opening Case, And Explains Why Colin Isn't 'A Black And White Hero'

When a top-secret weapon is stolen from a U.S. defense contractor, it takes two government agencies to work together to neutralize the threat to the American public. 

Welcome to Dick Wolf's latest CBS procedural "CIA," which debuted Monday, pairing by-the-book FBI agent Bill Goodman (Nick Ghelfuss) with the CIA's morally gray Colin Glass (Tom Ellis). While the duo's first case gets a bit rocky, the two new partners eventually get an inkling that their opposing protocols and viewpoints just may be their biggest strengths.

The case-of-the-week deals with a newly developed directed energy weapon that's seemingly stolen after a group of coders are attacked at their office. Colin shows up on site, pretending to be DOD, but before Bill and Jubal (hey, it's Jeremy Sisto!) can verify his identity, the slippery Colin disappears into the night to meet with the Deputy Chief of the CIA's New York station, Nikki Reynard (Necar Zadegan). Nikki later meets with Jubal, telling him she needs an FBI agent to balance out her guy who's "a handful." Jubal tells Bill that he's been selected to join an elite fusion cell that will work alongside the CIA, and voilá! A new procedural is born! 

Bill and Colin are polar opposites, and when they're formally introduced, Bill learns Colin's true identity. The guys discover that one of the CIA's former assets, an ex-cartel weapons developer named Adrián Torres, is missing and may have perpetrated the office attack. Phone records lead them to an associate named Bobby Pereira, a man who may be tied up in cartel laundering. The conflict between the men is palpable from the jump. Bill thinks Colin lost control of a dangerous asset, while Colin thinks Bill doesn't get how the CIA operates. Colin eventually gets caught up in a lie. Not only does he know Bobby, but he helps a terrified Bobby evade capture by Bill. Starting a working relationship with deception? Not the best way to build morale, is it? 

"The thing about the CIA is yes, they work collectively, but they also work singularly," Tom Ellis tells TVLine, "and when you're working singularly, it's up to you to give the information that you believe is important and is gonna keep people safe. Bobby is in a relationship with Adrián and Adrián is an asset that [Colin] has brought from Venezuela. He's a brilliant engineer that works with weapons tech essentially, but he and Bobby are in love with each other, and if that was known by the cartel back home in Venezuela, it would be taken out on their families. It's vastly important that no one ever finds out about that relationship, so Colin takes it upon himself to tell no one in order to protect them. Because even if you work at the CIA, you're always worried that some of your information could go somewhere else." 

With Colin wheeling and dealing like he's on a solo mission, how can Bill build trust with his CIA counterpart? How will he — or even the viewers — be able to see through the deceit and believe what he says?

"I think that's part of the entertainment and enjoyment of the show," says Ellis. "You want to trust this character on screen, but you start to learn by watching him that you can't always trust what he's saying. I think that plays into the way that we shoot the show. The CIA is essentially like a voyeuristic agency. Their job is to watch and get information and intelligence. And I think that we want our audience to have a similar experience in some ways, so the way it's been shot, it's not straight on-camera work all the time. You're kind of watching from a hidden place. It feels like you're observing something maybe you shouldn't be. 

"I want the audience to root for Colin and Bill, but I also want them to be left guessing about Colin and what he's saying, because we don't want him to be a black and white hero; the CIA works in this gray ambiguity, yes, trying for the greater good, but they have to do some pretty dark stuff to get there." 

When the team (I guess we can call them that?) finally gets in touch with Adrián, they learn he's been duped by a notorious arms dealer named Saul Obregón. Adrián wasn't trying to sell a weapon; rather, he wrote the software that could detect and disrupt the frequencies of directed energy attacks, thereby blocking what Critical Devices had weaponized. He wanted to expose his employer and keep people safe. Obregón — who's very much not the journalist Adrián thought he was meeting — eventually gets hold of the flash drive obtained in the opening, and with that software, can now harness the weapon. Meanwhile, Colin and Bill continue to squawk at each other. Colin says the only reason he needs Bill is so that he can legally work in the States. "The FBI closes cases. We keep the world safe," Colin says. After he exits, Adrián tells Bill about the lengths Colin went to keep him and Bobby safe, which seems to soften Bill's harsh first impression of his newfound CIA frenemy.  

Obregón plans to demonstrate the weapon over New York City by targeting the U.N. Secretary General's helicopter. After that, he plans on selling the dangerous tech to the highest bidder. Thankfully, Colin and Bill are able to thwart the attack and apprehend Obregón before anything can go boom. 

Despite the lies and bumpy start, the two men spark a "begrudging mutual respect" between them, says Ellis.

"It's one of those things where it's like, 'God, if I didn't think you were such a d*ck then we could be friends,' sort of thing," the actor says. "I think by the end of that episode they've realized that actually, they are quite formidable together, and they're just gonna have to get through the fact that they've got these personality clashes in order to service their work. But I think for both of them, what they do and the end result of what they do is so important to them that they are prepared to bite the bullet." 

As for the future of this partnership, don't expect smooth sailing just because they've got a case under their belt. 

"A lot of the season is set up [around] the fact that Bill is straight-laced and very steadfast, and Colin is this kind of enigmatic character that can float in and out," says Ellis. "You're never quite sure where you're at with him. One of the big things that happens in Season 1 is you realize that Bill isn't everything that you think he might be. And Colin doesn't realize that Bill isn't everything you think he might be. And so there is certainly a clash in the future."

As if the men didn't have enough on their plates, Jubal tells Bill that FBI counterintelligence believes there's a mole in the CIA's New York operation. Now, it's Bill's job to find him or her, "no matter how deep they're burrowed in." 

Now it's your turn. What did you think of Dick Wolf's latest? Grade the premiere below, then tell us your thoughts in the comments.