FBI's Zeeko Zaki On OA's Shady Strike Team Gig In Season 9 Premiere: 'The Longer You Stay In The Fire, The Easier It Is To Burn'

The following contains spoilers from the Season 9 premiere of "FBI"!

It's been a long three months for the agents of "FBI." Since OA's firing in last season's finale, he's been under deep cover in Anna Vorpe's strike team, while Maggie has been issued a new partner in ADIC Lawrence Green's nephew. But in the CBS procedural's Season 9 premiere, the two agents are finally reunited, only OA quickly learns that his time in the shadows isn't quite finished just yet. 

The case-of-the-week involves a young woman who is found dead after witnessing the execution of someone involved in a top-secret government-sponsored project. Thanks to information from CIA head Nikki Reynard, Jubal learns about Project Jehovah, a special program financed by the Department of Defense's black budget. It's a nuclear forensics and attribution program, the strongest nuclear deterrent the U.S. operates. And the men being killed are some of the top nuclear scientists working on the project. 

The case reaches a crossroads that puts the FBI directly in the strike team's path. The two factions bump heads at project director Cameron Koleo's research facility. Although the strike team isn't the group responsible for the murders, Anna thinks the director is responsible for leaking information to North Korea. So after they abduct Koleo out from under the FBI, they torture him to make him talk — a move that OA is visibly against. 

"There's nobody watching over you on the strike team, and we get to show that," Zeeko Zaki tells TVLine. "You can push the limits. But at the end of the day, what's wrong is wrong."

Zaki assures us that OA "just wants to get back to business as usual." He misses his old job, and misses his partner Maggie even more.

"He's definitely over it and is trying so hard," the actor says. "He just wants to get back to what he knows and get back to the FBI. He's been stuck with these guys for a few months and I don't think they've slowed down on bending the law and breaking the rules, which is what [the FBI's] whole mission is, to bring down this team that seems to answer to nobody." 

Maggie forces OA to punch her in the face (so she can sell the fact that the mystery team got away), but even in those quick few moments, we feel their connection which Zaki calls "incredible." 

"It's been built over these nine years, in real life and in fake life," he says. "It's so strong and so tangible. Getting to play that bit, all those moments like that, that's just real. That was our first hug after summer. There's not that much acting when me and Missy get to work together because we are so connected in that sense."

After Koleo's girlfriend is revealed to be the leak and the threat is dismantled, OA is frustrated to learn that his time in the strike team is far from over. Isobel needs him to stay put because despite his take on the situation, the SAC doesn't feel they have enough to stop Anna and her off-book squad of ruffians. But after OA witnesses Koleo's death, he's shocked that kidnapping and the death of an innocent civilian isn't enough to take his new boss down. Anna has someone protecting her, Isobel reveals, and he or she knows exactly how to use the system. So Isobel gives OA one last task: Find out who the shield is. It's the only way to take Anna down for good.

"The longer you stay in the fire, the easier it is to burn," Zaki says, "and I think with OA, [he's] so close to succeeding and so close to being caught. There's a fear that, 'Guys, we've gone this far. It has to be over. We did it. We got away with it,' and then you gotta go back in and back in. Time is up, and I think when you're undercover for that long, you can start to feel when it's getting risky, and it's getting risky now." 

Despite the mental toll OA's new gig is taking, Zaki teases some lighter fare coming down the pike this season, including further exploration of the OA/Zara relationship coming in Episode 4. And even though he and Maggie are counting down the seconds until they're reunited as partners, the actor also hints at a bit of conflict ahead for the two agents.

"We get to see Maggie and OA not on the same page, which is different and exciting," he says. "It puts a wedge in between [them] this season." 

What did you think of the "FBI" Season 9 premiere? Grade the episode below, then tell us in the comments.