CIA Premiere: Key Questions About Episode 1 of the New FBI Spinoff Explained

Lauren PiesterTue, February 24, 2026 at 4:00 AM UTC

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Meet TV's newest buddy comedy: an FBI spinoff that starts with an office full of people being violently poisoned.

Tom Ellis stars in CIA as Colin Glass, an unpredictable rule-averse CIA agent who teams up with a by-the-book FBI agent (Nick Gehlfuss) whose name is literally Bill Goodman. Glass needs the FBI to operate in New York, so Goodman is sent by FBI's Jubal Valentine (guest star Jeremy Sisto) to assist Glass with a counter-terrorism operation. It's a classic set-up for conflict and hijinks, and in fact, it's so classic that the show doesn't yet feel particularly new. It's a bit like CBS' grittier version of a USA show from the 2010s, which could turn out to be a compliment, because who didn't love the era of Psych, Burn Notice, White Collar, and Suits?

At the very least, that first episode of CIA left me asking a lot of questions that I can't wait to see answered.

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Is Colin just Lucifer in disguise?

Lucifer was just a role that Ellis played on TV for six seasons, or was it? Ellis embodied that character so completely that it feels like any other character he plays could just be Lucifer up to something. We don't yet know enough about Colin to see him as anything other than charming, mysterious, and a bit manipulative, but that's not typically how characters on these shows operate. Both Colin and Bill have surely been through some life-changing backstory that we will learn soon enough.

How does the FBI handle the rule-fudging of the CIA?

While we get a taste of friendship between the two agents, Bill is mostly totally thrown by how Colin operates. He's got assets who would normally be arrested for terrorism, and when they get injured, he takes them to a surgeon in the back of a pawn shop. The CIA takes surprise meetings in cars and saunas and makes decisions based on gut, so does Bill just have to approve their wild plans, or at least know about them in advance? Exactly how does this cooperation work, and how much do we even want to know about it before it gets unnecessarily boring?

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(L-R) Jeremy Sisto as Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine and Nick Gehlfuss as Special Agent Bill Goodman in 'CIA'Mark Schafer/CBS (Mark Schafer/CBS)What's the deal with the mole?

Of course, this can't just be a good-faith collaboration between the CIA and the FBI. At the end of the episode, Jubal tells Bill that a) he's now permanently assigned to the CIA/FBI fusion team, and b) there's a mole, and it's up to him to figure out who it is. So is the mole a CIA employee leaking FBI information, or CIA leaking CIA's own information? Who are they leaking to? What does Jubal know about it? If Bill is already having to get used to a world where nothing is by the book, how is he going to tell what's really not by the book?

Will they or won't they or are they not even thinking about it?

I cannot lie and say I never thought that Colin and Bill should think about kissing, which could just be because FBI fans are starved for romance. (See: the Scolina engagement and wedding, which took four seasons to happen, and only actually includes one regular FBI character.) It could also be because both Ellis and Gehlfuss are naturally charming on screen and have good chemistry with most other charming actors. And it could also be that Bill and Colin belong together forever, because opposites attract and sometimes enemies turn into lovers. It's hard to say just yet, but just in general, the FBI universe needs more kissing, and more emotional tension to go with its crimefighting. Ellis and Gehlfuss are both quite adept at longing, and it would be a waste to not let them do it.

It will all hopefully happen as the first season of CIA unfolds, Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.

Related: 'CIA' Stars Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss Tease Explosive Bromance and a Game-Changing Secret in New Series (Exclusive)

This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the TV section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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