‘CIA’ Star Tom Ellis Reveals How the Brutal Finale Twists Will Change Colin in Season 2

Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for the CBS series CIA.

The season finale of the CBS series CIA, set in Dick Wolf’s FBI universe, finally brought CIA Agent Colin Glass (Tom Ellis) face to face with Toni (Angela Sarafyan), his old partner and the woman that he loved but believed to be dead. During the course of the first season, Colin’s current partner, FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss), had been trying to identify a possible mole in their midst, for a time, even thinking it might actually be Colin himself. But then, the bombshells started to drop, the mole was uncovered and killed before they could get any answers, and security footage revealing that the believed-to-be-dead Toni was the one responsible left Colin reeling. While he may now have some answers, that can’t make up for the guilt and grief he’s carried for 15 months while believing he was responsible, which definitely gives Colin a lot of feelings to sort through in Season 2.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Ellis about how things developed for Colin and Bill in Season 1, as both partners and trusted friends, and how that could continue to evolve in Season 2. During the interview, he discussed the challenges that came with figuring out the first season, balancing the procedural element with the character development, finding a more fun and playful dynamic between Colin and Bill, why the situation with Sarah (Sarah Diamond) broke him a bit, piecing together Toni’s betrayal, and how all of this could change Colin in Season 2. Ellis also talked about whether he’d like to see any of his Lucifer co-stars make a guest appearance on CIA, and whether we might ever see Second Wife, the series created by his wife, Meaghan Oppenheimer (Tell Me Lies), that he was set to star in.

Collider: The last few episodes of the season had me on the edge of my seat with all the twists and reveals.

TOM ELLIS: That’s what we want. Just don’t fall off.

Congratulations on the Season 2 pick-up. Now that you’ve completed a full season of the series, what are the challenges that surprised you? What did you find most unexpected about making this show?

ELLIS: Finding where this show sits tonally was a big challenge for us to start with. Dick Wolf has been making procedural TV for such a long time, and they have a template that they work with, but the world of CIA is a little bit different to the other worlds that they’ve been exploring, with the fact that it’s voyeuristic, and it’s about observing, just as much as it is about being active. That world of voyeurism was the key to us scratching what this show is and finding out where the humor lives in our show. Finding the proper alchemy of what this show is was the biggest challenge because it is a little bit different to the other ones. Once we found that, and that was down to (showrunner) Mike [Weiss], it really started to take off and resonate.

I think that those were the biggest challenges. And then, for me personally, I’ve never shot anything in New York before. It’s been great, and it’s been so exciting, but it’s so different to shooting anywhere else. If you’re shooting in the street here, they can’t close it off, so you’re literally just shooting things in amongst the public, and no one really cares that you’re shooting a TV show. You have to manage yourself in these locations and stuff, as well. It wasn’t problematic. It was just like, “Wow, this is new and exciting.” It felt a little bit like the guerrilla filming that they sometimes do for movies and stuff. Someone would shout from a mile away, “And action!” and fingers crossed it would all work out. All of those challenges, with finding out what the show is, was the biggest thing, but I think we found it.

Tom Ellis Believes ‘CIA’ Has Found the Perfect Balance of the Procedural Element With Character Development

“I think it’s been a big draw and why people have enjoyed the show.”

The first portion of the season had more of a procedural feel to it, but the later portion of the season really ramped things up with Colin’s past, whether he could be the mole, and his romantic history. Did you always know that shift would be coming, or is that something that evolved as the season went?

ELLIS: I think that was part of working out what the show is. It was going to have a procedural element to it as its engine. The more we started to talk about these characters and who they are, this notion of a serialized element to the season really started to take shape. I was hopeful that we would have a serialized element to it, because I do think there’s something in watching a TV show and, at the end of every episode, there’s an upward inflection of, “Oh, shit, what happens now? I’ve got to the tune and watch the next one?” I really hoped that would be something that we did, and Mike found a great way of doing it. It was about finding that balance of, how are we going to do a case of the week and take these characters forward, so we’re not just coming back to the same characters every week, doing the same thing. And I’m really glad that we did that because I think it’s been a big draw and why people have enjoyed the show.

There’s a fun balance between Colin and Bill. Colin likes to push buttons, whether it’s with Bill or with his co-workers or with the FBI. How do you view his mindset? Does that just come from this kind of high-pressure job?

ELLIS: Yeah. His belligerence and his seeming I-don’t-give-a-shit-ness is Colin’s armor and how he protects himself in life. In the job that he’s done and certainly over the years he’s worked for the CIA, he has to make very critical, crucial decisions in the moment all the time, so he has to have this confidence about what he’s doing, and he can’t be apologetic about it either. That’s something that’s just developed in him as a character over the years. Plus, emotionally he’s probably a little bit stunted. We never really delved into it, but I’ve had big talks with Mike about Colin’s backstory. He’s someone who has had to learn to look after himself. He, himself, is number one. Not from a place of arrogance or anything like that, but literally just for self-preservation. I think that’s how Colin’s abruptness manifests itself now. Thankfully, because of this British dialect, he’s able to get away with it a little bit.

Because of this whole situation with the mole, Colin was forced to tell Sarah the truth about their relationship and who he really is. How hard do you think that was for him? Was it really never real at all? How did you see all of that?

ELLIS: I think the line between real and not real for Colin is a very blurry one. To be convincing in those moments, to start with, and to attract someone, he has to really draw on authentic things about himself. However, I think with the Sarah storyline, there was something different about her. She’s an innocent bystander in something that’s much more nefarious. She’s someone who represents goodness and grounded kindness. Colin really isn’t used to spending time with people like that, and I think it affected him a lot more than he made it out to be. In the penultimate episode, when he decides to tell her that there was never anything there and that it was always just a job, I think he’s saying that to be cruel, to be kind. If he actually really was honest in that moment, I think there were feelings there. But you can’t really explain the feelings to someone who’s just been so betrayed because they’ll never really, truly understand it. He just decides, “I’m just going to lie to you. The lie is the kindness. I’m going to say there was never anything there, and it was always just this.” But I think it actually broke him a little bit inside to say that.

I was glad that we got to see them together again in the finale.

ELLIS: Absolutely. You’ve got Toni and Sarah, these two polar opposite experiences in Colin’s life. One represents a life he could have outside of all this bizarre underworld that he lives in. And then, you’ve got the other one, which is exciting, with someone who thinks the same, breathes the same, moves the same, has the same instincts. He’s so tuned into that person. It was just a really interesting thing to have those two characters very present in Colin’s life, at the end of the season.

’CIA’s Tom Ellis Found Out About the Toni Twist Three-Quarters of the Way Through Shooting the First Season

“If I’d known from the start that she’d duped me, and she was alive, maybe it would have affected the profoundness of the feeling.”

Image via CBS

It took a bit for us to learn about Toni and what she meant to Colin. What was it like for you to piece those bits of your character together, with that being such an important part of his life? Did you know about all of that before we did, or did you not get details about that until later on?

ELLIS: The storyline with Toni had always been explained to me that Toni was his partner, they had become romantically involved, and she had died, and that was Colin’s driving force throughout the season. So, when Mike broke it to me, probably about three-quarters of the way through shooting the first season, that Toni was, in fact, alive, I was like, “Oh, my God, you’re kidding.” I thought it was great. We’re working at such a pace that you have to be present in the moments that you’re shooting, so I’m glad I didn’t know too much about the Toni of it all. For me to perform Colin, where he’s at emotionally, and being informed about all of those things, I think it was much more powerful that Colin, and me, Tom playing Colin, genuinely believed that Toni was dead. That really helped fuel all of that. If I’d known from the start that she’d duped me, and she was alive, maybe it would have affected the profoundness of the feeling.

What do you think it was like for him to essentially piece together this big mystery of his own life? He’s so used to solving things and saving the day for other people. How do you think he felt about having to put together the pieces of his own mystery?

ELLIS: I think it was really hard for him. One thing that Colin is used to being is right. He has incredible instincts. That’s what makes him such a great operative. And all of a sudden, all of those things are just thrown into the fire, and he’s suddenly just wracked with self-doubt about every feeling and instinct that he’s had. He can’t believe that this huge veil was pulled over his eyes. He has an existential crisis, essentially. We meet Colin at a point in his life and career where he’s tired. He’s been doing this for a long time, and it’s really worn him down. The only thing that keeps him going was finding out who had killed Toni, to avenge her. That was really his driving force. And so, when that is suddenly taken away, it’s like, “Oh, my God, am I in the right place in my life? Is this what I want to be doing? Am I the right man for the job anymore?” It’s this series of questions that he’s never really asked himself or had to ask himself because he’s been so sure about what he does.

What was it like to figure out that first moment that he comes face to face with Toni, and she has her gun pointed at him? Did you have conversations about how angry he might be in that moment, or if he’d be more hurt than anything like? Did you do different versions of that scene?

ELLIS: We did a few different takes of it. Honestly, I didn’t want to think too much about it. I just wanted to be in that moment, having percolated the backstory about Toni and how much she meant to him. There are so many different questions going on in his head at that moment in time, and you can’t play all of that. You just have to be in the moment. When I read it, I was like, “I wonder how that moment’s going to play out.” But it just did, in that moment. Thankfully, by that point, I’d probably run up so many stairs at Central Station that I was too exhausted to think about how I was actually going to react.

How much do you think he’s upset at her for lying, and how much do you think he’s upset at himself for not realizing she was lying?

ELLIS: I think he would say he’s 100% more angry with her, but actually, he’s 100% angry with himself. There’s a sense of hubris and crushed pride that’s really something very difficult for him to digest.

I thought the moment that he finds the bug at his place and sits down to start talking to Toni was really interesting. What was that like to figure out, especially with him just sitting there and essentially talking to himself?

ELLIS: When I read that, I thought it was just a really interesting scene that Mike had put in there, and not the sort of scene that you normally see in these types of things. It was almost like saying a prayer. Colin finally got an opportunity to ask the things that have been bubbling up in his head. It was like, “This is what I want to say. This is what I want to get across.” I think he just sees the opportunity in the moment. It was a really interesting way of finding out some of the questions that he wanted to ask.

After Everything, Can Colin Have Any Kind of Relationship With Toni in ‘CIA’ Season 2?

“We left it in a place where that’s something that would be really interesting to explore.”

Image via CBS

Toni is technically doing what she thinks is the right thing, but it has led to dead bodies and a string of other problems. How has learning all of this changed how he perceives her now? Is there a chance for them to have any kind of relationship? How do you come back from something like that?

ELLIS: How do you come back from that? Well, she came back from the grave, so she’s good at comebacks. I believe that Colin has a really profound love for Toni, and I believe that Toni does with Colin as well. In the world that those guys are living and working and have to operate in, that is a very unusual/dangerous feeling for them to harbor. I think Colin has never felt like that about anyone in his life before, and so there is definitely something there. Whether it’s something worth pursuing or not, and whether he can forgive himself and forgive her, I don’t know. But what I do know is that we left it in a place where that’s something that would be really interesting to explore in Season 2.

The episode ends before we see what that conversation in the interrogation room looks like. How does he feel about having to walk in there? What do you think that conversation was like?

ELLIS: I don’t even know if he went in. That’s the thing. Where we leave Colin, he doesn’t even know what to say. For the first time, he’s stumped and he just doesn’t know how to handle it. That’s what I love about the fact that it galvanizes his relationship with Bill. I think Bill really understands that in the moment, and he knows that he’s got to take the reins in that particular moment, for his friend and for his colleague. That’s what makes that moment really lovely.

As Colin warmed up to Bill and started to actually like him, their relationship got more playful. Was it important to build that trust between them so that they could actually start to share more details with each other? Do you think that will really play into Season 2? Are they in a different place now?

ELLIS: For sure. The whole of the first season for me, thematically, was about trust. Trusting someone in the CIA world is a big deal. It’s very dangerous to trust people, certainly if you trust the wrong people, so they’re not generous with that. So, Season 1 was about Colin and Bill and the building of trust there and how that trust is built. It’s not just immediate. It’s something that comes through experience and action. That, for me, was a really interesting thing to get my teeth into in the first season. It was about, how are we going to galvanize this relationship, this driving force? Where we leave them at the end, there’s a mutual trust of each other now, and I would say that I think Colin probably trusts Bill more than anybody by the end of the first season. There’s a trust, there’s a friendship, and dare I say, there’s an affection between the two.

Tom Ellis Says That Agent Colin Glass Is Going To Have a Lot To Work Through in ‘CIA’ Season 2

“We’ll see how he moves forward in his profession.”

Image via CBS

After everything that happened with Toni, do you think Colin will be doubting himself in Season 2? The finale episode is called “Broken Glass,” presumably titled after your character, but is he broken? How do you think all of this might change him in Season 2?

ELLIS: I think it’s a really interesting place to start. Colin normally operates with a confidence and surety level that is way up here, and by the end of the first season, it’s way down here, so it gives him somewhere to go. I haven’t really got into details with Mike about Season 2 yet, but I don’t think we’re going to come back and all of a sudden, Colin is a new, refreshed CIA agent who’s just ready to go and raring for everything. Part of what was interesting in the story was that, irrespective of the twist in the Toni story, Colin is tired and Colin is doubting, deep down, whether this is really where he wants to be in his life. And then, the Toni revelation happens, and he’s thrown into this existential crisis. I think that is where we’re going to find him at the beginning of Season 2, and we’ll see how he moves forward with his profession after that.

Since you get more freedom as the TV series goes on, do you hope to maybe get some of your Lucifer co-stars to guest on the show?

ELLIS: If we get enough episodes, there are always going to be lots of parts. I would, of course, love to see some of my old colleagues come and play this over here. Never say never. We’ve had such fantastic guests this season. That’s a point of pride for me that we managed to attract some really great people to come and play. Long may that continue.

What is going on with Second Wife, the series you were going to do with your wife, Meaghan Oppenheimer? Are we still going to see that?

ELLIS: Second Wife is no longer in development anymore. It’s not gone away from me and Meghan because it’s a story that we really love, but obviously, this is where my priorities are at the moment. And Meghan has got other fish to fry at the moment. She’s doing very well for herself. It’s something that we would like to develop moving forward and is maybe something that we might develop into a feature, actually. It’s a project that we both love, but it’s like anything in this industry, it’s always about timing and other things started to evolve. That’s just gone to the backburner for now. It’s a story that we really want to tell, and I think it’s a story that resonates with lots of people. It’s something that we will hopefully tackle in the future.

CIA airs on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+.

Release Date

February 23, 2026

Showrunner

Mike Weiss, Warren Leight, David Hudgins

Directors

Eriq La Salle

Writers

David Hudgins, Dick Wolf