Covert Affairs

Show Guide

Meet Annie Walker (Piper Perabo), a young CIA trainee who is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative. While it appears that she has been plucked from obscurity for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be something or someone from her past that her CIA bosses are really after.

Meet the Characters

  • Annie Walker

    Piper Perabo

  • Auggies Anderson

    Christopher Gorham

  • Jai Wilcox

    Sendhil Ramamurthy

  • Arthur Campbell

    Peter Gallagher

Episodes

  1. Episode 1

    Pilot

    Annie Walker is removed from the CIA training school and thrust into the inner sanctum of the Agency for what appears to be their need of her exceptional linguistic skills, but there may be something or someone from her past that her CIA bosses are really after.

  2. Episode 2

    Walter’s Walk

    Despite a successful first assignment, Annie’s still the new girl in the DPD. That means drawing the worst assignments, like debriefing “walk-ins” – people who show up at the CIA Headquarters claiming to have intel, although they usually turn out to be crazy. During walk-in duty, Annie meets Helen Newman and her teenage son, Walter, who has intercepted and decoded information from a short-wave radio transmission. With Auggie’s help, the DPD is able to confirm that the intelligence Walter intercepted was legitimate chatter from an alleged IRA cell. However, by the time they learn this, Helen and Walter, afraid that they are being tailed, have already gone into hiding.

    With the CIA worried about an imminent attack, Annie is paired with a British MI-t agent, James Elliot, to help track down and protect Helen and Walter. They go to Helen and Walter’s apartment but they aren’t there. As they look for clues into where they might have gone, an assassin shows up at the apartment, attacking Annie before Elliot is able to put him down. With one attack foiled, it’s obvious that Helen and Walter have stumbled onto something bit, and now it’s up to Annie to find them before it’s too late.

  3. Episode 3

    Southbound Suarez

    Bonding (and flirting) over a hard-fought game of soccer, Annie gets close to a young college student, Diego Suarez. But it’s all part of live in the CIA – her objective is to gain access to Victor Ponces, a corrupt government official in Venezuela… whose mistress just happens to be Julia Suarez, Diego’s sister. Taking advantage of Diego’s boyhood crush (as well as letting him know that if he doesn’t cooperate, he could be deported), Annie gets Diego to accompany her back to Caracas, Venezuela, to convince Julia to help the CIA track Victor’s financial dealings. All Annie has to do is accompany him, hand him off to the local station, and then return.

    But when the station agent, Lopez, fails to show, Annie is given the job of enlisting Julia’s help to uncover evidence of Victor’s illegal dealings. At first, Julia refuses to believe Annie’s claim that Victor is a bad man, but is ultimately convinced to cooperate, for Diego’s sake. Once Annie meets Victor, however, the local CIA agents deliver the bad news – they found the body of Lopez, and that new necklace Victor gave Julia? A trophy Victor took from Lopez. But the with plan already in motion, Annie has no choice but to finish the job, and hope that Victor hasn’t figured out yet that she’s CIA.

  4. Episode 4

    No Quarter

    Annie is sent to Zurich to complete a simple “brush pass” – meet her Mossad contact, swap briefcases and back to the U.S. But before she can complete her objective, the airport is attacked, and a man attempts to steal Annie’s briefcase. Annie is able to fight him off and make it out of the airport safely, but with the Zurich police looking to question her and her mission not completed, Annie is forced to hide her briefcase in a nearby hotel and seek out Fatma, a.k.a. “The Turk” – a bridge agent who promises Annie a new identity and transports her to a safe house. There, much to Annie’s surprise, her Mossad contact, Eyal, is already waiting.

    Not knowing whether she can trust Eyal, Annie turns to Auggie and the DPD for help – but Eyal cuts off communication before she can give away their position, worried that the CIA compromised their mission. Back in the DPD, Arthur begins conducting an investigation into who has been leaking information to Liza Hearn, pulling a number of staff – including Auggie – out of the DPD for polygraph tests. Without Auggie to guide her and stuck in the safe house with Eyal, Annie is unsure of what to do. But one thing is certain: whoever compromised their mission is still after them, and they’re willing to kill for whatever’s in the briefcases.

  5. Episode 5

    In The Light

    Ben, Annie’s mysterious lover from Sri Lanka, has reappeared and he’s tracking down a terrorist named Hassan, who is smuggling surface-to-air missiles into the United States.

    Back at the DPD, Jai’s father and former CIA black ops director, Henry Wilcox, shows up for the dedication of the new headquarters in his name. Everyone is on edge, because of Henry’s dark history with the Company and his questionable decisions as Jai’s father.

    Annie is given the rookie task of tracking down Christopher McCauley, a former deep-cover officer who has expertise in East African intelligence. But the recluse McCauley isn’t the chatty type and Annie will need more than just her CIA training to get him to talk. After winning him over with his dogs and his love affair with fly fishing, McCauley turns her around and directs her to Henry Wilcox whose illicit past may be the only way DPD will be able to track down Hassan.

  6. Episode 6

    Houses of the Holy

    Clandestine U.S. operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan are not going as planned. Each time a Hellfire drone drops a bomb on a suspected terrorist, the target isn’t there. The government thinks it’s a leak.

    DPD is given the task of finding the leak in the CIA and Intelligence community, which they believe starts with a U.S. senator. High treason is the charge is Annie and Jai can get close enough to their respective senators and bring them down.

    Annie is assigned to spy on Senator Gil Jarvis, a committee chair. Posing as a Smithsonian private art curator, she discovers that Jarvis has secret meetings at his office on Tuesday nights. When Annie works her magic to get close enough to the office that evening, she discovers something she never suspected about Senator Jarvis’ extra-curricular activites.

    Annie also catches her brother-in-law in a lie when she sees him coming out of a hotel after he claimed he had to work late. Could it be an affair?

  7. Episode 7

    Communication Breakdown

    Washington, D.C. wakes up to a city without Internet, cellular data or a communications infrastructure. DPD is tasked with finding out who is behind this widespread cyber attack when it’s learned that sensitive government servers may have been breached.

    Joan asks Auggie to step out of the Langley office and become a field operative at a high profile “hacker” convention, where they believe an infamous Russian cyber-terrorist and anarchist, Natasha Petrovna, is attending. The only problem is that Petrovna is also Auggie’s ex-girlfriend. Annie accompanies him to the convention to offer two million dollars for the safe return of sensitive government codes. After Natasha balks at the deal, Joan steps up the heat and makes Auggie give her the ultimate ultimatum: break with her morals or get thrown in prison.

    At the same time, Annie is ordered to tell her sister to take down photos of her that her sister posted on a cooking blog. Danielle is insulted by the request, further driving a wedge between the two siblings’ very different lives.

  8. Episode 8

    What Is and What Should Never Be

    Annie is posing as a Smithsonian art buyer at the Brambles Auction House in order to survey odd spending behaviors. So when a bald man bids seven million dollars more than he needs to on a painting, Annie and Auggie are suspicious.

    Later, Annie's sister Danielle is barbequing in the back yard and makes Annie invite Jai over on a "date." Jai and Annie find themselves enjoying one another's company but just after Annie says goodbye, she finds Ben, her long lost ex-lover, sitting on her couch.

    Ben tells Annie he stranded her in Sri Lanka to protect her from a mission he was on with the Agency. This is all news to Annie, who had never before suspected him of working for the CIA. Ben also admits that he was the shadowy figure who saved her life in the D.C. subway station (Episode 1).

    But not only has Ben showed back up in Annie's life, he has information for her on the painting from the auction. A Russian arms dealer uses the auction house to move large amounts of money in a massive arms trade. This time, a missile guidance system was the item that was sold to the highest bidder.

  9. Episode 9

    Fool In The Rain

    Annie is over-worked and Joan tells her to take a few days to get her head together. This is perfect timing because her sister's husband just cancelled a romantic vacation in Niagara Falls in order to play golf in South Carolina. Danielle invites Annie to join her on a road trip instead.

    Meanwhile ... an Iranian man runs for his life from a hotel in Toronto. It's not known what he's fleeing from but his path will ultimately cross with Annie's while she's on vacation. Will it be a lethal crossroad?

    On top of all this, the love lives of Auggie and Joan are taking completely different paths. Auggie's steamy romance with the reporter, Liza, is heating up, while Joan and Arthur find themselves arguing in front of their marriage counselor.

  10. Episode 10

    I Can’t Quit You Baby

    Annie's sister Danielle decides to take her daughter's class on a field trip to the Smithsonian Institute. The only problem is that Annie doesn't actually work there; it's just a cover for her real job at the CIA.

    Meanwhile, DPD has its sights on a pharmacist, Don Ridley, who has been a major conduit for an Angolan diamond smuggling ring from the UK to the U.S. After the FBI captures Ridley at an airport, Joan wants to keep the smuggling ring going so they can find out who is masterminding the operation. Now, Annie and Jai must pack their bags for London.

    Annie meets with Vivian Long, a suspicious U.S. embassy worker who allegedly used Ridley to grease the rails of the diamond smuggling operation. Using her cover as a museum art dealer with a gambling problem, Annie gets in to the famous Havery casino room. All the while, Jai monitors Annie's every step from a secret communications house. Together with the CIA's UK field operative, Jai goes to check out the diamond transfer house, but they soon find themselves dodging bullets instead of finding answers.

    Back at the casino, Annie is losing money at the craps table and Vivian is worried. Annie decides to place all her money on one single bet. Will the CIA operation go bust or hit the jackpot?

  11. Episode 11

    When The Levee Breaks

    While Annie and Auggie endure another CIA awards ceremony, the elusive Ben Mercer makes another unwanted appearance. The DPD decide to bring him in for a polygraph test to find out exactly what he knows. Ben reveals that his deep undercover operations were about using a science teacher named Anton Sabine as human bait to get to Felix Artigas, an arms dealer. However, after getting to know Annie in Sri Lanka, Ben changed his mind and decided to go rogue.

    Ben tells the DPD that Artigas has kidnapped Sabine and taken him to Sri Lanka where he'll force him into developing chemical weapons. Ben requests CIA resources so he can travel to Sri Lanka and rescue Sabine. Arthur and Joan realize that they have no choice. Instead of sending Jai though, they decide to send Annie as Ben's handler.

    Meanwhile, Auggie's lover Liza Hearns is prepared to publish a scathing article that could jeopardize and expose CIA operations in many other countries. Arthur pleads with Auggie, but time is quickly running out.

Characters

  • Annie Walker

    Piper Perabo

    She may be new to the government's most secretive branch, but 28-year-old Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) has the uncanny instincts, tenacity and persistence that could make this girl-next-door a lethal weapon. Although her first mission unexpectedly ends in a hail of bullets, Annie doesn't get flustered or second-guess her new career path when the Agency unexpectedly promotes her to field operative. If anything, it has made her more determined to be good at her job and see her assignments through.

    In the blink of an eye, an assignment can go from routine to rogue and when Annie finds herself in situations with no rules or prior training to guide her, all she can rely on is her intuition. Too bad her intuition didn't keep Annie from getting her heart broken by someone she believed was the man of her dreams ... but that was two years ago. Now the CIA and its inherent dangers are a welcome change -- almost a kind of refuge.

    As Annie plunges headlong into her new job, she soon realizes it means having to lead a double life, whether it's lying to her family or facing down ruthless terrorists around the world and enemies of the state. Unlike her older sister Danielle who has worked hard to build a stable, reliable, and predictable life, Annie likes the peripatetic and unpredictable nature of working for the Agency. But she'll soon find out that staying emotionally unattached could prove to be far more challenging than staying alive.

  • Auggies Anderson

    Christopher Gorham

    A former CIA special operative, Auggie (Christopher Gorham) was blinded during a mission. He is now heading up the tech ops department within the DPD. Auggie understands the intricacies of the massive bureaucracy of the CIA in a way that few others do. He immediately picks up on Annie's intelligence and takes her under his wing to help her navigate the system. He sees Annie for who she really is and because of that, is willing to follow her instincts.

    Despite his situation, Auggie is the last person to feel sorry for himself, and his positivism is infectious. Annie is immediately drawn to his dry wit and self-effacing style -- and his encyclopedic knowledge of the CIA. They are kindred spirits. This is one guy she can trust.

  • Jai Wilcox

    Sendhil Ramamurthy

    A second-generation CIA man, Jai (Sendhil Ramamurthy) was a former lacrosse star at Yale. Jai's hate-to-lose attitude would make him a perfect fit for investment banking, but he's chosen the Agency route instead. He has dated everyone from Congressional staffers to other CIA workers to a flight attendant he met while flying to a buddy's bachelor party in Reykjavik.

    Jai lives in the shadow of his father, who was a legend at the CIA. This legacy both drives and saddles him. He is constantly striving to live up to his father's expectations while forging his own identity within the Agency.

    When Arthur directs him to get close to Annie to gain her trust, Jai is more than willing to comply. She's beautiful, smart and sexy -- just his type. She also can keep up with him, which only fuels their natural friendly and flirtatious chemistry.

  • Arthur Campbell

    Peter Gallagher

    Arthur (Peter Gallagher) is the director of the Clandestine Service Department at the CIA. A regal and imposing presence, he loves a good fight whether it's with a known enemy of the United States or verbal sparring with his own wife, Joan, who also works at the Agency. But his bid to bring more transparency to the CIA is at odds with the very covert nature of the organization. Arthur has his supporters but not everyone's on his side, whether they'll admit to it or not. He's in for an uphill battle that's sure to have its casualties.

  • Joan Campbell

    Kari Matchett

    Joan (Kari Matchett) has managed to ascend higher in the CIA than almost any other woman in a male-dominated agency. She's done it with grit, determination and poise. Joan is hard on Annie, her newest employee, because she sees herself in her. Not that she would ever admit it. And Annie doesn't realize that Joan's ferocity comes from a need to protect her, and make her a better agent, not compete with her. Joan is also in the difficult position of being married to her boss, Arthur. Maintaining the boundaries between home and work is a constant challenge for this couple, particularly since Joan suspects that her husband is cheating on her.

  • Danielle Brooks

    Anne Dudek

    A grounded, somewhat earthy yet affluent Georgetown mom, Danielle Brooks (Anne Dudek) is Annie's reliable older sister. While juggling two young daughters and a husband with a high-powered job, Danielle represents the path not taken for Annie, one that's rooted and safe. At times Danielle represents the life fulfilled and at other times she's the cautionary tale. Danielle thinks Annie works too hard and that she needs to move on and start dating again. Danielle is unaware her sister is working at the CIA and while she thinks her sister is emotionally unavailable, it's this exact quality what makes Annie an ideal CIA operative.