CBS CIA Season 1 Episode 1 Recap: Who Is the Mole Hiding Inside the CIA-FBI Fusion Team?

Dick Wolf is back with another addictive procedural, and CBS’s CIA has burst onto the scene with a nerve-shredding premiere that had viewers glued to their screens. If you missed it — or want the full breakdown — here’s everything that went down in Episode 1, “Directed Energy.”

CIA Season 1 Episode 1 — Key Details

What Happened in Episode 1?

CIA Season 1 Episode 1 begins with a scene in a busy office where employees suddenly collapse, poisoned. The emergency services rush in as the government scrambles to determine whether it’s a lone attack or a larger domestic terror plot. Simultaneously, a new prototype of a directed energy weapon is stolen from a defense contractor.

The case-of-the-week deals with the newly developed weapon, seemingly stolen after a group of coders are attacked at their office. CIA case officer Colin Glass shows up on site pretending to be DOD, but before FBI agent Bill Goodman and his supervisor Jubal Valentine can verify his identity, the slippery Colin disappears into the night. Wiki of Thrones

Colin vs. Bill: A Partnership Built on Friction

Bill follows protocol; Colin breaks it — often. Colin explains to Bill that the CIA doesn’t solve cases, it saves the world, and they can’t do that without working in the grey. Bill eventually understands, and the two sort out their differences to stop the weapon from falling into foreign hands. IMDb

The weapon’s creator, Adrian Torres — a former CIA asset — had actually been trying to stop his company from weaponising his technology, not sell it to enemies. Colin and Bill ultimately recover the stolen weapon at a shipping yard, their contrasting approaches working in tandem for the first time. IMDb

The Big Twist: There’s a Mole!

In the final scene, Jubal clues Bill in on a hidden second assignment: FBI counterintelligence believes there’s a mole in the CIA’s New York operation, and it’s Bill’s job to find them — no matter how deep they’re burrowed in.

The showrunner confirms this mole storyline will thread throughout the season, with audiences likely suspecting Colin himself — but whether he’s leaking information, and if so why, remains the season’s burning question.

CIA is the latest addition to Dick Wolf’s legendary procedural universe. Learn more about the history of television procedural dramas on Wikipedia. For more TV recaps and streaming news, head to TechnoSports.

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