SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for CIA Season 1, Episode 9.
CIA Season 1, Episode 9, “Blood Money” is further proof that the casting team on the CBS show needs a raise. After bringing in the impeccable Costa Ronin for Episode 8, the FBI spinoff returns with a whole bevy of guest stars audiences will know and love. And watching them is the most memorable part of a fairly creative episode.
In broad strokes, “Blood Money” sees the team trying to infiltrate a family whose business is being used to fund terrorism. It’s up to Colin Glass and Bill Goodman to figure out who they can turn, and who’s in the bad guys’ pocket. And Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss continue to improve their odd-couple dynamic, particularly in the episode’s final moments. But from the very first scene, it’s too much fun to pick out all of the other talented actors who have come to play.
The action starts with Karen David, from Fear the Walking Dead and Galavant, as Colin’s latest source Zara. Zara connects Colin and Bill to the Levni family, and that brings in iconic Phantom of the Opera star Ramin Karimloo (non-Broadway fans may also recognize him from Your Friends & Neighbors) and Blindspot alum Ennis Esmer, the latter of whom runs off with the episode. Which won’t be a surprise to anyone who watched him as Rich Dotcom in Blindspot.
If the role of Kerem Levni wasn’t specifically written for Ennis Esmer (who’s also recently appeared in both Law & Order and Law & Order Criminal Intent: Toronto), it’ll be a genuine shock. It feels like this part and, in fact, this whole episode was tailored to him. Once again, he’s the comic relief, playing the eccentric character no one else quite knows how to handle. He’s the guy who makes things more complicated than they have to be. And yet at the end, he’s the guy who winds up saving the day.
CIA fans may or may not catch on to the fact that the episode-ending ambush is actually staged, but Esmer sells that just as big as he ever did any scene on Blindspot, and he’s also able to get very serious at the end, albeit only for a moment. He’s so good at creating these almost larger than life characters, knowing where the line is between gregariousness and not turning them into caricatures. “Blood Money” absolutely benefits from his personality and that of his co-stars, as the audience will be able to figure out who really did the deal with the terrorists before it’s revealed. But it’s fine because the acting is so entertaining.
That being said, CIA Season 1, Episode 9 also finally gets to another moment fans saw coming: Bill confronts Colin as the potential mole. This has always been an underwhelming idea, because the audience knows that Colin can’t be the mole, or there wouldn’t be a TV show. (This is not The Americans.) So even as Bill and Jubal Valentine get more suspicious of Colin, the audience doesn’t really share their concern. “Blood Money” at least has a good way of getting over that hump: Colin has his own suspicions about his girlfriend Sarah, and the end of the episode strongly implies he’s about to share them with his new partner.
The mole idea in general needs to be resolved relatively soon; it’s obviously been set up as the backbone of CIA Season 1, and the season is coming to a close. Beyond that, given how great of a spy Colin is supposed to be, it would work against his credibility if he didn’t have some kind of idea about a mole in his own backyard. Thus “Blood Money” not only gets him and Bill to a conflict point, but it does so in a way that points him in the right direction. And in so doing, then the two of them can now team up on this mole hunt, thus paving the way for them to be the dynamic duo they need to be for Season 2 and potentially beyond. This is an episode that hits its marks, even if the guest stars are the best part. Everyone understands the assignment, and the audience wins.
CIA airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
