'CIA' Finale Left Colin "Ready to Explode", Tom Ellis Says

The finale of the first season of CIA, the series starring Tom Ellis, backs its protagonist into a corner. After twelve episodes of controlling every reaction, Colin Glass reaches the end no longer able to hide how he feels. In an interview with Omelete, Ellis described the moment as the point where the character finally loses his grip on himself.

The actor revealed an interesting detail about the choice of the episode title, which plays on the character’s last name. "I’m obviously a huge Annie Lennox fan, so I listened to that song on my headphones every day before we started filming," he said. For him, the reference fit the moment in the story perfectly.

Ellis explained that, throughout the season, Colin was built up as someone who treats his own emotions almost like a switch. "We get the sense that Colin is someone who is very much in control of his emotions—he almost has a, he can turn them on and off. That’s how he’s able to exist as a spy," the actor said.

That armor is what comes crashing down at the end. According to Ellis, finding out that Toni (Angela Sarafyan), the love of his life, had been alive all along completely throws Colin off balance. "This is the first time we see Colin emotionally vulnerable and, I think, broken—absolutely broken," he said.

The actor also described a layer of anger that the character tries to keep hidden, even while falling apart. "Although he likes to pretend he’s in control, you can feel there’s a kind of pent-up anger bubbling inside him over how someone could do this to him,".

To sum up the character’s state in the final stretch of the season, Ellis turned to a direct comparison. "He’s basically like a rocket ready to explode at any moment in this season finale," he said, making it clear that Colin’s emotional explosion is the result of pressure that had been building for months.

The complete first season of CIA is now available on Universal+.