Covert Affairs Set Visit: The Scoop on Season Two

Covert Affairs, USA’s summer breakout hit from last year returned this month for a second season featuring more action, exotic locations, and good ol’ CIA drama.

During a recent visit to the set in Toronto we got the scoop on what to expect from our favorite undercover characters in what seems to be an even more thrilling second season (don’t worry, no spoilers!).

Executive producer Doug Liman – who literally flew himself to the set in a private plane, talk about hardcore – is excited to build on season one’s success and develop new stories, some even reflecting current political events.

“This season was definitely influenced by the events in Pakistan that actually pre-dated the Osama bin Laden event, like the CIA contract officer who gunned down two Pakistanis earlier in the year,” he said.

But for Liman, Annie’s missions aren’t what make Covert Affairs so special. “In my opinion, the episodes where the character stories are big are our best episodes,” he said, referring to Annie’s relationship with her sister and potential budding romance with a Mossad agent. “I came away from the first season feeling that that was a good call, and let’s do it better in the second season.”

One of the show’s central storylines has been about Ben Mercer, the CIA agent who deserted the organization and is Annie’s main love interest. After a near death experience at the end of the first season, Ben is back but where will their flaky relationship go this summer? If it were up to Liman, it probably wouldn’t be a happily ever after.

“My personal feeling is that as Annie matures and grows up a little bit more, she will recognize that Ben is a dead end street,” he said. “The attraction to a guy like Ben is something that seems great at the beginning, but at a certain point you grow up.”

Eion Bailey, on the other hand, believes his character Ben to be a “one woman guy” who’s just “in search of the truth.”

“He’s actually not wooing other women,” said Bailey. “If he is to have a woman in his life, then [Annie]’s the one.  And what compels him to go around the world is really to avoid some uncomfortable interactions with the CIA, who he believes are not as altruistic as they would like themselves to come across to the public.”

Oh, that’s right – Ben Mercer himself was on set that day. Speculate away!

Sendhil Ramamurthy also gave us some great insight into his character Jai for season two. In my opinion, I’ve felt that Jai has become a bit of a background character as of late so I was relieved to hear that things will start to get gritty for the CIA agent.

In true USA fashion, season two will be split with 10 episodes during the summer and finish off with 6 more in early fall. It’ll be towards the end of the first half of the season that we’ll get a bombshell from Henry Wilcox, Jai’s father.

“This season it goes very, very slowly, but it kind of starts going to some dark places for Jai and I still have no idea what the ultimate ending is,” said Ramamurthy.

Part of the fun of watching Covert Affairs is seeing all the international destinations Annie gets sent to. Ramamurthy admitted that his character won’t have the chance to participate in anything overseas for reasons we’ll later find out, but Joan Campbell (played by Kari Matchett) will finally have her chance to show off her talent in the field. And for those interested ladies, Matchett says Joan’s choice of butt-kicking footwear are Jimmy Choos, not Louboutins like Annie.

Despite being armed with pointy heels, one weapon Annie is sorely lacking is a gun of her own. But according to star Piper Perabo, that’s just fine with her:

“I do like that I don’t have a gun, because I think it makes the fight scenes and all the action sequences, by nature, then have to be much more creative on where you get your weapons,” she said. “You’re much more vulnerable, obviously, if you don’t have a weapon.  Even if the other person doesn’t have one either, because unless I’m fighting a woman my size, I’m really at a disadvantage.”

Everyone seems to be getting a lot to work with this season, and Christopher Gorham (portraying blind operative Auggie Anderson) is definitely not being left out. Not only is Gorham headed to Istanbul for some filming, but this season we’ll find out how Auggie lost his eyesight by way of a flashback.

“It’s a difficult scene to describe without giving away what happens. It is an emotional scene,” he said. “Honestly, we shot 136 set ups that day and everything was moving so fast, but that moment [when Auggie loses his sight] was very still and very special somehow, and I think probably the biggest production day we’ve done to date.”

When I spoke to Gorham last year before Covert Affairs premiered, he explained his relationship with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). It’s an organization Gorham continues to reach out to when filming and as a special ‘thank you’ and homage to the blind community, Gorham convinced USA to include a “descriptive video feature” to all Covert Affairs DVD releases. Descriptive video takes out the soundtrack and adds narration alongside the dialogue to paint a clear picture as to what’s going on.

“The reaction I’ve gotten from the blind community has been very positive,” Gorham explained. “I think it comes from a couple things: I think it comes first from the character that’s been written by Matt Corman and Chris Ord, who is a very capable, smart person with incredible skill who happens to have a disability. So he’s not a victim, which I think is a big sensitive spot for that community; he’s also not a superman, he’s not infallible. So I think they appreciate that as well.”

In addition to meeting the incredible talent from Covert Affairs, it was also a real treat to wander around the sets and see how detailed and to-scale everything is. Annie’s room is littered with shoes and has a real bohemian feel to it; Auggie’s work space makes use of real technology used by the blind community, and Peter Campbell’s office even features framed photos of the boss with notable political figures like Obama and Colin Powell. Try to spot those on the shelf next time you watch the show!

Covert Affairs airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST on USA.

Images courtesy of Poptimal.com and Stephanie Jaar.