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* DestroyTheEvidence: Braithwaithe deploys a covert [=SOG=] team into Hong Kong in "Trompe Le Monde" to prevent anyone from knowing about his connection to Henry by [[spoiler:having him assassinated in Kowloon.]]
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** Notably, [[spoiler:when Annie fakes her own death and goes dark, she dyes her hair brunette. Which, unfortunately, leads to Auggie's ex-wife being mistaken for her and killed.]]
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* AllWomenLoveShoes: Annie's cover story to go back to the scene of the shooting is that she wants to retrieve her Louboutins.
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* AllWomenLoveShoes: Annie's cover story to go back to the scene of the shooting in the first episode is that she wants to retrieve her Louboutins.
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** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame, just try to follow the convoluted logic; Helen, Auggie's wife, supposedly [[FakingTheDead died seven years ago]], breaking his heart badly in the process. Annie is now supposedly also dead, something which by then only five people in the world know is a lie. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", "late" wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to win him back. They finally have sex ''after'' she learns that girlfriend A is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
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** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame, just try to follow the convoluted logic; Helen, Auggie's wife, supposedly [[FakingTheDead died seven years ago]], breaking his heart badly in the process. Annie is now supposedly also dead, something which by then only five people in the world know is a lie. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", "late" wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to win him back. They finally have sex ''after'' she learns that girlfriend A B is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
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Changed line(s) 252 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame, just try to follow the convoluted logic; Annie is supposedly dead, something which by then only five people in the world know. Helen, Auggie's wife, supposedly [[FakingTheDead died seven years ago]], breaking his heart badly in the process. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", "late" wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to win him back. They finally have sex ''after'' she learns that girlfriend A is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
to:
** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame, just try to follow the convoluted logic; Annie is supposedly dead, something which by then only five people in the world know. Helen, Auggie's wife, supposedly [[FakingTheDead died seven years ago]], breaking his heart badly in the process.process. Annie is now supposedly also dead, something which by then only five people in the world know is a lie. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", "late" wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to win him back. They finally have sex ''after'' she learns that girlfriend A is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
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** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame: just try to follow the convoluted logic; Annie is supposedly dead, just three short months ago something which by then only five people in the world know. Helen, Auggie's wife of just a couple of months at the time, supposedly died seven years ago, breaking his heart rather badly in the process. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", late wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to get him back. They finally have sex after she learns that girlfriend A is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
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** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame: shame, just try to follow the convoluted logic; Annie is supposedly dead, just three short months ago something which by then only five people in the world know. Helen, Auggie's wife of just a couple of months at the time, wife, supposedly [[FakingTheDead died seven years ago, ago]], breaking his heart rather badly in the process. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", late "late" wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to get win him back. They finally have sex after ''after'' she learns that girlfriend A is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
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** [[spoiler:Henry doing this to Arthur. Even though it was pretty clear that Arthur couldn't have been responsible for Jai Wilcox's death, Henry decides to bring the HumiliationConga and begins slowly picking at Arthur's career and personal life until by the end of Season 4, Arthur's lost his son, his job, is about to go on trial, and had a hit put out on him and his wife by Henry.]]
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** [[spoiler:Henry doing this to Arthur. Even though it was pretty clear that Arthur couldn't have been responsible for Jai Wilcox's death, Henry decides to bring the HumiliationConga and begins slowly picking at Arthur's career and personal life until by the end of Season 4, Arthur's lost his son, his job, is about to go on trial, and had a hit put out on him and his wife (Heavily pregnant at the time with Arthur's second, unexpected, late-life son) by Henry.]]
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* DisproportionateRetribution: In "Bang and Blame", [[spoiler: the leak at the Farm that's revealing potential trainee's on line (and thus effectively destroying their career at any sort of clandestine organization forever)? One of the trainee who wants to be number one. Yeesh.]]
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* DisproportionateRetribution: DisproportionateRetribution:
** In "Bang and Blame", [[spoiler: the leak at the Farm that's revealing potential trainee's on line (and thus effectively destroying their career at any sort of clandestine organization forever)? One of the trainee who wants to be number one. Yeesh.]]
** [[spoiler:Henry doing this to Arthur. Even though it was pretty clear that Arthur couldn't have been responsible for Jai Wilcox's death, Henry decides to bring the HumiliationConga and begins slowly picking at Arthur's career and personal life until by the end of Season 4, Arthur's lost his son, his job, is about to go on trial, and had a hit put out on him and his wife by Henry.]]
** In "Bang and Blame", [[spoiler: the leak at the Farm that's revealing potential trainee's on line (and thus effectively destroying their career at any sort of clandestine organization forever)? One of the trainee who wants to be number one. Yeesh.]]
** [[spoiler:Henry doing this to Arthur. Even though it was pretty clear that Arthur couldn't have been responsible for Jai Wilcox's death, Henry decides to bring the HumiliationConga and begins slowly picking at Arthur's career and personal life until by the end of Season 4, Arthur's lost his son, his job, is about to go on trial, and had a hit put out on him and his wife by Henry.]]
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** Annie's life basically becomes this [[spoiler:in several contexts - first with Danielle, then later when she and Calder cook up their plot to "kill" her so she can go dark.]]
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* ActionGirl: Annie is more like an ActionGirl in-training. Though it's brought up in "Bang and Blame" that though she was pulled early and primarily due to her connection to Ben, Annie actually was in the top if not at the top of her class previously.
to:
* ActionGirl: Annie is more like an ActionGirl in-training. Though it's brought up in "Bang and Blame" that though she was pulled early and primarily due to her connection to Ben, Annie actually was in the top if not at the top of her class previously. By Season 4, it's clear she's earned the ActionGirl rating for real.
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** [[spoiler:Auggie cheating on Annie with Helen. Puts Ben's "It's complicated" note to shame: just try to follow the convoluted logic; Annie is supposedly dead, just three short months ago something which by then only five people in the world know. Helen, Auggie's wife of just a couple of months at the time, supposedly died seven years ago, breaking his heart rather badly in the process. So when girlfriend B is away being "dead", late wife A comes back three months after she thinks he lost her, trying to get him back. They finally have sex after she learns that girlfriend A is still alive. Seriously, who needs soap operas!]]
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** [[spoiler:But the bus came back for Eyal in the fourth season (briefly).]]
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** Also, Khani, the terrorist [[spoiler: who blinded Auggie and killed his Special Forces team]]. In the middle of a hand-to-hand fight Khani suddenly realizes his opponent is, in fact, blind. Armed with this newfound advantage, he... wades back into the fight sure he's going to win. -Against a former wrestling champion and ex special forces officer who thinks ''the CIA's fight instructors'' [[ForegoneConclusion don't know what they're talking about]].
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** Also, Khani, the terrorist [[spoiler: who blinded Auggie and killed his Special Forces team]]. In the middle of a hand-to-hand fight Khani suddenly realizes his opponent is, in fact, blind. Armed with this newfound advantage, he... wades back into the fight sure he's going to win. -Against a former wrestling champion and ex special forces officer commando who thinks ''the CIA's fight instructors'' [[ForegoneConclusion don't know what they're talking about]].
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correcting html typo
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* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Annie's [[spoiler;enactment of a plan to trap Henry Wilcox by making think his operative has kicked off his plan to discredit David, Sana's current love interest. However it goes sideways badly, and Annie's left with egg on her face, an angry Sana and an innocent man in police custody.]]
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* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Annie's [[spoiler;enactment [[spoiler: enactment of a plan to trap Henry Wilcox by making think his operative has kicked off his plan to discredit David, Sana's current love interest. However it goes sideways badly, and Annie's left with egg on her face, an angry Sana and an innocent man in police custody.]]
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* TortureAlwaysWorks: Averted, as in the sister show ''BurnNotice''. In Season 4, [[spoiler:Annie tries to [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique torture]] an operative who turns out to be TooKinkyToTorture and actually gives her ''tips''. The situation ends up with the guy dead, shots fired, no information gained, and both her and her sidekick forced to leave. It probably didn't help that Annie's training is mainly in HUMINT, not interrogations.]]
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I\'ve wiped the UST section, It\'s badly out of date and doesn\'t add anything to the understanding of the series\'s tropes.
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* {{UST}}: Pretty much Annie and any male on the show, though Auggie is the frontrunner.
** Auggie has some of this with Joan as well as Annie.
** And Jai. With Auggie, with Joan...
** Jai/Auggie UST is quite [[FoeYay debatable]], though there does seem to be some tension of a non-sexual sort.
** Auggie has some of this with Joan as well as Annie.
** And Jai. With Auggie, with Joan...
** Jai/Auggie UST is quite [[FoeYay debatable]], though there does seem to be some tension of a non-sexual sort.
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* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Annie's [[spoiler;enactment of a plan to trap Henry Wilcox by making think his operative has kicked off his plan to discredit David, Sana's current love interest. However it goes sideways badly, and Annie's left with egg on her face, an angry Sana and an innocent man in police custody.]]
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Changed line(s) 31,32 (click to see context) from:
* BlindIdiotTranslation:
** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a ''[[SarcasmMode spleling test]]'' while they're at it.
** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a ''[[SarcasmMode spleling test]]'' while they're at it.
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* BlindIdiotTranslation:
**BlindIdiotTranslation: In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a ''[[SarcasmMode spleling test]]'' while they're at it.
**
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** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a [[SarcasmMode ''spleling test'']] while they're at it.
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** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a [[SarcasmMode ''spleling test'']] ''[[SarcasmMode spleling test]]'' while they're at it.
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** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a ''spleling test'' while they're at it.
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** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a [[SarcasmMode ''spleling test'' test'']] while they're at it.
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Changed line(s) 47,48 (click to see context) from:
* ChekhovsGun: In the pilot, Auggie refers to a phone filled with outdated intel as a "nice samsonite" and explains that samsonite is an old spy term for a suitcase stuffed with paper to make it seem like there might be something valuable in it. Fast forward to episode 1x05, where Jai and Annie are robbed by a rogue agent who swaps the bundles of bills in their suitcase for two New York phonebooks...
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent.
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent.
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* ChekhovsGun: In the pilot, Auggie refers to a phone filled with outdated intel as a "nice samsonite" and explains that samsonite is an old spy term for a suitcase stuffed with paper to make it seem like there might be something valuable in it. Fast forward to episode 1x05, where Jai and Annie are robbed by a rogue agent who [[spoiler: swaps the bundles of bills in their suitcase for two New York phonebooks...
phonebooks...]]
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, [[spoiler: she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent.]]
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, [[spoiler: she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent.]]
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** Levitate Me.
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** Levitate Me."Levitate Me".
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* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Suitcase]]:
** In the pilot, Auggie refers to a phone filled with outdated intel as a "nice samsonite" and explains that samsonite is an old spy term for a suitcase stuffed with paper to make it seem like there might be something valuable in it. Fast forward to episode 1x05, where Jai and Annie are robbed by a rogue agent who swaps the bundles of bills in their suitcase for two New York phonebooks...
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Pepper Spray]]:
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent!
** In the pilot, Auggie refers to a phone filled with outdated intel as a "nice samsonite" and explains that samsonite is an old spy term for a suitcase stuffed with paper to make it seem like there might be something valuable in it. Fast forward to episode 1x05, where Jai and Annie are robbed by a rogue agent who swaps the bundles of bills in their suitcase for two New York phonebooks...
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Pepper Spray]]:
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent!
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* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Suitcase]]:
**ChekhovsGun: In the pilot, Auggie refers to a phone filled with outdated intel as a "nice samsonite" and explains that samsonite is an old spy term for a suitcase stuffed with paper to make it seem like there might be something valuable in it. Fast forward to episode 1x05, where Jai and Annie are robbed by a rogue agent who swaps the bundles of bills in their suitcase for two New York phonebooks...
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Pepper Spray]]:
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent!agent.
** In "The Wake-up Bomb", Annie [[ImprobableWeaponUser stabs a terrorist with a bottle opener]], which she only had on her because Auggie gave it to her as a "Safehouse-warming present" moments earlier.
**
** In "The Wake-up Bomb", Annie [[ImprobableWeaponUser stabs a terrorist with a bottle opener]], which she only had on her because Auggie gave it to her as a "Safehouse-warming present" moments earlier.
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Deleted line(s) 16 (click to see context) :
* AllPartOfThePlan: You see the opening part where Annie gets shot by Calder in an elevator? [[spoiler:That was part of her plan to throw Henry and his henchmen off their guard.]]
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* AllPartOfThePlan: You see the opening part where Annie gets shot by Calder in an elevator? [[spoiler:That was part of her plan to throw Henry and his henchmen off their guard.]]
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* FalseFlag: [[spoiler:Henry Wilcox uses one in Denmark when he gets one of his moles in the CIA's SOG to stage the shooting of a chopper with a Stinger MANPAD to frame Teo and Annie for being terrorists. And it worked.]]
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*** [[spoiler:Annie after Henry stages events that led to Teo's death and Annie being accused of being a terrorist. She is "declared" dead and in hiding from the world as she personally hunts Henry down.]]
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** The latest episode continues this by having Auggie change his shirt in his office, showing Christopher Gorham's amazingly well-developed chest and torso.
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* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Joan and most of Annie's CIA colleagues think this when she wants to pursue Lena in Moscow after recovering from nearly being killed in her hospital room.]]
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* ItsPersonal: ItsPersonal:
** [[spoiler: Joan and most of Annie's CIA colleagues think this when she wants to pursue Lena in Moscow after recovering from nearly being killed in her hospital room.]]
** [[spoiler: Henry Wilcox versus Arthur Campbell. Wilcox blames Campbell for the loss of Jai and has retaliated by suborning agents within and outside of the CIA to mastermind Teo's death.]]
** [[spoiler: Joan and most of Annie's CIA colleagues think this when she wants to pursue Lena in Moscow after recovering from nearly being killed in her hospital room.]]
** [[spoiler: Henry Wilcox versus Arthur Campbell. Wilcox blames Campbell for the loss of Jai and has retaliated by suborning agents within and outside of the CIA to mastermind Teo's death.]]
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[[redirect:CovertAffairs]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:Auggie and Annie are ready for work.]]
''Covert Affairs'' is a USANetwork SpyDrama, starring Piper Perabo as trainee CIA agent Annie Walker, who is suddenly roped into actual field work.
As per USA formula, Annie is surrounded by a cast of quirky characters: [[TheSmartGuy Auggie Anderson]], a field agent who was blinded on a mission and now works MissionControl; [[HandsomeLech Conrad Sheehan]] (only in the pilot), Annie's superior agent; [[BelligerentSexualTension Joan and Arthur Campbell]], the respective head of the Domestic Protection Division and CIA itself (and troubled married couple), [[TallDarkAndHandsome Jai Wilcox]], who follows in his CIA legend dad's footsteps, and Annie's sister [[HeyItsThatGuy Danielle]], who doesn't know of her life in espionage.
The MythArc of the first season concerns Annie's Dear-Johnning ex-lover Ben, who influenced her decision to join the CIA and has a MysteriousPast.
----
!!This series contains examples of:
* ActionGirl: Annie is more like an ActionGirl in-training. Though it's brought up in "Bang and Blame" that though she was pulled early and primarily due to her connection to Ben, Annie actually was in the top if not at the top of her class previously.
* ActionSurvivor: At least on Annie's first few missions. Joan doesn't show it much since she is no longer a regular field agent, but in ''Welcome to the Occupation'' she and another agent take five armed kidnappers down while being unarmed.
* {{Adorkable}}: Eric Barber.
* AdventuresInComaLand: "Suffragette City" has [[spoiler: Annie]] go through this.
* AllWomenLoveShoes: Annie's cover story to go back to the scene of the shooting is that she wants to retrieve her Louboutins.
* {{Angry Guard Dog}}s: Subverted. The contact is a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold and the dogs are part of the ensemble; all they do is bark a lot.
* BadassIsraeli: Eyal Levin, Annie's contact in the fourth episode, who has been described by the creative team as "the Israeli JamesBond".
* BatmanGambit: Jai pulls one in "The Wake-up Bomb."
* BathroomBreakOut: While Annie escorts a prisoner he tries to escape this way, [[spoiler:but [[GenreSavvy Annie]] already waits for him outside the window.]]
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Annie survives being shot at and covered in glass with only a slight case of mussed hair.
* TheBeautifulElite: Actually referenced in 1x08 - according to her sister, Annie and Jai are this.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Annie and Jai are moderately snarky to one another; that sparring/"fight" scene between Annie and Auggie in the third episode was pretty flirtatious.
* TheBechdelTest: Pass.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Auggie has a bit of this for Annie.
* BigBrotherMentor: Eyal though there is something of a UST to it as well. Certainly, at any rate, he goes above and beyond the call of duty for Annie.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** Eyal on occasion and Annie for him. It helps that despite being a spy from a foreign service, he's among Annie's few true friends and certainly the only one with whom she has something of a stable and honest relationship with so he's more than willing to help her out even when it's not his business and not in his country's interests.
** Episode 10 of Season 3, in which Eyal staged a prison break (with planning support from Auggie) to rescue Annie.
* BigDamnKiss: [[spoiler: Annie and Auggie.]] And it is ''awesome.''
* BlindIdiotTranslation:
** In "Letter Never Sent" part of the Stockholm train station is covered by a banner. In Swedish it reads "Dasg för ett hröseltest?", basically something like "Tiem for a hreaing test?"... -Maybe they should throw in a ''spleling test'' while they're at it.
* BlindMistake: Mostly averted with Auggie, who is highly capable and aware of his surroundings, although he did once accidentally bad-mouth Jai's father while Jai was in earshot, with Annie's warning coming too late:
-->'''Auggie:''' I'm assuming by the silence and the stiletto ''in'' my shin; -[[RightBehindMe Jai has joined us.]] ...I'm off to do...[[INeedToGoIronMyDog anything else]]. ''(leaves)''
** YMMV on this; arguably it's more of a RightBehindMe played entirely straight, as Jai walked up literally right behind Auggie, who just happens to also be blind.
** Also [[InvokedTrope invoked]] all the time deliberately by Auggie, just to ''coincidentally'' happen to be there just when Annie needs help or a pep talk.
* BriefcaseBlaster: In episode 4 a briefcase blows up.
* BrokenBird: Annie spent most of her life putting up emotional barriers, and when she finally let them down and fell in love, her paramour left in the middle of the night with nothing more than a note. And so, she explains, she keeps her guard up.
* BurnBabyBurn: The ultimate fate of [[spoiler: Ben's note.]]
* [[BusmansHoliday Busman's Holiday]]:
** The premise of "Fool in the Rain."
** Referred to by name in "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
* [[ButNotTooBlack But Not Too Brown]]: Averted with Jai Wilcox, more so because most of the other characters the actor is known for are pure Indian. To boot, as the UnfortunateImplications mention, the color of his skin is never brought up in any fashion.
* CannotSpitItOut: Annie wanting to read-in her sister, but only for a short while.
** [[spoiler: Annie telling Auggie that she likes him.]]
* CareerEndingInjury: Partially averted: after he was injured in Iraq, Auggie continued to work for the CIA, but his blindness means that he spends very little time in the field.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Suitcase]]:
** In the pilot, Auggie refers to a phone filled with outdated intel as a "nice samsonite" and explains that samsonite is an old spy term for a suitcase stuffed with paper to make it seem like there might be something valuable in it. Fast forward to episode 1x05, where Jai and Annie are robbed by a rogue agent who swaps the bundles of bills in their suitcase for two New York phonebooks...
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Pepper Spray]]:
** In the second episode, rookie Annie is put on "walk-in duty", debriefing random people who contact the CIA, a job Auggie calls "crackpot city". She is shown a panic button and given a pepper spray, just in case. Later in the episode, she has to use the spray during a fight with a double agent!
* [[ChekhovsGunman Chekhov's Gunman]]:
** The nice Spanish guy Annie has a chat with in the hotel [[spoiler: is the real assassin]].
** [[spoiler: The guy she talks with at the auction is the smuggler; his henchman was the person who actually bought the painting.]]
** [[spoiler: The language professor who told her not to join the CIA was actually in the CIA.]]
* ChickMagnet: Auggie.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Conrad Sheehan III]], tech guy Stu.
* CIAEvilFBIGood: Played with by nature of the show. The FBI agents Annie encounters are obstructive but only because they're doing their job and trying to catch bad guys. At the same time, the FBI is still shown to be basically the straightforward good guys compared to the {{CIA}}. Semi-justified in most cases as the CIA is supposed to be a foreign intelligence service with little to do with domestic affairs which the FBI is responsible for.
** Brought up in "Bang and Blame" where the CIA instructor basically calls the FBI gun-toting nuts who shoot first. [[TruthInTelevision This is entirely consistent with the sort on inter-agency communication problems that exist in real life]].
** Most evident in "A Girl Like You". While the CIA gets their happy ending, the FBI gets screwed over on their investigation because the CIA decides -not- to read in the FBI and cooperate.
* [[ClusterFBomb Cluster S Bombs]]: Season 3 seens to be sauntering through the door that {{Series/Suits}} first opened for USA.
* CombatPragmatist: Sort of brought up in "Bang and Blame" by the CIA training instructor. When asked to escape from a building and offered a weapon to do so, all of the recruits pick up a gun and shoot their way out. Annie on the other hand takes a gun... to break a glass box that contains a map of the building. She then disappears on the course and walks back into class via the exit. The instructor promptly chews the rest of the class out and explains (much like [[BurnNotice Michael Westen]]) that guns are a last resort. The best weapon is your mind.
* CombatStilettos: Annie wears very high heels quite often. It's semi-justified as she's usually has a cover as a curator or businesswoman. Also semi-subverted/semi-played straight as Annie generally has not won many fights... but does almost everything else in them like rappel down an elevator shaft and chase people.
** Finally subverted in 1x08, when Annie tells another woman to take off her shoes as they're running through a warehouse trying to escape bad guys, and also does so herself.
** Same episode and one a few episodes later, also has Annie win at least one fight... but again, she's not wearing her heels.
** Joan on the other hand kicks butt with or without heels.
* ConsummateLiar: ''Everyone'' on the show can lie perfectly. It comes with the job.
** As demonstrated in "Bang and Blame", just because you can lie well doesn't mean that someone will automatically believe you or that a lie will advance your goals.
** In 3x02, Henry even attempts to insult Arthur with the suggestion that Arther is terrible at lying.
* CouldSayItBut:
--> '''Auggie:''' I know what I'm supposed to tell you now. I'm supposed to tell you to let Joan run her op. I'm not supposed to tell you to go down to the warehouse and investigate and I'm ''definitely'' not supposed to tell you that code for the keypad today is 92762#.
* CrazyPrepared: How Lena [[spoiler:was able to get away from the CIA when her FSB allies assassinated CIA operatives trying to look for her thanks to the information she provided.]]
* CunningLinguist: Annie speaks, well, at least 6+ languages fluently: English, Russian, German, Spanish, Hebrew, and Portuguese, and she knows enough Turkish "to get by." (Her French may or may not be in this category, as the only time she's used it, her cover was an American expatriate.) It's one of the reasons she was recruited into the CIA. She also apparently knows at least some Italian as well, because in one episode she has to trade an Italian journalist for an American spy and she completely understands his ranting and even responds in Italian. She also understands Arabic, but she can only speak the cuss words. Estonian is her only weakness as she knows only the cuss words and not much else. Also, her Swedish is ''rather'' hard to decipher.
* CursedWithAwesome: Crosses over into RunningGag. Auggie is almost never without a beautiful woman at his side, whether due to co-workers, his charm, or just random women approaching him. Annie lampshades this in 1x05. Also played with 2x07; in the flashback of him before his blindness, he seems to lack the same sort of magnetism despite acting essentially the same.
--> '''Auggie''': And leave me all alone?\\
'''Annie''': Oh please, there'll be a pretty woman next to you before I even cross the bar.\\
''Annie takes a half-step away and a pretty woman immediately steps into frame and takes a seat next to Auggie.''
* DisabledSnarker: Auggie.
* DisabilitySuperpower: Played with. Auggie notes that his sense of smell is better than sighted power or at least, something he pays attention to more. However, he's never shown to use it as a replacement for sight or to do unusual things, only helpful environmental cues.
** Crosses over into HyperAwareness.
** It's occasionally subverted. In episode seven, a techie (-Barber!) visiting the office obliviously moves chairs around. Auggie enters and immediately crashes into one, and shouts "Dude! A blind guy works here!" Later in the same episode Auggie finds himself in a combat situation - so he tells his ally to turn the room's lights off.
** Subverted when Auggie has his talk with Arthur. Arthur explicitly tells him that "The chair's right in front of you." so that Auggie can sit down.
** His sense of smell is what allows him to [[spoiler: learn that Lena is the true mole in the CIA]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: In "Bang and Blame", [[spoiler: the leak at the Farm that's revealing potential trainee's on line (and thus effectively destroying their career at any sort of clandestine organization forever)? One of the trainee who wants to be number one. Yeesh.]]
* DoesntLikeGuns: Annie, technically, but it's justified in that 1) she's suppose to be a museum curator in most of her covers so guns would break her cover and 2) she never completed gun training before being brought up from the Farm so she probably isn't even allowed to use a gun unless she's forced to. [[spoiler: This is true until post-"Horses to Water" in season 2, she specifically asks Joan to get "shooter and bodyguard" training. Blown totally to bits as of season 4's "Dig for Fire, when it's revealed that she's now routinely carrying on US soil, technically against the CIA's rules, because she nearly died from a gunshot wound received in season 3's "Glass Spider".]]
* DoubleAgent: Generally averted in-verse, but Season 4's arc seems to be shaping up with [[spoiler:Annie effectively becoming one with two "handlers" - Arthur and Henry.]]
* EloquentInMyNativeTongue: In "Letter Never Sent" Annie and Danielle's Swedish is almost impenetrable. Of course, they only spent one year in the country as kids. Contrast with the tall Finn in the heavy sweater for a BilingualBonus, he's swearing and complaining about having to "climb like a monkey" to fix his lamp.
* ExternalCombustion: Kills [[spoiler: Jai Wilcox]] in the third season premiere.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Averted. In "When The Levee Breaks", [[spoiler: the technical chasing Ben and Annie just goes squish when it goes over the cliff.]]
* EverythingIsOnline: The premise of "Communications Breakdown".
* {{Expy}}: It takes a while but you start to realize that the show has included several expies of famous fictional spies that Annie bumps into. Ben is Jason Bourne while Eyal, the Israeli spy who's a recurring character is a bit of James Bond. Also, Delgado from "Welcome to the Occupation" is pretty similar to ''[[Film/DieHard DieHard]]'s'' Hans Gruber.
* FakeDefector: Subverted, they thought someone was this in episode 2.
* FakeoutMakeout: Sort of. In "Bang and Blame" when [[spoiler: Annie is caught in Gaskin's office, Auggie comes in (shirtless of course) and pretends they were just getting it on - on Gaskin's sofa. Once they leave, Gaskin can only look at his sofa and squick.]]
* {{Fanservice}}:
** There is no other reasonable explanation for making Auggie fight the Russian mob [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]].
** In the FlashBack with Auggie and his Army buddies, he's on the "skins" team for a football game. The popups {{Lampshade}} this FanService: "Want more scenes of shirtless Auggie? #covertaffairs".
** Not to mention the fact that the show has gone out of its way to include a scene of Annie in a bikini in darn near every episode or, alternatively, putting her in short cocktail dresses showing off her legs.
** Heck, the season 1 premiere starts off with a several minute long non-speaking sequence of Annie wandering around a beach in a bikini.
** And the dresses they've been putting Annie in show off her figure amazingly well.
** Season Four ramps this up by [[spoiler: showing Annie and Auggie having sex]].
* FridgeLogic: [[invoked]] Used in-universe, actually closet logic. This is how Joan figures out the truth about Arthur's affair in season 4. [[spoiler:Specifically, that he never really had one.]]
* FrontOrganization: The Smithsonian for Annie.
* GasLeakCoverup:
** Used in "World Leader Pretend" to clear the hospital wing housing Annie and her asset, who've apparently been exposed to radiation.
** And again in "The Wake-up Bomb."
** Arthur tells Henry at the beginning of Season 3 that this was the way they explained [[spoiler: why Jai's car exploded]].
* GeekyTurnOn: Auggie met his ex Natasha at a laundromat where she was reading ''{{Snowcrash}}''.
* GenreSavvy: Escorting an outed Italian operative after being forced down in Argentina, they stumble across a farm;
---> "And this is when you steal some poor hapless peasant's vehicle; his only worldly possession." (Averted when [[spoiler: Annie buys the truck instead of stealing it]].)
* GreyAndGreyMorality:
** A large part of Arthur's work is surviving the controversy from Wilcox's doings that is spilling over onto him.
** Annie is less grey then others; at least she tries to bring some humanity into the trade. But she often finds herself on the lam from cops who have every reason to arrest her, because she is kind of, you know, a spy.
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Domestic Protection Division. Notable since the CIA is a foreign intelligence service yet for obvious reasons the show takes place mostly in the States. Something of TruthInTelevision as the CIA has 90% of its employees in the States. Most of whom are likely support for the operatives, analysts for the information, management/administration, or counter-intelligence rather than any sort of shadowy internal espionage thing (which, as mentioned above, is the FBI's purview).
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Annie and her sister (as well as her season 3 boyfriend's sister) are generally warm, bubbly, young, good, beautiful, sweet, wholesome, kind, and feminine. Brunette female characters who have recurred have thus far been a reporter working with the CIA's leak, an annoying foil for the main character and a WickedStepmother archetype. [[spoiler: Referring, of course, to TheMole who was revealed in episode 9 of season 3.]] Thus far, you can tell the sympathetic, likeable female characters from the antagonists simply by whether they are blonde or brunette.
* HandicappedBadass: '''Auggie'''. Just all the way through. He's the one who teaches Annie grappling, for one thing. Justified in-series by the training he underwent for the CIA and he was US Army Special Forces.
* TheHandler:
** Auggie is Annie's, similar to [[Series/{{Alias}} another spy show about a newbie CIA agent]].
** Two years ago, [[spoiler: Jai was Ben's, in Sri Lanka]].
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Whenever Annie teams up with a foreign agent for an episode, they're either this or TheMole.
** Examples include [[BadassIsraeli Eyal Levin]], [[CIAEvilFBIGood Agent Frank Rossabi]], and [[HotScoop that Italian guy from the Argentina episode]].
** Very prominent example comes in "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide". [[spoiler: Annie is captured by Russians. Eyal is the one to ultimately free her (single-handedly at that) but the scenes we see? They're of the CIA office trying to figure out how to save her and of her interrogation. All we see of Eyal's rescue is a lot of sound, some gunfire, and the two of them crawling out of the prison.]]
* HideYourPregnancy: They tried to hide Anne Dudek's second pregnancy, but it really didn't work out too well.
** In season 4, [[spoiler: Joan Campbell]] is revealed to be pregnant in the very first episode, but it should be much too early to tell. Once you know, it's hard ''not'' to see that [[spoiler: Kari Matchett]] actually ''is''!
* HighClassCallGirl: Annie impersonates one in the pilot.
* HoneyTrap: Kind of a popular trope for the show.
** Alluded to in "No Quarter," where the safe house in Zurich contains bondage gear: "still the best way to flip a politician".
** Jai has orders to flirt with Annie, win her trust, and get to her ex-boyfriend through her.
** In "Communications Breakdown," Auggie asked to do this to a NewOldFlame. In the same episode, it's revealed that [[spoiler:he's sleeping with Liza Hearn, hoping this will help him identify her CIA source.]]
** In "A Girl Like You", [[spoiler: Annie does this to Eyal in an attempt to stop him from going after 'Cardinal']]. Notable in that it's lampshaded and discussed.
** In "Good Advices", Eyal Levin is a bit of a two-way HoneyTrap himself.
** In Season 3, Annie is asked to do this to [[spoiler: Simon]]. It then degenerates into more of a Honey Trap Mexican Standoff, with [[spoiler: Annie trying to do a SexFaceTurn to Simon, Simon trying to do the same to Annie, and Lena using their growing attraction to each other as a cover for her own nefarious doings]].
** Also seen is 3.05, "This Is Not America", where a spy seduces a scientist to gain access to his research.
** And then Eyal's boss questions him as to why he isn't doing this to Annie yet.
* HotScoop: Liza Hearn.
* HyperAwareness: One of Annie's skills.
** 1x04, "No Quarter", shows the problems with this; as ''BurnNotice'''s Michael Westen once noted, it's easy to become paranoid, interpreting even innocent gestures as evidence of a threat.
** Auggie definitely has this as a DisabilitySuperpower. He's able to smell different kinds of perfume, identify people from the sound of their shoes or their jewelry, and determine where a couple is from based solely on how they order breakfast.
** Though it's more just a Superpower as the things he notices are things everyone would notice if they just paid more attention to those things, disability or no.
* IAmNotMyFather: Keep telling yourself that, Jai.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: With the exception of the pilot, each season's episodes are named after songs in one artist's canon:
** Season 1: Music/LedZeppelin ("Walter's Walk," "Southbound Suarez," etc.)
** Season 2: Music/{{REM}} ("Begin the Begin," "Bang and Blame," etc.)
** Season 3: Music/DavidBowie ("Hang on to Yourself," "This is Not America," etc.). Note that one episode is titled "Hello Stranger," which is a Barbara Lewis song that Bowie covered with The Mannish Boys but didn't release.
** Season 4: Music/ThePixies ("Here Comes Your Man," "Vamos," etc.)
* IdiotBall: Most of Annie's decisions in "Rock and Roll Suicide". The worst being [[spoiler: giving Simon's sister her passport, which was her only ticket out of the country.]] Subverted in the end when [[spoiler: she blackmails her interrogator into letting them go.]]
** Also, Khani, the terrorist [[spoiler: who blinded Auggie and killed his Special Forces team]]. In the middle of a hand-to-hand fight Khani suddenly realizes his opponent is, in fact, blind. Armed with this newfound advantage, he... wades back into the fight sure he's going to win. -Against a former wrestling champion and ex special forces officer who thinks ''the CIA's fight instructors'' [[ForegoneConclusion don't know what they're talking about]].
* IHaveNoSon: [[spoiler: Henry Wilcox to Jai. Jai's response? "I guess I don't have a father, then."]]
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Not yet by any of the main cast but Gaskin in "Bang and Blame" steps in front of Annie to comment on her shooting ability a mere moment after she shot a target with live ammunition. Annie lowers her weapon as soon as she realizes what an idiot the senior agent who should know better is.
* InLoveWithTheMark: This has happened to Annie [[spoiler: with Simon]] and Auggie [[spoiler: with Tash]]. This also happened to Arthur [[spoiler: during the Cold War with Elsa]] and is implied to be one of the reasons [[spoiler: why Joan doesn't like Lena. She holds Lena responsible for the death of an asset whom Lena says Joan had feelings for.]] Averted most of the time, though.
* InSeriesNickname: Several characters have spontaneously come up with "[[AnnieGetYourGun Annie Oakley]]". Somewhat ironic as up until "Bang and Blame", Annie technically hasn't completed gun training yet.
* InterserviceRivalry: With practically every agent from another agency Annie comes in contact with.
* InTheBlood: The Wilcox ruthlessness.
* ItGetsEasier: Auggie implies this after [[spoiler: Annie kills a person for the first time in the second season finale]].
* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Joan and most of Annie's CIA colleagues think this when she wants to pursue Lena in Moscow after recovering from nearly being killed in her hospital room.]]
* JurisdictionFriction: Intra-agency, and mostly because Joan and Arthur have trouble trusting each other.
** Poor, poor Agent Rossabi.
* JuryDuty: Joan is summoned in "Good Advice" and insists on going because it is a civic duty. After learning she will be stuck for three weeks to a year, she has herself excused.
* JustFriends: Auggie and Annie. So far. Arguably it's LikeBrotherAndSister, although certain [[ShipTease subtle hints]] point to the contrary.
** Shot to hell as of the third season finale: they are together and it's adorable.
* KukrisAreKool: Auggie has one.
* {{Lzherusskie}}: Justified. [[spoiler:He's not even really Russian]]. However, [[spoiler:the actual assassin is a straight version]].
* LampshadeHanging:
** "The IRA? Really? Is this 1987?"
** During [[spoiler: Annie's coma dream]], she reenacts the opening credits by sliding a keycard into a door, then grinning slyly at the camera before entering.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: The reason Annie joined the CIA. Sort of the way other people are supposed to join the LegionOfLostSouls.
* MacGyvering
* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: [[spoiler:Auggie and his ex-girlfriend Natasha]], on a train in episode seven. [[FetishFuel More like all the RIGHT places]].
* MamaBear: Joan shows some of this for her subordinates and friends.
* MoeStare : Annie. What a gorgeous smile!
* MoralDilemma: Tends to come up by nature of the topic. A more specific example is [[spoiler: Eyal being asked to get close to Annie by his agency and thus being forced to choose between betraying his friend or advancing some nebulous goal of his agency.]]
* MrFanservice:
** Episode seven features a lot of shirtless Auggie. And it's ''awesome.'' And apparently someone at USA knows how to [[FandomNod play the fangirls]], because episode nine has this as well.
** Jai is a definite in-universe example.
---> '''Danielle''': "He's like the [[GeorgeClooney George Clooney]] of [[ButNotTooForeign wherever he's from!]]"
** [=S02E07=] had this CommercialPopUp:
---> Want more scenes of shirtless Auggie? Go to our website!
** This also extends to Arthur, as well as most male guest stars - they all seem to be tall, dark, ruggedly handsome, perpetual 5-o'clock shadow (Eyal, Dr. Scott Weiss, Roy from the Farm).
* MythArc: Annie seems to be at the center of... something that justifies not just the CIA's interest in treating her well but other foreign agencies. And that's about as much as we know. This, for better or worse, contributes to some of the listings in YMMV.
* NerdsAreVirgins: Awesomely subverted with Auggie, who is most certainly a ladies' man.
* NiceGuy: Auggie
* NotHimself: Annie mentions this to Joan when Auggie [[spoiler: goes to kill the terrorist who blinded him. The tipoff: Auggie never says goodbye.]]
* OfficialKiss: [[spoiler: Annie and Auggie in the season 3 finale.]]
* [[spoiler:OffTheWagon]]: Joan in the second half of season 3.
* OpeningShoutOut: In "Suffragette City" Annie is dreaming [[spoiler:in a hospital bed after being shot by Lena]]. In the dream, she dances and then swipes a key card to open a door while smirking at the camera.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: When Annie impersonates an call girl in the pilot, she adopts a Southern accent and a grin. When the FBI agent she's talking to calls her a hooker, [[InvokedTrope both the accent and smile disappear]]. The implication is that the call girl was using ObfuscatingStupidity until the agent pushed her BerserkButton.
* OvertOperative: Annie seems to give out her real name to EVERYONE, which is actually Standard Operating Procedure for the CIA (and most intelligence agencies in general). One's "cover" usually does not consist of a fake identity but rather simply lying about one's job. It's too easy for a competent foreign agency to uncover an entirely false identity, and (more importantly) it can often be difficult to ''remember'' who you're supposed to be (especially for a newbie). In practice, it really is enough to say that you work for (for instance) the Smithsonian under your real name. They've handled it quite well. The few times she hasn't, she gives out her sister's name, banking on the fact that her sister has a legitimate identity that she can easily remember.
* PartTimeHero: Sort of, but considering her normal job is a CIA operative, it's not really a part time thing.
* PutOnABus:
** Ben and Annie reunite and Ben gets his job back. Yay! Except, it takes a while to realize that Ben getting his job back means he's back to being a shadowy non-existent presence (just working for the CIA again). Subsequently, the amount of flirtation that gets sent Annie's way has increased significantly, while the initial trait of her being very guarded has also increased to be an actual character trait rather than as the plot demands.
** As of the third season, Eyal and Danielle have been put on buses.
* PreviouslyOn: Started popping up late in the season, so that the viewers were reminded of the MythArc.
* ProductPlacement: The people behind the camera have yet to figure out how to do this subtly, so it can be kind of painful to watch at times. Particularly irritating (though ''absolutely'' in-character) example: [[spoiler: Calder Michaels]]' Jaguar.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles / AndStarring: Peter Gallagher gets the coveted "And" credit when in the second season; he was only a "Special Guest Star" in season 1.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Topaz Security.
* PunchClockVillain: A lot of Annie's opponents, especially foreign police but also sometimes foreign intelligence agents are treated that way. They are not really villains, they are just doing their job like Annie.
* RealitySubtext: Several hikers have historically been arrested as spies. When Riva and Annie are arrested, they actually ''are'' spies.
* RuthlessModernPirates: "The Last Thing You Should Do" is all about [[BruceWayneHeldHostage Auggie]] getting captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, and trying to escape without blowing his CIA cover.
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Jai]] is a definite example, while [[spoiler: Simon]] is somewhere between this and a posthumous MauveShirt.
* SayingTooMuch: If Staas hadn't called Annie "kiisu", [[spoiler:she never would have figured out he wasn't the real Staas]].
* ScullyBox: Annie frequently wears very high heels, even in situations where they would seem counter-indicated. Piper Perabo is 5'5" (166 cm), most of her co-stars have several inches of height on her.
* SexyShirtSwitch: Probably why Auggie is shirtless a lot of the time--women keep taking/wearing all his shirts:
** In 1x07, Natasha briefly wears Auggie's shirt after they hook up on the train.
** And in 1x09, [[spoiler:Liza]] walks in wearing Auggie's shirt.
** In 4x03, Annie takes Auggie's favorite T-shirt with her to Colombia, as a comfort blanket and just, y'know, so he can pretend to be worried about the ''shirt''. Apart from the initial meet she wears it through the entire mission [[spoiler: including under her tactical vest during a CIA raid on a terrorist compound, and during the brutal interrogation that follows]], and then all the way home...
* ShesGotLegs: The show seems to give Annie a lot of clothing that clings to her legs pretty well. Even her jeans (see "Bang and Blame" for a good example) are ridiculously tight.
* ShipTease: Annie and Auggie. Hell, there are at least two commercials dedicated to how much {{UST}} they have. The network seems to ship it a great deal more than the actual show does, at least so far.
* ShipperOnDeck: Although she doesn't push them together, Joan does seem to be happy when Annie and Augie are together in Season 4 and does what she can to encourage the relationship.
* ShoutOut:
** There's a very brief music snippet in "Communication Breakdown" that sounds like part of the X-Files theme song.
** In "Bang and Blame", Auggie's fake cover when he's pretending to be faculty at a student training cocktail dinner is one Dr. Stephen, neurosurgeon, similar if not the same as one Dr. Stephen Strange. Their backgrounds are similar too.
* ShowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Annie and Simon]] enjoy an exaggerated version in the third season premiere.
* ShownTheirWork: They might play fast and loose with the CIA stuff, but Christopher Gorham has been going out of his way to do the research to accurately portray a blind person, including spending time at the Canada National Institute of the Blind.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Series/{{Alias}}'', so much so that several elements have been directly lifted from that show - most notably Jai Wilcox's father being a MagnificentBastard of a [[TheSpymaster Spymaster]] and his mother being a double agent.
** Also, like ''Alias'', it takes until season 2 before [[spoiler: Annie is shown directly killing someone]].
** The executive producer of the show is Doug Liman, who is also responsible for ''The Bourne Trilogy.'' In one of the preview videos before the show debuted, he likened the show to seeing what happened to Jason Bourne in between the movies.
* TheSpock: Riva, with shades of StrawVulcan.
* SpyFiction: Dirty Martini flavor. It's a sleek, fun USA show, but going for the more nitty gritty of spy tropes.
* [[TheSpymaster Spymaster]] [[SpyCouple Couple]] : The Campbells. Arthur heads the CIA itself, Joan's the head of the DPD. This is probably lifted directly from the Foleys of Clancy's Jack Ryan universe
* SteelEarDrums: Averted--after [[spoiler:Jai is killed by a car bomb]], Annie, who was present, asks Auggie how long it will take for her ears to stop ringing, and he replies that it [[DoubleMeaning takes a while]].
* StrictlyFormula: Like with many of its sister shows on USA, Covert Affairs is a story about a fish out of water due to conspiracy and/or their own personal history.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The Domestic Protection Division (DPD) was moved to a new set after the pilot. The in-show reason was that the DPD was moving offices after a memo sent three years ago said they were moving "in a week".
* SwitchToEnglish: Annie will often find her contact, begin [[CunningLinguist speaking to them in their native language]], and then the contact will say something about being fluent in English and from there on out they will speak in English.
* TechnoWizard: Auggie.
* TelevisionGeography: That is ''not'' Helsinki-Vantaa Airport's border control, as [[SilentHunter troper]] knows from personal experience.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: FBI agent Rasabi and Annie, although there are occasional moments where it's more like VitriolicBestBuds. Annie for her part wants to help Rasabi out; it's generally Annie's superiors that make life difficult for the FBI agent. Rasabi typically gets the short end of the stick regardless.
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Annie does the verbal equivalent [[spoiler: when she relives the moment of her first kill when talking to Auggie]].
* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler: Lena]].
* TroubledButCute: Pretty much every senior agent Annie encounters or works with is this in varying degrees. Most of them note that this is generally a very common outcome for agents no matter what they do.
** Even those like Joan who avoid the sort of issues Annie runs into in others isn't exactly issue-free in the least. And to a lesser extent, the younger agents (Jai, Annie, Ben, and Auggie) have their own set of lesser issues giving them trouble.
** The younger agents get this pretty straight in the third season. [[spoiler: Jai's dead. Ben's basically been PutOnABus. Annie's spent a good portion of the season being a HoneyTrap only to get transferred back to the DPD after the mission is blown and her sister was PutOnABus. Auggie proposed but his fiance couldn't handle the complications of being read in and the subsequent questioning of their relationship that it caused.]]
* {{UST}}: Pretty much Annie and any male on the show, though Auggie is the frontrunner.
** Auggie has some of this with Joan as well as Annie.
** And Jai. With Auggie, with Joan...
** Jai/Auggie UST is quite [[FoeYay debatable]], though there does seem to be some tension of a non-sexual sort.
* WaifFu: The show is rather fond of averting this; despite Annie's combat training, she struggles when up against larger opponents. Though in her defense, she usually is getting ambushed while in high heels and is fresh off the Farm with little actual combat experience. When she has something of an even fight, she wins (with Chekov's pepper spray, makeshift weapons, creativity, or rarely, brute strength & skill). A good example is 3x2 where a man twice her size is threatening her. So she siccs Auggie on him... but only to get the initial drop and force their attacker to focus on Auggie which gives her the opportunity to get in cheap shots and holds.
* WellDoneSonGuy:
** Jai's dad has elements of this.
** Annie's relationships with warring mom-figures Joan and Lena suggest the female version of this. [[spoiler: At least until Lena shoots Annie and kills Simon.]]
* WesternTerrorists: The Mexican "Los anarquistas de la tierra directa". (Meaning Direct Land Anarchists)
* WhamEpisode: "Glass Spider" - and how! [[spoiler: Lena has either gone rogue and doing a lot of stuff "off book", or is an out and out traitor. Either way, the twist ending of "Glass Spider" is a real shocker. She clearly had the intention of executing Annie, after portraying Annie as a hero to her face, and then insinuating something bad about Annie to Arthur.]]
* WhatBeautifulEyes: Annie. Come on, you didn't notice?
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Annie and Auggie. [[spoiler: TheyDo.]]
* WorthyOpponent:
** Eyal -- sometimes. Depending on the situation. He is usually an ally, but he is Mossad's agent not the CIA's, and sometimes interests diverge.
** The police, whenever Annie is on the lam. From their point of view, Annie is a foreign agent on their soil. However, they aren't personalized often enough to be a specific rival to Annie.
* YourCheatingHeart: Actually portrayed semi-sympathetically with Arthur and Joan, as the two are now married. Doesn't mean they don't have trust issues, though. This forms the B-plot of one episode with Annie caught between the two. Joan (her boss) orders her to keep an eye on Arthur under the pretense of being point on an operation involving a female love interest from Arthur's past. Arthur (her boss's boss) orders her -not- to follow Joan's orders and plays CowboyCop.
* YouGetMeCoffee:
** Annie. She gets upgraded to walk-in work, though! And then lunch duty! And then in "Bang and Blame", she's back on the farm to finish training!
** Subverted on one occasion. A nameless jerkass agent disregards Annie's input and asks her to fetch him coffee. She springs up to grab the drinks, but [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming Jai tugs her back into her seat.]]
** Starting to be used less in the second season. Justified of course - given the amount of field work she's had, it'd be difficult to explain why she'd still be so low on the totem pole. That said, it still occurs when other agents get involved.
** Inverted of course when she runs into other field agents, to varying degrees. Most assume she must be fairly competent (at least as competent as themselves) and act to some unspoken code among field agents. Eyal less so, but mostly because he knows how relatively inexperienced she is, and so tends to take on a BigBrotherMentor role to her.
