‘Covert Affairs’: Peter Gallagher says ‘revealing’ episode proves Arthur is ‘a badass motherf–––er’

In tonight’s episode of Covert Affairs, Arthur Campbell at the center of the action unlike we’ve seen before.

In the revealing episode, Arthur (Peter Gallagher) revisits his past as a former covert operative, a post he held during the Cold War in Berlin, and finds himself crossing paths with a former flame who betrayed him. “It causes all sorts of interesting personal, domestic, and professional tension,” teases Gallagher. “The initial conflict is that I’m going back to see a woman I was close to, [but] the audience will know quickly whether or not they’re worried about Arthur [cheating on his wife].” 

The bigger conflict, Gallagher says, is that Arthur will have a hard time coping with the fact that almost 20 years have passed since his last time in the field. “There’s a big part of him that’s wondering if he still has it — if he can still pull it off,” he says. “He was a wonderful covert operative 20 years ago, but things have changed. Now how is he going to deal with it?…there is a lot of revealing character stuff.”

Shot in Berlin and directed by Doug Liman, the episode will also find Annie (Piper Parabo) and Arthur working together for the first time. “Initially, there was some desire to keep Annie Walker and Arthur Campbell apart except in the office — because she’s covert, and he’s overt,” he says. “In this episode, the writers found credible ways and places for two spies to meet. I love working with Piper. It was really fun finally to do a scene — we had never had a real scene together.”

And their first episode together is a doozy, complete with “a good car chase, a little suspense, and some good spy stuff.” Gallagher continues: “I don’t think my character was really designed to be around for long initially, so it’s really exciting to me that they’ve decided to invest in finding out more about Arthur.” Above all, Gallagher hopes fans walk away with a better idea of who he is and knowing that “he’s just a badass motherf—er who loves his wife.”

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