Annie Walker is a talented CIA officer. She entered into the CIA because she got "burned by love" when she "let her guard down", a reason that makes Auggie say she "fits the profile" of a typical CIA worker. She is compassionate, and genuinely desires to help those she meets on missions. She speaks seven languages, including Spanish, English, and Russian, and is able to hold her own in a fight.
- All Women Love Shoes: In the pilot, Annie's cover story to go back to the scene of the shooting is that she wants to retrieve her Louboutins.
- Cunning Linguist: Did you read that part where she speaks seven languages?
- Doesn't Like Guns: 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. 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".
- Improbable Weapon User: So far the best examples are a bottle of Vodka and a pair of handcuffs. Oh, and a bottle opener. Does siccing Auggie on an opponent count?
- Just Friends: With Auggie, although her reaction to his engagement with Parker says a few things about her real feelings.
- Sexual Extortion: She sees no problem in seducing male contacts to build a rapport, such as the apparent Big Bad of Season 3. As Lena points out however, the CIA has a bit of a self-aware Double Standard when it comes to this, so it doesn't mind.
- You, Get Me Coffee: She gets upgraded to walk-in work, though! And then lunch duty! And it is always noted that whenever she goes into the field, it's limited to situations where her skills would be useful such as being a liaison.
Auggie Anderson worked as a CIA special operative, but was blinded on a mission in Iraq. As he put it, he got out to look at what he thought was a dead dog, and the "next thing [he] knew, [he] was Ray Charles".
- Blind Mistake: Uses this trope deliberately to coincidentally be there whenever Annie needs him.
- Byronic Hero: He's the Nice Guy version of this. Intelligent and charismatic? Check, Dark events in his past that he feels the need to atone for? Check. Resistance to authority? Check. Cynical and Jaded? It's subtle but it's there.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Tries this after his fiancee breaks up with him when she learns he's CIA. Lands him in jail when he ends up in a bar fight.
- My Girl Back Home: To Annie on a lot of episodes as he typically has to stay home while she goes on missions. Occasionally they work together in the field and once in a while it is Annie who is the Girl Back Home.
- Nerds Are Virgins: Awesomely subverted with Auggie, who is most certainly a ladies' man.
- Nerves of Steel: In an unfamiliar house, after finding a corpse, Auggie realizes the killer is still there, standing yards away,
silently. So he slowly, carefully exits the building, and then calls for backup.
- Rage Breaking Point: When Auggie snaps, better run for cover. His career over five seasons features two arrests for assault, putting Henry Wilcox in a choke hold and decking Arthur. Seriously, Beware the Nice Ones.
- Action Survivor: 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.
- Happily Married: To Arthur, though it's not readily evident in the earlier episodes. Once she's pregnant with their son and rumors about Arthur's extramarital affairs are debunked, they are shown to be very much in love with one another.
- A Mother to Her Men: First thing Joan does when she meets Annie after months of thinking her former operative dead? Gives her a hug, administers first aid, and asks if she needs cash.
- Pregnant Badass: In Into the Fire she cleans up a crime scene, cracks a safe, blackmails a senator in the middle of a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting, and then gets promoted, thus becoming the CIA's highest ranked female employee ever.
- Ambiguously Brown: Lampshaded. Jai is played by Chicago native of Indian descent Sendhil Ramamurthy: his father is white and his mother's ethnicity has not been elaborated upon, and Annie's sister calls him "the George Clooney of... wherever he's from!"
- Anti-Hero: He's much more morally gray than either Auggie or Annie.
- But Not Too Foreign: His father is from America and he met his mother in India while the former was stationed in the country as a CIA agent.
Arthur Campbell is the head of the National Clandestine Service. He is married to Joan Campbell.
- Happily Married: To Joan (for the most part, and it takes a lot of effort, but they make it work). Notably, Arthur is given the opportunity to run for Senator, and turns it down because he doesn't want to put Joan through the immense scrutiny that would entail. In any case, they prove to be a very loyal and loving couple, especially during and after Joan's pregnancy with their son.
- Your Cheating Heart: Apparently has had at least one marital indiscretion to his name, which causes Joan no small amount of trust issues, and he cites it as the reason for him resigning from the CIA. However, it's later revealed that he never cheated on her.
Calder is initially the station chief in Colombia, but rapidly moves up the promotion ranks in the CIA. As a consequence he becomes a thorn in Annie's and Auggie's sides.
- Wild Card: He appears initially to be working for Henry Wilcox. However, the truth is, he's not wholly on anybody's side. He's after "the truth", as he sees it. It just so happens that dovetails with Annie's mission of getting rid of Henry.
Danielle Brooks is Annie Walker's sister. She is married, has two children (both girls), and lets Annie live in her guest house.
Ben Mercer is a wanted person by the CIA. He and Annie Walker spent three weeks together in Sri Lanka, and fell deeply in love, but he left in the middle of the night, only leaving a note which read, "The truth is complicated, forgive me".
Former head of the CIA, father of Jai, and general manipulative prick.
- Decapitated Army: At one point head of a sprawling corporate espionage empire with moles seemingly everywhere, he has since been reduced to seeking asylum in China, but before he can get out of Hong Kong, Annie shoots and kills him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Is genuinely shocked and saddened by the idea that he would sacrifice his own son for his Chessmaster schemes. He seems to care for his ex-wife, but it has a possessive edge to it as revealed in Season 4.
Eyal Levin is a Mossad agent who has frequently crossed paths with Annie and have worked together on several joint CIA-Mossad operations.
- Undying Loyalty: Eventually, over the seasons, he develops this for Annie, even willing to put his career on the line for her and break her out a jail in another country.
- With Friends Like These...: Whenever we see him he has a hidden agenda that is somehow opposed to the United States' best interest. He's more or less a good guy but that doesn't stop him from lying to and manipulating the Americans to make sure Israel comes out ahead.
Lena Smith is the head of a rival departmant to Joan's. She recruits Annie into her department to seduce and turn Russian FSB agent Simon Fischer, but is eventually revealed to be a FSB double agent when she executes Simon and tries to frame Annie as a mole. She is later hunted down and killed by Annie in Moscow.
- Crazy-Prepared: How she 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.
- For the Evulz: She doesn't have much of a reason for her constant backstabbing.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Annie and Simon were no longer useful to her so she shot them both (Annie survived, but Simon didn't).
The leader of the ALC (a Colombian terrorist group). He's actually a CIA operative, and Arthur's son.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Spanish of course.
Head of Mcquaid Security. Annie has several encounters with him during season 5. And it eventually becomes romantic. In previous years, he served in the US Navy with Arthur, who was his mentor, and after Arthur resigns from the CIA, offers him a top-level position at his firm.
- Crazy-Prepared: Has plenty of safehouses scattered all over the globe. In addition, he maintains at least one safehouse with a weapons cache to be used purely as a trap in case anyone came after him.
- Nice Guy: Ryan has always had Annie's back even when she was dismissive of him. He's also very concerned about his people and their welfare, and when it looks like his company is going to lose all its contracts, his first worry is for his employees.
- Private Military Contractor: A fairly positive example. McQuaid is out to make money, but he is also a patriot who loves America.
- Uncle Pennybags: Basically funds Annie's hunt for Belevko halfway through Season Five.
Georgian diplomat who masterminded the Chicago bombings and several other hits.
- It's Personal: His brother was killed in a prisoner exchange gone wrong. He vows vengeance on Auggie's squad, who participated in the exchange.
- Knight of Cerebus: Hell yes. The show is at it's darkest when he shows up and has Auggie kidnapped and tortured.
- The Sociopath: A textbook example. He sees people as mere pawns as demonstrated when he coldly shoots Caitlin Cook after she's no longer useful to him.
- Villainous Rescue: Shoots Caitlin Cook as she's fighting Annie in the midseason finale. He does this to tie up loose ends, but it's actually what ends up making Annie suspect him in the first place.
