Series / Whiskey Cavalier

Whiskey Cavalier is an ABC action-Dramedy series that premiered in 2019 starring Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan.

Will Chase (codename: Whiskey Cavalier) is one of the FBI's best agents but is stuck in a self-pitying slump after being dumped by his fiancée. While on a mission in Moscow, he comes across Francesca "Frankie" Trowbridge (codename: Fiery Tribune), his Distaff Counterpart at the CIA, who also happens to be on the same mission.

Immediately butting heads and coming to blows, the two must learn to work together as part of an inter-agency task force while taking on cases affecting American national security involving terrorism and organized crime alike.

It was announced that the show will end after one season. However, WB TV announced that they're looking at other networks willing to co-produce another season. As of May 24, ABC announce that they're taking another look at giving the show another season, but later mentioned that they're not willing to renew it.

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This series provides examples of the following:

• Ambiguously Absent Parent: In "Five Spies And A Baby", the team returns little Will (really Kosta) to his mother. She's apparently single though — there's no sign his father is involved, since he never appears or gets mentioned.
• Artistic License – Military: "Spain, Trains, and Automobiles" features a number of whoppers, including an officer who's said to have reached retirement age while still a captain (impossible due to the military's "up or out" policy) and enlisted marines wearing sloppy uniforms featuring army rank insignia.
• Battle Couple: Will and Frankie often find themselves fighting together against the same opponent.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lampshaded by Edgar, who notes that Will and Frankie clearly have chemistry.
• Bilingual Backfire: Standish attempts to get out of an order with a "No hablo inglés." He's then given the same order in Spanish and says "I don't speak Spanish either."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Karen Pappas in "The Czech List", when she is revealed as the Villain of the Week.
• Body Double: In "Mr. & Mrs. Trowbridge", Will and Frankie go undercover at a castle to track down a rogue general who's trying to sell some nerve gas. The man refuses to leave his room so the duo have to knock him out to grab him. However, they see the man doesn't have a scar on his chest despite how he was known to have had heart surgery. They then scan his fingerprints to find they don't match and realize the man has a double posing as him while he attends his daughter's wedding in disguise.
• Cliffhanger: The only season ends with Ollerman still alive (using a fake body) and stabbing Standish with some type of syringe.
• Deconstructed Trope:
  • Will and Frankie's vastly different personalities are beneficial and troublesome to them in many ways: Will is a sensitive, empathetic Nice Guy which allows him to charm and befriend targets and potential allies and act as a good leader who cares for his team. However, he's vulnerable to being manipulated and has a hard time in situations where he has to endanger his teammates. On the other hand, Frankie's borderline-sociopathic coldness and professionalism makes her an effective spy and combatant, however, she has trouble connecting and working with other people, even if they're on her team.
  • Just because you're familiar with how to handle small arms based on fiction does not translate to real life. Edgar was warned about this by Jai before the former accidentally shot the latter during an operation in Rome.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: In "Two of a Kind," Will and Frankie try to flip the suburban accountant for a cartel boss. Too late, they discover the guy is the boss and the man they thought the boss was his flunky.
• False Flag Operation: The neo-fascists in "When in Rome" intend on staging a chemical bomb attack and pinning it on immigrants, in order to turn more of Italy towards their way of thinking.
• Five-Token Band: The hero team consists of two white men (Will and Ray), a Latina woman (Susan), an African-American man (Standish), a white woman (Frankie) and an Indian-American man (Jai).
• Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: In "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", Standish is incredibly insecure when his Femme Fatale Spy girlfriend Tina is sent to seduce another man for a mission and he imagines her being "flexible" with him.
  Standish: All the imaginary scenarios of what Tina is doing right now are running through my head, and they're all erotic and flexible. Very flexible.
• How's Your British Accent?: In Frankie's introductory scene, she speaks with a fake British accent... which so happens to be the one Lauren Cohan picked up growing up in the UK.
  • Frankie also poses as a BBC reporter in the season finale.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: When she's roped into being a bridesmaid, Frankie comes out in a horrific sequined top, an old-fashioned dress and tennis shoes.
  Frankie: Not a word.
  Will: But I have so many words.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Frankie claims that she was well aware that her Russian hired muscle (who she was sleeping with) would turn on her the second someone made him a better offer, and was therefore just using him.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Will and Frankie spend the first two acts of the pilot episode at odds with each other and even get into a fistfight, despite nominally being on the same side, while trying to figure out if the FBI or CIA will be responsible for bringing Edgar in.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Frankie takes the stereotypical male view that sex can be purely physical with no need for emotional intimacy. Will takes the stereotypical female view that sex and love are intertwined.
• Meaningful Name: The code names of both protagonists line up with their personalities:
  • Whiskey Cavalier - Whiskey is a drink associated with sophisticated gentlemen. As a noun, cavalier means a gentleman trained in arms and horsemanship, that is, a knight. Will is practically a modern day Knight Errant.
  • Fiery Tribune: Frankie has the most volcanic temper of all the team, and a tribune was a military officer in the Roman armies.
  • Also, Will Chase will chase a romance with Frankie.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Villain of the Week in "When in Rome" is the leader of an Italian neo-fascist organization that has a special focus on blaming immigrants for all the country's problems.
• Nebulous Evil Organisation: A mysterious organization known as "The Trust" seems to be operating from behind the scenes.
• Not-So-Abandoned Building: The team uses a deserted building known as The Dead Drop when they're not on an op in downtown New York. It's shown that the lower floors are formerly used by a bar/restaurant and the upper floors are living quarters and storage space.
• Not So Above It All: The team don't like working with Ray, but when he starts needling Jai, Susan and Edgar are eager to join in in taking their colleague down a peg.
• Out-Gambitted: Beautifully done in the finale as it appears as if Ollerman appears to have set the team up for killing a Russian diplomat and instigating war...only for the team to have been one step ahead to take out Tina first and escape.
• Parental Substitute: Will and Frankie occasionally demonstrate a parent-child dynamic with Edgar.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Will and Susan are stated to be "besties". As are Frankie and Jai.

• Running Gag:
  • In the pilot, people from multiple government agencies keep bringing up that they've seen the video of Will's breakup with Gigi.
  • Every episode after the pilot has the team not wanting to work with Ray.
• Skewed Priorities: While running surveillance at a university, Susan and Jai find themselves more engrossed in a student-teacher romance drama.
• Spy Fiction: An example of a dirty martini, with stories featuring both glamour and grime.
• This Is Reality: Standish brushes off his lack of field experience by noting his ace accuracy in video games. Will tells him "this is not a game" before a mission. Sure enough, given a chance to hit a real moving target, Standish accidentally shoots Jai in the arm.
• Unwinnable Training Simulation: The Cold Open to "When in Rome". It's implied by Will that they can't get to the VIPs on time again.
• Was It All a Lie?: At first, Edgar refuses to believe Tina felt nothing for him at all. It takes her proudly boasting of killing Emma for Edgar to realize their entire relationship was an act.
• Wham Episode:
  • "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" has the Trust break Ollerman out of the task force custody by using a Double Agent embedded with them.
  • "Good Will Hunting". Emma is killed investigating the Trust... and Tina has the same gun used to do the deed.
• Wham Shot: At the end of "Good Will Hunting" Tina is with the team as she puts down her gun...the same gun used to kill Emma.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Frankie displays some impressive gadgets in the pilot episode. When Will comments on this, Frankie just says the CIA gets all the best toys.
• Would Hit a Girl: Will has absolutely no problem with brawling with Frankie, with the two coming up just about even.

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