'Limitless' EP on that Surprising Death, Brian's Love Life, and the Return of Bradley Cooper

SPOILER ALERT: The interview contains storyline and character spoilers for the “This Is Your Brian on Drugs” episode of Limitless.

Farewell, Agent Casey Rooks. A little curiosity indeed killed that cat in Tuesday’s Limitless, as the SWAT team leader (played by Dexter and Justified alum Desmond Harrington) suffer the ultimate in bad consequences when a harsh breakup with FBI agent Rebecca made him reckless enough to indulge his curiosity about NZT. He tried it, bad things happened, and then even more bad things happened, including multiple deaths.

Rook’s departure is going to continue to resonate with Rebecca and her colleagues when the CBS freshman drama returns with new episodes in January, and Limitless showrunner Craig Sweeny talks to Yahoo TV about what Rooks’s death means for the show, what Agent Boyle might do with that NZT pill he pocketed, how Brian Finch (Jake McDorman) will get a little romantic in the second half of the season, what Bradley Cooper’s Senator Morra will be up to when he returns in the next new episode, and, following that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off tribute in episode seven, whether the writers have more spoofs planned for this season.

Was this always the plan for Casey Rooks?
The plan from the beginning was that Casey would become fascinated by and take NZT. We did not know, we weren’t sure, what the consequences of that would be, until we developed the arc in this particular story. We didn’t decide until after he was aboard, what the consequences of that would be. And it wasn’t because of any dissatisfaction with Desmond in any way… These are just the difficult choices that you make when you’re sorting a story. It just seems, when he was caught, he followed the logic to a place that left him with no way out, you know? We didn’t want to be a show that backed away from that, that didn’t make the difficult choice there.

Let’s talk about Boyle (Hill Harper), and why he took that NZT pill at the end of the episode. Did he keep it because he’s curious about NZT himself, about testing it? Is it maybe that he has plans to give it to his sick mom, who’s suffering from some sort of illness where it seems NZT might make a difference?
I think when he picks it up and looks at it at the end of that episode, and that song by Subrosa (“The Usher”) comes on, he’s thinking about his mother. NZT, we know, was originally developed, or at least one line of research into it, was as a treatment for dementia. So he’s thinking of her in the moment when he takes that and he puts it in his pocket. As we’ve learned, he put essentially a bomb in his pocket, and will he end up using it in the way he intends to use it? That’s a question, because it’s such a powerful temptation to use for yourself. But in the moment, he believed that he’s being some version of altruistic.

Rooks’s death seems likely to reverberate for a while. Rebecca (Jennifer Carpenter) obviously has guilt about the way she ended her relationship with him, especially considering what happened afterwards.
I think that Rebecca is in a very conflicted situation with all this. It’s pretty clear to her that Boyle did right by his training in that moment. So, as an agent she’s able to recognize that and can give him respect and have a partnership with him. What she’s wrestling with on the inside, I think, is that it’s sad, and it’s tragic what happened to Casey, and, of course, wrestling with the fact that she quite justifiably broke up with him. Certainly she will have to deal with wondering if what she did contributed to Rooks’s decision to take NZT.

The whole scenario with the stolen NZT and Rooks’s death has an impact on Brian, too. Will he be less playful, especially in his relationship with Mike and Ike, than he has been?
I think there’s respectful playfulness, and I actually think that Brian, Mike, and Ike have come, in a lot of ways, to enjoy their dynamic. But, what needed to be made clear to them and to us as writers and to the audience is that these guys are human beings with their own points of view, and that they might have some stresses and difficulties we didn’t see. So I think in a way, they’re going to be closer now, and can be more playful, because it’s playfulness with a baseline for respect, as opposed to Mike and Ike being treated like indentured servants.

We’re officially halfway through Season 1 now. Looking ahead to when the show returns with new episodes in January … Brian’s dad’s concerns for his son are not just about Brian’s physical and emotional health, but also that the drugs and his job will change who he is. Is Mr. Finch (Ron Rifkin) right to be concerned about all of that?
I think Brian is very good at staying true to himself, and that’s a big part of what makes him so appealing as a character and what makes him so different from Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), the protagonist of the movie. Brian is going to find himself in multiple situations where he’s going to have to make choices, none of which fit into the way he sees himself as a human being. So his dad is right. By virtue of this devil’s bargain he made, he’s going to face a lot of trials and difficulties down the road.

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Speaking of Morra, we haven’t seen him or Mr. Sands (Colin Salmon) for a while. Can we count on them reasserting themselves into his life again soon?
Yes. In fact, Bradley is back in the very next episode, so yes, Morra and Sands will be back in Brian’s life in a big way in the January 5th episode.

What can you say about Brian’s personal life? He hasn’t had a lot of romantic developments since he broke up with Shauna.
Yes, yes it is. Any entanglement that Brian makes is by nature complicated. It’s potentially perilous to whoever he’s making a connection with. That’s part of the reason why he hasn’t been playing the field. But he will find himself in a spot where… something romantic will happen for Brian before the end of the season.

“Brian Finch’s Black Op,” the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off homage episode, was such a fun example of how the show mixes drama and a more playful tone so well. Anything else along those lines ahead in the second half of the season?
Boy, that worked out really well. We’re quite pleased with that one. You know, we’re trying to do an homage, to impose a romantic comedy structure onto one of our episodes right now. When we delve into things like that … we had the whole story about Brian being kidnapped by the CIA, and it was just killer, and I looked at it at one point and said, “This is really heavy, we need to do something to lighten this up,” and that’s how the (Ferris Bueller homage) was born. So it’s great the audience has responded to those, I guess you’d call them stunts. It certainly encourages us to do more, so yeah, we have a couple planned.

Do you know where you want to be at the end of Season 1?
Yes. I always feel like I can never fully answer that question honestly yet, even though we do have an end point for the season. I think you have to always be open to a change along the way. We have a very firm end point that hasn’t changed over the course of the whole season, yet.

Limitless returns with new episodes on Tuesday, Jan. 5 at 10 p.m. on CBS.