FBI: INTERNATIONAL Post-Mortem: Eva-Jane Willis on Smitty’s Revelation About Her Past and the Surprise Return of a Former Series Regular

February 11, 2025 by Marisa Roffman

“Veritas Fidelis” – When an American student is found dead at a prestigious UK university, the Fly Team investigates an infamous secret society. Smitty’s personal history with the school comes to a head when she’s confronted with the same old-world elitism, on FBI: INTERNATIONAL, Tuesday, Feb. 11 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured: Eva-Jane Willis as Europol Agent Megan “Smitty” Garretson. Photo: Nelly Kiss/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, February 11 episode of FBI: INTERNATIONAL.]

FBI: INTERNATIONAL’s Smitty (Eva-Jane Willis) return to her old school on the Tuesday, February 11 episode, “Veritas Fidelis,” led to a bombshell for the Europol agent: Her expulsion was an intentional frame job.

While investigating the death of an American student, Emma, Smitty confessed to the Fly Team that she hadn’t left the school under the best of circumstances. When they were alone, Raines (Carter Redwood) pressed his friend for more, and she admitted the warden found a bottle of alcohol in her room that a friend left behind; they were of the legal drinking age, but there was no alcohol allowed on campus. She was expelled immediately.

“It was a massive opportunity and I wasted it,” she said. But, she said, there was a bright side: Then she went to Manchester and fell in love with criminology. However, Smitty acknowledged she wasn’t sure if her mom ever recovered.

When the team realized that Emma’s death was tied to a prestigious secret society that someone at the university was covering for, Raines realized a university administrator had been looking at Smitty’s old file recently. He asked her about someone listed on her file. Smitty shared that the young woman was a friend until Smitty caught her stealing a pair of earrings from another girl in their hall; the young woman tried to blame it on the cleaners, but Smitty turned her in. Nothing happened, though, but the friendship was lost.

Raines informed her that the girl’s father was on the board of governors. “Sounds like he wasn’t too happy about his kid being called a thief,” he said, before he put her expulsion in a new light: “The whole thing was a setup.”

At first, Smitty was in denial. But Raines was firm that the evidence against her “was planted.”

Smitty got emotional at the news. “They got me kicked out,” she said, tearing up. “I went over it in my head a million times wondering how I could have been so careless. Of course, nobody thought twice because I was just some scholarship kid.” Now, she vowed to get justice for Emma.

The Fly Team realized Emma was trying to take the secret society down from the inside after her own rape was dismissed and minimized the previous year; she had enough evidence to actually get it done, too.

Smitty and Wes (Jesse Lee Soffer) spoke to one of the members and got him to flip: James killed Emma; James had raped her the previous year and killed her now to cover it up.

But bringing him to justice wasn’t exactly easy. James’ rich father took his son on a plane to Moscow; if they crossed country lines, he’d never be held accountable for his crimes. Wes suggested they call in a threat to the plane to divert it to Germany—but it could be a risk, and the UK could prosecute them. He left it up to Smitty, who gave her approval for the team to be underhanded in an attempt to get justice.

All they needed was someone on the ground in Germany to detain James. Smitty called Katrin Jaeger (Christiane Paul), who greeted the plane. At first, it appeared James’ family might have been steps ahead of them—he got temporary German citizenship through a program that allowed wealthy people to purchase property and become citizens—but the team was able to freeze the assets and Jaeger apprehended James.

“The idea to have Christiane Paul return as Jaeger came from the writer [of ‘Veritas Fidelis’], Beatrice Morgan,” FBI: INTERNATIONAL showrunner Matt Olmstead tells Give Me My Remote via email of bringing back the season 1 series regular. “The plot turn in the script took the suspect somewhere in Europe and it could have been anywhere. Bea pitched that it should be in Germany and Jaeger could come in with the save. It took some gymnastics to accommodate Christiane’s busy schedule, but she was keen to return and so we were able to work it out. We’re thrilled that she did and her appearance is really rewarding.”

Ultimately, they were able to get justice for Emma. Here, Willis talks with Give Me My Remote about what the new context to her expulsion means for Smitty, calling in a favor with Jaeger, and more.

What do you think this does to Smitty, both short-term and long-term, knowing that her entire life was changed by something that was so fundamentally out of her control all those years ago?
I think that the initial shock of it takes her back like 20 years, almost, and she is devastated for that girl. That girl who had to go home, tell her parents she’d been expelled, feel the shame and guilt of letting everyone down. And also the sadness of not being able to complete this course that she was so passionate about.

But I think when she cries for that girl, it doesn’t mean that she’s not happy for the woman that she’s become. I think she’s very proud and happy with where she’s ended up in her life, but it’s the injustice of what they did to her that she can’t get over. I think for her, the most important thing was that she was always going to do something. She was always going to have a career where she helps people. I think that was always going to be her first priority. And she thought it was going to be as a doctor, and because of the way things turned out, she had to switch paths, and ended up doing criminology; and as a result [she] became a Europol agent. In that position, she’s been able to help so many people, and she’s incredibly proud of that, and incredibly passionate about that.

But, of course, there is always that kind of lingering sadness for something that was lost when that 18-year-old, 19-year-old girl didn’t get the thing that she was working so hard for at the time.

Does she feel like she has justice now?
I think the people in the school are almost a symbol for the bigger issues in the world. This Covington Club, which is essentially run by the top one percent of the people who have the money, who use their power and their privilege to put down others and to take advantage of others and to ultimately steal the life of a young woman who is not a fee-paying student. She’s there because she had the talent and the ability…she’s a scholarship kid, and that’s [what] Smitty was as well. That’s the thing that really links them, is that Smitty was a scholarship kid; so was she. And both as a woman and as a person who had to get a scholarship in order to go, she really feels connected to her as an outsider. And that group that runs things in the school, and in the world, in this episode, it really highlights how much she feels that justice needs to be served with regards to their abuse of power.

One of the fun things about the episode is that Smitty calls Jaeger for help. Were you able to actually work with her via FaceTime while filming or was it something that you guys all did in post and you only got to read it in the script? And what did that reunion mean to you?
I only read it in the script. They actually filmed her in Germany whilst I was filming the other scenes, both in Budapest and in Cambridge. So that was all happening simultaneously. We never got face-to-face. But, of course, we know each other. We know each other’s work so well, that when I was imagining speaking to her on the phone and everything, it was very easy for me to pretend that she was really there, even though someone else was reading her lines.

It’s a real treat to have Katrin be the one who helped Smitty in this particular time of need, because she’s the one who brought Smitty in in the first place. She’s the one that gave her the confidence to become a Europol agent in this particular task force, which is obviously such a demanding and challenging role. I think if you look back at Smitty, when I first joined at the beginning of season 2, that it’s almost like a young girl by comparison to what it is now. And that’s because Katrin was always the one that she had in mind of where she wanted to end up. It was like Katrin gave her that position, and then she had big boots to fill very quickly. And it’s taken this long for her to, like, begin to feel that she has that kind of authority that Katrin has. And so for her to turn up, and once again, Smitty has to say, “I owe you,” because every time Katrin is there, Smitty is like, “I need to buy you a drink.” And that’s a really nice treat for us, and I hope for the fans as well.

“Veritas Fidelis” – When an American student is found dead at a prestigious UK university, the Fly Team investigates an infamous secret society. Smitty’s personal history with the school comes to a head when she’s confronted with the same old-world elitism, on FBI: INTERNATIONAL, Tuesday, Feb. 11 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Eva-Jane Willis as Europol Agent Megan “Smitty” Garretson and Jesse Lee Soffer as Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchell. Photo: Nelly Kiss/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

There’s a really interesting line and fun line in the episode where Wes says to Smitty, “I knew I’d rub off on you.” It is a lighthearted moment, but, as you’ve noted, Smitty is someone who plays by the rules. What do you think the balance is like for her as she’s trying to get used to a boss who is a little bit more in the gray area?
Yeah, it’s a challenge, definitely. It’s actually very nice to have a little bit of that conflict in the script, because it gives Smitty more authority in her field when she has to come up against someone who’s challenging that. And so actually it forces me as the actor to give Smitty more confidence, more certainty in her choices, in her decision-making. And so that conflict is actually really nice to have.

But the other thing that’s been great to observe and to play over the last four or five episodes is how he has actually started to rub off on her, just a little. There’s only so much she can take before eventually she’s gonna be like, “Okay, just do it,” you know? Because in this instance, because it’s personal, the justice being served is more important to her than anything else. And if it means we have to bend the rules slightly, then on this occasion, she’s willing to turn a blind eye.

FBI: INTERNATIONAL, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS

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FBI: INTERNATIONAL Post-Mortem: Eva-Jane Willis on Smitty’s Revelation About Her Past and the Surprise Return of a Former Series Regular

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