Megan “Smitty” Garretson’s (Eva-Jane Willis) professional and personal lives collide in the latest FBI: International episode, and by the end, she’s in for quite the revelation.
Following the murder of a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA)-turned-U.S. citizen, the Fly Team investigates, and Smitty reunites with her mother (Pippa Haywood), whose friend Niall (Patrick Bergin) ends up being vital to the case (and Smitty). He wears a wire to get their suspect to admit to the crimes, that he gave Smitty her nickname (she was obsessed with Smarties when she was 3 but called them Smitties), and turns out to be her biological father, as she realizes on her own and has him confirm.
Below, Willis discusses that shocking reveal, finding out how her character got her nickname, and more, and teases the last two episodes of the season. (This was also Luke Kleintank‘s last episode as Scott Forrester. Read how they handled his exit here.)
How is Smitty feeling about the revelation that Niall is her biological father and that she found out the way she did?
Eva-Jane Willis: The way that she found out was obviously not ideal. Quite shocking. I think that what I discovered when I was playing these scenes across from my mother and my father and the one who I discover is my actual father, is that even as adults, we kind of revert to our childhood selves when we’re with our parents. And I think Smitty couldn’t help but take it personally, maybe thinking about some of her childhood difficulties growing up, that this lie and secret had been kept from her whole life. And I felt that, Smitty’s vulnerability whenever I was working opposite Pippa Haywood, who played my mother and is one of my favorite actresses, by the way. I felt that she couldn’t help but lose all of the bravado and strength that Smitty carries around on a daily basis, when she’s in the team, she’s flying from case to case, and she couldn’t help but become that kind of innocent child again in the face of her mother. And as one can’t help but do, when they’re faced with a parent, you become kind of helpless to the understanding that your parents are just human.
The season is almost over, but will we be getting anything else about Smitty and her family, how things are going after this reunion?
I think we’ll have to wait for Season 4 before we touch on it again. But I think whenever we have a big episode like this where each of these characters gets to really go deep personally rather than just professionally, there is inevitably a knock-on effect to how they then carry themselves in the next episode and the episode after that.
Would Smitty have convinced Niall to wear the wire if she’d known at that point who he is to her?
It’s a very good question. I think the answer is yes, because for Smitty, the greater good is always going to trump any personal wants or needs.
I love that we finally got the story behind Smitty’s nickname. It was sweet. Did you know its origins before this episode?
I didn’t. What’s so funny is we had previously talked about it and I had even teased the other characters when they had tried to find out about the origin of the nickname. And I myself was guessing all along, thinking, I wonder how I did get this nickname. The writers give us these little nuggets of gold each episode, and we slowly put it all together as time goes on. So that was a real treat for me as well.
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What was your guess?
I really thought that it was going to be something to do with drinking. [Laughs] Because one of the first things that we talked about when I auditioned and when I was sent the original set of sides, which then were changed by the time we got to the episode, was the fact that she could hold her liquor and that her and Forrester used to be all drinking buddies. So I really thought that there was going to be some kind of drunk story about how she got that nickname, but it turns out that it was actually a much sweeter and much more personal story. So I’m really glad about that.
What can you preview about the finale?
I can’t say much about the finale. We’re going to Oslo, which I’m very excited about. We have traveled so much this season, even more than we’ve ever done before. We’ve been to, I think, five, maybe six different countries whilst filming. And we will finish filming the entire season in Oslo, in Norway, which is typical because the sun just came out in Budapest and now we’re going to fly somewhere much colder. There will be something very big at stake. And yeah, I don’t think I can say much more without giving away some information that I shouldn’t.
Can you say if it ends on a cliffhanger, and if it does, how it compares to last season’s?
There’s actually a cliffhanger between [Episodes] 12 and 13. So I think that my advice would be to think of it as a kind of two-part finale, 12 and 13 together, and then 13, we have a resolution, which is definitely worth tuning in for.
What are you enjoying most about who Smitty is this season?
I’m really enjoying learning that she has a real home within the Fly Team. Obviously, she’s Europol, she’s not FBI, but the more we make this thing together and the more we go through together as a team, the more I see that she is very much part of the team. They need her just as much as she needs them. And as I said previously, she’s proved herself. She no longer needs to feel like the outsider. She definitely feels like she’s one of the team now. And I think that they grow stronger and stronger as a unit, as a result. That’s the same, I think, for us as actors, as it is for us as characters. And as a result, I feel like we are actually starting to fly.
What are your hopes for Smitty in Season 4?
I would love to see her parents again because after this episode, there’s still a lot up in the air. There is a kind of agreement to leave things alone between her and her mother, but I would love to see how their relationship could develop further. And yeah, I think professionally, she will hopefully continue to get stronger, but it would be great to see more of her walls come down personally.
