FBI: International Season 4, Episode 11’s Major Character Return Addressed By Star Eva-Jane Willis

New episodes of FBI: International air Tuesdays on CBS with the most recent focusing on Vo’s team-up with Special Agent Riley Quinn (guest star Veronica St. Clair). However, season 4, episode 11, which premiered on February 11, centered around Eva-Jane Willis’ character. “Veritas Fidelis” sees the Fly Team investigate a secret society when an American student is found dead at Smitty’s old school.

Throughout the installment, viewers learn that the Europol Agent was expelled after Blackmore University discovered alcohol in her room. However, the bottle belonged to Smitty’s classmate, who set her up to take the fall. The realization further motivates Smitty to get justice for Emma, and she accomplishes her mission with the help of a familiar face.

ScreenRant interviews Willis about Smitty’s discovery, Katrin Jaeger’s surprising return, and FBI: International season 4, episode 11’s final scene.

Willis Believes Smitty’s Shame Relates Back To How She Was Treated By Her Mother

“She has been tested by her mother, in particular, over the years and put down in some ways.”

ScreenRant: How did Smitty feel when she first stepped back on campus after all those years for a potential murder case in Episode 11?

Eva-Jane Willis: The interesting thing when reading it, obviously, you have the introduction to the case first. There’s been a tragedy with a beautiful young female student at this very prestigious U.K. university. She’s turned up dead on campus, and when Smitty arrives, everyone believes that it was just a horrible accident. But when she looks a bit closer, she decides that it looks like something sinister has happened and that she needs to call the Fly Team in to come and investigate.

At first, we don’t realize that this is actually Smitty’s university—not until Mitchell says, “Where are you?” And she says, “I’m at my old school,” and then we see her name written on the wall. That’s the beginning of a complicated pursuit of justice for Smitty personally when we find out what happened to her personally at the school. But also, of course, on behalf of Emma Byers who has lost her life tragically at the school.

Even before she knew it was a set-up, Smitty was quick to blame herself for her friend leaving alcohol in her room. Why do you think that is?

Eva-Jane Willis: I think the incident carried a lot of shame for her. We learned a bit about her relationship to her mother last season and how much she has been tested by her mother, in particular, over the years and put down in some ways, and I think this was probably one of those things that the mother used as a kind of, “See, you’re never going to do anything with your life,” kind of thing as she was growing up. And I think it’s the shame that she had as an 18-year-old or 19-year-old that she’s kind of continued to carry throughout her life.

And probably the reason she is such a stickler for rules as a grown woman, obviously her job as Europol liaison is to keep everyone in line and to make good relationships between the Fly Team and every country that they visit, but Episode 11 reveals that it’s the lapse in judgment that Smitty had that lost her everything in that moment. And that might be why Smitty has become the person that she is who has such a stickler for rules and doesn’t like to color outside the lines at any time if possible.

Smitty Only Lets Her Guard Down With Raines, Says Willis

“When Raines is there, she can be vulnerable, she can tell him the truth, and she can confide in him like no one else.”

Can you give some insight into Smitty’s headspace when she realized she was set up by her friend all those years ago?

Eva-Jane Willis: I think Smitty is devastated for her younger self, even though, as a woman who’s happy with the position that she has now and happy with her place in this task force as a grown woman, she’s sad for the young girl who was so heartbroken and lost everything to discover that people can be so mean, so careless, and so vindictive. I think it comes as a shock to her, even though Smitty’s whole job is to work with the worst of the worst people and to put these people behind bars.

I think it’s still devastating to her every time she learns how cruel humanity can be. And I think that’s one of the biggest things about this episode is that the Covington Club isn’t just about these privileged rich boys and the awful thing that they’ve done, but it’s how they mirror the greater world that we live in, and the way that people in powerful positions do terrible things, and no one can do anything about it.

On that note, a big theme of Episode 11 is that sexual assault claims often get dismissed. How did you feel about the way International addressed that storyline?

Eva-Jane Willis: On the one hand, Emma was very courageous because she wanted to take on the boys herself. She basically took it upon herself to start investigating, collecting details, and collecting information. She wanted to bring down the club herself, and she wanted to be the one to find out who had actually raped her because she didn’t know. But on the other hand, she should have had that support from the local authorities and from the school itself, from the institution.

They should have supported her and backed her up and not made her feel that she had to do this alone. I’m sad to say that it’s not uncommon that schools cover this kind of stuff up because they don’t want the bad press, and they are protecting their own longevity through who’s who, which rich parents are funding the school, and things like that. And if those people are threatened, they protect the money. They don’t protect the children and the students.

Raines was extremely supportive of Smitty and really acted as a shoulder to cry on. What do you enjoy most about their partnership?

Eva-Jane Willis: I love that I get to be partners with Carter Redwood, who plays Raines. It means that most of my scenes are with him. Most of the time I spend filming is with him. Carter is as wonderful offscreen as he is onscreen. He is literally the person I would go to cry to in real life as well as onscreen, and it’s no surprise that the writers have given him such an emotionally intelligent and sensitive role in Smitty’s life.

He is the only person that she lets her guard down with, and it has become a theme now that whenever Smitty sheds a tear, it’s Raines who’s there to hold her hand, and she doesn’t let anyone else see that side of her. Most of the time, she works very hard at seeming a lot stronger than she actually is and keeping a protective wall up. It enables her to do a difficult job, which is what she has to do. But when Raines is there, she can be vulnerable, she can tell him the truth, and she can confide in him like no one else.

Willis Was Surprised By Katrin’s Return In FBI: International Season 4, Episode 11

“It’s the three women who ultimately fight the fight against the Covington Club.”

Katrin Jaeger swooped in to help save the day in Episode 11. You didn’t get to share any physical scenes together, but were you excited to see that she was returning?

Eva-Jane Willis: Absolutely. It was a real surprise and treat for me to have Katrin play such an integral role in the case at the very end in terms of giving us that Hail Mary that we needed. Katrin is Smitty’s mentor and the person that she looks up to most. She owes her everything, and literally every time she sees Katrin, she says, “I owe you,” every time she sees her. If it wasn’t for Katrin, she wouldn’t have her position on the Fly Team.

And one thing that just occurred to me, actually, is that it’s really wonderful that it’s three women, ultimately. Emma first of all, and then Smitty, and then Katrin who get this guy and make sure that justice is served. And it’s the three women who ultimately fight the fight against the Covington Club. And it’s nice that Beatrice Morgan, our writer, put in that touch that actually it’s Katrin who saves Smitty’s ass at the end and puts the nail in the coffin for the case. It’s really nice to keep that relationship going between Smitty and Katrin as well.

Episode 11 ends with Smitty writing Emma’s name on the wall. What did that moment symbolize?

Eva-Jane Willis: When Smitty wrote her own name on the wall, it was a goodbye to the school because Smitty never got to graduate. And when she writes Emma’s name on the wall, who also didn’t get to graduate, and was also a scholarship girl the same way that Smitty was, I think it’s not only an opportunity for Smitty to remember Emma, but it’s to make sure that other people don’t forget about Emma.

Emma’s legacy will be that her death was the nail in the coffin for the Covington Club, and she heroically and bravely took it upon herself to bring them down, and it was Smitty who completed her mission. So it’s kind of a partnership between the two of them, and though they never got to meet, both their names are on the wall side by side.

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About FBI: International Season 4

Created By Derek Haas And Dick Wolf

From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf, fast-paced drama FBI: International is the third iteration of the successful FBI brand that follows the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. Headquartered in Budapest, they travel throughout Europe with the mission of tracking and neutralizing threats against American citizens wherever they may be, putting their lives on the line to protect the U.S. and its people.

Check out our most recent FBI interviews below:

FBI: International season 4 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and is available to stream next-day on Paramount+.