Eva-Jane Willis as Europol Agent Megan “Smitty” Garretson. Nelly Kiss/CBS
FBI: International’s Megan “Smitty” Garretson is the queen of keeping her personal life as quiet as possible — but this week, her past is catching up with her in an unexpected way.
Eva-Jane Willis, who has played Smitty since season 2, exclusively told Us Weekly that season 4, episode 11, will “give us a little insight into why she’s such a stickler for the rules as a grown woman.”
Willis, 40, explained, “Obviously, her job as Europol liaison is to keep good relationships between the Fly Team, the FBI specifically, and every country that they visit. It is part of her job to make sure that people stay within the lines.”
She teased that the upcoming episode, which airs on Tuesday, February 11, “Kind of gives us a little bit more of a personal insight as to why it would be important to her to not mess things up by breaking the rules.”
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Willis noted that Tuesday’s episode will peel back the curtain on Smitty’s intense work ethic as the Fly Team investigates a murder at her former university.
“Smitty happens to be visiting some family in England when she hears of this tragic death that has occurred at a prestigious U.K. university. A young woman, a student in the school has been found dead on campus,” she told Us of the premise for the “Veritas Fidelis” episode.
Eva-Jane Willis as Europol Agent Megan “Smitty” Garretson and Jesse Lee Soffer as Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchell. Nelly Kiss/CBS
Willis revealed that when Smitty “turns up” at the crime scene the officers think “it’s been a terrible accident.”
However, Smitty “looks a bit closer” and decides that the FBI’s Fly Team needs to come to England to investigate. (Emma, the student who died, was an American studying overseas.)
“She thinks something sinister may have happened,” Willis told Us of Smitty’s initial reaction to the crime, noting that once viewers learn Smitty attended the same university — but didn’t finish — similarities between her exit and the murder come to light.
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The case “opens up a look into the world that Smitty came from, which is quite a harsh reality actually,” Willis explained, adding that “some personal injustices that happened to her” will be revealed.
“Every episode is like a new piece of the puzzle that we’re putting together,” the British actress teased, noting that viewers will discover why Smitty “lost everything” when she left the university herself.
Willis hinted that there is “one moment where she let something slide [and] it all came tumbling down” for Smitty. That incident will shed a light on why “now as a grown woman, she still is very cautious because she was burned once and she doesn’t want to be burned again.”
The CBS star further revealed that Smitty thinks of herself as a “kindred spirit in some ways” to the victim Emma, since they were both on scholarship when they attended the prestigious university.
“They were there on talent alone. They’re both women as well in what is essentially a man’s world,” Willis told Us of the two characters, adding that Smitty has always been able to rise above bureaucracy and pave her own path since her time at the U.K. university.
Fans witnessed Smitty’s own struggle with power earlier this season when she was willing to leave the Fly Team when Tyler Booth (Jay Hayden) hinted that she didn’t need to tell the whole truth about a case where he and Wes Mitchell (Jesse Lee Soffer) painted outside the lines.
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“She is tested by these two very headstrong men, Wes and Tyler, who obviously rile each other up even more so and go even further into dangerous territory. And that’s very risky for Smitty,” Willis recalled to Us. “But she doesn’t feel challenged by the fact that they are men and she’s a woman.”
While Smitty makes peace with Tyler before he left the Fly Team during episode 10 — and has a heart-to-heart with Wes over her role — Willis said the idea of power struggles and hierarchies does come into play on Tuesday’s episode.
“She believes very much in her role and the justice that she has to serve in her role,” she said. “She’s only willing to do it by following the rules.”
FBI: International airs on CBS Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
