‘FBI: International’: Eva-Jane Willis on Smitty Having to ‘Work Very Hard to Forgive and Forget’ Following Shocking Betrayal (Exclusive)

Spoilers ahead for FBI: International Season 3, Episode 11 (“Touts”)

Tonight’s new episode of , and she spoke to PopCulture.com about the aftermath. In the episode, Smitty and the Fly Team head to London for a case involving the Irish Republican Army. Smitty ends up having to go to her mother in the hopes of locating someone who may have a connection with the case.

Smitty and her mother aren’t on the best of terms, and it’s actually been years since they last saw each other. While one would hope things would get better for them, it was revealed that Smitty’s father is not actually her father. With that now out in the open, will this change things for her relationship with her mother? According to Willis, while Smitty “makes a kind of an empathetic agreement with her mother not to rock the boat,” she does think “she goes away with a new aim. This revelation has undoubtedly hurt her in a way that might make it difficult to continue seeing her mother on a regular basis, to talk to her without holding any kind of resentment. I think she’ll have to work very hard to forgive and forget.”

Since Smitty was a lot closer to her father than she was to her mother, Willis says that after finding out the truth, Smitty “felt betrayed on behalf of him, the man that she called dad.” She continued, “And there’s a moment in the episode where she had to thank her dad for always being there for her. So the man that she knows as her dad, she had to thank him for always being there. And I found that really touching because as someone who has… I’ve had a substitute parent in my life, I really related to that. Being a parent means being there every day for someone.”

Even despite the fact that Smitty’s father is not really her father, Eva-Jane Willis was really glad the writers gave them the opportunity “to thank him for being there every day because that’s really what a parent is in the end, despite whatever the DNA tests or birth certificates might say.”

Now that FBI: International, Willis already has some ideas for a continuing storyline. “I would love to see what happens next between Smitty and her mother,” she shared. “I thought Pippa Haywood, who plays my mother, was incredible and I was so happy that they cast her because I’ve been a fan of her work for such a long time. Patrick Bergin, who plays Niall in the show, there’s a scene between Smitty and him where he says that although Smithy would like to continue their relationship, he says that he thinks it’s best that they leave it as it is and that he go away and that this be the one moment that they get to have as father in daughter.”

“So because he’s in danger at that point, he essentially disappears,” Willis continued. “But I think that might not be enough for Smitty. I think she might want to see him again in the future. He might want to find out more about her history, her family history in Ireland. So, I would love for those characters to come back.”

There is still so much to tell from this storyline, and hopefully, this won’t be the last time that it’s told. Another season definitely gives the show the opportunity to dig even deeper into Smitty’s story. FBI: International will be back later this year on CBS’ 2024 fall schedule, but for now, the final episodes of Season 3 air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.