‘FBI’ Reveals Eva’s Connection to Forefront — Juliana Aidén Martinez Tease What It Means for Scola Partnership

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for FBI Season 8 Episode 3 “Boy Scout.”]

“It gives her a joy, I think, to be a part of this team,” Juliana Aidén Martinez says of her new FBI character, Eva Ramos, who reveals just why she sought out this transfer in the final moments of her first episode.

Eva is Stuart Scola’s (John Boyd) new partner, and she gets a look right off the bat at the kind of person he is: someone who turns in someone he knew once it’s revealed that he killed another person to maintain his cover. After seeing him do that, Eva reveals that her last partner — with whom she was romantically involved — was Forefront, the group that tried to bring down the FBI in the Season 7 finale. She had almost lost her faith in the job and hadn’t known who to trust, then heard about the opening with this team, the one that beat Forefront. She put in for the transfer because she knew it was where she needed to be. The team, especially Scola, is the FBI’s conscience, she makes clear to him.

Below, Juliana Aidén Martinez breaks down that key moment for the new partners.

This did end up being the right case to throw Eva into when she first joins because she gets a good look at the kind of agent that Scola is, that he is someone who will turn in someone he knows for doing something wrong because of that reveal about her ex that we then get. Did part of her wonder what he was going to do about Bobby?

Juliana Aidén Martinez: I think by the point that we see Scola not take that shot, and she’s like, why didn’t you take the shot? There’s already a point of, can I trust you? And I think towards the end of the episode, it becomes really important to her, especially coming from that experience with her ex of being like, I’m not going to be duped again. I’m not going down this road again, so can I trust you or can I not? And when Scola does do the right thing, I think that that is why she opens up in that way and she tells a bit about her life because she sees that he’s worth the risk. That was very crucial that Scola does that.

Bennett Raglin/CBS

… It’s kind of like when you date somebody and they were a perpetual liar, and you’re like, I’m never dating someone who gambles or lies again, and then the next person you date, you’re like, what is your relationship with honesty? It’s very much that. I think it’s just like, I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. I need to know that this is the right person and the right team, and Scola proves that at the end.

What would it have taken for her open up if not for this? Something like this?

I think it would’ve taken something like this. I think she comes in with a broken heart, and I think that’s going to be something that we see — or that’s something that’s going to be with her for a while. I don’t think it was easy for her to be in a relationship with her partner that she worked with, and she did something that she never did before and then it broke her like it never did before, and Scola had to do something to show that he really was trustworthy for her to open up like that.

What do you think it’s going to take for her to open up to the rest of the team about her ex?

I don’t know. Maybe also moments of integrity and time.

What made the revelation about her ex worse for her, that it was about someone she was romantically involved with or that it was about her partner because they’d been partners for years before they got romantically involved?

I think it’s twofold. I think one, it’s definitely the romantic thing. How did I open my heart romantically to this person? But I do think the deeper cut is that it was her partner because she was with this person for years, and it’s like, how did I not see it? How did this go over my head? Do other people now doubt my integrity and doubt my ability to perceive and pick ’em, if you will? And so I think the deeper cut is who she chose as her partner, which is why that episode with Scola is so important because it’s like she has so much history of why she has to choose the right partner this time and it hurts too much, especially I can imagine the New York Field office or other people were like, yeah, we don’t trust you anymore. How did you miss this? I think it’s just critical for her to choose the right person, too, to partner up with.

Do we see that come into play? Anyone questioning her because of who her partner was?

I can’t say, but I just think it’s a part of her story and their dynamic, that she’s someone that needs to be with someone that she could trust and someone that has integrity.

Is it easier for the two to settle into working together going forward?

I think both of them experienced a loss — he just lost his partner, she just lost her partner — and moments that we see throughout that episode, there’s just an understanding of that loss. I think with this shared grief, if you will, it creates chemistry. And I think that there’s an understanding with them of, I know what you’ve been through and I know what you’ve been through, and I respect you, and I know what you need. And I just think that’s really interesting because it’s kind of like where wounds meet, when you have shared wounds with someone, you just understand them in a deeper way than nobody will.

How much more are we going to hear about Eva’s personal life?

There’s some stuff coming where we will get to know more. So, yeah, that’s in the future. But yeah, I’m excited for the audience to get to know her more because she has a big heart and she has a mystery and a mischief about her that I think as episodes will go on, you’ll see how big of a heart she has.

FBI, Mondays, 9/8c, CBS