‘FBI’s Julian Aidén Martinez Reveals Why Eva & Her Mother’s Story ‘Frustrated’ Her at First (Exclusive)

Eva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) is more than happy to throw herself into a case despite taking some time off to see her mom in the latest episode of FBI. After all, her attempt to get through to her mother doesn’t work, and here’s something she can control. But then that takes a turn. TV Insider spoke with Martinez about that and Eva and her mom’s relationship. Warning: Spoilers for FBI Season 9 Episode 6 ahead!

When Eva’s mom refuses to listen to her and leave her abusive boyfriend, the agent would much rather focus on work — and fortunately for her, a situation arises on her way back to Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. But this is one that reminds her exactly of her mom’s situation: A young woman, Jess, who’s abused by her boyfriend, is caught up in the plot to release radioactive material. Eva is able to talk her down, even opening up about her last partner (in life and work) betraying her.

However, after, she wonders to Maggie (Missy Peregrym) why her words got through to Jess but not to her mom. Her teammate suggests that Jess felt that she was there for her and trusted she cared about her. With that in mind, Eva then goes to see her mom again and admits that she’s terrified of losing her. She’s not done, like she said she was, and she doesn’t want her to ever stop calling. Her mother agrees, but then goes back inside.

Below, Juliana Aidén Martinez breaks down Eva’s tough episode.

My heart breaks for Eva. And what’s especially heartbreaking is Eva realizing that using anything she knows from her work with her mom isn’t going to work and she just has to be a daughter, but that doesn’t work either. So how is she feeling about her relationship with her mom at the end of the episode?

Juliana Aidén Martinez: Initially when I read the episode, I was really frustrated. I was like, “No, Eva would want to do something for her mom. I don’t understand this.” It was a real struggle with me in how the episode ends. And then through this episode, I actually connected with Crime Victims Treatment Center, which is New York State’s first program that provided assistance to survivors of sexual assault and violence. A lot of their work they do is completely free, but they also help survivors going through these types of situations. Something I learned in just connecting with them is that sometimes the most powerful thing someone could do in a situation like this is not to do something, but to simply listen. I think we see Eva’s journey to getting to that point where she needs to give her mom her autonomy and her ability to feel safe, a sense of safety restored in their relationship. And that’s something that really informed me in Eva’s journey and also informed me as a person.

How is Eva’s relationship with her mom going to be going forward, do you think? And will we be hearing or seeing anything about that?

I’m not sure. I really would love that, and I think it would be really powerful to see how their relationship progresses from how we see the episode ends to the rest of the season. What I also really loved about this episode is that we have Mae [Smith] who wrote the episode and then Nimisha [Mukerji], our director, and then so many powerful, just female powerhouses in this episode in terms of the characters, the crew, the cast. I would really love to see all these women come together to continue telling this story. I think would be really, really powerful. So I hope so. My fingers are crossed.

Bennett Raglin/CBS

Part of me feels like Eva might be even more worried about her mom at the end of the episode than she was when she left her? What do you think?

Yeah, I think that sense of being worried for someone you love, that never leaves her. For me, that’s such a relatable experience that someone you love that you’re worried about that never really leaves you. And the most that she could do at that moment is to say, “Listen, you’re safe with me. I love you.” And it is a very bittersweet ending in the sense of just wanting to be in someone’s life by any means possible so they’re not isolated further from the people that they can trust, but also having to just to stay. I really feel like for me, the word that ended in that episode is sometimes the best thing to do is listen and also stay with the people you love in terms of supporting them and assisting them in situations that are so difficult for them to get out of.

Talk about playing Eva as a daughter and having to let the FBI agent and even the prosecutor side of her go.

I really, really loved it. I’ve been kind of begging the writers. I’ve been like, “Please, let’s see Eva not as this tough agent.” Because for me, what was really interesting is a woman doesn’t simply become tough. She becomes tough because of her experiences and her resiliency through these experiences that she has in her life. There were little tidbits to Eva and how she interacted with people that for me, the approach was very trauma-informed and her sense of safety and trust with others. And so I really wanted the opportunity for fans to see that there’s a reason why she’s the way she is and kind of peeling the onion, if you will. The more we get to know someone, the more we can understand them and fall in love with them. So I really love that we got to see a more personal side to Eva — the most personal side we’ve been able to see of her, that she’s a woman and a daughter and just like a young woman trying to figure it out with her mom. I hope that there are other fans that relate to that type of, I don’t know, the struggle that you have as a daughter with your mom all the time. So yeah, I was just really thrilled that we got the opportunity to do that.

Eva also has to be vulnerable during the case though with Jess. How was it for her to have to talk about her last partner and that betrayal considering it still hurts, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I think there have been these situations we’ve seen with Eva at this point that it’s difficult for her to sometimes open up to people and her life and her story because at this point, really Scola [John Boyd] knows, or at least I believe that Scola’s the only person that really knows that she was fully in love, invested with her partner, and they had this relationship. Her capacity to open up with people and trust them or trust others has clearly been informed by these past experiences.

I think to reveal a very personal side of her to a total stranger at this point, is such a leap of growth for her because she’s not someone that just shows her cards that easily to people. And what’s really exciting to me is she had to do that in order to save Jess, and then how is that going to change her for the rest of the season?

Bennett Raglin/CBS

And it feels like in some ways she hasn’t been able to move on from her last partner, from that betrayal. So what will it take, do you think, for her to feel like she can do that in the way she needs to?

I don’t know. New love? [Laughs] Romantic love? I’m not sure. I think it’s really having the ability to know that there are good people in the world. There are healthy, good relationships in the world. I sense that Eva is someone that hasn’t really had that reflected too much in her life, what a healthy partnership would look like. And I think with her coming to what I call them her tribe, if you will, with Scola, with Maggie, with OA [Zeeko Zaki], and having this tribe and having this team that she can trust and having a partner she can trust, that there is going to be healing for her and being able to show her true colors and to say, “Oh, life can be different. You can let your guard down and you can trust people and have some fun.”

Yeah, that’s the thing. I think the trust is the biggest thing for her to be able to open herself up and trust in someone like that again. I mean, I don’t blame her with what happened.

Yeah. It’s understandable of why she is the person she is. And to me, it’s such a treat as an actor to show fans or to show the audience the other side to a character to understand. We all become who we are because of our past experiences, and there’s a reason that Eva wanted to protect other people and protect the citizens of New York and to save other people, and that’s because of her past and who she couldn’t save and who she couldn’t, whether it’s herself or it’s her mom.

How much did she need to get through to Jess after not being able to with her mom?

I think Jess became the person that she was — in the beginning, it’s such an interesting journey with Jess because she’s like, “I know how to do this. I know how to do my job.” And then as it’s revealed further that Jess is closer into the same situation as Eva’s mom, and just the failure of not being able to control things or be able to manipulate things into the result that you want, but that you have to surrender and let go, I think Jess is very much a catalyst to where Eva ends up at the end with her mom.

I have to say how much I loved the Eva and Maggie scene that we got at the end of this episode.

I’m curious to see how that scene turned out. We kind of changed a little bit of it on the day because Missy’s so smart in terms of seeing what we were talking about in the scene, she was like, “There’s no way me as another woman wouldn’t notice what this woman is going through.” And there was such a sensitivity and a vulnerability and just an awareness of us working on that scene together.

FBI, Mondays, 8/7c, CBS