Warning: Spoilers ahead for FBI: Most Wanted season 6, episode 3.different FBI shows in the franchise. However, they occasionally appear together in FBI crossover episodes, the first of which occurs during FBI: Most Wanted season 6, episode 3, which has Nina searching for a pair of college students turned eco-terrorists while Scola stays home with Dougie and deals with Nina's father, who is visiting from Texas.

This latest crossover is too action-packed to have room for any discussions of Scola's FBI season 7 injury to his leg or the loss of his work partner. However, star Shantel VanSanten shares that this does not affect the strength of their partnership. VanSanten also discusses the research she and Boyd did to make their on-screen relationship authentic before delving into the complicated family dynamics with Nina's father and her insight into what Nina is thinking while pursuing and confronting Emma, a young woman whose ion for saving the environment has turned deadly.

Screen Rant speaks with VanSanten about Nina's latest case in FBI: Most Wanted season 6, her thoughts about Nina and Scola's relationship, and how Nina's complicated family history impacts the way she does her job.

VanSanten Helped Craft The Backstory for Nina That Played Out On Screen

"David Hudgens invited me into the writer's room, we all sat down and chatted, and I was able to share with them where I had built Nina from."

Screen Rant: How much of Nina's backstory did you know before you got the script?

Shantel VanSanten: Well, so when I initially ed FBI, I kind of created a bit of a framework for my own backstory. It's something I do with every single character. Being able to develop a character's childhood like really sets the tone and foundation for the way that you react and move and behave in the world. And so it was important to me to create that. And at the time, you know, there wasn't a space, because I wasn't a permanent fixture on any show to really explore.

When I ed FBI: Most Wanted, David Hudgens invited me into the writers room, we all sat down and chatted, and I was able to really share with them where I had built Nina from. And they were very, very receptive. So I've actually had a bit of a hand in being able to create Nina's backstory and have them really take it and run with the framework of what I had kind of decided for her life.

Last season, we learned that her mother died of a drug overdose when she was quite young, and she only has a father and a sister, and now we finally get to meet them. And I feel excited. It's maybe not the right word, because it's very complicated, but I think, it's something so relatable, right? We all struggle with family.There's history, there's resentment, there's anger, and yet the undertone of all of it is so much love, otherwise we wouldn't be feeling any of it.

VanSanten Sees Nina As Fiercely Independent, Yet Still Craving Family Approval

"It's a nice mixed bag of feelings, this episode."

Screen Rant: In that last scene, when Nina was so fiercely defending Scola, she tells her father, no, you got him all wrong, did any of her father's negativity get into her head?

Shantel VanSanten: No. Other people's opinions don't really permeate Nina's very resolute opinions. I think it's maybe a toxic trait of hers that she makes her mind up and has an opinion, and it's it's pretty hard to convince her otherwise, especially when it's been for her based on so much feeling, everything that Scola and her have been through. Her father's narrow-minded opinion is not going to rock that foundation. I think that she's somebody who's had to pave her own way, in a very different path than what her father expected of her.

There's a little bit of that rebelliousness and also mixed in with, "But you're still proud of me, right?" You want your parent to turn around and tell you, "Okay, fine, you're right. You didn't do what I thought. But wow, I'm proud of you." And she doesn't get that, and she never has. And so it's a nice mixed bags of feelings, this episode.

VanSanten Sees Scola An Nina's Partnership As Strong Despite The Challenge of So Much Time Apart

"I think it only really further solidifies the type of partner that she has: somebody who always had her back, whether they were hunting bad guys or dealing with family issues."

Screen Rant: How does the dynamic of Nina being away on cases while Scola is at home or vice versa affect the relationship between Nina and Scola?

Shantel VanSanten: Well, luckily, Nina has a wonderful partner who stepped right in when she,was happy to take a case on and and get out of town. I think it only really further solidifies the type of partner that she has:, somebody who always had her back, whether they were hunting bad guys or dealing with family issues. He steps right up and allows her to do what matters most, which is her job.

I say that because, of course, so many times we think, Well, isn't motherhood the most important, or isn't having Dougie or their relationship [their priority]? But what drives Nina is doing this job and making the world a better place so that she can exist with her family and raise her son in a world that she knows is safe for him.

John and I, when we were prepping last season, actually spoke to a couple in Arizona who were both FBI agents, and that was our first question: "How did you do it?" And they said, when one person's working, if they're out of town, the other person doesn't take as big of a case. And you flip flop and find ways to each other through making the world a better place.

And that's kind of been our motto. We don't want either one of us to have to give up making the world a better place. It's better for us to be two agents out there doing that, so that Dougie can be, and we can all exist in a much better world.

Screen Rant: Scola has been through a lot on his own show, with Tiffany leaving and him getting injured. That wasn't something that we saw addressed with Nina and Scola's storyline. Is that something that they'll talk about or will come up with at any point later?

Shantel VanSanten: Yeah, you know, there's so much that happens. There's times that we get done with episodes, and I just think, Man, I wish that we could see a scene of how much this actually deeply affects them, and the way that couples come home and have to navigate having shot somebody that day, or having found a dead body. All of it is sometimes glazed over, And the reality of it is carried in our performances, but we don't always get to see the follow through.

I'm hoping we get to see a little bit more of that. But I think the way Scola's resilience plays out in losing his partner of so many years is such a beautiful story that you don't even need Nina to be by his side for him to tell it. John is just an incredible actor, and it's a really great story to navigate for him this season.

He has a solid partner at home. Now, what's he going to do at work? Right? It always works out that way. You think you have it all. You got a partner at home, you got a partner at work. Everything's great. We're ready to go. And then, you know, life likes to shake it up, right?

Nina Has Some Nuanced Thoughts About Emma & Other Criminals She Pursues

"Behind every bad guy or girl on our show is a real human who has had a life and a childhood and gone through things."

Screen Rant: Nina talked would-be terrorist Emma into surrendering rather than killing a guard. What was going through Nina's head during that climactic moment?

Shantel VanSanten: I think that it's an important aspect of what we do to approach each case, wanting there to be no lives lost, and being able to talk humanity or talk vulnerability or reality into somebody is so important, and finding ways to empathize.

It's a tough thing to say, but behind every bad guy or girl on our show is a real human who's had a life and a childhood and gone through things, and I think being able to find a way to relate is deeply important in order to have the best outcome of a case, which is no lives lost, right?

That's the way I approach it. Sometimes one of us will step forward because we see something in the person we're talking down that we can relate to. And you try to just get through to that heart spot, get them out of their head and into their heart, because if they're in their heart, they know what's true, and they know what's right and wrong, and the head is what messes everything up.

So I like to believe that Nina is learning to hone in on that superpower and be able to help in cases where you can really connect to the person who committed a crime and has done wrong but still see humanity there.

Screen Rant: it seemed like Trevor was the one who kept instigating a lot of violence, and Emma was mostly along for the ride. Did Nina see Emma as partially Trevor's victim, or did she see her purely as a perpetrator?

Shantel VanSanten: I don't think anybody is ever purely a victim or a perpetrator. When you watch the best bad guys, they have humanity. It's complicated, and it's not black and white. We had a case last year where I was very black and white. In that episode, I was very clear that the bad guy was a very, very bad guy, and I couldn't see his humanness well. That's because I couldn't relate at all.

That happens, and that's okay. And then there's times when it is gray. I mean, all of it has, unfortunately, shades of gray. And if we were to be able to dive into somebody's life and divulge everything that they've been through, we would obviously find the humanity in them. It's just that, in some cases, it is clearer to certain characters than to others.

I do feel that Emma was a bit controlled. But I also think it's important that people take responsibility for the choices and actions that they themselves make.

Screen Rant: There was a parallel in that Emma changed her name and rejected what her father stood for, while Nina was dealing with her father and not wanting to be influenced by his opinions and what he wanted for her. Did that play into how Nina approached the case or approached Emma?

Shantel VanSanten: Actually, that was something new for me. I didn't know that Nina's had a different name, so when I read the episode, I was actually quite surprised. As I said, there was this framework that I had set for Nina, but I never thought that she would have had a different name and changed it. And I think that was maybe the hardest thing for me, was to decide when she changed it and why.

And the fact that here's this girl who is trying to outrun her family's choices, and therefore the name that is on her and an expectation or an identity was truly what I connected to as Nina. It wasn't so much about the actual name change in some ways, but more just about wanting to escape expectations or an identity that was placed on me because of my family.

The Violent Confrontation With Emma Influences Nina's Fight With Her Father

"I also think it was a good thing. Maybe, had it not happened, Nina wouldn't have really faced her dad."

Screen Rant: You talked before about how witnessing violence can sometimes affect the characters. How does seeing the spell of violence, in this case, influence Nina when she finally sits down to that dinner with her father at the end?

Shantel VanSanten: It was already triggering to have the family in town, but then to have a sort of parallel happening that mirrored parts of Nina's life as well, made the emotional level of that scene maybe a bit more than it would have. But that's life, that's the way it happens. That's when the dinner was, and this is how it was going to play out. There are just times when you're more triggered.

I also think it was a good thing. Maybe, had it not happened, Nina wouldn't have really faced her dad. Maybe she and he would have both just avoided it and had some kind of trip that was very surface and Nina would have not said what was really on her heart. Nina has always been the one to say her truth and what's on her mind. And so I was happy that she was given that opportunity, even if it was not in the prettiest of ways,

About FBI: Most Wanted Season 6

The FBI Spinoff Focuses On Character Relationships While Pursuing The Most Violent Fugitives In The United States

The series focuses on a group of elite agents who work for the FBI Fugitive Task Force, which searches for violent criminals who are hiding from law enforcement while leaving a trail of abductions, assaults, and murders in their wake. Led by Remy Scott (Dylan McDermott), the Fugitive Task Force puts everything on the line to find and capture extremely violent offenders and make the world safer, often at the expense of their personal relationships or other important aspects of their lives outside of work.

Check out an earlier interview with VanSanten's FBI: Most Wanted co-star Edwin Hodge, as well.

FBI: Most Wanted season 6 airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.