SEAL TEAM: TWO STEPS FORWARD . . .

 

Again, let me begin this review by stating that SEAL Team is one of my favorite TV shows and was, in my opinion, one of the best dramas on TV which never received the recognition it deserved. It tackled difficult subjects, controversial subjects, head-on. The writing was tight and focused, and the actors conveyed the range of those intense emotions that men (and women) experiencing and committing such violence—recognizing that their life may be ended by a bullet or a bomb—must certainly feel. The way the writers interwove the intensity of combat scenes with the relief and awkwardness of coming home to a life so far removed from their action outside the wire, was one of the strengths of the show because it also showed that the casualties of combat were not only those on the actual battlefield. But it’s the writing in season 7 that’s proving to be a disappointment after the first three episodes.

!SPOILERS AHEAD!

The actors continue to deliver and the action sequences remain as excellent as always, but the writing has lost its sharpness and focus. Part of the problem is the decision to bring in a new character and give him a major role and storyline in the final season. (If the new character had been given a supporting role, the writers would’ve been much more likely to pull it off successfully.) In only 10 episodes and with five main characters (Jason, Ray, Sonny, Lisa, and Omar) and recurring minor characters (Blackburn, Naima, Mandy, Emma, and Mikey), bringing in a new main character means some focus has to be taken off one or more of those characters, all of whose stories are, in some way, wrapping up this season. That’s simple math because the episodes aren’t longer than previous seasons, and the writers have the same number of episodes they had in season 6 to, now, create a new storyline for a new character while also wrapping up the storylines of the established characters while having the team deploy on ops. That’s not an easy thing to do, and so far, the writers haven’t been totally successful even though they’ve progressed with some of the storylines for the established characters.

Several scenes worked very well in this episode, and all except one involved the established characters. We see Jason still trying to convince himself that the events in Sweden didn’t affect him adversely and that he remains on course to continue his new life with Mandy. Later though, he has a nightmare and wakes up in a sweat. There’s a scene between Sonny and Lisa which seems to clear up the confusion in the first episode about the status of their relationship; evidently, they are still seeing each other, but being extremely discreet. She mentions again that the investigation into the assault on Decker is still ongoing. A little later, Sonny is called in to face a panel of cake-eaters, but it turns out the panel has nothing to do with the Decker investigation. Instead, the panel is interested in the med kit he developed (after Clay’s injury). They’d like him to work with R&D because they’re considering making it part of the standard equipment. This is a nice continuation of when he used the kit to save the life of the helo pilot in the season 6 finale.(His quip to Davis that command sees him as Einstein with an M4 was pure Sonny.) There’s also a scene at Spenser House where Ray and Naima are showing a potential donor the facility, but Ray does a piss poor job which suggests his heart really isn't in running the vet center. The scene in which Jason and Ray tell Walch Bravo’s not deployable due to their respective TBI and PST, thereby forcing his hand to finally address the health of warfighters was the Jason of old. This was Bravo 1, a Tier One operator with a well-deserved reputation as an operator and a team guy, who’s not worried about challenging command and putting his career on the line for his brothers. (I’m still curious about why the committee Walch organizes to address and provide health care for warfighters doesn’t include Davis, given she has so much knowledge about this subject since this issue was the focus of her white paper and created a major controversy even before Jason’s revelation.)

The op itself made sense, but I’m still not all that clear that this “new” type of warfare—“Invisible tactics with global consequences”—Davis is hyping is actually new. It’s not as if all Bravo did in seasons 1-6 was kick down doors. There were several episodes where Bravo didn’t kick down a single door or fire a single shot beginning in season 1 (“The Exchange,” “Rolling Dark”) and continuing in season 2 (“Dirt, Dirt, Gucci”), and there was even an op that was exclusively surveillance—a lot like this op (“Time to Shine”). And, of course, there was the two-part episode about the op in North Korea in season 5 (“Trust but Verify,”) that definitely involved “invisible tactics with global consequences” and took aim at one of the major enemies of the U.S. without Bravo firing a shot. And the case could be made that the omega op in Venezuela was also this “new” type of warfare; it only involved bullets and bombs in addition to the assassination of the initial target because, once in country, Bravo discovered the nuclear program was far more advanced than earlier intel had indicated. That’s why Lisa’s anxiety about Bravo being assigned this op seemed off. Bravo has experience running this type of op, plus they’ve come off being sidelined before. The entire team had been sidelined (Jason and Clay were even riding desks) before they were spun up as a team to rescue Ray and they did just fine. I expected Lisa and Blackburn to have more faith in the Bravo guys.

Once Bravo was given the op in this episode, Jason’s behavior when the team arrived in Thailand and met up with the DEA agent in charge was uncharacteristically subdued, and the reason behind this behavior wasn’t particularly clear. Was Jason walking the line because he wanted Bravo to be operating again and didn’t want any negative comments from their DEA partners or was his reason more personal? There was no shooting or door kicking in this episode even though there was considerable tension (much like some of the earlier episodes), but there was action when the team faced trouble. (One major question about this op was how Bravo reached the island. In season 2, they reached another contested island in the South China Sea by a HALO jump, but during the intervening five years, China’s installed more radar and conducts regular patrols within the surrounding area, so reaching this island would’ve been more difficult.)

There were things that hinted at something more down the line for some of these characters. There were lots of hints about Drew because we don’t know much about him, but there were hints about those characters we do know much more about.  Lisa’s repeated comments to Sonny about the Decker investigation suggest there may be a conclusion to it that will affect Sonny and his status as a SEAL and perhaps his status in the Navy. Jason telling Ray he’s concerned about the op taking place in Southeast Asia because Ray was in a bad headspace when they were there before didn’t make sense because Ray’s headspace had nothing to do with being in Southeast Asia and everything to do with what had happened during the op in Mexico. It made me wonder if Jason’s concern had nothing to do with Ray and more to do with what had happened to Clay in the Philippines or maybe it had to do with something else entirely, something related to the “burn box.” Sometimes introducing something new in the final season can be problematic, but while the “burn box” is new, it’s not really problematic because it seems like something these men would have. What was intriguing about that particular scene were the beads Jason was holding and then gave to Ray to put in his (Jason’s) burn box. I don’t remember seeing them in any other episode, but they looked very much like Muslim prayer beads. Since Jason’s never expressed any religious faith or belief, those beads raised a lot of questions which I hope are answered by episode 10: What are the beads? Where did Jason get them? Who gave them to him? Why did he keep them? Why does he want them destroyed if he’s killed in action? Why would he not give them to Emma? 

That, to me, was the most intriguing thing in this episode. But there were, unfortunately, things that weren’t intriguing as much as they were just sloppy, and I don’t expect sloppiness from SEAL Team.

For instance, Bravo was chosen for this op because all the other teams were deployed and yet a member of Charlie team was waiting outside Blackburn’s office when Drew arrived to meet with him and find out he was made a permanent team member of Bravo. The writers also need to get basic things like Blackburn’s rank and Walch’s uniform patch right. And Walch complaining about Bravo not earning any “sweat equity” or having any successes during his tenure might be due to the fact that since Walch has been in command Bravo has been on shore duty and not operating. Not sure what ops he expected Bravo to run successfully in VA Beach. The way some of the guys, especially Sonny, seem almost obsessed with bringing Drew into the Bravo family is becoming annoying. (One thing I liked in the final bar scene was the “confession” by Omar about why he gave up drinking. Honestly, the writers could’ve spent more time exploring Omar and Brock and Trent then bringing in a new guy and the show would’ve been just as interesting.)

And then there's the third wheel—Drew. I get that the writers need to push Drew because there are only 7 episodes left, and based on what we saw in this episode, it seems they’ve come up with a complicated backstory for him but have little time to actually develop it onscreen, so everything relating to him is being fast forwarded. When Blackburn assigns Drew to Bravo permanently, he says he’s a “great operator,” and the easiest way for the writers to show that he is a great operator is to have Drew save Jason’s life in the second episode and save the team and the op in this episode (staying in the cart was more dramatic than jamming the accelerator and slipping off the dock unseen in the chaos) . It's hard to believe that his whole "lone wolf" shtick would be accepted in the Navy, especially in DEVGRU. We also learn Drew cut ties with his family when he was 19 and has been looking for a “family” ever since (sounds a lot like the other “new” guys who’ve joined Bravo during its run ). This begs the question: Why would his daddy who he's been estranged from for roughly 10 years help him out in any way? But, on top of that family stuff, he has a “dark secret” which may be the reason he’s not a “team guy,” and Jason knows what it is. Now, if this secret has anything to do with his time at DEVGRU, a lot of people would know it—the guys gossip like nobody’s business—but if it doesn’t have anything to do with DEVGRU, it’ll be interesting to find out how Jason knows about it. Or maybe Jason’s just taking a shot in the dark and really doesn’t know Drew’s secret, but is trying to make Drew feel like he can talk to him. I admit I’m not a Drew fan because I don’t think the character adds anything special to Bravo or the show; in fact, he takes time away from the writers exploring more the characters already on the team but whom we know little about: Omar, Brock, and Trent.

I’m disappointed by some of the sloppiness in the episodes, but I miss the “brotherhood.” Because Bravo worked with other teams so often, had friends on other teams (especially in season 1), we met other team members, we saw the guys (and their families) supporting one another during tough times, and the brotherhood seemed real and one of the things that made the danger and stress bearable. Full Metal’s final letter summed up what the brotherhood is all about. That’s  missing so far this season. While it’s to be expected that some of the guys would shun Bravo after Jason’s revelation, there were a lot of guys who stood in support of him.. I miss the brotherhood.