After seven seasons of high-stakes missions, SEAL Team wrapped up the story of the elite Bravo unit of Navy SEALs led by Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) and the toll that combat takes on the warriors who defend America, while reflecting on the idea that “war always has the last word.”
“I think this season we wanted to explore something that I don’t think we as a society talk about enough with our men and women in uniform is what they had to do,” SEAL Team showrunner Spencer Hudnut told Parade. “That, for Jason, was the killing. That brought on this shame that I think allowed him over the course of the season to start seeing himself as contaminated from what he’s done.”
The series finale deals with Jason’s resolution of his shame, Ray’s (Neil Brown Jr.) change of heart regarding Spenser House, and the surprising sacrifice Sonny (A.J. Buckley) makes—and Hudnut discusses it all with us in the Q&A below.
Jason has been all over the place mentally this season trying to get his work-life balance, feeling he’s a bad dad because Mikey OD’d. Has he come to a resolution at the end?
I think he definitely has. He’s on the road to maybe that resolution. I think what we were really trying to explore this season was in the downtime between Season 6 and 7, Jason, for the first time, really felt that he was done operating, that his act of defiance and standing up at the Navy Cross ceremony was going to keep him from operating again. It allowed him to embrace spending more time with his children, spending more time on his relationship with Mandy (Jessica Paré). But, also, the downtime allowed the demons of the shame of what he did as an operator to get into the back of his head.
Photo credit: Michael Moriatis/Paramount+
It wasn’t that he was a bad father, per se, it just was another indictment of him, that he’s more valuable carrying a rifle than he is at home to anybody. I think very much with Mandy’s help and the support of his teammates, by the end, his new view of himself is that war doesn’t have the last word and that it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of support from people, but he is entitled to, perhaps, happily ever after.
Related: David Boreanaz Hints that Bravo 1 May Not Survive in the Final Season of SEAL Team
Do you see a potential for Jason and Mandy ending up together? He seemed to be regressing so much that she was very frustrated with him that he didn’t see that he didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, that this was his job.
The beauty of their relationship and why it works so well, is that she can relate to him. She had her own guilt and shame from her job, she had her own kills to clean, for lack of a better term. She, by doing the work she was doing in Afghanistan, had started to atone for some of the things in her past she’s not so proud of. I think in that conversation in the garage she breaks through with Jason finally. I think he started to believe all of this early in the season. He was at a place where he seemed more at peace about it than he had before. I think he’s dealing with a spiritual wound, which is new to him. So, we really wanted to explore that this season, because this is a real thing that men and women in the military deal with. I think through her help, he’s on a path. He’s not healed, but he’s open.
It felt like therapy may not have been a good thing for him.
Looking back maybe isn’t the best thing for him. But I think taking control of it allows him to find some inner peace.
It looked like Ray changed his mind and he didn’t retire, that he took that mental health coordinator job that Captain Walch had talked to Jason about so that he could still stay in the service? Did I understand that correctly?
That is correct, yes. Ray all season is battling with this. He articulates to Naima (Parisa Fakhri), how Spenser House is tainted for him. He has this guilt over Clay’s (Max Thieriot) death still. I think, more importantly, not only does he realize that Naima has got this place running and there’s really not much for him to do to help, but he does have this concern about who’s going to look after our special operators when he’s gone. I think at some point in the season he articulates that it would be great if places like Spenser House didn’t need to exist. If we can take care of our men and women in uniform while they’re still in uniform, then maybe they have a better chance of transitioning to a healthy, balanced life afterwards.
Jason is the one that brings this job up to him and pushes this job on him. I think for Ray, it allows him to do the type of work he was going to do at Spenser House, but also do it at a place where, again, he can fix the problem before it becomes an even bigger one.
Photo credit: Trae Patton/Paramount+
How much did Sonny (A.J. Buckley) give up for Lisa (Toni Trucks)? It looks like he can’t be an operator anymore. And then he also gave up some of the rights or all of the rights to his med kit. That was money he wanted for his daughter. But we saw him and Lisa driving off happily holding hands. What’s happening there?
Well, if there’s a movie he can come back. We’ll find a way to get him back. No, he sacrifices his career for Lisa. I think he’s the most evolved character on the show from start to finish. Going back, Clay got injured at the beginning of Season 6, Sonny’s all of a sudden assumed a lot more responsibility. I think it’s shaped the way he sees himself. I think being a father, obviously, shaped the way he sees himself. I think taking care of Clay, stepping up for Clay, the med kit, recognizing that people actually want something from him, he doesn’t just need to be a knuckle dragger. I think it’s put some wind in his sails. He even took on some more responsibility within the team this year.
But he really has Clay in his head. Those words that Stella (Alona Tal) tells him about Clay’s last words to her ironically are now guiding Sonny’s life. There’s two women in his life who he loves. It’s Lisa and his daughter. By staying in the Navy, he would never have fulfilling relationships with either of them. I think he realizes he’s done everything he wanted to do, and he doesn’t want to be the reason why Lisa doesn’t achieve the success that she’s dreamed of. And he doesn’t want to allow someone else to play the role of father in his daughter’s life. Most importantly, he’s at peace with his decision. I think it’s a very surprising decision.
Shocking.
But it’s a very Clay move. It’s something we would expect from Clay. I’m very proud of what Sonny does at the end. Of all the guys on Bravo team, to be the only one to actually leave the Navy at the end of the show, for it to be Sonny, I think, is a sign of growth and sacrifice. Although Lisa’s not technically part of the brotherhood, this is what these guys do for each other.
She is definitely going to the Pentagon to be the admiral’s aide?
Yes.
Did he give up all of the med kit, or just part of it? I worry about his daughter Leann.
He will still get money from the med kit. But he would have made more money if he had gone the private way. The private way could have led the med kit to ending up other places. As he says to Stella, the intention of the med kit was to do something that would have saved Clay’s leg and to make sure that another American in uniform would not suffer the same fate and realize that there’s something bigger than himself.
Related: Here’s What’s Happening When SEAL Team Returns for its Seventh & Final Season
Drew (Beau Knapp) was an interesting addition this season. He resisted being a team member and resisted and resisted. The moment when he took the shot and killed the American that Jason was supposed to kill and didn’t, is that when he made the commitment to being a Bravo team member? He knew that if that man wasn’t killed that Jason would lose his career.
Photo credit: Pablo Arellano Spataro/Paramount+
I think that’s one of the moments. Another big moment was in the previous episode. I think Jason really helped unlock Drew’s survivor’s guilt, that conversation they have on the waterfront was when Drew really took the final bricks down in his wall. I think when he tells Jason, “I’ve already lost one team leader, I’m not going to lose another,” that’s a step towards, “This is my team. You are my leader.” I think taking that shot is, yes, looking out for his teammate, looking out for his team leader the way teammates do.
You said that Sonny stepped up all season. All season he was trying to hold Bravo together. His working on getting Drew to be a team player a big part of that?
Yes, the irony is Sonny takes a leadership role early in the season because Jason and Ray are a little more hands off the wheel than they’ve been in the past. What Sonny’s realizing is there’s going to be a Bravo without Jason and Ray soon, so he’s going to need to fill that void. Breaking Drew in is part of that process, making Drew the best Bravo teammate he can be. Sonny and Omar (Raffi Barsoumian) really look to be the future of Bravo team. The irony is that Sonny is the one to leave.
At the very end we see Bravo out on another mission, business as usual. It’s a smaller team because Ray and Sonny aren’t there. Why that for the final look?
We had to put a fine point on the fact that Jason is continuing to operate, which is for his character to come as far as he’s come, and we see him and Mandy, they are living on the beach. He does have this hope of war not having the last word in his life. But he’s such a hero that he’s going to continue. He can’t step away, which is somewhat tragic. He can’t quit this war, this forever war. Much like maybe this country. So, I think it was important to see those guys out in the field. Also, the danger is still there. Just because the show’s ending doesn’t mean that Jason’s guaranteed going off into the sunset.
Photo credit: Pablo Arellano Spataro/Paramount+
You mentioned a movie earlier. The way that this ended, it is open-ended for a movie. Is that something that you would think about? Do we need some time to pass?
I feel like that’s probably pretty far-fetched at this point. I think at the end of every season, we tried to paint ourselves into a corner that we had to figure out a way to paint ourselves out of. I’d be happy to take on that challenge if it ever came to that. You never say never.
This season dealt with new warfare. Is that a real thing? Is that what our SEAL teams are doing now, fighting drugs and other things besides kicking down doors to get terrorists?
Certainly, we have operators in Syria now and who knows where else in the Middle East, so that part of the war’s continuing. But the great power competition, the realization that China, Russia, Iran are sort of the next generation of enemy, this shift is real. That was definitely inspired by where things are going in the Special Forces community.
Related: 50 Photos of David Boreanaz from His Time on SEAL Team
Last time I spoke with David he was hinting that Jason might not survive. The men touched on the idea of warriors aren’t meant to survive the battlefield, but no one died at the end.
Yes, I think we wanted to have that fear hanging over the season. Obviously, after the way we said goodbye to Clay it was on people’s minds that we may go that route. But I think we were all pretty much in agreement that to drag Jason through everything we’ve put him through to just have him die wouldn’t make a lot of sense. I think it is a message of hope.
I hope our vets, our men and women in uniform who have suffered through some of the things that Jason and our other characters have, can see that there are people out there who are going through the same thing, we can destigmatize this, and that there, hopefully, is a community of people to support and help. Also, it’s a call to action for the rest of us that there’s so much more we can do for our men and women in uniform.
Truthfully, the reaction to Clay’s death was so strong, which I knew it would be. I actually ended up in some social media conversations with some veterans who reached out really upset about the messaging of that, that there was no hope. That stuck with me.
All seven seasons of SEAL Team are currently streaming on Paramount+.
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