‘SEAL Team’: Which Member of Bravo Is Out After a Big Mistake on a Mission? (RECAP)
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 3, Episode 13 of SEAL Team, “Fog of War.”]
“The brotherhood’s about being truthful with each other,” Ray (Neil Brown Jr.) says. It’s about having each other’s back. Nothing is more important in Wednesday’s episode of SEAL Team.
Bravo may be the best, but even one of its members can make a possible career-ending mistake on a mission — and one of them does in “Fog of War.” After a CIA asset is killed during a raid in what Jason (David Boreanaz) calls a “total mission failure,” it’s up to the team to figure out exactly what happened.
It boils down to one simple question: What caused the explosion in the room where the hostage was being held? They run through a few possibilities on the flight home. After Clay (Max Thieriot) reports that he took out an enemy combatant wearing a suicide vest upstairs, Sonny (AJ Buckley) is willing to say he saw one on a man in the room with Dr. Craig even though he didn’t.
“The number one rule in a hostage rescue is the hostage cannot die,” Ray says. A dead hostage is a career-ender. But whose career is on the line?
Immediately prior to the explosion that killed the asset, Ray threw a crash grenade into the room to stun — but after taking inventory of his bag, he wonders if he threw a homewrecker (an offensive grenade) instead. (It would fit with the size of the blast.) He was in a rush before leaving for the mission, he admits. Jason refuses to believe he made that rookie mistake, and the rest of the team agrees, willing to lie to cover for Ray and save his career. Mandy (Jessica Paré) and Davis (Toni Trucks) know if there was ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) there, they can’t let the footage see the light of day.
(Erik Voake/CBS)
But Ray wants everyone to back him, even as they all try to appeal to him to go along with the cover-up. If he does, he’s failed his role for the team, he explains. “If I let the brotherhood’s loyalties sacrifice our honor, then I don’t deserve to be here,” he thinks.
To their surprise, there was ISR over the target — and it was a rookie mistake that cost Dr. Craig his life: Vic’s (Lucca De Oliveira). The newbie threw a homewrecker into the room from outside during the firefight, not knowing that the hostage was in the room. The others have to hold Sonny back. Blackburn (Judd Lormand) notes that Vic’s action was probably justifiable since he didn’t know Craig was in the room, but it’s up to the team to figure out what to do with him.
Though Vic thought no one would get blamed, “you buried the one man that brought you onto Bravo,” Jason tells him and kicks him out of the room while they decide his future.
They float a few possibilities — bust him down a rank, kick him off Bravo for good, let him earn his way back — but it’s ultimately Ray’s call.
When Vic stands before the team again, he admits that Ray did deserve better from him. “Bravo’s given me family and the sense of belonging I’ve been looking for my whole life,” he says. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing his brothers if he took the fall, and he panicked. Because Ray is a much, much better person, he blames himself for not teaching Vic better. But while he forgives Vic, Ray can’t trust him or let his teammates go out into the field with him if he doesn’t have their backs.
Vic’s time with Bravo is over, and Ray cuts off his Trident. “Wearing the Trident, it’s not a right. It’s a damn privilege,” Ray says.
(Ron Jaffe/CBS)
SEAL Team, Wednesdays, 9/8c, CBS
