David Boreanaz Performs SEAL Team’s Swan Song: ‘Jason Could Be Taken by the Biggest Force, and That’s Death’
Bravo’s last easy days begin this Sunday, August 11, when SEAL Team premieres its 10-episode farewell series on Paramount+.
Season 6 ended with Bravo’s fate uncertain, with an impressive but certainly damning display of unity. Captain Jason Hayes revealed—at his Navy Seal ceremony, no less—his TBI and critical condition during recent missions, after which he was called in by his superiors. “You made a terrible mess, and left us no choice but to fire you,” Blackburn declared.
But Ray interrupts and goes on to reveal that he’s been PTS since his kidnapping, and then everyone else enters the room—Sonny, Brock, Trent, Omar, and two dozen other executives, each recounting what’s been undermining them.
When Season 7 premieres on Sunday, viewers will see the many ways Bravo wasn’t “punished” but…still punished for such a publicly disgraced command.
TVLine spoke with the show’s showrunner and executive producer, David Boreanaz, about the state of Bravo Team and what it will take to get them back in the fight.
Where will we find Bravo when the season opens, and what exactly is Jason doing?
For me, it’s been a full-circle journey. Going into the season, even before the writers went on strike, I decided that this was the end for me—which is something that not many people know about.
We see Jason in a place where he’s completely solved that problem, that full circle, in the process of looking at what these particular executives go through. He’s a little bit comfortable, a little bit reserved, waiting on the sidelines, thinking that his balance is complete—with his family life and the life of his team. But then we see that it’s not, and that being an executive, this type of character, may not end well for him. That’s something that I’ve discussed and wanted in a lot of ways, and I’m excited for that to happen.
We see Jason spending time in the premiere with Mikey, Emma, and her boyfriend…. Would you say that helps him envision a different, non-Bravo future for himself?
I would say it makes him see a future that he’s probably still a little bit uncomfortable with. Because what he thinks is working may not be working. [Laughs] The ultimate pivot point of this arc for these executives is, “How do they handle their murders?” How does that traumatically impact them both on the job and at home? So for him to be at home in the first couple of episodes, that’s going to be traumatic, and that’s something he’s going to have to lean into, to sort of deal with that and let it go and heal himself. But ultimately, he could be taken away by the greatest force, and that’s death. That’s something we have to keep on the table and want to keep on the table. How he gets back on the battlefield and what happens to him is going to be interesting.
I mean, Bravo’s in a pretty tough spot with DEVGRU right now. What are they going to have to do to get back in good graces enough to break down some doors again?
Yeah, that picks up a few months after we started the story… obviously the world continues to change and evil is coming to a place where these operators are needed, especially Bravo Team. They’re going to be rocking out in a few episodes—you’re going to see some training sessions happen as they patiently wait to be brought back, to be put back into their unit. And it’s a whole new evolution of war that’s happening for them, and they have to adapt or else they’ll be pushed aside—so that’s going to be a big challenge for them.
In this final season, what would you say is the balance between action versus more emotional and introspective scenes?
The first half is very emotional and introspective; I’d say the balance is in the second half. That doesn’t mean there’s more action in the second half than there was in the first half, but we build to it. In the first episode, you feel the emotion, and that builds into Episode 2, where we see the big impact of saving someone from the situation they’re in. That moment in Episode 2 takes us into the heavy before part, then into the after part—and that’s where things get crazy.
