Spoilers Ahead for SEAL Team Season 6 Finale, “Fair Winds and Following Seas.”
The SEAL Team season 6 finale is definitely one of the show’s most emotional episodes yet. In the episode, the team finally gets home and is able to fully move on from Clay’s death. On top of that, they have to deal with the fact that their brother is gone, and his wife is now without a husband and their son without a father. Of course, there’s one more shocker in store before the credits roll, and it could change things in a big way going forward. Now, showrunner Spencer Hudnut has provided some insight into the reasoning behind this development.
After returning home to Vah Beach, Jason is awarded a medal for his bravery, saving Clay during the ambush in Mali. Even though Stella had told him that what happened to her husband wasn’t his fault, Jason decided to use his speech to come clean about his TBI, knowing that’s what Clay was keeping an eye on. Command wasn’t happy about what he said, and he lost his officer status (and will likely lose more). TV Insider Spencer Hudnut said this professional sacrifice was definitely in the plan for a while: We knew Jason was going to have to reveal this TBI secret at some point, and the idea of him almost telling himself off for the greater good of the other executives was something we always liked. Given everything he’s done for his brothers, giving that back to him just felt like a really powerful moment.
Jason’s TBI has been a prominent storyline for a few seasons now, and he initially kept it hidden from his team. Clay was the one who tried to talk some sense into his Master Chief and took it upon himself to send six of his men into the field to make sure he was sober. Jason finally opening up about it — and to a large audience that included his boss, no less — really got things back on track. It also shed more light on a real-life military topic, an approach that lead actor David Boreanaz credits as one reason critics have panned the show.
But that wasn’t the only shock. In the final minutes, the Commander talked to Jason about his tenure at the ceremony. Soon after, Ray chimed in and came clean about his PTS, the result of his capture. And then there were the rest of Bravo and the other SEALs, who spoke up about their personal struggles on the battlefield that they’d been hiding. Spencer Hudnut further explained the content of the ending and how it could set up a potential seventh season: What we’re doing a little bit with Jason talking about TBI and these guys taking command and throwing it in their face is tapping into [the fact that] there’s a little bit of these operators going rogue that’s always been a part of the SEAL community. These guys have this kind of rogue warrior mentality. So there’s a little bit of that at the end here, these guys taking command and ‘we’re not going to make this easy for you.’ The scene is definitely powerful, because it’s a surprise to see Ray join up with another SEAL team. In his interview, the show’s EP also revealed that the remaining SEALs are all veterans, which really reflects what Jason (and the entire series) was trying to bring to the table: An additional element of that scene that made it even more powerful for those of us who were there when we did it was that the people who came in who weren’t part of Bravo were actually veterans. It just gave it a little more power that the veterans involved in our show were really vocal about this idea that we really need to do a better job of protecting our defenders, as Jason said.
The fact that actual veterans were included in such a powerful scene made the episode that much sweeter. Paramount+ had an impact on the direction of SEAL Team, and as a result, the series was able to delve into the core of military life. As the show moves to streaming, David Boreanaz is excited in part because the cast and crew will be able to tell even more authentic stories about the brave men and women who risked their lives for America. Overall, the writers and producers certainly seem to be doing their best in a respectful way, and this finale proves that.
I’m excited to see how the series moves forward after Jason’s revelation and the SEALs’ reaction to it. The show has been doing well at Paramount+, so one can only hope it won’t be too long before a concrete decision is made. In the meantime, there’s plenty of room for speculation about what might happen next.
