‘SEAL Team’ Opens Door to Sequel in Series Finale
Spoiler alert: The following article contains spoilers for the SEAL Team series finale.
With its finale airing on Sunday, Oct. 6, CBS Studios’ military drama SEAL Team comes to an end. The seven-season run about an elite U.S. Navy SEAL unit on CBS and Paramount+ was one of the few series to bridge the gap between networks and streaming services.
After a successful mission concluded in SEAL Team Season 7’s penultimate episode, resulting in the capture of a fentanyl drug dealer and the elimination of a renegade Green Beret, Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) and Team Bravo return home to Virginia Beach. But the reprieve from family, as they process the tense events of the season, doesn’t last long, as the unit deploys to Afghanistan for one last mission.
Throughout the tenth episode, Jason struggles to reconcile with the large amount of blood on his hands, which is thrown into turmoil by preparations for his daughter Emma’s (Kerri Medders) wedding. After completing a delivery to Afghanistan, Ray Perry (Neil Brown Jr.) and Sonny Quinn (AJ Buckley) accompany Hayes on a side trip to see the wife of the first man he killed to atone for his sins. However, shortly afterwards, the trio’s vehicle is shot up, as their rescue becomes chaotic.
As the screen cuts to black, a fake scene briefly appears to show a church gathering – perhaps a funeral? However, viewers are soon able to breathe a sigh of relief that the trio have survived the mission, as Jason walks his daughter down the aisle as she marries Brad (Brandon Butler). With the lantern on the way, it appears that Jason has washed his hands of his past, signaling a new beginning.
So where will the main characters end up? Lisa Davis (Toni Trucks) secured her promotion after Sonny, who admitted to punching Decker in front of the investigative committee, surrendered his SEAL trident. The two were last seen driving together, holding hands. Meanwhile, Ray turned out to be a Bravo member who took over as Chief of Warrior Medicine at DEVGRU. And while the episode made it seem like Jason was also leaving the battlefield, the final scene saw the character return to the helicopter as a younger member of the SEAL crew, his final words “Easy day!” ending the show.
“I hope the legacy is that we told an authentic story,” showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TVLine of SEAL Team’s ending. “It’s not a recruitment video, but it’s also not a politically-charged view of the military. We tried to tell the true story of our men and women in uniform, and what sacrifice really means.”
With no one killed in the epilogue, and an overall upbeat ending full of possibilities and new beginnings, it’s possible that this procedural’s story will be revisited in the future. As previously noted, a standalone film was announced for 2022, but there hasn’t been much progress. We hear it’s not dead, though it’s not currently in the works.
