SEAL Team Season 7 Review: The Final Chapter Begins
When news broke that SEAL Team would be ending with its seventh season, it wasn’t a huge surprise.
The CBS-led drama on Paramount+ has been slowly building toward its conclusion over the past few seasons, with characters slowly but surely coming to their finale.
Paramount+ shared the first two episodes of SEAL Team Season 7 with critics ahead of its premiere, and it’s safe to say that these episodes feel like they’ve come to an end.
Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) has always been the heart and soul of SEAL Team, despite the character making a number of questionable decisions over the years.
In the first two episodes of the final season, Jason reflects on his career, largely due to his decision to go against Command and reveal the truth about his TBI.
Because of those actions, there are always big changes in the show, but the show is better because it adds realism and heightens the stakes.
David Boreanaz delivers his best work Boreanaz gets some of the best material of his career as he plays a seasoned Navy SEAL who is now contemplating where his career is going after facing a lot of challenges.
Jason’s years of service to his country may be coming to an end.
Overall, Bravo Team is under scrutiny as many do not believe it is as effective as it once was.
They have overcome all the difficulties in the past, but the future of the team is very much in jeopardy as there is growing instability at HQ as they have also gone public about their own illnesses to protect the team’s commander.
SEAL Team Season 7, then, seems like a natural next step for the show, perfectly setting up the conflicts that will unfold over the final eight episodes.
Drew Franklin (Beau Knapp) is a newcomer, recruited fairly quickly as a new member of the team, but his past has earned him a reputation.
From the very first scene, Drew establishes himself as one of the most compelling characters this season as he struggles with what it means to serve his country behind his tough exterior.
Drew has a troubled past that the show wastes no time delving into. Many shows add unnecessary characters to their final seasons, but it’s clear that Drew has a lot of work to do before the end.
It also means that Omar (Raffi Barsoumian) is no longer the newest member of Bravo Team, which is an interesting change as he grapples with what’s next for his career.
One thing SEAL Team has always done well is honor the past and the team members who came before the current team. The show may have lost Max Thieriot’s Clay Spenser, but he’s still a topic of conversation.
Clay is not forgotten Of course, Sonny (A.J. Buckley) and Stella (Alona Tal) were the ones most affected by Clay’s death, and some great scenes between them early on set up their eventual arcs very well.
It’s a credit to the show for keeping Clay’s memory alive throughout the final chapter, as he could have been a distant memory if there had been a time jump.
One of the biggest questions heading into the final season was the state of Davis (Toni Trucks) and Sonny’s relationship, as they faced many obstacles along the way.
The good news is that the final season wasted no time in establishing where the two were romantically.
There are also plenty of great moments for Davis, whose career has grown significantly over the years.
She’s always been a supporter of Bravo Team, but her finale promises that things are going in a significantly different direction.
There’s no telling where her storyline will end up, which adds to the unpredictability of SEAL Team Season 7. My biggest concern with the early episodes is that Dylan Walsh doesn’t have much to do in his new role.
We meet him as Commander Walch, a man who has a lot on his mind about Bravo Team and how they’ve managed to get by despite decisions made over the years.
We’ve met characters like Commander Walch before, but hopefully he can break free from the stereotypes of those who have objected to Jason’s past leadership of the team.
The worry is that it will be a rehash of previous storylines, and with only 10 episodes, there isn’t much time to devote to storylines that have been used in the past.
If the first two episodes are any indication of where SEAL Team is headed, then it could very well be one of the few shows that gets its season finale exactly as expected.
Characters reaching natural next steps in their storylines is the only way a show like this can end, so hopefully SEAL Team Season 7 starts off the way it was intended.
