‘SEAL Team’: Toni Trucks Says Davis Is Balancing ‘Duty and Loyalty’ to Bravo in Final Season
Bravo is gearing up for its final mission with the seventh and final season of SEAL Team (the first two episodes debut Sunday, Aug. 11 on Paramount+). And at the start, there are sure to be questions about the status of the team, after Jason (David Boreanaz) spoke publicly about his TBI and other SEALs spoke out about what they’re facing after years of combat.
So is it any surprise that Lieutenant Lisa Davis (Toni Trucks), who despite her changed role remains loyal to Bravo, is aiming to usher in a new era of warfare against powerful opponents for supremacy on the world stage with the warrior at the center? Below, Trucks previews Davis’ new role this season, teases Bravo’s new mission, and shares memories from her last day on set.
Davis has a new role this season. How does it change her approach to missions and her relationships with the members of Bravo? We’ve seen that really evolve over the seasons.
Toni Trucks: I think her new role makes her job more impactful but also makes the dynamic a little more challenging for her. I think Davis’ dream is to be in a position where she really directly impacts the safety of the warfighter and especially the Bravo team, how can I keep them as safe as possible for global reasons and also for selfish reasons. And I think that new position is helpful and also makes things more complicated, but ultimately it’s fun for her. At first, it wasn’t the easy job or the dream job that she thought it would be. She was like, this is exactly what I want. And then, be careful what you wish for.
Especially because Bravo is her family, but in a way, they can’t be her family. She shouldn’t be criticizing them like that.
Exactly. Exactly. And I think that’s going to be, I think it’s safe to say, a theme that’s going to continue to come up this season, which is this balance of duty and loyalty and how she’s going to navigate people that she considers absolute family and also a job that she really values. That’s her pride and joy.
Oh, she does. … God, it’s a frustrating situation. I think she didn’t anticipate that the pushback on what she thought was going to be, we’re all in this together. We’re all in this together to be more effective and to reduce the risk to everyone involved, especially as the landscape of war has changed. And I think she’s going to be up against a lot of guys, a table full of guys, who are stubborn and like, we’re built and trained to fight a certain way, a certain way of engaging the enemy, and we’re not really interested in being smart or taking a new approach. And I think what saves Davis a lot of times is that she’s incredibly smart and she believes in her cause. She believes that what she’s doing is for the common good, so she’s not easily swayed, so she’s not going to have to go up against someone who’s higher up than her and be swayed that she’s not doing the right thing. She’s not going to back down. She’s just going to work harder to figure out a new approach. And I think that persistence with Davis tends to help her navigate these situations over and over again. And having Lieutenant Blackburn [Judd Lormand] as an ally is really helpful for her, too. Sometimes she can hit the pause button and go to him and say, okay, hey, talk to me here. What are we doing?
Yeah, I love that dynamic throughout the series. It’s great because just seeing different parts of what they do — it could be its own show right there, what’s going on with Davis and Blackburn.
I know, thank you. We should do a spinoff.
The trailer shows Davis on the ground with Bravo on a mission. What can you preview about that mission and why she says it’s “her last ride with Bravo” before it all ends?
It’s been rare in the last few seasons to see Davis end up on a mission with the others. I’ve really found myself in more strategic, intelligence-based spaces. So I can, I guess, tease a little bit and say that, while I think Davis thrives in situations where she can be with the team, this particular situation is not her choice. And a final trip with Bravo, I think you might have to wait and see.
Is that related to why she’s joining them on this mission or are those two separate things?
