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This wasn’t Bravo’s finest hour.
An ill-planned mission, not surprisingly, went sideways on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 13.
Some of that was on the cake eaters, and some of that was on Bravo itself. Combine those, and this mission was destined to fail as it did.
Let’s start with the mission. An undercover Bravo team was supposed to extract a defecting Boko Haram lieutenant in broad daylight.
Soto didn’t want to hear from Jason about the logistical nightmare that the mission would become. Those two have continued not to click.
Soto deserves points for going into the field to observe Bravo at work. But he certainly hasn’t done that long enough to be rewriting the Bravo playbook.
When Jason (and Davis) tell you there are problems with the mission, try listening. That might have helped prevent the disaster that this mission became.
First off, the lieutenant should have had to prove he was a high-value target rather than dictate the terms of his extraction.
And obviously, he shot off his mouth too much around his fellow terrorists because why else would he have been beaten and left for dead before Bravo even got there?
That left Bravo at the hospital making up the most half-assed cover stories. The muscular guys in the body armor were aid workers? You could almost hear the doctor rolling her eyes at them in disbelief.
It didn’t help that Boko Haram was hated by the population at large, including the entire staff and visitors. Little wonder that word got out about the lieutenant being treated there.
So before long, not only the HVT but Bravo and everyone else at the hospital was in the line of fire.
And back on board the Keating, Davis was making the right call since the cell phone Bravo recovered was likely to provide more intel than the terrorist who was dead in the bed. Soto didn’t have the stones to make the right call.
While Bravo debated philosophically, the doctor made the right call to attempt to save a half-dozen civilians rather than a dying terrorist trying to make a better deal for himself.
Jason finally wised up and got out of her way so she could do her job.
At least Jason did the right thing, remaining at the hospital long enough to eliminate Boko Haram by depositing the terrorist’s body outside. For them to haul away rather than slinking away out the back door as ordered by Soto.
Soto still couldn’t admit that those above him had designed a mission doomed to fail and kept trying to probe about what Bravo had done wrong.
Not that Bravo wasn’t more than a little distracted.
Where to start? Well, Brock, Trent, and Full Metal seemed to have their heads on straight. No word on Pepper, who wasn’t along for this SNAFU.
After his encounters with Theo, Jason was busy second-guessing his leadership style. Instead of his former rub-some-dirt-in-the-wound approach, he’d gotten all touchy-feely, which didn’t work with operators so out of touch with their emotions.
Ray tried to warn Jason to keep his nose out of his team’s personal space. He mainly did that he’s no longer the rock that everyone expected him to be, and he feared that Jason would catch on.
That Jason did when Ray exploded at the doctor after she commiserated about the “wounds inside.” Guess that hit a nerve.
Jason pushed it after the mission and got Ray to open up a crack, telling Jason a little bit about what was bothering him. Not even Jason was satisfied with that explanation.
But Ray wasn’t even Jason’s biggest problem. That honor went to Sonny.
Sonny has been making an honest effort to step up, to become more than a “knuckledragger” who kicks down doors.
The trouble is he needs much more practice to become something more than a caricature. So it’s been one step forward, two steps back.
The breakup with Davis hit him hard because he thought they had their relationship all worked out this time. He’s attempting to become a good father, but he’s in over his head there as well.
The fact that he’s becoming a full-fledged alcoholic certainly isn’t helping matters either. Based on the next episode’s trailer, it appears the problem will continue to grow.
Sonny’s slippage caused him to lose his position as Bravo rep to those Keating meetings, which were a chance for him to show leadership.
Instead, the burden fell on Clay, once again.
A whiny Stella reminded Clay he’s failing on the home front. And he resents his falling into the fixer role for Bravo. Unfortunately, he has the talent to be more than the “door kicker” he claims to be.
It will be interesting to see if this makes him susceptible to Soto’s entreaty for him to step up into more of a leadership role, something he’s been trying to avoid since he was thrown from the admiralty track.
The sad part is that they’re all capable of snapping back into operator mode when necessary despite these distractions. But how long can that continue before there’s a mishap?
To follow Bravo’s turmoil, watch SEAL Team online.
How does Jason get Bravo back in sync?
How can he work with Soto?
What will be the fallout from Davis stepping up for Mina?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.