What SEAL TEAM’s Final Season Holds for Jason Hayes (It’ll Be Intense)
By Movieguide® Contributor
Season 6 of SEAL TEAM ended with Jason Hayes revealing his struggle with trauma; going into the final season of the show, the creators are focusing on that storyline and how that impacts the character’s future.
“For us, it’s like, alright, the trauma is your first kill. How do you deal with that? So starting the season it was like, okay, this is the perfect way to wrap that cycle up for this character,” David Borneaz, the actor who plays Hayes, told TV Insider.
“His head is almost very familiar to when he was dealing with the inception of what these operators go through,” he added. “That’s always been a consistent throughline for Jason’s mind and its ultimate balance with his heart and what he thinks is balanced could not be balanced or what he thinks is right is him feeling like he’s the problem. The issue, the arduous task of a character like this is understanding those fleeting moments of an emotion and then going completely to a different direction with them and how that affects him.”
Getting these emotions right and accurately portraying the difficulties of being a SEAL Team operator, however, is extremely important to Borneaz. The impact the show has had on real-life operators by helping them feel seen and understood has given the actor immense satisfaction.
“It’s hard to study it. It’s hard to play those emotions. It’s difficult. And I always go back to when you get messages from these real guys or veterans saying, ‘Thanks for saving my life…I changed my life. I’m going to get help,’” he said. “We know that we’re doing something right. We’ve always had that and the show’s success for us was that.”
The show’s excellent storytelling and commitment to shining a light on America’s heroes has been recognized by Movieguide® in the past. In 2021, SEAL TEAM episode 3.15 was nominated for the Faith & Freedom Award for Television and Streaming. A portion of Movieguide®’s review of the episode reads:
“Rules of Engagement” is a dramatic, thrilling, patriotic SEAL TEAM episode. It honors the service and sacrifice American soldiers make while serving their country and making the world a safer place. The episode opposes the chaos and evil that bad groups like Radical Muslim Terrorists, Russia and Communist China spread overseas.
SEAL TEAM is officially entering its final season with Season 7 wrapping up the characters’ stories. The final episodes are set to air on Paramount+ starting on Aug. 11.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Anxiously awaiting news of the seventh and final season of SEAL TEAM? Here’s everything we know so far.
Paramount+ announced the show would be returning for another season in January 2023. In November of the same year, the streamer revealed it would also be SEAL TEAM’s final season.
“It has been a privilege to tell stories over seven seasons that honor the bravery and heroism of all who serve our country,” executive producers Spencer Hudnut and Christopher Chulack said in a joint statement. “We are deeply grateful to our amazing group of actors, writers, directors and talented crew, especially the hundreds of veterans who have worked on this show.”
Star David Boreanaz also released a statement, telling fans, “For six seasons I have been fortunate and blessed to be a part of an outstanding cast and crew. Every day spent was a note of thanks to our men and women in the military and Special OPS. I thank our fans, and I’m proud we were able to make this show to shine light in the darkness toward so many suffering today. I look forward to season seven and the opportunity to end this series with love and gratitude.”
Plots for the seventh season are unknown, but many fans assume new episodes will explore the fallout from Season 6’s finale.
