What’s Coming in SEAL TEAM’s Final Mission?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Speaking with USA Today, SEAL TEAM actor David Boreanaz, who plays Bravo Team leader Jason Hayes, reflected on the show ahead of its final season and shared why he’s content for it to end.
SEAL TEAM has been around since 2017. It hasn’t had a large budget.
“You watch some of these seasons and you’re like, ‘How…did we do that with that budget we had?'” said Boreanaz. “I’d put SEAL TEAM up against any big action film.”
Though the show’s end is “bittersweet,” Boreanaz supported stopping the series after the SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed production. That’s due in part to the fact that he’s over 50, and the role takes a physical toll on him.
“I take good care of myself, but it gets to a point where your body’s not moving like it used to,” he said.
“My body was hurting and sore; I had four MRIs in four months,” he said.
In Season 7, Hayes finds himself in an intense hand-to-hand combat with a terrorist.
“We wanted it to be brutal,” he says. “Your hips and your shoulders hurt. You put the ankle brace on and it’s just part of the game.”
He previously told Parade, “For me, the character’s done, I’m done playing the series, I’m done with the show regardless if you want to go on or not.”
While Hayes’ death on the show is unlikely, Boreanaz and the show’s creators did consider it.
“What excited me about ending the show was ending the character altogether,” said Boreanaz. “Because that’s what happens every time you come off a Blackhawk helicopter on a mission.”
In Season 7, “Bravo Team is initially sidelined…by Navy brass for ruffling feathers while seeking support on real-world issues such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. But Hayes and his SEAL TEAM crew — including Ray Perry (Neil Brown Jr.) and Sonny Quinn (A.J. Buckley) − will get unleashed on a final mission involving a return to Afghanistan.”
To toast the final scene, Boreanaz gave the cast and crew bottles of champagne.
“To be able to pop corks and spray champagne like I just won the World Series made it one of the most satisfying endings of all for me,” he said. “I have hilarious video of us all spraying each other. It was a great relief knowing we accomplished what we set out to accomplish.”
Boreanaz is eager to get onto the next project after the final season finishes.
“I’m now seeing the fruits of labors planted during SEAL TEAM starting to mature, whether a new series or movie or stage play,” he said. “For me, it’s really putting one series to bed and starting another project.”
In 2021, SEAL TEAM episode 3.15 was nominated for the Movieguide® Faith & Freedom Award for Television and Streaming and received a Teddy Bear Award®.
Part of Movieguide®’s review of the episode reads:
The third-season “Rules of Engagement” episode of the SEAL TEAM series on CBS-TV is a dramatic episode with personal and international significance. The episode opens with Jason Hayes, the leader of Bravo Team, still suffering from PTSD. He has a nightmare one night. Natalie, Jason’s girlfriend, comforts him, but he doesn’t want to discuss the details. Jason and Bravo Team are ordered to Niger to protect an important dam and some American engineers from an immanent Islamic terrorist attack. The attack is being led by a Russian operative. Before they go, several team members undergo their own personal challenges.
“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. “Rules of Engagement” contains brief foul language and lots of action violence during the battle at the dam in Niger. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for this SEAL TEAM episode.
