SEAL Team has charted the ups and downs of the Bravo Team since its premiere in 2017.
With the news that SEAL Team Season 7 will be the team's last stand, it's starting to feel like the show is being brought back to put the soldiers and their loved ones through the ringer one last time.
For many reasons, SEAL Team Season 6 felt like a worthy final chapter for our favorite characters, culminating with one of the most powerful scenes on TV.
Let's dive into why the series should have ended with its most recent season.
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Ben turned a gun on himself on SEAL Team Season 6 Episode 8, with Clay managing to get it off of him in the nick of time.
Sadly, a security guard arrived, saw the gun in Clay's hands, and opened fire.
It was hard-hitting and shocking, but it didn't bring Clay's six-season arc to an end in a way that benefited the character or the stories the show was trying to tell.
Had it been pre-planned that SEAL Team Season 6 would be the series' swan song, there's a good chance the creatives would have crafted a happier conclusion for Clay, Stella, and Brian.
Their storyline could have still wrapped where it did. Many of the characters could have been written out before the series finale if the show had focused on wrapping up the stories respectfully.
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Looking back, it would have been more befitting of the series if Clay and his family moved elsewhere for a fresh start to focus on their family.
Heck, they talked about it so much. Their dream was ripped from them when they least expected it. That's how life works, but it's not how satisfying TV works.
On top of that, some of his best friends missing his funeral was another emotional moment we didn't need, although it did showcase the severity of the mission the Bravo Team faced, and it's probably truer to real life under such situations than we'd like to imagine.
Jason Hayes has been the fearless leader of Bravo Team since SEAL Team Season 1, but his life was changed forever when the effects of a TBI started to hinder him in the field.
The series did a fantastic job of showcasing Jason's denial as he grappled with the fact that he may not be able to continue doing his job. We've seen how military men take merely leaving the military; it's hard to imagine being forced from your post too soon.
We witnessed him realizing how much this affected him, and he managed to come through the other side of it -- or so we thought.
Jason accepted the Navy cross and opened up about his traumatic brain injury and Clay's quest to change the military's view on how they affect a soldier's deployment.
It seemed like a career-ending speech as his superiors struggled to believe what they had just heard.
At that moment, Jason knew there was a chance he wouldn't have the same job again, but he knew that the speech could save someone.
"I don't know if coming clean is going to change anything, but hell, if it saves the next guy, then maybe I'll be a different kind of hero, like my brother, Clay Spenser," Jason said.
Later, when he faced command, it seemed like we'd seen the last of Jason on Bravo Team, as everyone on the board seemed to agree that he couldn't go back out into the field.
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Thankfully, Jason was joined by Ray and countless other SEALs who revealed their own struggles.
While it ended with Jason at peace that he had all of these people going to bat for him, it gave the sense that there would be some significant changes in the team.
The hope is for protocol changes to better support SEALs, but there's no telling whether that will happen.
It seemed like Jason's last act, and it was both heroic and infused with series finale vibes.
Where can Jason's storyline go from here without undoing the good of that powerful scene?
There is, of course, still plenty to unravel in Jason's personal life because if the series has taught us anything, that will never be smooth sailing.
SEAL Team Season 6 seemed constructed with an end in mind and that if the show weren't renewed, it would have served as an ending, even if it wasn't intended.
Characters we've watched for years reaching important milestones are crucial when bringing any series to a close.
Ray opening the center for veterans and witnessing the people he came across through that storyline took us straight into the harsh realities of returning from war without the appropriate support.
It was an essential topic for the series, and seeing Ray's tenacity to help these people felt like a natural endpoint for him.
Sonny's storyline is another one that would have been changed for the better had SEAL Team Season 6 Episode 10 brought the series to a close for good.
It's unbelievable how, at one point, Clay and Sonny hated each other, but somehow, they managed to forge an impenetrable bond.
Sonny was heartbroken by Clay's demise, and his actions in the aftermath were reckless but not out of character.
His decision to punch the colonel will severely affect him and his future with Bravo Team.
Now that we know the series is coming back, there's a good chance he will be reprimanded for it and possibly lose his job.
If that is the case, the creatives had better make a more straightforward path for him and Davis to rekindle things.
They're made for each other, and the notion that this love story is being dragged out even longer is unsettling.
Alright, SEAL Team Fanatics!
What are your thoughts on the show ending with SEAL Team Season 7?
Do you think some of the missteps from SEAL Team Season 6 would have been avoided if it was planned to end with that season?
Hit the comments.
SEAL Team airs on Paramount+. The seventh and final season is set to air in 2024.
