S05.E16: The Fugitive

[thewhiteowl]

When body cam footage left at a local news station seems to show Hondo shooting two police officers, he is forced to go on the run while the team works to clear his name.

[Snazzy Daisy]

It is the 100th episode of SWAT baby! 😎

 

 

[Danielg342]

Best Episode Ever...?

Well, it's up there with "Good Cop/Bad Cop", of which this episode had a lot of parallels to. Parallels that were extremely well done and very well-woven.

Street telling Hondo "I know you won't walk out that door because you're a good cop" really got to me. Given the history Street and Hondo had, and how well that history has been told and woven into the fabric of the show, and seeing it all come together like that...wow, that's just pure magic right there.

I also liked how it gave Hondo a great idea that allowed him to capture his nemesis, Arthur Novak, played by the always great and always reliable Timothy V. Murphy. Can anyone play a better villain than him? I guess that's a bit of a debate too, but no question Murphy is up there now.

The team camaraderie that was shown in this episode was great too, as well as this episode showing that, while Hondo's come a long way in trusting his team, he still wasn't fully there yet. I mean, as funny as that quip was by Hicks at the end- "the next time you're framed for murder and your commander calls, pick up the phone!"- he is right. Not that Hondo's judgement was too far off at the beginning, but if Hondo really did stop and think about things (I know, difficult in a fast moving situation at the beginning), Hicks and his team weren't going to give up on him so easily.

Heck, Hicks benched him because Hondo didn't trust Hicks. Message sent.

Still, this was fantastic, and worthy of a 100th episode for sure. Were there a few headscratching moments? Sure...nothing is perfect. This is about as close as you can get, though.

[mommalib]

I love how the whole team and Hicks had Hondo's back no questions asked. There wasn't even a hint of doubt from the team about Hondo. 

I also loved them highlighting the bond between Hondo and Street ad the impact Hondo has had on Street's life ad career. 

And on a shallow not Nichelle is a beautiful woman. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

What an amazing 100th episode!🔥

Love the opening stunts on the bridge. Hondo jumping onto a moving plane is very Mission Impossible. And great shot sniper Chris!

It would have been nicer if they could bring back some familiar faces that we haven’t seen for a while - Rocker, Lt. Piper Lynch, Cpt. Jessica Cortez etc.

Hondo finally realises that 20-Squad is genuinely his family too. Also, great emotional moments between him and Jimbo.

It’s good to know that they are aware of 20-squad ☑️ every diversity box in LAPD! 😆

F.A.M.I.L.Y.

[Danielg342]

Street almost sounded like he was going to cry when Hondo was heading out that door. He spilled his heart telling Hondo how much of a mentor he was to him and, really, how much of a father he was for him and how was Hondo going to repay him? By Hondo betraying not just everything he stands for but everything that he told Street that didn't just make him a better cop but also a better man?

I still shed a tear thinking about how great that whole exchange was. So few TV series ever hit the mark with emotional gut punches like this...it's even rarer they hit this well and leave that much of an impact. Words just can't describe how beautifully it all came together in that one moment.

A picture tells a thousand words? I think that scene told a million.

[Sweet Tooth]

So, I usually hate "wrongfully accused" stories, as it ties my stomach in knots, and I was thinking about skipping this. I decided to come here instead to check out what people were saying, and when I saw @Danielg342's rare "A" review, I knew I'd have to watch.

I did like that they were able to prove the video was a fake pretty quickly, so Hondo could investigate, and the final showdown could occur.

That actor can play evil like nobody's business.

And it really did shed a spotlight on just how far Street has come, using Hondo's own words on him. 

FANTASTIC episode for all involved, and once again, I love how the drama didn't come from the team being split on if Hondo did it or not. 

[mythoughtis]

It was a good episode… but I’m tired of Hondo exploits such as hopping on the outside of the plane. I’m tired of Hondo’s   temper and his flouting of authority.  He shouldn’t have been in Mexico, gotten involved  as a private citizen in a Mexico and he shouldn’t have run from the police in this episode.  Private citizens can’t get away with that, but he can? 

 

[Danielg342]

2 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

It was a good episode… but I’m tired of Hondo exploits such as hopping on the outside of the plane. I’m tired of Hondo’s   temper and his flouting of authority.  He shouldn’t have been in Mexico, gotten involved  as a private citizen in a Mexico and he shouldn’t have run from the police in this episode.  Private citizens can’t get away with that, but he can? 

 

To be fair, Hicks did suspend him from the field for going AWOL, but I do see where you are coming from. It's also a complaint I have about the show and one I've had for quite some time.

I remember writing back in my review of the second half of the S5 premiere that I found it absolutely implausible that Hondo, then just a private citizen, could shoot and kill someone (Novak's son) and get away with it. The law makes no allowance for "heroism" as a reason to commit a criminal act- just ask Cain Velasquez about that one. The show never adequately explained how Hondo got away with the crime, and I wonder why Novak didn't just simply pursue a murder charge as his way to get revenge on Hondo instead of crafting this elaborate plot that we got in this episode.

I also remember watching the plane stunt in this episode and thinking, "there's no way this isn't too dangerous". Get the plane in the air and Hondo's a dead man. Heck, even if the plane went for a sudden stop on the tarmac and Hondo's also a dead man. Then there's Christina Alonso's improbable aiming skills where she can literally snipe out the plane's engines with a single shot.

It does get grating seeing this and then seeing what happened in the next episode with Powell and what has happened with Street (and Tan too) and you do begin to wonder if Hondo is simply held to a different standard than everyone else. In the S4 premiere, Hondo "called an audible" (Hicks' own words) and was hailed a hero.

Powell, let us not forget, did the exact same thing and she got scolded for it.

What I believe the show is trying to do is show off how extraordinary Hondo is- and Hondo so much as said himself late in S1 that he had to be better because "I'm the black guy"- while grounding him somewhat in reality. Which is why he gets improbable aiming skills (the sniper shot from the helicopter), superior instincts, incredible feats of athleticism, supreme fighting skills (this was the first episode I've ever seen anyone actually get a physical upper hand on Hondo, and I have to wonder if Novak's thug really did so) and an impeccable ability to talk down and relate to anyone. He's practically Superman and Sherlock Holmes rolled into one...except that he also lets his passion get the better of him and he's got an unhealthy distrust of authority and, by the looks of it, others in general.

In short, Hondo's the archetypal "great American hero" only a bit more realistic. Whether or not it works is completely up to the viewer.

What I go to- and what sets S.W.A.T. apart from other shows of its ilk- is that at the end of the day this show has characters I genuinely care about. When it comes to Hondo, I remember watching Criminal Minds and getting repeatedly frustrated with how much the show told us about how great Derek Morgan was as the "genius muscle type" (one that also had an unhealthy distrust of others) but we hardly ever saw it in action, so Hondo is a breath of fresh air for me. When it comes to the others, they're far more fleshed out than what you would come to expect on a police procedural or even any other typical action drama. Maybe we're still not giving this show awards for character development, but they're still far more developed than the cookie-cutter, interchangeable robot types you get on a show like The Blacklist.

Which is really the main thing. A show can't ask me to go on a journey if I don't care about the journey they want me to go on (which was The Blacklist's ultimate failing, since they centered that show around a character (Lizzie) that I never understood why we should care about her).

I remember when Wil Wheaton was writing reviews of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes he also provided anecdotes about his experience on set. In talking about TNG's premiere episodes, he talked about a scene where his character, Wesley Crusher, and his mother, Beverly (Gates McFadden), were at a bazaar. He remembers confronting the director along with McFadden about the fact that everyone at the bazaar were the same dozen or so people and both actors worried about that effect on the scene.

The director simply responded by saying, "if the audience notices that, then they're not noticing you" (referring to Wheaton and McFadden).

(For the record, I've seen that episode of TNG and I can say that I paid attention to the Crushers at the bazaar and didn't notice the detail about the patrons until Wheaton wrote about it. So the director was really on point)

That's how I get by with S.W.A.T. For all the ridiculousness that the show expects me to take, I can at least handle it because they at least have characters and (most of the time) stories that I can follow and be intrigued by. Which is really all you can ask for in a TV series or any kind of storytelling medium, for that matter. Since the writers are human I can't expect them to be perfect- I just expect them to give me a story that's good enough that I don't notice the inevitable imperfections that are present within it.

It's a high bar that few reach (and even the best writers fail to reach that level from time to time). It's also a bar that everyone has a differing opinion on whether or not a particular story or series has reached it, so while I can say S.W.A.T. has hit that bar time and again, others will disagree...as it should be.